Saturday, October 24, 2015

Coffeeneuring with Christine: The Glenwood Restaurant


For today's coffeeneuring adventure, Christine and I were in the mood for a substantial breakfast. My friend Hugh at Bike Friday had recommended the Glenwood Restaurant over by the University as being a fine breakfast place, so that's where we went.


Like so many places in Eugene, there was a bike rack right out front.


The Glenwood proved to be terrific. Great food at good prices. Prompt, friendly staff. Nice hot tea. Comfy surroundings. We're definitely adding the Glenwood to our list of favorite places.


After breakfast we wandered around for a bit.


We found a public bike repair stand. Remarkably, the tools had yet to be stolen.


We scoped out another potential future coffeeneuring location.



We found various victims of Eugene's aggressive bike part pilfering.


Of course, I had to stop at the Smith Family Bookstore. I already have more books than shelf space and no real room for more shelves. But I couldn't pass these two up. Christine is used to such behavior.


We rolled back home.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Coffeeneuring with Christine: Bagel Sphere


It was another beautiful morning in the Pacific Northwest.


Today Christine and I rolled down Broadway to downtown Eugene.


Broadway has various traffic calming features which slow the car traffic down and makes the street better for bicycle riding and walking.

 

Today's coffeeneuring destination is Bagel Sphere. Not big on fancy atmosphere, but very good bagels and the folks who work there are friendly.


The bagels with ham and melted Swiss cheese are wonderful. Christine has tea and I have Mexican hot chocolate.


Of course there is handy bike parking. Most Eugene businesses have bike racks.


We roll back towards home.



Eugene has more outdoor cats than any place we've ever lived. Like us, they seem to prefer the low traffic roads.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Coffeeneuring with Christine: The Eugene Disaster Relief Trials


This morning was a bit wet, but Christine and I rolled off for an early coffeeneuring run. Today we didn't go to a coffee shop or a bakery.


We rolled down the quiet, damp streets of Eugene.


We rolled along the beautiful river trail.


Our destination was Alton Baker Park.


We had thermoses of hot water for tea and cocoa. We also had bagels and fixings.


 The covered picnic area came in handy.


We were here because I was riding in the Eugene Disaster Relief Trials.


The rain stopped before things really got going.


There were lots of interesting bikes.




This is Damon's Haul-a-Day.


 We all lined up for the start.


My friends Damon and Jordan will be riding today with their kids.


My pal Michael crashed on a wet section of the trail before the start of the event, but it didn't deter him.


Jordan and Eli get off to a fast start.


I got off to a slower start. The first stop for my ride was Bike Friday. Where I picked up a load of newspapers to fill the cardboard box I'd gotten at the start. Robbie, another of my Bike Friday buddies, was already headed back to the park as I was still rolling west.


My second stop was Sheldon High School. My navigation was less than optimal, but I got there eventually.


At this stop I picked up a 3-gallon jug and filled it with water.


My vehicle for the day is a Bike Friday Haul-a-Day. It's quite handy for hauling all kinds of random stuff. We make the Haul-a-Days right here in Eugene.


We kept looping back to Alton Baker Park and then heading off to some other part of Eugene. At the park the organizers had us also do things like practice CPR. The next loop had me head out to Oakshire Brewing where I picked up a white bucket filled with something heavy.


I'm heading back to the park while other riders are heading out.


There was a little section of rough riding. There was this gravel section and a bit of singletrack that I didn't photograph.

I also didn't photograph the coolest and hardest section. A bunch of military folks had set up a rope across the canal. I stripped all the cargo off my bike and then they helped me rope up and roped up my bike. Then I clipped to the rope, they clipped my bike behind me on the rope, I looped my feet over the handlebars and then using my hands, I shimmied myself and the bike across the canal! This was the hardest event of the day, but the most satisfying. I learned I have strong legs and really wimpy arms!  


After the canal crossing, it was back to the park and then off to get a bit of building supplies. If I knew my Eugene geography better, I maybe could've avoided this climb on Friendly Street. But the Haul-a-Day has a good gear range and even though I was hauling about 70 pounds at this point, the bike worked like a champ.


Here's the bike headed back to the park with the day's full load.



I am pretty sure I was the very last one to finish. But I did finish and I had fun.


Eli and Jordan had the fastest time the Family division.


I got a beer, a pint glass, a t-shirt, a handy laminated map of Eugene and a nice three-gallon water junk for my earthquake preparedness kit. Various of my Bike Friday friends had great rides and there was a raffle where a very excited woman won a Haul-a-Day.

It was a great day of riding in the great city of Eugene, Oregon.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Coffeeneuring with Christine: New Day Bakery and World Cafe


Christine is a Seahawks fan and the broadcast of today's game out east starts at 10:00 AM Pacific Time so we get our coffeeneuring trip in early. The streets are still damp from the rain yesterday afternoon and evening, but once again it's a beautiful morning in Eugene.

 

The New Day Bakery and World Cafe is one of our favorite places.


There's a bike rack in the courtyard. Even this early in the day, it's pretty full.


We always get a little something extra to go with our beverages. Sometimes, like this time, we get a lot extra to go with our beverages!


After breakfast we swing a couple blocks out of our way to see if the hippie mobile home is still for sale.


It is. Our basic distrust of motor vehicles and lack of driver's licenses prevent us from buying this.


$3,000 seems like quite a bargain for this much awesomeness, however.


Christine is very intrigued by this vehicle and since we first discovered it a few weeks ago, it's spurred many discussions about building a lightweight, bicycle-towed trailer along similar lines. We'd have to build something very light, that could fold into a low-profile so it would have minimal wind resistance while being towed.

Keep 'em rolling.