Portland

Buy nice tires – or – What I learned getting 100% on the bike commute challenge

Talk to anyone visiting Portland, and one topic that inevitably comes up is the rain. No matter what season they’re visiting you’ll hear things like

“Does it rain the whole winter?”

“Do you still go outside?”

“Can you still bike in the rain?”

We’ve been having a very strange year. Back in the middle of October, I had to open more windows because my apartment was getting overheated. We had a high of 72F which is 10+ over average ,and dang close to the record high. Here I am at the end of the year and we’re looking at temps in the teens.

People have different feelings on the seasons in the PNW. Some wish it was summer all the time (These are usually people who wish Portland was just a cheaper California) others don’t mind the change, but have a preference of one over the others. Some people actually love the rain and much prefer the dark clouds to sunshine. More and more I’m finding, however, people are a fickle bunch who are always longing for change. It says a lot about the long, hot, dry summer we’ve had to find so many people who long for winter. Between the drought risks, lack of snow on the mountain, or just being sick of the heat people are ready for winter to arrive.

September is the BTA’s official “Bike Commute Challenge” month. They encourage companies all over the city to promote commuting via bike to work. You compete against your coworkers, in both percentage and miles ridden, along with total percentages of employees biking compared against other companies your size/industry. Last year I biked on an Univega mountain bike frame with road tires. That, combined with not the greatest gearing, lets just say I didn’t bike as much as I wanted. I’ve since traded that in for a nicer Trek road bike that’s both lighter and better geared.

Obviously, from the title, by now you’ve gathered I completed with 100% success. I feel I need to annotate this with a footnote saying my milage was off due to getting a flat tire on my way home one night and taking a bus the rest of the way. Technically this still counts as a “bike commute” but I lowered my milage that day to reflect this. That brings up the biggest lesson I learned from all this, and that’s buy nice tires. Over the course of the summer I managed to get about 6 flat tires. All these on tires less then 8 months old. I got a slightly nicer tire with some actual tread and thickness, and saw a marked decrease in flats.

Living in the Soccer City

One of the things that drew me to Portland was its intense love of all things soccer. I've always considered soccer my favorite sport, but that wasn't really saying a lot. I would watch a game of almost any sport, but beyond that I couldn't care less. The aspect of leagues and player stats bored me to death.  I began shying away from sports all together convincing myself that I just wasn't interested in them. I believe it is safe to say that aspect of me is slowly changing. 

Growing up I always had an interest in soccer. I played a few years in Elementary School(What boy in the 90s didn't) and was pretty bad. I enjoyed watching the Kansas City Wizards(now Sporting KC.) Going to a game was an excellent way to spend a summer evening, and, compared to Chiefs or Royals tickets, it was fairly cheap way too. Even if they hardly ever made it to the playoffs there was a decent crowd, and people enjoyed themselves.

Nothing like what I've experienced here in Portland. The entire city goes all out for it's teams. Both the Trailblazers and the Timbers are the talk of the town. There are massive ad campaigns going on across the city that showcase both the fans and teams. Even after losing their first 2 games of the league the Timbers still sold months of sellout games. It is amazing to see downtown bustle with crowds filling into the continually sold out stadium. Watching the light rail become a sea of green was an amazing sight.  I recently went to the box office and asked when the next available tickets would be. I was flabberghasted to hear the next 6 games were sold out. I bought the last few tickets to a game that was 3 months away.  This sort of intense citywide camraderie has provided me the boost  I needed to actually pay attention to more then just one team. Rather then just go to a few games I am activally following their away games via radio. I'm going to pubs to watch the games I can't get tickets to. I've started paying attention to the other clubs in the MLS, and other leagues in general. I'm going to watch my first CONCACAF league game tonight. I'm excited that my interest has risen enough to be able to pull others in. I'm building excitement among people who might not have cared otherwise. That in itself makes me happy.
And Go Salt Lake!

 

Kendrick 

One of my big hobbies is beer brewing. It’s basically an extension of cooking which is something else I enjoy. Part of being a beer brewer is I love trying new microbrews. The good thing about this is there is almost an un-endless supply of microbrews available to try. Portland is one of the biggest centers for microbrews in the nation. I’ve got a lot to try but here’s what I’ve liked so far.

Jubelale is Deschutes seasonal christmas brew. A dark ale with a strong roast flavor makes this great with food. Not quite as flavorful as I had hoped, but still very drinkable nontheless

 

MacTarnahan’s Humbug’r ale is from a small local brewery. Their seasonal brew isn’t quite as dark as the Jubelale and a little smoother in my opinion.

Now this is a beer I could drink a lot of. Very smooth and has a great flavor. While falling under the style guideline of a “Winter Warmer” traditional English Ale, this doesn’t seem to me to be my example of a Christmas seasonal beer.

Having just driven 2000 miles from Kansas City, Missouri to Portland, Oregon, I bring you the changes I have come across.  While this will mostly be tempered by my love for good good food and drink, I will also write about anything else that strikes me as something that differs.

The city of Kansas City is quite spread out. Wikipedia lists the popluation density as 1,436/sq. mi. While it has been working on rebuilding the downtown as a tourist and trendy area, it still has a ways to go. Other then about an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening it is hard to find any issues with traffic mainly because there just isn't that many people trying to get one place at a time.

Portland, while only being a slightly larger population, has a much higher density; over 4000/sq. mi according to Wikipedia. This means the city is much closer together, and traffic congestion is a lot higher. Coming from the spread out midwest this is one of the first things I noticed. We live a lot closer to work then where I did back in Missouri, but it still takes about the same time to commute each morning due to just sitting in traffic. Portland, however, offers me working public transit system. Residents of Kansas City are aware of how pitifuly lax the system has become. While not perfect, the Tri-met is at least something to offset the rising gas costs due to sitting in standstill traffic quite often.The light rail here cuts across town and outside of that they have a massive bus system that covers almost any place you want to go.