Julie and Martin the oldest members of Global Mobile Family also on Facebook, pulled the entire crew out yesterday after staying a couple of days in Portland. They found us on WarmShowers and were a wonderful family to host. It is fascinating to realize how much meeting people like this make you think about yourself, your values, your abilities. These people have such an amazing family and are so thoughtful about what they do that I found myself just watching. It wasn’t until the end of the stay I remembered to simply play with the boys.
I think that switching from work (my summer) to playing with people is something that should be so much easier. That is something I need to practice.
If you see them on the road, host them, stop and say hi, be kind, they are wonderful people.
I was just talking to my wife Saturday as we passed bicyclists in the dark on the way home how idiotic it is to have “bike friendly” clothes that have zero reflective material. We noticed how blinkies certainly helped, but for the money, NOTHING comes close to reflective strips. I was complaining as @petebikes added reflective materials to the rigs for @DaveNPetePartII and I haven’t done anything. And THIS despite the wonderful folks at the Bicycle Repair Collective mentioning it about a zillion times.
This morning, this article “Reflective Tape DIY – “Get Visible!” from bikecommuters.com crosses my desk and I decide it is a sign and hop over to Amazon and order two of these. I will show you what I do with it, but I am leaning to my bags as well as my rig.
Locate on AmazonI noticed a quick article on Cool Tools today about the Halo II Sweatband pictured here. I used this one on my trip across the country last year after buying one from River City Bicycles here in Portland. This product makes all the difference in keeping sweat out of your eyes on long trips, the extra yellow strip makes all the difference. I won’t go back to another type of band, and now that it is finally sunny in Portland, I am getting mine out today.
In the event you wonder how close you are to hipster amenities, there’s a map for that. I found it from SeattleWeekly. The Portland “Badass-Ness Map” was created by Portland State University grad students Dillon Mahmoudi and Eric Crum. The cartographers based their map on Portland’s 20-Minute Neighborhoods map, which divides the city based on what can be reached in a 20-minute walk. Mahmoudi and Crum simply added different variables to the equation.
The factors I liked were the Food Carts, Coffee, Beer and Bike Network. Check out your neighborhood.
It is finally summer and although I have no specific bike plans this year, having crossed the US last year during the summer I am finally looking at the Oregon State Bike Map. @DaveNPetePart2 is out there in the NW quadrant of Oregon on Motorcycles this year, having done their share of pedal powered trips across the US as well. Fun to try something different. They still look like bikers, pack like it, camp like it, cook like it, and of course, use the same maps. If anyone has a link to the Washington version of this let me know. Look for me out and about, I think I might take a car and launch myself from various points this year on short loops.
Pedalpalooza is 2+ weeks of bikey fun. With 235 events, most organized by individuals, bikers of all persuasions are likely to find many events of interest. Nearly all events are free.
I was just talking to my wife Saturday as we passed bicyclists in the dark on the way home how idiotic it is to have “bike friendly” clothes that have zero reflective material. We noticed how blinkies certainly helped, but for the money, NOTHING comes close to reflective strips. I was complaining as @petebikes added reflective materials to the rigs for @DaveNPetePartII and I haven’t done anything. And THIS despite the wonderful folks at the Bicycle Repair Collective mentioning it about a zillion times.
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