Part of our ongoing coverage of Pedalplaooza 2011.
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Photographer and Reporter Name – Jene-Paul
Happy cyclists stopped for not only coffee and cookies but baguettes made on the spot (by the generously talented Fool and his lovely assistant (I dunno, maybe she was in charge & he was assisting, but I mostly saw him on the stove) – I’m sorry about not catching everyone’s name. As usual, a bunch of folks stopped who didn’t know about the regular monthly BonB let alone its multiple occurrences during Pedalpalooza; they went away smiling, many with powdered sugar on their fronts.
The Esplanade closure seemed to have reduced traffic but that wasn’t the only difference. Here for the Rose Festival, across the Willamette were moored three American warships. They were surrounded by a security perimeter in the water which was enforced by three Coast Guard Zodiacs with bow-mounted 50 cal guns. A group of bicyclists at BonB waved and hollered happily at the nearest Coasties until after about a minute of sustained effort, they gave in and all waved back from their little orange boat. We also waved and held up coffee cups to the passing AMTRAK Cascades pulling onto the Steel’s lower deck for Union Station.
The crowd was mostly adult commuters but small children showed up too, brought by cargo bike, trailer and longtail. Since the morning rush hour was disrupted by closures and other events, I think that actually a higher percentage of riders stopped to sample the wares and visit. The Shift volunteers make BonB a wonderful show of hospitality and a nice thank-you to bicyclists.
A last note – when BonB was all cleared away (after 9 o’clock), I rolled over to the west bank and past the moored flotilla, between the seawall and the closed rides and concessions.
The US Coast Guard, the US Army Corps of Engineers, and the Canadian Maritime Forces vessels had nothing like the security surrounding the US Navy ships. I noticed a few young military men rolling bicycles off the gangway attached to the big Coast Guard cutter, Active, so I went over to ask about that. The seaman stationed at the foot of the gangway informed me that, sure, they were allowed to stow bikes aboard during missions which took them overseas (they had just returned from South America). Clearly I had done a hitch in the wrong service.
