I haven’t taken a shower yet. I’m still covered in sweat, but my heart is full of joy. Why? D and I rode down to the waterfront and saw Obama’s speech. Okay, honestly, we heard it. There were an estimated 75k people down there, and I wasn’t about to beat people up for a good seat. We found a perch, in the shade, and listened with about a bajillion other people. He’s an amazing speaker.
D and I got some breakfast, and decided that we had to go down to the rally. I honestly don’t know how many people are going to vote for Obama on Tuesday, but if this gathering was any indication, he’s going to do well. After breakfast, D and I shimmied throughout some of the amazing neighborhoods I love to ogle, and when we got to the bridge, we were stopped by a wall of people. All of the white on the bottom of the bridge - those are all people (and bikes and puppies too) walking to the ralley. D and I had to get off the bikes and walk with the crowd. We honestly could have been total dicks about it, but I’m kind of into being polite since I’m not a fast rider yet. Let’s see how much of an ass I become when I get a little speed going.
Anyway, it took us a while to traverse the short distance from where this picture was taken, to the rally itself. Security was tight, and avenues that are usually open to traffic were shut down. I needed to eat. I was hot and sweaty and getting pissed that the normal route to get near Waterfront Park had been shut down. But we progressed.
D and I were going to just park the bikes and get into the line for the main entrance. But after locking the bikes up, and walking a few blocks, we noticed that the line wound all over the place. After a quick discussion of options. one included FINDING the back of the line and just following everyone else in, we decided to use D’s knowledge of the city to our advantage.
We unhooked the bikes, played in a little belligerent traffic, and found a spot on the back end of the park, near some shops. They opened up another enterance to the rally close to where we were sitting, but we decided that sitting in the shade was far more important than actually seeing the tiny spec that would have been Obama on the stage. Besides, the audio traveled perfectly to us. We waited it out, marveled at all the funny shirts, and interesting bike stickers.
The speech gave me chills. He knew his audience, and he spoke to us. Portland is very progressive when it comes to transportation and he held that up as a thing that other cities should strive for. He mentioned how important teachers REALLY are - TWICE. He talked about everything he should have, and more. But he also recognized the sheer size of us - his Portland Obama supporters and thanked us. And I realize that I’m kind of dragging this out a bit, but I have a sunburn. So, my nonsensical rambling will be blamed on heat stroke…or something.
Here are some images from the rally. There are more on my flickr thingy.
I have more to write about, I really do. It was a great weekend, except for the heat. We discovered a new place for food and good conversation, I had too much wine, laughed so hard my face hurt, and discovered new things about who I am and why I do things the way I do. But most of all, I got my fat ass BACK on my bike, and it felt fantastic.
And now I’m going to pass out and sleep for 100 days.
