One upside to Ella having croup and our camping trip getting cut short is that we were able to take part in the Sunday Parkway event in North Portland today. After some early morning errands, we got on bikes and rode over to Peninsula park to meet for a led “family ride.”
The park was chaos, in the good way. Bicyclists and pedestrians were everywhere, and despite the early morning drizzle, people were out and enjoying themselves. We followed the led ride for about 3/4 of a mile before realizing the slow pace and the volatile nature of a sick daughter meant we wouldn’t finish the ride before nap time. Michelle and I sped up and enjoyed the route with other random people, all of whom seemed rather happy.
Seeing so many people on bikes warms my heart. This was the biggest crowd I’d seen since STP, but without all the stupid outfits and misplaced competitiveness. We wound through NoPo on many of the same streets I’ve been riding with Ella the past few weeks, but she didn’t mind because she’d fallen asleep. We cut the route a bit short though and retired home for lunch and a proper nap.
I really enjoyed the event, but I’m not sure how it worked for other folks. One of the ideas was to get folks out on the street who were otherwise intimidated by traffic. I never get tired of cars having to wait for me while I cross major arterials, but I’ll be interested to see how other folks felt about the event.
