As the President of Flying Bike Club, it was completely irresponsible of me to get everybody in this much trouble, and for the record I take full responsibility. I promise to make a full confession once I figure out how to get back.

When everybody was having lunch in the landing hatch at the Weather Pillar, I went off to find a bathroom. I followed the halls around but couldn't find one, but there was an elevator, so I figured I'd just take it up to the next floor and look around. Turned out to be some kind of express elevator, though, and shot up a long ways. And I mean a LONG ways.

The access portal was about 300 ft up. When the elevator finally slowed down and let me out I was at the tippy top of the whole thing. There was a control room, like a bridge on a big ship, and through the windows you looked waaaaay down to the clouds, and could see the curve of the whole earth all around. It was insane. I have pictures.

Then, I don't know if it was me or what but those klaxons started going off, and the elevator wouldn't respond and lights were going off and I thought the whole thing was going to blow up or something. So I left the control bridge and walked out onto the roof of the pillar. I just wanted to get out of there.

On the roof were a bunch of antennas and some random cables and stuff, but there was also a bike! Kind of a clunker. Obviously some kind of official Weather Pillar bike they must use for getting around the installation. But where would they go?

It was then I saw a landing platform, and beyond it, over the edge of the Weather Pillar, I could see the air was rippling. The clouds and bits of land I could see below were fluttering through it. I realized it must be some kind of jet stream, blasting out of the side of the pillar, and the Weather Pillar techs must use it to get around between the pillars. Because they use flying bikes!

The warning horns were still going off, and the elevator still wouldn't work, but instead of just waiting around to get in trouble I figured I should try and make a run for it. So I hopped on the Weather Pillar bike, and pushed off the edge of the platform and into the jet stream.

It was a lot more powerful than I thought.

I think now I'm in the Bahamas somewhere. It's warm, and there's lots of ocean around, and maybe some bigger land in the distance. Cuba? Florida? It's about my fifth weather pillar since I left. I haven't made landfall, because I'm so far away from school I kept thinking it'd be a quicker trip back if I could just find my way back to where I started. But that's turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought.

The Weather Pillars have all seemed to be unoccupied. At first I thought that was lucky, but now I'd rather just turn myself in and be done with it. Luckily there are break rooms on each one where I've been able to find some box macaroni and cheese or chips to keep me fed. And now I do know where the bathrooms are. I'd pick up a phone or something in the control rooms but I'm afraid of messing something up. Hopefully I'll run into a janitor or somebody eventually and sort this out.

But in the meantime, please let them know it was all my idea, and I am the only one who should get in any trouble.

Weather Pillars are off limits for a reason. We are glad that the members of the Flying Bike Club have decided to come forward with their admission of illegal entry into Weather Pillar 997a, and their honesty will be noted at the hearing.

As for the student reported missing during their illegal entry into Weather Pillar 997a, we are currently looking into the matter, but unable to comment on ongoing investigations.

Weather Pillars are extremely complicated installations. The equipment is very expensive, and consists of delicate instrumentation that has been fine-tuned over a century of careful study. Haphazard bumbling within them causing the slightest imbalance in their settings can have enormous repercussions. For your own safety, as well as that of the entire surrounding biome, students are strongly warned not to enter Weather Pillars under any circumstances. Ever.

Weather Jackson
Chief Sub-engineer Sector Wy'East 12
Weather Pillar Corps

I assume @Tara Yau got back from the Flying Bike Club field trip ok, right? Has anybody seen her since the weather pillar? When that warning horn started going off things got kind of chaotic, and we didn't exactly do a head count when we got back to school. And I have a funny feeling I saw her bike leaned up against one of those dusty consoles when we were all headed out the hatch.

@Tara Yau, come in!

For those of you who haven't been to a weather pillar before, it's a lot of fun. As you know, the weather pillars manufacture the weather for their surrounding biome. Most people have only seen them on the horizon, stretching up into the clouds that gather near the top of the spires. There isn't a lot of security because the only access is about 300 ft up their sheer walls. But we've got flying bikes!

Landing is a little tricky because there's just a small platform outside the hatch, so we'll be coming in one at a time. We'll be circling in a holding pattern as Big Edna does a pinpoint landing and opens the hatch, then begin individual landings on a first-come basis. Once we're all inside we'll take some time to explore and hang out.

Bring a lunch! We'll be taking off from the apple orchard around 11am on Saturday. Hope to see you there!

Psychic Cycling Diary

Vertigo pedaling over the city on a clear day--look down too much and you can lose it. All those angles and alleyways and windows and walls. Better to look to the horizon, look to where you're headed, look to where you want to go.

That's when I hit the window. I guess it was the horizon behind me I was seeing. Faceplanted into the glass on the side of a skyscraper, which was weirdly soft, like the plastic fenders and hoods on cars when you hit them in slow motion. There I am with my face squished sideways on the glass, my bike on top of me, and a window washer swoops in and picks me up, bike and all, in his basket.

Great Flying Bike Club Picnic today! And a big shout out to Big Edna for piloting the three-wheeler out to the Troll Bridge--the brie and baguettes made it really special. The weather's still a little blustery, and the few bikes that got caught in the treetops were par for the course. If you're the one came back with the red & white checkered blanket, it belongs to Big Edna.

For next weekend, we're planning a trip to the weather pillar in the north. It'll be our longest trip so far, so be prepared!

Hope everybody had fun at today's Flying Bike Club meetup! I apologize about the bird problems--I thought we had everything worked out with the Remote Viewing Falconry Club but apparently not. We're clearly scheduled for the airspace above the apple orchard on Saturday morning, but apparently not everybody got the memo. I'm sure we'll have it worked out by next week.

In the meantime, everybody feel free to share your stories of your flying bike adventures!

Happy flying!

It's @Empress Jingles in the woods!

Sorry, just put that together. As I was flying out over the school today I noticed a kind of old fashioned gypsy trailer parked in a clearing with a couple of horses tied up. I thought "what, is the circus coming to school?" but realized that must be the @Empress Jingles we've heard tell about.

Just one of the amazing sites you can see when you fly by bike!

I took a mountain bike, and started flying it! I haven't ridden in years, and forgot what it felt like. (It feels AWESOME!)

Took my my Cruiser with the big fat balloon tires on a fine spin today over the school and the grounds... I got the day off school because if you fill out a form you can get credit! Plus was really pleased with my new Strange Patterns™ paint job--thanks to @Selena for the inspiration.

If you haven't seen the school from the air you're really missing out. It's like a little model, with the administration building and the library and the gym and the dorms and the fields, and all the trees just starting to bloom, surrounded by the woods and the road and the city in the distance. Maybe next time I'll make it all the way into town!