Valentine's Day on the Hawthorn Bridge

Last Sunday evening, the eggs had been accumulating, and it occurred to to Jin that  it would be a good idea to take some fresh eggs up to Portland, to spread some  smiles on the bike paths, after all Monday was Valentine's Day.  I thought it to be a little short notice, the car's fuel gauge was showing it's red reserve light, but still a great idea, provided that we make time to swing by Salem on the way, to fuel up the car.

Our car turned vegetarian about four years ago, nobody close to us pumps biodiesel with a rating better than B15, so we've had a membership with the Flower Power Biodiesel Co-op. in Salem. It is good that Ol' Blue can enjoy vegetable based B99, instead of the dinosaur derived petrol, which makes her farts turn all black, and evil smelling. 
  After a late start, caused by a sequence of catastrophes, including a surprise water heater repair, a melted and smoking fuse holder in Ol' Blue, and the last minute, quick extraction of a stuck Fed-ex truck on our barely graveled, narrow, muddy and steep driveway. We were sailing smoothly toward Salem, with that cheerful little red fuel gauge light glowing brightly on the dash, and filling us with anticipation of a wonderful Valentine's Day, in Portland. Heck it even looked like the rain might stop.
We greeted our friends at Flower Power, gave Ol' Blue a nice long drink, and made it to Portland just in time to catch the five o' clock rush on the Hawthorn Bridge, in the rain.
We made our way up the south east bike path off ramp, on the Hawthorn, and found a steady stream of bikes zipping around the curve, like a bunch of sparrows, and to our surprise, out of dozens the of bikers going by only one egg taker, a pedestrian. Clearly this wasn't the time or place for juggling eggs, good frontage, but no parking. We stayed glued to the rail until there was a break in the flow, and decided to go back down off the bridge and ride around until things slowed down a bit. We found ourselves on the other end of the bridge, tucked into the stairwell, a little around 7:00 p.m.  There was a lot less traffic now, but those who did pass by were able to stop for eggs.

Still, the rain, and wind, did seem to cut down the numbers of people on the bridge, so,  we were still giving out eggs till well past 10:00. (our goal was to distribute all the eggs) It is so much fun to see peoples reactions, when they stop for free eggs, But the topper of the evening was a couple, who came out in the nasty weather to find us, meet us, and take our picture, for a wonderful story about the egg experiment on a new bike blog at: www.carfreerambles.org Which is about muscle powered transport.  Meeting these enthusiastic people really made our night, and helped us forget about the cold and damp.

We have decided that rather than fight the clock in the future, we will come a little early just to ride around a bit and then aim for 7:00 p.m. as a more reasonable time to try to give out eggs on the Hawthorn, at the S.W. stairwell, to catch the east bound bikes, and walkers.  This will give people time to go home, and return if they hear we are going to be on the bridge, While allowing us time to get our farm chores out of the way before traveling.