Parkways a Great Way to Spend a Sunday

Issue 64 - Around Town
Portland-- In a city the size of Portland, it is easy to imagine that there might be several traditions and activities that a household might not be aware of, especially when located in a suburban town like ours. A recent discovery of ours is the Portland Parkways.

     Portland Parkways is a social bike ride that takes place on Sundays around Portland. It sets a course around parts of town, and then closes streets and encourages all who want to participate to do so. This results in Portlanders of all sizes, riding bicycles of all makes, models and sizes, along the designated course thorough a given part of town. SOme are babies in baskets, others elderly adults. All are welcome, and there are activities for all: food trucks for all ages, activities for children, and a relatively easy course, though some parts proved more difficult than others.

When Mom announced an interest in going, Steven went to church early, and then he helped load up the bikes and headed to SouthEast where the course had opened at 11:00. The two parked, and found the course, though with some difficulty.

     Like the last Parkways ride they took part in, this ride specialized in touring parks, with closed streets forming a closed circuit for bikers to travel in either direction. As in the last one, parks were set up with climbing towers, bouncing houses, food trucks and more. They didn’t partake in many food trucks, but did stop for a  bowl of unusual, but delicious ice cream. 

     This course, unlike the last one in North Portland was enjoyable, but not as popular as the last one. Mom was hoping for more parks, and while there were several, there were fewer, and they were less awe-inspiring than the likes of Peninsula parks than the course in North Portland. However, there were unique fun parts of this as well. The course went through neighborhoods of houses dating back so far the curbs still had rings to tie up horses. The ancient houses were beautiful and in many cases well kept up. A careful rider looking beneath their bike might notice flowers “sprouting” from stripes on crosswalks, and careful murals painted on the road at intersections.

     “Overall, I think was worth the trip.” Steven said, “But you have to be attentive. Many of the details along the route are ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ situations.” -KP

One of the painted intersections along the course. While not an ideal photo, the image captures the creativity employed by local artists.

Local Events, issue 64; KPO