Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Coffeeneuring #4 10-27-2012

Asta invited me and several girlfriends to hang out and work on craft projects.   The destination?  Townshend's Tea on Alberta in NE Portland.  Seeing an opportunity to use this as a coffeneuring destination (utilizing the tea and hot cocoa interpretation of coffee) I packed up my craft project into my panniers and set out on my ride.   I decided to take the long way, up Springville Road to Skyline, then along Skyline to Thompson before dropping down into town, giving me nearly 1800 feet of gain between home, Asta's house & the teahouse.

I met Asta at her apt, then we headed over to Townshend's where we met three of her other friends.  We ordered tea and snacks (A lovely mug of chai and a vegan lentil pot pie for me, bubble tea for Asta) and then headed for the basement where we took up residence on some corner couches.

I worked on an origami project, Asta sewed up a wallet from an old bike tube, Jen knit, Montana worked on a collage, etc.   Somehow we wiled away FIVE HOURS gabbing and working on our crafts.


Asta's bubble tea, my chai, and vegan let pot pie!

Asta plays with her tapioca balls...
After 5 hours, we were hungry again, so Asta & I went across the street to Pine State Biscuits.  Most excellent.   Finally, it was time for me to ride off into the pouring rain and get home.   Total r/t distance for the day was 28.2 miles including the 24.9 miles from my house to the tea shop and then to the MAX, followed by the 3.2 mile ride home from the train.

It was a lovely way to spend a rainy Portland afternoon!

Coffeeneuring #3

#3 - Saturday, October 20th @ Sesame Donuts

My birthday is October 23rd.  This year it fell on a Tuesday.  Tuesday birthdays are, quite simply, no fun.  I prefer to spend time with friends and bikes on my birthday (as opposed to spending the day inside working), preferably with friends who RIDE bikes and want to ride a stupid number of miles with me on my birthday.

And so it was that I suckered not one, not two, but THREE rando friends into not one, but TWO back-to-back 200K permanents the weekend of my birthday.  However, this presented a conundrum.  How to work in at least one coffeeneuring jaunt into the weekend, to stay on track with doing 7 coffeeneuring excursions over 6 weeks?   Emails were exchanged, rules were checked, and it was finally determined that we could coffeeneur *before* our first 200K perm.

And so, Sesame Donuts became our coffeeneuring destination.   I've passed by this shop any number of times, but had never stopped in .  The combo of "sesame" and "donuts" always seemed odd to me.   Nonetheless, I was assured that while the coffee was simply OK, the donuts were excellent.

So, Saturday morning, I arose at oh-dark-thirty for the 11.9 mile ride to Sesame.   I arrived shortly after 7am, to find Theo hanging around outside.  I scanned the amazing array of donuts and ordered the namesake sesame donut (I'll try anything once), a pumpkin spice donut (in case the sesame was a total bust) and a vanilla latte.   The proprietors asked me where we were headed, and a conversation ensued about how we were planning to ride 125 miles to Eugene to celebrate my birthday.    Before I knew it, they were singing happy birthday and presenting me with a birthday maple bar!  Wow!

Sesame donut (not bad) and pumpkin spice donut (kickass  yummy!)

Birthday mini-maple bar

Soon enough, Asta, Bill & Lynne turned up, and now our part was up to 5!   As per usual, we sat around gabbing about all things bikes, as well as the upcoming back to back 200Ks.


Bikes outside, randos inside.

Lynne & Asta

Theo
Me, the birthday girl!
After 45 minutes or so of chattering, we decided it was time to set off on the 200K to Eugene aka Donuts to Total Domination.    Asta got an ice cream cone to go (yes, really) and off we went!

Coffeeneuring: what a wonderful way to start the day!


The details:
Sesame Donuts
Vanilla Latte
11.9 miles
with Theo, Asta, Lynne & Bill.