Portland: Maria, Food, and Friends

I’ve decided to call my bike Maria. This way anytime I’m dealing with bike related issues I can sing “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” from The Sound Of Music and it will be entirely appropriate. It’s not Maria’s fault, really. She’s had a rough go of it lately. She was strapped into the same truck I was when I hit the deer near Glendive, and in my rush to get back on the road to Portland I quite unceremoniously threw her in the car. This all after months of sitting in my apartment with a flat tire because I decided walking was good for me/(was too lazy to order a new tire). The poor thing has had to deal with me her whole life.

She actually put up a pretty good fight in Portland. She took me all the way to the closest thing to a church I’ve got…Powell’s Books. Powell’s was a tad overwhelming. Not just the

Street view of the bookish church that is Powell’s

amount of books (I could have spent days in there) but also the amount of people. If you go to Portland and you’re a bookish person you will end up at Powell’s and for a good reason (it’s book Disneyland). However, when it comes to libraries, bookstores, and national parks…I don’t like the crowds. Maybe it’s because I’ve got the midwest politeness gene (lot’s of “excuse me” “oh I’m so sorry” “oop pardon me” “sorry sorry”)  but when a bookstore is crowded I have a hard time getting comfortable. That isn’t to say I didn’t walk out with books…I’m still me after all. I got The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz and The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer. Both of which I’m psyched to read and if anyone has read them I’d love to hear your thoughts!

That evening my friends took me to a lovely German restaurant Stammtisch. It’s difficult

Look I just really liked the walls in Portland.

to think about a restaurant in a critical manner when you’re eating with friends you haven’t seen in a while. Though I will say Stammtisch added a low lit, flickering light, corner booth with a street view sort ambiance to the whole evening. Thankfully the beer and food were both up to my Wisconsinite expectations. The poor waiter found out I was from Wisconsin as I was ordering an old fashioned. He, and the others at my table, made a satisfactory defense of the difference between Wisconsin’s old fashioned’s and the rest of the world’s. I still prefer Wisconsin’s Brandy sweet loaded with treats…but I didn’t hate Stammtisch’s version.

There was one little snafu on the to Stammtishch and it had to do, of course, with my bike, Maria. Gordo, Sam, and I were happily biking along when her chain just gave up and snapped. As problems go this isn’t world ending but we were all pretty hungry and only about halfway to the restaurant. Luckily, this was Portland. As we were brainstorming solutions and grasping at very thin straws a gentleman and his family came up to us and asked, “Hey would it be helpful if someone who owned a chain tool and lived right here were available to help?” Basically what I’m telling you is an angel appeared. He fixed my bike up well enough to last the evening and told us all about the eclipse festival he had just attended and his burning man plans.

I think the theme of this trip is shaping up to be that I am very lucky in the people I know and meet. Both in Glendive and Portland I met people went above and beyond. I feel

Wall outside of Gladys

particularly fond of Portland simply because I already have friends there (also Portland makes my little hipster heart happy). Portland also has the best bike shop I’ve ever been in. It was called Gladys Bikes. It is an all women bike shop. I’ve had some pretty terrible experiences in bike shops. The men that I’ve met who are supposed to be helping me fix my bike have been, across the board, condescending and terrible. I understand customer service jobs suck, but there is a strain of sexism that I’ve encountered in bike shops that makes me not want to go. I didn’t experience any of this at Gladys  and they fixed up Maria for me! Basically Portland has been good to me. I imagine I’ll be back sooner rather than later.