It was nearly 11 a.m. when we arrived in Centralia for the half-way point on the STP, to have lunch with David, our friend who was taking the whole course in one day. We parked in a free public lot and hurried into a little cafe called "Centralia Perk," in homage to , which was also an ice cream parlor and antique store. The temperature was already in the eighties at least, and we left a few minutes later with ice cream cones firmly in hand, to walk the half-dozen or so blocks to Centralia College, where the STP riders were coming in. more ›

Longshoremen at the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma are conducting a walk-out today to protest U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite warnings from a Union arbitrator that all longshoremen must report to work on Thursday, reports from the Port of Seattle say that only a handful of workers showed up for their scheduled shifts. Officials from the Port of Tacoma say that virtually all of their workers failed to report to work this morning. more ›