Alternative transportation – Portland style
May0
The third segment of tonight’s OPB ‘Blueprint America’ program had a feature on Portland and the biking and alternative transportation that exists in our city. Portland’s alternative transportation is heavily contrasted against the car dependent area around Denver as well as other urban areas. Go Portland!
WE COMPLETED THE 2007 SEATTLE TO PORTLAND RIDE!!
Jul0
WE COMPLETED THE 2007 SEATTLE TO PORTLAND RIDE!!
I rode with 9 other crazy bicycling friends (and 8990 strangers) for the 28th annual Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic.
We camped out at the halfway mark in Centralia, WA. We had 3 great support team members who helped us out at the half way mark. Thank you for setting up our camp site! I am definitely doing this again in 2008! I’m sure that everyone will do this again as well (or I’ll keep asking them until they cave in hehehe). Next time, we may want to register a little earlier and confirm registrations, and possibly take the train up.
I’ll post photos when they are all available. Until then, these are the ride details that I was able to record:
Day 1: 102 miles; 6hrs 29minutes; avg speed 16.3mph
Day 2: my computer got reset at mile 140. So, these are the mile 140+ stats:
3hrs 57minutes, 15.24mph; avg cad: 67; max: 31.5; 60.29mi
The annual event did not go with out incident, however. Some guy fell on to my bike and cracked the left carbon fiber crank. The replacement is $170.00 + labor, and will be here in about 2 weeks. The guy stopped between me and Simon and fell onto my bike. This was at mile 25. I didn’t notice the crack until mile 75. I’m thankful that the crank stayed in one piece through the 204 mile ride. There were other crashes involving bicyclists only leaving them with scrapes, bruises and broken bones. On top of that, I am saddened to hear that a drunk driver did a hit-and-run with a bicyclist Sunday morning. The following is an excerpt from the Seattle PI article:
“Gerald Marvin, 24, of Seattle suffered serious injuries when the driver of a sport utility vehicle swerved out of his lane on U.S. 30 northwest of Portland. Struck from behind, Marvin slammed into two other cyclists, who suffered minor injuries.
Police pulled over a 40-year-old driver, an ex-convict with a 1989 conviction for an Oregon murder, eight miles from the accident scene.
Daniel B. Whittlinger was arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run, driving under the influence and violating his parole, according to the Oregon State Police.
Witnesses said the driver initially stopped his Jeep Grand Cherokee after the 9:20 a.m. crash, but then sped away, said Lt. Gregg Hastings, a state police spokesman.
Whittlinger is scheduled to be arraigned Monday.”
This is one large win for cyclists. We do fight back.
Freedom Writers
Jan0
[This entry is a stub and will be edited.]
I just saw Freedom Writers with Troy, John, Katie and Chantelle at Century 16.
Aside from the rude selection of teenagers in the theater, the movie was well done and was one of those movies that focused on the hardships and conflicts that exists between ethnic classes. It also raises the issue about how the educational system is structured.
The educational system classifies and rewards students for their achievements and merits, but then you also have the other side of the story – there are those who don’t succeed in school and these are the students that we push into a separate classroom with a different curriculum and different grading scales because, it is in my estimation, that our teachers have unsuccessfully taught them the true value of an education, or our teachers have given up on them. At my old high school, these were the students who ended up in classes in the basement, almost segregated from the rest of the school for math, language arts, and just about anything that is required for a “normal,” “well behaved” individual to “successfully contribute to society.” I’m not explicitly defining these terms, but I’m sure you know what I mean. These are the kids who hang out on the street corner who think they are thugs, or “hardcore” because of how they dress, walk or who they associate themselves with. Some of these are the ones who carry the attitude to get “respect” they are looking for. It saddens me to know that this is true, and it does happen – even at my old high school. Granted, I graduated 5 years ago, and things were a little better back in the day, but the principle is still the same.
The theater was filled with a great number of high school students that may fall under the description that I just described. These were the ones that were also rude during the movie, and one or two of them even got to chanting “white power” a few times over. Apparently for those select few, the movie was not a wake-up call to get their act together. I’m afraid that it might have been a glue to reinforce their current attitudes, or an outlet to bring out new hate. We even saw it first hand – two groups looked at each other wrong and exchanged words. Not a great way to end a night I guess.
I would recommend that you see the movie though. It was well done.
The Last Few Days
Jan0
So what’s new? Not a whole lot. Work, snowboarding and hanging out with friends are the norm 
Friday Jan 5th: We watched Accepted with Chantelle, Christen, Katie, Natasha and Troy.
Saturday Jan 6th: Went snowboarding up at Meadows. I drove myself up there, but boy, it was worth it!
Sunday Jan 7th: Laying low for the day to rest up and prepare for a long week of work.
Monday Jan 8th: Not a horrible Monday at work. One of my test cards work!