[OHPV-list] JaVaLaVa ride was a good 'un!

[Jeff Wills]

For everyone who didn't get to yesterday's JaVaLaVa ride- I hope you weren't 
planning on making up the miles today!

It was pretty nice... nice and cool, that is. When I got to the start, Jane was 
there, chatting with Jim, who was unloading his van. Since I'd already heard 
from Kirke I knew he was riding from home, so we stuck around waiting for them. While we were there, Tom and Luke Pritchard showed up with their Easy Racer bikes (Tom's an ex-HP-co-worker of Diane's, so we have that in common). 

After waiting a bit, we go in touch with Kirke by cell phone, only to find he 
was a little behind schedule due to riding with Heather, who was on Kathi's 
bike. Since they were heading towards us, we decided to start off and meet them in the middle.

The five of us started out at a brisk pace. It was a little chilly, and it 
didn't look like the clouds were going to burn off anytime soon. We had to dodge a couple garage sales as we went along, but nothing that kept us from chatting with each other. We met up with Kirke and Heather once we passed I-205, so then we were seven.

The ride along MacArthur and Devine was uneventful, and then we tested our 
brakes dropping down to the Discovery Trail. We got some applause as we cruised past the soccer matched going on at Meadow Homes Park- a bunch of recumbents is always a parade! Further along, I thought the trail looked unusually clean- and sure enough, we came across a clean-up crew as we got to St. Johns Road. More swooping through curves ensued as we passed Leverich Park, over I-5, and along Burnt Bridge Creek. The Creek path ends with its collection of horrible pavement, but by that time we were ready to get on the road again.

As we rode down Fruit Valley Rd., Heather's (Kathi's) bike started making a 
horrid noise, which turned out to be a fender strut failure. We continued on to 
the local Chevron station, where Heather got a cappuccino while Kirke dug out a spare bolt for the fender. As we hung out there, two gentlemen pulled in- one on a Cycle Genius recumbent, the other on an unusual modified 26/26 Sun EZ-Sport. Once we got over having 9 recumbents in a gas station parking lot, we made our introductions- it turns out they hadn't been told about OHPV, despite being customers at Coventry. Humph.

Anyway, we 7 continued to Vancouver Lake Park for the turnaround, then headed back towards downtown Vancouver. As we left the park area, a motorhome was pulling in- with a Tour Easy strapped to the back bumper! It's a shame the driver didn't stop- I was wondering what he was up to.

We had coffee and eats at the River Maiden coffee shop, by the Farmer's Market. Lots of people, including a gaggle of giggling teenagers, were looking at our bikes. Like I said- it's always a parade!

We split up there- Kirke and Heather heading back across the I-5 bridge towards home, while the rest of us headed along Evergreen Highway and Middle Way towards the start. Nothing jumped out at us, aside from inflatable Halloween decorations. The clouds never did burn off, so we stayed zipped up all the way home. A good day nevertheless.

--
Jeff Wills

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Make plans now to attend the Portland Human Power Challenge:
http://www.ohpv.org/PIR/index.htm
and the Recumbent Retreat:
http://www.recumbentretreat.org/
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