7/18/98

Warning: we did no riding today :-)

In the morning, Janet and I went for a long walk around the neighborhood. This is something we have been trying to do every morning, and it is a great way to get the feel for an area. There were all kinds of people out, garage sales, and even a hardware store setting up for belt sander races later in the day�

When we returned, Hope had to go to work for the day (booo!), so we went to breakfast down the street with James. Following breakfast, James, Janet and I caught a bus across the bridge into the old downtown section of Portland (where Hope works) and cruised around the Saturday farmer�s market that they have. There were all sorts of cool homemade goodies, but we couldn�t buy anything since we have no space to spare�

James took us to Powells, the biggest bookstore in the country, and we looked around briefly before deciding that it would be a good day to go see a movie. Across town, we caught a matinee showing of Out of Sight, pretty good movie, I thought. Nothing great, pretty much in the image of Pulp Fiction and the like, but entertaining.

After hooking back up with Hope, we were hanging out in the park by the river with all the hippies and stoners. These two guys come up and start preaching the word of God, that is to say, to tell the crowd they were all going to hell. It was quite comical. Not what they were saying, but in the reactions they were getting. I�m not sure what they were thinking� I realize that they are hoping to convert lost souls and all that, but they were just pissing everyone off. I thought for sure they were going to get their asses kicked. It�s not that I�m against what they were saying, or first amendment rights or anything like that, it�s just that you get more bees with honey, you know? If there were any possible converts in hearing range, the little display by these zealots just drove them further away. Anyway, eventually the cops came in and cited them for disturbing the peace or something�

We headed back to James and Hope�s neck of the woods and went to the absolutely coolest theater ever! Its an old movie theater with every other row of seats removed, and tables in their place. The concession stand sells beer and pizza, and for $1, you can see second run movies and drink beer. Way cool, San Francisco needs a theater like this, we�d go every week! The show tonight was The Big Labowski. It was hilarious (to me anyway). Portland is a very cool place, it�s tempting to come up here to live for a while�

and once again we crashed on James and Hope�s floor. Tomorrow we hit the road again,
david.

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