Bike fiasco, Salsa fun!

Sunday! An amazingly sunny day here in Portland. I had a profitable work schedule on the books and was looking forward to every minute of it. There was enough time for me to ride my bike to work. Considering the glorious weather, why the hell not!

My after work plans involved me attending a festival called Salsa en la Calle! I absolutely love salsa!!! Biking there would be better then trying to find a parking spot so I was set. Everyone here bikes to all kinds of things. I would be too surprised to see a man in a tux going to the opera on a bike. Portland is pretty cool like that!

Everything was going as planned. I had arrived at work after a beautiful ride, had gotten through all of my appointments, and was ready for dancing. As luck would have it, as I am leaving the office to go to the event the sky opens up and a down pour ensues. So, since I have no rain jacket (how stupid of me... this is Portland!) I decide to ride a couple of blocks east to REI and pick up some gear. There is a saying here in the city of rain and roses... "There is no bad weather, just bad gear!!!"

All was going well until I made a right hand turn onto NW 15th & found myself riding smack in the middle of the steel tracks! SHIT! I hate the Max tracks! Those smooth, slippery, grooved out tracks that give my town it's reputation for amazing public transportation are good for just that but bad for cyclists! Flashing back to my last encounter with the asphalt due to those hungry bastards, I assured myself that I would prevail this time! What I didn't do was take into account the fact that they were now WET!

Oh Fuck, here I go again! I was slipping out of control desperately trying to get my feet out of the straps that are designed to keep your feet in and thinking, "this can't be happening again!" Oh, yes it can! I swear I could hear each and every molecule of steel laughing hysterically as I ate blacktop once more! It's a maniacal plot between the road and the tracks! "Let's see how many morons we can sucker into taking us on"!

I bounce, get up and walk my bike with it's back tire not moving (bent rim) and my bloody knee over to REI on the next block. I head straight to the bathroom where I was up my knee & get the blood off my shorts then go to pick up a rain jacket.

Lucky me, the same jacket that I bought a week ago for $33 and returned because it was too short in the sleeves is now on sale for $12! Now I can walk the 6 miles home to go get my car so I can come load up my bike without getting even more drenched. I would have taken the bus but on Sundays the schedule is a real inconvenient one. Walking has proven, in the past, to be less time consuming!

I then call my friend to tell her the story of why I am not there already & she relates to my plight and comforts me by telling me she has met with the dooming tracks 3 times! I feel so much better. I promise Catherine that I will be down there to meet her come hell or high water, or max tracks for that matter!

My friend and her sister live just around the corner from me. I was thinking of calling the sister, Bridget, to have her drive and come save me from the walk in the rain. I pull out my phone and low and behold there is a text from Bridget! I call her up & she comes to my rescue.

I was able to get to the event in just over an hour! I was really glad I powered through. It was so much fun. And, no one seemed to mind that I was looking like a street urchin in my wet clothes, bloody knee and road grunge all over. Sexy Latino men were asking me to dance for two hours solid & the music was electrifying!

I wake up on Monday dreadfully stiff, sore and my foot hurting like hell! Oh the price I pay for being accident prone & not knowing when to quit!