Portland...and riding (get it...writing? bahahaaaaaa)

And we’re off! (Again).

We haven’t fallen off the planet, but we haven’t been riding either… so I didn’t know really what to write. We’re on the road now, and my brain’s been turning.

Last day in Portland… some observations.
1. My mother would hate it here. It’s cold. And wet. They say if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes…except that the variations every 5 minutes include: Overcast. Rainy. Downpour. Drizzly. Rainbowy (others call this partly sunny…but partly sunny is apparently objective).
2. I think they drink something different here… there seems to be an alternate universe that includes Portland, and maybe some of the areas around Portland. Now, I’m not saying it’s bad. I am saying it’s Alien. Maybe “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” Alien. Or… ‘Alien v Predator’.
3. It’s dang pretty. Reeeeeeeeeeeal dang pretty. I think this is why ‘normal’ people deal with BodySnatchers and Suicide Weather. Cause really, honestly, there ain’t no other reason I see. But GOODNESS SAKES the terrain! The mountains! Portland! The Rivers!

All that said, there are some sah-weet things around here too… We’ve recently discovered McMenamins (http://www.mcmenamins.com)…which…pretty much encapsulates my dream business. This company takes old schools, theatres, lodges, hotels, clubs, etc, and hires local artists and architects to completely renovate them. They turn cool old buildings into pubs and restaurants with microbreweries, theatres that play old or newly-old movies (central-illonisians think Apollo Theatre meets $3 theatre), and hotels. Really friggin cool. One pub/brewery/theatre is right down the street from Nimrod’s work… we went there last night and savored some delicious food and micro-brews.

NimrodandAlexis Gil also drove us up to Mt. Hood… the same stray biker that told us about McMenamins enumerated all the reasons we should visit Bagby Hot Springs and Timberline Lodge. The hot springs…we didn’t make it to (apparently old hollowed out redwoods that fill with hot spring water), but we did make it to Timberline. I guess the lodge was part of the Works Progress Administration in the late 30’s… they hired a bunch of local artists to do onsite weaving, sewing, carving, furniture-making and iron-working while they were ‘out of work’ (?more so than usual?) during the war/depression. Much of the art is still at the lodge. Question: it surprises me that the government made up a bunch of pretend jobs for artists in the middle of a giant war, and also in the midst of the GREAT DEPRESSION. Seriously, is this a priority? We’re kind of in the middle of a war/depression now so…this is a priority now, right? If so, where can I sign up to make rugs and paintings in the mountains…and get paid?
I made it obvious we weren’t planning on staying overnight, but asked if we could see a room (the lodge still operates as a lodge). The guy gave us the keys to the room FDR stayed in when he dedicated Timberline to… umm…?

The Gil’s (N+A) are fantastic cooks. Seriously. Crème Brulee? Egg Rolls? Schwarma? (surely you must know of my love for schwarma). We ate and laughed heartily with the Gil’s. They showed us the good parts of Portland (you know… that parts that make you think, “If it weren’t cold, rainy, and full of BodySnatchers, this would be a pretty dang cool place to live”) and then makes you forget about the 'nother stuff. One such place was Hawthorne. Also, Downtown Portland. Downtown Portland makes you wonder why every other city in America feels so dirty, and also how they can pay for their public transportation. $2 to ride all day... on the honor system? If you say so! (We paid our $2, don't worry). But seriously... how? This $2 covers any train or bus.

We went to the “largest independent bookstore in America” called Powell’s. We unfortunately mailed back all our reading material and are finding that there are days that we get done early and don’t have anything to do but go to sleep (which IS a valuable thing). Mostly because it was $4.00, and despite the presence of both Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance in the title, I bought Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for the trip. Why? Well, it’s about a dad and his son riding the same route we’re riding across America on a motorcycle (and all the things they see and think about along the way). Also, they teach it at Whitney Young (the school where I student taught).
One-and-a-half pages in, we hit this nugget… which pretty perfectly describes what you feel when you’re riding your bike:

“You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re IN the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. The concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it’s right there, so blurred you can’t focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness.”

So we’re riding again, and I’m reminded that I AM loving riding my bike. Unfortunately, we don’t have any Adventure Cycling maps for the next 280 miles, so we've printed Google’s ‘flawless’ bike directions. It’s not been terrible, just…interesting. Stay on street. Get off street for 75 ft. Get back on street. Eeeeeeh. We’re hoping to be in Tacoma soon, maybe see Todd and Hannah Morr…hit a friend of David’s near Seattle, and start heading East. A guy at the bike shop we went to in Portland seems to have some interesting ideas about handlebar and seat positions. So far -- working out for my butt… notsomuch working out for David’s. Poor David. He was pretty sick this week, but seems to be doing better. Except for the butt.

By the way… we’ve been taking lots of pictures, but unfortunately, recently switched the camera to RAW files, which Flickr no-likey. Large fight ensued, Kristen lost. I’ll try again soon.

Sleep well, all. Have a happy day today/tomorrow.