Friday, June 18, 2010

Pre Ride Blather from Portland June 18 2010




Greetings from Portland:

Agnes and I are continuing to laze about in Portland. We arrived on Tuesday just in time for lunch, and since then it has been an orgy of eating. Needless to say I have not been out to run or do any kind of physical exercise of any kind. The weather has been kind of rainy so it has kept us in doors. Today was kind of the exception and we did go for a walk around and did some shopping.

Agnes and I are staying in my brother's condo which is in the Pearl District of Portland. This area is right beside the downtown and is a mixture of lofts, single family homes, apartments and more modern condos. Portland has saved a lot of the older buildings and it is a very interesting mix of architecture. There are a old Victorian Painted Lady homes, brick three story buildings from the 30'-40's and modern steel and glass buildings. This area has hundreds of great restaurants and interesting shops to explore. Powell's Books which was one of the largest book stores in the world (until Amazon came along) is only 5 blocks away. Powell's Books covers a city block and is 5 floors of books piled in 10 ft high shelf's with narrow alises. It is not true that I spent two hours looking a the over 600 books on Kama Sutra. I did however spend the best part of a full day in the store and did walk out with a huge arm full.

Today we wandered out between the rain squalls and visit some of the other interesting shops. We spent an hour looking in this used CD shop. It was huge I had never seen so many CD's. I found four Ramone albums and Ozzy's Bark At the Moon album. It was great. We also spent some time in a bike store which had great prices. I found a helmet for $15. It fits even better than the one I brought for the ride. My other one is red to match my bike so I may still wear it. Hey! You have to look fast especially when you aren't.

Tomorrow is the end of the lazing about, as we drive to Seattle for check in. Agnes drops me off and I am on my own for nine weeks. Oh my god what have I done. Who is going to look after me? Yes it is kind of scary, especially the first week which is all mountains and 605 miles.

Here are a couple of pictures from the drive down.

Let's Ride!
Terry


1 comment:

Ken C. said...

Terry, thanks for the pre-ride blather. I'm looking forward to your reports from the road. I recognize the dam on the Columbia River, one of many (eight perhaps). Good luck this week.

Ken C.