Well, I might be able to finish out the Coffeeneuring Challenge after all! Ride 5 is pushing me into that direction, even though as a ride it was a mixed bag.
It was another dry and sunny, but cool day here in Portland. #pdxcoffeeoutside was taking place at Sellwood Riverfront Park, a spot that they hit up last year around this time. I hadn’t done a coffee outside in a while, and wanted to do at least one during this year’s challenge, so here I go. I made the smart move and got the Bantam ready with my coffee outside stuff the night before, no fumbling around the garage for gear while I’m running late.
The first mishap happened on the ride to Sellwood. My acid reflux decided to have a little attack, and this lasted all the way to the park. It’s no fun riding when your stomach is freaking out. And when I arrived at Sellwood Riverfront Park at 10:45 AM, there was only a skeleton crew left. I do get to coffee outside on the late side, but typically the event draws out to about noon or even longer. The lack of folks left me a bit deflated, especially since after being isolated for a couple weeks due to COVID, I wanted to hang out with people. Oh well, I took a table with the two remaining dudes, who I did not know but were cool.
And this leads to the final mishap: Being in a weird state due to stomach and lack of folks, I messed up making coffee. I brought out the Esbit moka pot, aka Kaffeemaschine, for the first time in a long while. The Esbit is pretty particular, and I was not. The two cups I got were on the very small side. Argh. Next time, it’s either pour over or coffee bags.
Anyways, I packed it up around noon. I was really not in a good mood and felt like my energy reserve was quite depleted (and no coffee wasn’t helping.) Still, it’s not often that I’m in Sellwood, so I rode around a little bit. I then crossed the Willamette River via Sellwood Bridge and rode north along the Willamette Greenway path.
This dropped me off in the South Waterfront District, a “mini-Vancouver” of glass towers that is only now finally feeling like a real place. Oracle Coffee was along the way, so I got a cup of drip (free with purchase of a bag of coffee!) and sat there for a bit. The coffee was good, and while it’s got that sparse vibe so many modern coffee shops have, I did not mind. If anything, Oracle’s been the only true winner of the new coffee shops I’ve tried on this challenge.
After the caffeine pick-me-up, I rolled homewards, swinging by my overstuffed P. O. Box. (I hadn’t picked up mail in a bit due to COVID.) When I got home, my odometer read 22 miles (35.4 km), my longest ride since September. While I wish the ride was done under better circumstances, it’s still good to get in a decent ride, especially after COVID recovery.
And while I still have two more rides to finish before I successfully complete this year’s challenge, with Ride 5 I’ve completed two of my sub-goals for the challenge:
- Ride all the bikes in my active fleet
- Do one coffee outside
Now let’s see how my last two rides turn out!
Urban Adventure League 
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