If you need directions from PDX to Astoria through St. Johns

On 4/25/06, j____ at ehs.umass.edu wrote:
Hi, Nate:
I saw your entry for Portland and have a question. I'll be biking out of PDX on a Tuesday in June, headed for Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with three other gents. I'll be headed for Astoria to start the Adventure Cycling TransAm route to Teton (my stop point last year from Virginia). Anyhow, my question is, do you have any recommendations for biking from PDX to Route 30? Thanks,
J_____
Belchertown MA

When you say PDX I assume you mean the actual Airport (we refer to the entire city as 'PDX').
I live on the north end of town between PDX and where your headed, so I can tell you that it is industrial and busy for the most part.
If you have no urban cycling skills there is an acceptable Trimet option, although it is the longest time-wise:
-Take the Red line to the Rose Quarter Transit Center.
-Transfer to the Yellow Line North Towards the Expo Center and Get off at N Portland Blvd.
-Go west on N Portland, make a right on Willamette Blvd.
-Follow this bike lane along the Willamette river over looking Swan Island.
-Make a right on Ida street into St Johns and a left at the Safeway. You'll see the St John's bridge by this time, which you'll cross and be on your merry way to Astoria.
This is a nice ride, with a great view of the city and hottie jogger chicks from Univ of Portland. If you have an extra hour this route will be by far the most enjoyable.
After consulting the map of Portland bike routes I recommend the following for those in a hurry and willing to deal with crappy streets and crazy traffic:
-Exit the baggage claim area and head out with the traffic down Airport Way 1/2 a mile
-make the right on 82nd
-right on Alderwood
-right on Cornfoot
-Left on 47th
-follow 47th as it winds to the right, past Columbia and make the right onto Lombard.
-Lombard is HWY 30, so keep on Lombard until you get to St. John's, where you'll be able to see the St. Johns Bridge, which you'll cross and be on your merry way towards Astoria.
This route avoids the worst section of 82nd Ave., but has you travelling down Lombard, which can be a hassle. I avoided sending you down Colombia, which has less traffic than Lombard, but the route is kinda tricky.
I highly recommend spending $1.65 on train fare and spending an extra hour for the more pleasant first option. If you have mad urban cyclist skills, and are in a hurry to get to Astoria the Lombard Street route is do-able.
Feel free to ask any questions or get clarification.
Nathan Hersey

Major Downer

I've been on a total depression streak lately. All week I've come back to the hotel room and crashed out all evening. I found out I'll be working part of Saturday, but am still trying to go camping with the wifey this weekend. I've had major work related stress and a wicked rash of hardcore GERD.
In lighter news I've been listening to KGRG. This station is like all punk show all the time. Some of the afternoon DJs play some pop punk crap, but in the mornings it's all Rancid, Bad Religion, Anti-Flag etc. Any Station that has Greg Graffin doing their station ID spots is good times.

TWU Local 100

Today Roger Toussaint is starting his jail sentence for the strike his union held in December.
In this country if you organize you go to jail.
In the President's budget the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (the one that feeds elderly widows) would be cut, among other social food programs.
In this country if you are old and poor you can just starve for all we care.
Back in March the Supreme court ruled that law schools that accept public funds must allow military recruiters on campus, with the same access as civilian recruiters. The schools had not wanted this due to their opposition to the "don't ask don't tell" policy.
Stand up for the rights of your countrymen and we'll slap you right back down. It's way more important to find young men to send to war than to change an unjust system.
So let me recap. If you work for a living, are old and hungry or have morals the U.S. wants nothing to do with you. We would rather see you in jail, starving or dying in combat.
That is all.

Peas, Beans, Carrots...

I got all of my seeds planted, even though only 1/3 of the garden is ready. With my work schedule the way it is I am going to have to till the rest of it next weekend. Hopefully.
I'm headed to Seattle for the better part of 3 weeks to do a start up on some new units. I don't think they work weekends at the site I'll be at, so CK should be able to drive up either next weekend or the one after that and we can do some camping. Whichever one she doesn't, I'll drive back down and do the garden.

Kuala Lumpur

I rode downtown to have sushi with CK this afternoon. I then told her I was going to leave to ride my bicycle to Kuala Lumpur. To facilitate my trip I stopped at REI to get a Hennessy Hammock and a u-lock. Yesterday I ordered a beefy new rear rack, some moustache handlebars and a 24 tooth chainring. With the new rack and sleeping arrangement I should be able to fit all of my stuff into my rear panniers, thereby lightening my load considerably. I discovered last trip that if you have 4 panniers worth of stuff you packed too much.
Now I'm going downstairs to make pasties to freeze so that CK won't have to worry about dinner while I'm on my sojourn.

Super Mom

As I type this Nancy is on her way out, after a month of waiting. Early next week a Polish trucker will be dropping her off. I guess mom is riding her bike home from Palatine after dropping the Nancy off at the shippers.
In the back yard is my first attempt at all-grain brewing. I am trying a nice honey brown ale, my favorite. It took me 2 days to get the mashtun fabricated, assembled and not leaking. The sawz-all job on the top isn't beautiful, but it should work well enough.

FTN

Turns out the Navy got $1150 with the Treasury Departments 'collection fee'. That's right, instead of friendly Guido the reasonable neigborhood loan shark, I get it in the a$$ from the impersonal Feds long distance. That's better than 30% APR. If that where a loan it would be illegal in most states. The real rub is the letter I opened in my mail backlog right after the DFAS one was a Naval Reserve recruiting propaganda. Why yes, if the thank you for 6 years honorable service in active duty is a bill for over a grand I'd love to see what the reserves can offer me. One weekend a month, 2 weeks a year, one year in Iraq, some gulf war syndrome and a side of Yeoman incompetence resulting in a hassle from DFAS. Sounds GREAT to me!

Adventures in Pan-Asian Cuisine

I'll bet you didn't know this, but there is no such thing as curry. Yeah. The Lymies made that shit up.
Since there is no concensus on the internet (or not one that I found in my 2 minutes of Googling), I'm shooting from the hip. Here's the plan:

-potatoes and chicken in olive oil, seared lightly in the pan
-spice with coriander, cumin, garlic, onion, ginger, tumeric, clove, cayenne
-simmer in chicken broth, lemon juice, lime juice with 1/2 a cinnamon stick
-throw in a tub of yogurt in the last 5 minutes

As I am cooking the smell is correct. Smells like that apartment down the hall when I was younger, where where the mom was always yelling at her brood in Punjabi . It seems a little thin; possibly I shouldn't have reconstituted the broth. Hopefully it will thicken with the yogurt, or I might have to throw in some flour to thicken it.

While we're waiting, an update. Today I made CK clean my house, and we almost simutaneously drained the ginger ale and the IPA. We bought more ginger and luckily I have some pale ale that should be ready in a few days. Unfortunately it's in bottles, so I need to get hot on a nice honey brown ale or stout to refill the kegerator. While mindlessly surfing the internet I noticed that the AL state senate unanimously passed a law against private keg ownership. It makes my blood boil. I thought keg registration was facist, but that's too f*cking much. I like how they think it'll stop underage drinking. Makes me want to get my gun.
While we're on the topic of Big Government out of control, I sat down to do the taxes today. As I sifted through the pile of papers my G-Ma sent me I opened a couple from the DFAS. Those a**holes want to bleed me for $900 they say I owe because they fucked up and paid me for leave I had already taken, plus $50 they overpaid me for 1 day of base pay. Since I didn't get the letters by their payment deadline, the Navy has reported me to a collection agency. That's right. Yeomen can't do their job, so I have to mop up my credit report. F*ck The Navy.

As I suspected the yogurt was insuficent to thicken the curry. I'll have to add some flour to thicken it. I'll serve it over rice with some nice tea.
I hope I can taste it over the government hate I've got brewing in me right now.

HorrorPops

I got some more used Firestone soda kegs to put beer in. It turns out the older ones have a pressure relief on the lid, one of which will have to be replaced to the tune of $10. That's as much as I paid for the keg, and the whole thing could've been avoided if they had used some valve grease when they installed it. Always verify proper lubrication before insertion, I always say. Right now they are sitting in a mild caustic bath to clean them up. 10 year old soda is nasty, but lifts right off with a little generic powdered dish detergent.
That wife of mine wants to make kissy face all afternoon and party all night long. Tonight the HorrorPops are in town, and everybody loves Copenhagen psychobilly. Speaking of Copenhagen, I am totally emigrating. One third of all commutes are done by bicycle there, and they use 25% of their transportation budget on bike infrastructure. I hate bike lanes and believe they are hella dangerous, but it shows the Danes' level of commitment. Take 20 minutes to check it out.