The SunBreak went to see Seattle’s own Willie Weir talk at REI Tuesday evening and was pleasantly entertained.
Weir, who has cycled around every corner of God’s green earth, is a triple threat: a trained actor, skilled photographer, and talented writer who has now published two volumes of cycling memoirs. A slim man, not particularly tall, he had the crowd in stitches recounting, in his “Why I love the tastes of bicycling” section, his tale of gorging for five hours at a $5 all-you-can-eat buffet somewhere in Wisconsin, then hoisting his distended belly back into the saddle, and—a few hours later—inveigling his way into more free food at a big family-reunion picnic he came across in a park.
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When it came to the sights of bicycling, he shared a dazzling photograph he took of himself, his partner, and their bikes, reflected in the eyes of a smiling boy he met in Latin America. And he impressed many with the biggest life lesson he’s learned from bicycle travel: the importance of slowing down so that a fleeting touch can become embrace; how simply stopping to ask a stranger directions can turn into a week-long encounter, with memories that last a lifetime.
