30 Days of Biking 2018: Day Eight

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

This morning I biked to Green Bean Books for the Cycle City book launch. It’s a wonderful new children’s book by local author and illustrator Alison Farrell. Here’s Six questions for Portland illustrator and ‘Cycle City’ author Alison Farrell on BikePortland.

After the story time and Q&A kids decorated their bikes and Community Cycling Center organized a bike parade that I got to lead. After cautioning the kids to keep their balloon tails short so they wouldn’t get tangled up, I left my balloon too long and it snuck into all my pictures, doh.

I was impressed with the turnout despite cold morning drizzle. There were lots of kids on balance bikes with parents walking alongside so we proceeded fairly slowly for our six-block loop.

I’ve gotten used to kids sneaking ahead of me during Kidical Mass and I kind of like it! They feel capable and bold…but I know it’s also because it’s really hard to go super slow and I’m better at holding a parade pace than them, ha ha.

On the way home from Green Bean Books, Kelley from Community Cycling Center and I stopped by nearby Gladys Bikes to say hi. Owner Leah Benson says she calls we friends who come hang out (especially on Sundays) “shop cats” so I guess that’s what we were! We both test rode the new Surly “road plus” bike, the Midnight Special. The pearly white color is really pretty…but I see now that it’s called “Hot Mayonnaise.” Not so pretty a name. It was a very comfortable ride. Next week Leah will have another new Surly in, the Bridge Club, (in a blue called “Diving Board Blue”) so we’ll have to go try that one, too.