Global Greenie

I have an interesting new group of friends here in Portland.  We share a desire to do some good in the world, or — at least — in our city.  We have some fun social outings, like bowling (which I’d done maybe twice in my life), and we’re going to volunteer to do something together once a month.  On Saturday, we all became temporary bike wrench monkeys at the Community Cycling Center.

That’s me with one of the bikes we cleaned, greased, de-rusted, and prepped for one of the CCC’s main missions: to give bikes to needy kids.  Looks brand new, doesn’t it?

And while cleaning was somewhat satisfying, I got a bigger thrill out of destroying kiddie bikes.  Some of the donations are too beat out to clean up, so we learned to deconstruct them, saving parts like tires, rims, and inner tubes.  We also spared a few chains, seats, horns, etc. from the landfills.

If you’re in the Portland area, and would like to volunteer, check out the opportunities.  And there are plenty of other ways to support if you don’t like to get dirty.

I’ve become a more frequent bike commuter in the past year and a half.  On the days that I ride, I combine my morning trip with TriMet or my employer’s free shuttle, both of which have bike racks.  That way I don’t get too wet and/or sweaty for the day.  I typically pedal the whole way home.  No matter what, I get to cross two bridges every day.

Once a year, the city of Portland closes most of the bridges for a few hours and allows cyclists to cross in a somewhat orderly fashion.  This was the first year I participated in Bridge Pedal and now I’ll be doing it every year.

Getting across the Willamette River on the Hawthorne Bridge to the starting line didn’t count as an official crossing.  Then it was time to wait awhile.

This is me and my wife, who does not normally feel comfortable riding in traffic.  We’re on the Marquam bridge, which is part of I-5.  They actually closed the interstate to vehicles and let the bikes rule the road.  In the background you can see the Hawthorne and the the Morrison bridges.  If you know Portland, you can probably pick out a few others.

I guess to make up for the old married couple, I’ll show this photo of the newlyweds.

The final official bridge for us was the Fremont.  We were both pretty excited about this one because bikes aren’t allowed on it normally, unlike some of the others we crossed, which share space with motor vehicles on a typical day.

We crossed this bridge going to the opposite side of the river from where we live, so to get home, we took another unofficial crossing: the Steel Bridge, which is having repair work on the upper deck.  But pedestrians and bikes can sneak across below.

The NAOBF took place in Overlook Park in Portland last weekend.  Thankfully, I didn’t have to work Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, so I managed to support green brewing on two of the three days.  Friday, my  neighbors Tony C. and Hsin-Yi and I hopped on our bikes to pedal to the park.  We should have used the interactive bike map for Portland, OR (also Milwaukie, WI) to plan our route because we dead-ended into a sound buffer wall and Interstate 5 in between us and the park.

Luckily, some neighborhood porch sitters told us we were two blocks from the Failing Pedestrian Bridge.  I know — that’s not the best name for a bridge — it’s named for a person, not what’s going to happen to you.  I don’t think I’ve ever ridden my bike over a freeway.  I looked down at the usual Friday rush hour traffic, stopped as commuters travel to their suburban homes in Washington state, a few very slow miles away.

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