portland is bad, seattle bad
Both cities are the kind of Ashamed to be a Vet kind of mess.
Wasted all day in portland on friday, spend the night getting out of there as fast as I could find a way out.
River City bikes, called them on the phone, asked if they had the Surly axle bolt guy checks and says they have one. clear 'bait an switch', cause when I get down there it's look busy to impress the customer and maybe I would order it from them, I'm not spending a week in portland. One guy who I assume might have been and owner kept trying to make excuses, saying they must have thought I said Burley, wrong, parts are different, so not only was I lied to, he now wants to say I'm stupid.
Too bad, not that I'm throwing money around, but there were a few parts I needed, and would have bought, not gonna buy from a liar! There's always Fred Meyers, outside of portland, cause they aren't getting a cent from me.
Map from the Oregon visitors bureau, would have been helpful, if there were frakin' signs that matched the map, duh. Tried asking portland PD, and the officer just put on the blinders an hit the gas and drove into the parking garage, hint, when 6'1" me is standing in front of your station, you might want to pay attention, would have saved me a couple of hours of walking around being lost trying to get the bike lane that has very few ways to get into it.
Junkies and crazies, I'm betting those two groups scared off the homeless in portland.
Not like they would ever change, and I wasn't every coming back anyway, so all I can do is point out how awful portland is in hopes you will do the smart thing and stay away.
Also just outside of portland is 99W, a place where diesel pick ups like to slow near you and coal blast you all night, by dropping the clutch.
Traveled all night, made it to Sherwood, just your typical strip mall kind of town, sun hasn't come up yet, but I have hopes once I get to hwy 18 I might find some better camping locations, then take a break, to work on brakes, and the front wheel has a small leak, I think FM can help with another replacement tube...if I can't fix the old one from the rear failure yesterday morning.
A happy thought to leave you with, saw a skunk playing opossum in the road, it blinked, ran across the street, then I had to wait for another car to come by with their lights to show me the skunk was gone. No skunks were hurt in the making of this blog, sure scared the lil bugger though.
6:30am, back on the road, got to make to somewhere warmer, and a puppy.
Spend a couple hours changing tires, and replacing the brake pads, I guess it brakes a bit better, front wheel still doesn't hold air very long, but now that I was able to get a couple spares at FM, I should be good, also got a gel seat, the hard leather one was hurting a bit.
So more coffee at Mcdonalds, used the free coinsies I've found in the road...can also recharge the electronics...hotels are really pricey here, in Newberg, so I'll be finding someplace down the road for the tent, still haven't found the undeveloped areas yet, rural sprawl is just as bad as urban sprawl. Sent a message asking for lodging in Lincoln with the Warmshowers.org site...got to keep home alive.
Latest tonight is I'm in McMinnville, sadly though there is no room at the inn, any of them...
So off to find something safe enough...which since there isn't enough road for me to travel on in the dark, I do like doing that. Maybe they will have something tomorrow, oh well I'll be down the road.
Wasted all day in portland on friday, spend the night getting out of there as fast as I could find a way out.
River City bikes, called them on the phone, asked if they had the Surly axle bolt guy checks and says they have one. clear 'bait an switch', cause when I get down there it's look busy to impress the customer and maybe I would order it from them, I'm not spending a week in portland. One guy who I assume might have been and owner kept trying to make excuses, saying they must have thought I said Burley, wrong, parts are different, so not only was I lied to, he now wants to say I'm stupid.
Too bad, not that I'm throwing money around, but there were a few parts I needed, and would have bought, not gonna buy from a liar! There's always Fred Meyers, outside of portland, cause they aren't getting a cent from me.
Map from the Oregon visitors bureau, would have been helpful, if there were frakin' signs that matched the map, duh. Tried asking portland PD, and the officer just put on the blinders an hit the gas and drove into the parking garage, hint, when 6'1" me is standing in front of your station, you might want to pay attention, would have saved me a couple of hours of walking around being lost trying to get the bike lane that has very few ways to get into it.
Junkies and crazies, I'm betting those two groups scared off the homeless in portland.
Not like they would ever change, and I wasn't every coming back anyway, so all I can do is point out how awful portland is in hopes you will do the smart thing and stay away.
Also just outside of portland is 99W, a place where diesel pick ups like to slow near you and coal blast you all night, by dropping the clutch.
Traveled all night, made it to Sherwood, just your typical strip mall kind of town, sun hasn't come up yet, but I have hopes once I get to hwy 18 I might find some better camping locations, then take a break, to work on brakes, and the front wheel has a small leak, I think FM can help with another replacement tube...if I can't fix the old one from the rear failure yesterday morning.
A happy thought to leave you with, saw a skunk playing opossum in the road, it blinked, ran across the street, then I had to wait for another car to come by with their lights to show me the skunk was gone. No skunks were hurt in the making of this blog, sure scared the lil bugger though.
6:30am, back on the road, got to make to somewhere warmer, and a puppy.
Spend a couple hours changing tires, and replacing the brake pads, I guess it brakes a bit better, front wheel still doesn't hold air very long, but now that I was able to get a couple spares at FM, I should be good, also got a gel seat, the hard leather one was hurting a bit.
So more coffee at Mcdonalds, used the free coinsies I've found in the road...can also recharge the electronics...hotels are really pricey here, in Newberg, so I'll be finding someplace down the road for the tent, still haven't found the undeveloped areas yet, rural sprawl is just as bad as urban sprawl. Sent a message asking for lodging in Lincoln with the Warmshowers.org site...got to keep home alive.
Latest tonight is I'm in McMinnville, sadly though there is no room at the inn, any of them...
So off to find something safe enough...which since there isn't enough road for me to travel on in the dark, I do like doing that. Maybe they will have something tomorrow, oh well I'll be down the road.
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