Day 2: McMinnville to Portland, 43 miles

The second day of the tour, a long ride down Highway 99W into Portland.  Lots of traffic, good, shoulder, fairly easy terrain. As I cruised through Lafayette I noticed a sign for “Yamhill Locks” and decided to take a two mile detour to the historic park to see the remnants of locks that lifted steamboats over a tiny set of rapids.  Steamboats from Portland as far as McMinnville, traveling about the same speed as a touring cyclist, around 10 MPH, a day’s trip instead of the hour we consider ‘normal’ speeds in our petroleum fueled economy.

Rolling down the final descent into Portland on Barbur Boulevard I sensed the accomplishment of getting to the city by my own locomotion.  But there was the pain of a pulled muscled, persisting since the early spring training.  So I stopped for a massage by neuromuscular specialist Don Weter, who showed me how to treat and avoid further injuries using a lacrosse ball, smooth stone or stick to massage the various muscles in my legs and hips.  I realized 9000 miles with no stretching had taken a toll, and resolved to take better care of my legs on this tour.

A dinner of sushi with Mark and Amy, followed by a hilarious Comedy Sportz show, then ridiculous chocolate desserts with David at Papa Hadyn’s, a swank buzzing restaurant in NW Portland.  I felt jealous to see how many hipsters were filling the place at 10pm on a Friday, exemplifying the restaurant adage ‘location, location, location’.  Maybe Seth will open a FireWorks at the right place in Portland, which would surely be successful.