Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show

This past Sunday I went to the World Forestry Center in Portland to check out the Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show.   In a world where most bicycles are made by machines in Taiwan or China, it was great to see some two wheeled creations that local folks put a lot of effort into.   

The bikes ranged from crazy designs with steering wheels to one-off titanium works of art.  The companies in attendance are listed on the link above, and though I wasn’t familar with most of them, I nonetheless had a great time checking out all the little details on the bikes (welds, component choices such as internally geared hubs, frame/fork designs, etc) that the average joe wouldn’t begin to notice or care about.   The fully rigid Jones bikes frame and forks were probably the most interesting to me at the show (they’re the ones with the crazy looking forks in the pictures).  Check out how fat that tire & rim are in the last picture! 

I can’t wait until Feb 8-10th, 2008 when Portland will host the 4th annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show.

           

Cannon Beach, Oregon… on a Perfect November Day

After taking Bailey to the Hondo Dog Park near our house early Saturday morning, Kara recommended we go to the Oregon coast since it was a very unexpectedly nice November day.  And after an hour and fifteen minute drive we arrived at Cannon Beach.  Given that it was November and Oregon, I don’t think we could have asked for a better day….  Actually, I’ll go one better and say that it was perfect!  🙂

    

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

About 70 miles southeast of Hillsboro is Silver Falls State Park.   Kara and I had heard some good things about this place from a few friends so we decided to head down there 2 Saturdays ago.   We hiked most of the “Trail of 10 Falls” before it was getting dark after a late start.   Definitely a pretty place to visit.   The only downside for us was that Bailey was prohibited on the Canyon Trail where all the falls were- so he stayed back home.   Here are a few of our pictures….

             

The Drive to Portland, That Almost Wasn’t

Before I post anything else, I should back up a little….

Due to some relatively last minute change of plans (me moving up to Portland with Kara), I decided to rent a Uhaul trailer to bring some of our things with us.  The idea was that I’d pull it behind my Nissan Pathfinder… after all, I did this when I moved back to ABQ from Portland in ’02 and it wasn’t too bad.   We had Kara’s Civic shipped.

Well, apparently, I didn’t load the trailer correctly because when we hit the high speed of ~ 65mph about 10 miles west of ABQ, things got really dicey and we nearly turned back (once I regained control of the swaying rig).   We stopped for the night in Flagstaff, AZ, after driving ~ 55mph all the way there- a drive that usually takes about 4.5 hrs which took closer to 7hrs at this rate, while, I kid you not, getting passed by ever other vehicle on the interstate, including a school bus.  Well, that’s not completely true… I did pass one other car- a minivan, pulling, you guessed it- a U-haul trailer! 

Things improved when, during our lunch break the 2nd day, in Barstow, CA, I spent about 25 minutes to rearrange some boxes and that was enough to get more weight on the front of the trailer-which then allowed me to drive safetly at 70mph.  The irony of the situation was that California’s speed limit for vehicles pulling trailers was only 55mph, unlike the 70mph that I could have driven legally in NM & AZ.  Oh well.  I’m happy to say that I was able to make some better time through CA & OR once I resolved the situation with the trailer- and without any traffic citations telling me to slow down.

Since Kara had never been up to northern Cali to see the huge redwoods, and neither of us had made it to Crater Lake, we decided to head in direction, rather than the direct route of Moab, Salt Lake, & then through Boise which we did in ’02.   Driving through the redwoods just makes you feel small.  The huge trees are incredible.   Crater Lake was definitely worth the drive as well.  We actually got to drive around the west rim, though it was going to close for the season within a week of our visit.   They already had a decent amount of snow which isn’t bad for late September, but I’m sure it wasn’t much when you realize they get 533 inches on average each year!  Nonetheless, we learned that Bailey likes to play in snow which was the first time we’ve been in snow since we got him.

And finaly, we had a good laugh near Eugene, OR (2 hrs south of Portland), when we actually spotted Kara’s civic on the back of the car carrier as we were heading up I5 towards Portland.

        

Wholly Crap- Where’d Sept & October Go?

Wow- I haven’t posted since Aug 30th…. over 2 months!  Probably no one’s reading anymore, huh?  Guess there’s been nothing to read…

Anyhow, in that time, Kara and I moved to Hillsboro, got settled into our apartment, and started our jobs here.  We’ve also done a few other things such as hanging out in Portland, hiking Silver Falls, and checking out the coast.   We’ve gotten some pretty good pictures so when I get a few minutes, I’ll make some separate postings complete with pics.