Rough Draft — because good is the enemy of done

Saturday August 26, 2016

Palm Beach to Portland.  Bad sleep, 3:30 alarm.  First plane was brand new leg room nice tv plugs for electric and usb on time

Max train red to 12 bus to Bike Gallery in Hollywood suburb of Portland.   Assembled bikes.  Took a long time to organize all the stuff.  Mountain house for dry bags  and jet boil fuel.  hotel ho-Jo next to Indian buffet.  Slept for over ten hours.  Paul had to wake me up.

Sunday August 28, 2016:

Breakfast at the hotel.  Made a waffle and took it with me as ride food.  Sunday traffic was light.  Rode to downtown Portland via a business and residential neighborhoods  and then a bike path right next to the Columbia River.

  We rode right through downtown then up steep hills through Grant Park.  We had a quick stop at the famous rose garden.  

Enjoyed landscaping in the park.  More hills then Skyline Drive.  Nice road, popular with local cyclists.  Hilly — glad to be riding mountain bike with triple chainring.  View of Mt St Helens from a beautiful memorial that is also a pokestop.  

Saw deer right by the road.  Realized it was a statue of a deer.  Tricky resident putting lawn art on a trail.  Deer turned its head to look at me.  Realized statue was a real dear.  Saw car coming fast.  Waved it to slow then pointed at dear.  Driver slowed deer crossed road, driver smiles at me.

One o’clock not sure where we will have lunch.  Little sad.  Might have to subsist on Clif bars.  Rural no services.  Boom a pub, really nice pub with microbrews. I 

Lots of descending then gorgeous rolling hills farmland. Free Asian pears in wheelbarrow by the road.  Not too many cars until close to Forest Grove.  Camping too far, stopped in fabulous hotel former Masonic Lodge or retirement home?  Amazed at $85 price for room in fantastic historic inn with beer garden, movie theater, bar, restaurant, 9 hole frisbee golf.  

Why so cheap?  Oh no bathrrom  is down the hall.   I can live with that.  Hamburger and hard cider for dinner.