Urban Adventure League

EXTRA SPECIAL RIDE REPORT: (photo Dat Nguyen)
More photos of the ride by Dat can be found here.
This one comes in from Urban Adventure League operative Elly Blue. She co-led the Pizza Ride (Monday June 11th, 6pm, from Ladd's Circle). Take it away, Elly!

Pizza ride! This is the second I've helped organize and the first I attended. We started out with more than 60 riders, and over the course of 4 hours and 6 pizza stops, we gradually lost some and gained some -- at stop three we had over 40 riders, and 25 stuck it out all the way to the end.

We started at Ladd's Circle, with the crowd showing up early and hungry, and stayed in Southeast Portland for most of the ride. Using a well-honed system devised by Shawn of Urban Adventure League fame, we re-counted riders at each stop, called ahead to order pizzas at the next stop, cut up into half-slices or tons of squares. At each stop, the dollar bills flowed, as did the quarters. We did some hasty division of costs that should have left us short, but due to the pizza riders' exuberant arithmetic, ended up leaving us with nearly 20 bucks extra to donate to Shift.

Pizzerias and reviews:
1. Hot Lips on Hawthorne. This one is always a crowd-pleaser.
2. Hammy's at 21st and Clinton. This was a last-minute addition after they called Shawn and asked to be added. We said, why not? And were pleasantly surprised at the quality of their pizza, which some people counted as their favorite.
3. Oasis Cafe on Hawthorne, their pizza was weirdly salty.
4. Flying Pie on 78th & Stark, ditto and greasy besides
5. American Dream Pizza at 47th and Glisan, surprisingly delicious and thin-crusted
6. Stark Naked Pizza -- another thin-crusted choice, and open till midnight.

Accidents/Anomalies:

1. The electrical fire at 21st and Clinton filled the intersection with smoke, fire trucks, and police cars. We picked up the pies at Hammy's and fled to the secret, nearby Piccolo Park at 27th and Clinton.

2. The rubbernecker in the Fred Meyer parking lot who ran his or her car into the shopping cart rack while watching us go by. You have our sympathy, and should really try biking instead. (Shawn's note: it was actually a truck.)

3. The lady on a sharp orange (or blue?) cruiser who took a spill as we passed by. She seemed okay, but declined to join us and let us buy her pizza at the next stop.

4. Half the group elected to unnecessarily climb Mt Tabor to watch the sunset in between stops 4 and 5. They arrived sweaty but happy, and hungry. The rest of us pizza-bombed down Glisan for more immediate gratification. (Shawn's note: There is no such thing as an unnecessary climb up Mt. Tabor)

5. We had one brave vegan. He stuck it out for several stops, so it seems like he did okay.

Would have done differently:
Monday was jam-packed with events, and a dozen or so of our group planned to split off after the second stop and head off to the Worst Bike Routes ride. Their experience at the next ride was made more authentically bad, because we neglected to buy enough pizza for them to have more than just a snack before their harrowing ride. Also at a couple stops there was someone who didn't get a slice, which is entirely the fault of my own bad arithmetic.

Best part: Tons of happy people of all ages (special kudos to the good-natured teenagers) riding around ringing their bells and enjoying a good, clean, fun night on the town. What's more innocent and wholesome than biking around eating pizza? Eating pizza and drinking chianti, maybe. A good time was had by all, everyone met some new people, and some interesting schemes were produced.

*****
For the route map (including the "unnecessary" climb of Tabor), click here.