Bronco Bus

 
Joke of the Day offered by Chris Monsere when I sent him this picture: I think I see some Duck feathers on the tires.

The Ducks got their licks in, but lost to Boise State to open the football season.

Tour De Lab

 
This is the ride that got Susan excited about road riding. She participated last year and the terrain was challenging for anyone that hadn't prepared with some training rides. This year, she was ready with her Trek Madone and the training we did for Tour de Blast. Still, it was a good ride with effectively three 400' climbs in the 30 miles of the route. We also added the trip from home to the Lucky Lab's NW pub on 19th/Quimby.
 
The tour visits all three of Lucky Lab's three locations, hopefully they get a fourth pub so they can make the ride a little longer next year. In this economy, it might take for a few more years.
The view from Council Crest was especially sweet, considering that was the top spot on the route and it was mostly downhill from here. The route took us down SW Vista, which was past the school I went to prior to middle school (Ainsworth).
 
We did the ride with Tina Farley, her friend Chris (pictured), and Chris' friend. The ride was well attended and the Lucky Labs were'nt meant to hold that many people at one time, but they did okay and we weren't there that long.  

Bridge Pedal - I'm Famous

I saw Jonathan Maus of bikeportland.org taking pictures as we were cruising up the approach to the Broadway Bridge and nine hours later it is posted to the web. I am glad he didn't catch me on the way home, because I was sucking wind!
Amelia was watching Susan who was on the right side of the yellow line!

Portland Bridge Pedal

 
One of the best events in Portland because of the combination of local products (Widmer Root Beer, Nossa Familia coffee, and bike mechanics galore - too bad there wasn't Voodoo Doughnuts or Burgerville), bikes, and bridges. The Oregonian is one of the sponsors and calls the ride "Perfectly Portland".
It is a great ride and it is great to see that many families out on the streets. There was a great article about the event in the O this past week.
 
Marcy and her kids stayed the night at our place so we were on our way from Sellwood to downtown when Chris called saying they were at the meeting point! We met up with MK, Tym, Henry, Dad, Chris, Del, and Deb and we were off. It was a beautiful day for the ride and we were happy to have the opportunity to be carfree on the Interstate Freeway bridges. We completed the 6 Bridge Ride and I rode the bakfiets. Susan questioned whether I was going to have trouble and while I didn't think I would, her asking me a couple of times made me second guess myself. All told it was a 25-mile trip which makes me wonder what a bakfiet mile is equivalent to in road bike miles. The hill up from the Oaks Bottom to our house was a beast, I was really dragging because I hadn't eaten anything on the ride. Abby did great on the ride on the trail-a-bike and I was surprised that Ameila and Matthew didn't complain any during the ride about sitting too much in the bakfiets.
The ride went pretty smoothly, it has been customary in recent history to have something disrupting bicycle flow through key spots or turns and while there was reportedly a train near the end that disrupted folks considerably, we didn't experience any of the backups that has traditionally plagued the ride.
One mistake on my part was not charging the batteries to the cameras, I took some photos, but the cameras did not make it past the Marquam and I normally enjoy taking more throughout the event.
 

Summer Saturday in Estacada

 We took a trip out to Estacada to meet up with the Kishpaugh folks at Ken & Doreen's house. They have horses, so the kids were very excited about the chance to ride. They also just had puppies, so it was a double attraction. I didn't feel the need to partake in multiple hours in puppy and horse love, so I was off on my aluminum steed and biked from their house to Dan & Sheila's, which was a good 20-mile with a pretty good climb. I didn't take my GPS unit, so I don't have details from the ride.
 It was only fair that I rode, Susan got her solo ride in on Friday while Marcy watched the girls.
 

Abby Rides a Bike

 
It is true that patience is a virtue. Abby has really picked up riding a bike. With a lot of things, Abby can not be pressured, she's going to do things in her own time. Once she starts down the path she remains tenative and cautious, wants to be perfect about it and take her time, and is easily frustrated. Sounds like a fun combination of Susan and I. Oh well, I guess that's to be expected. The good news is she has the capacity to ride her bike, now all we need is a little more of the will.

Oregon/Washington Bike Rides

Susan hasn't hit the streets on her bike this week because of the heat, so she took off this morning on the Lake Oswego Loop.

She wants to do a century this season, we just need to find one. If you have an idea, let me know!

I came across this list of rides and I was thinking the Vine Ride might be a good one.

The Harvest Century conflicts with a Beaver game (unless it is a night game) and there is one in Bend that isn't quite a century (Sunnyside Cycle), but appears to be a tough ride!

Garden of 09

After a few days when the temperatures soared past 100 degrees, we're starting to get some good yield from the garden. I just picked three cucumbers and a head of romaine lettuce. There are several ancho chilis The red cabbage is getting closer, and the garden is overrun by tomato plants. I remain disappointed that we didn't get many peas and the beans weren't that plentiful either. There is some squash and pumpkin? starting to grow well and I am starting to get more sophisticated in how I get the cucumbers to hang in a trellis. I need to get some twine or string to hang the vines. If I don't it will be a lot harder to find the fruits of the watering and planting.

Sallie Mae Refund

After paying student loans for more than 10 years, I thought I was through hearing from Sallie Mae in December of 2007. Well, somehow the geniuses at this fine organization, decided that I needed a check for $1.95 due to overpayment of my loans. Susan got one for $1.35! We're in the money! We're in the money! Obama rules! Now if only those checks keep coming for the next 1,000 years.

Hoorah For $20 Gas!

From NPR (my thoughts in quotes):
For many, there is a brace yourself moment of fear that the price of gas will mirror the four dollars a gallon horror we had to live through last summer "ha". But according to author Chris Steiner, our lives would be a lot happier if gas rose to even the double digits. The title of his book: "$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better".

Peter's Birthday Eve

7 AM - Woke up late, and went out into the yard to work on weeding and planting strawberries that Grandpa gave us awhile back. I finally got around to filling up the planter I made, so hopefully those strawberries will flourish next year. Started laundry.

8 AM - Had breakfast of waffles and apples with the kids. Susan made coffee. It was a birthday request. Hung laundry on the clothes line, one of my favorite simple earth saving techniques.

9 AM - started listening to OPB's Weekend Edition Saturday and cleaning up a little. Began to pack for the trip to Raleigh, NC for the TRB Signal Systems Meeting.

10 AM - walked to the park with Abby and Wally. We're dog sitting. Planning to head to Kurt's to borrow his truck to pick up patio furniture at Paul's house.

11 AM - Had a snack and started blogging a bit to recall when I am 90 what I did as a younger man.

12 PM - Started getting the kids ready to head over to the Kruegers. It is amazing to consider how long it takes to get them ready sometimes. Kurt is going to help us pick up some patio furniture.

2 PM - Had a scary moment on the Sellwood Bridge, we were on it at the same time as a fire truck. The weight limit for the bridge is 10 Tons and it is rated with a structural integrity of 2 out of 100. The bridge shook as the fire truck moved across it. Yikes!

3 PM - enjoyed some time with the Kruegers and reflected that we need more time with friends.

4 PM - Went to New Seasons Market to prepare for dinner in the bakfiets. Had to take the bakfiets to haul the bottle return in.

5 PM - Dinner Prep. Always a chore to get the kids to help set the table, but at least we're not breaking things as much as we used to.

6 PM - What was your favorite part of the day? Kurt and Monicas! is what the kids say.

7 PM - Watch Stage 15 of the Tour de France. Hincapie almost gets the yellow jersey, it was a good stage. Grading midterms from the PSU class.

8 PM - Bed time and snuggles with the girls.

9 PM - Folding laundry and packing. Getting ready for my birthday flight.

11 PM - Leave for PDX

12:25 AM - Fly to Houston and then onto Raleigh, NC for the TRB meeting.

The Night Ride

In a day full of bicycling, we ended it with the Night Ride. The first part of the day was spent on a scavenger hunt put on by Pix Patissire on Bastille Day which was entitled a Gastronomical Tour of Portland. More on that later when I have the list of 30 things that we had to acquire for the event (know what epi is?, how about an absinthe spoon), yeah it was a little more difficult then we expected.
 
So we started and finished at Union Station in Downtown Portland. Last year there were more than 2,000 riders, I don't think they had that many this time, but it was a good time had by those that did participate. The route was a little sketchy because it took us on the Columbia Slough path which is not well lit at all and there were some rough patches on some of the routes along the way that made me question whether they wanted someone to flip over the handlebars like I did in 2004 on the ride. Not the best experience on a ride.
 
The ride did have a cool Filmed By Bike showing in North Portland at one of the parks, and they looped some of the tamer movies from past FBB shows together. One in particular was an animation short that looked like it was a stuffed doll and the 6-year old had a visit with a friend that could ride her bike and this 6-year old couldn't without training wheels. When the advanced riding friend helped take off the training wheels it made the timid girl not want to ride her bike for a long time. Sounds a bit familiar, although Abby rode her bike without any help for the first time last week. I got some video of that, which was really great to see. We haven't been worried about it and Susan and I were wondering if something just switched on in Abby related to physical activity, because she seems to be running a lot faster than I remember too.
 
So another successful ride on our season of bikes!

Tour de France - Lance Armstrong Returns

We're in Baltimore for the start of the Tour de France and I am taking advantage of the time change to enjoy the opening day Time Trial at 9:30 AM instead of 6:30! Lance Armstrong is on right now and cruising through the streets of Monaco. He's early in the field, so it is hard to know how he is doing, but it is fun to watch as he crosses the finish line.

The scenes from Monaco are impressive, it is one of the beautiful things of the TV coverage is the landscapes that you see from the helicopters.

I woke up this morning and went to Spoon Coffee Roasters, which I didn't know was on Cross Street in Federal Hill here. I visited to have an Espresso and a Latte and buy croissants in honor of the Tour.

He went at a pace of 46 km per hour, which is impressive for as technical as the course was and compared to what I can do! Yet, I have this sense that it won't be the best on this day.

One of the women I work with at Metro was headed over to France to watch a few of the stages. She's going to be at a point with her family where they can get to the end of a stage, the middle of a stage, and then the start of another, which sounds like fun. I'd like to do that in the future. I was talking Patrick McMahon about going to watch the World Cup in 2014 in Brazil.

On the National Mall

We drove down to DC on Friday to visit the National Mall. We took the Metro from the Rhode Island Station on the Red Line. It was a holiday, so we parked for free and took the quick ride into DC. I had a quick thought about the recent crash that occurred on the Red Line at Fort Totten that resulted in several deaths.

Abby wanted to see dinosaurs and animals, so we headed to the National Museum or Natural History. There was a special bonus because there was a special butterfly exhibit. The rotunda was an amazing spectacle and it was packed with people the day before the 4th as it was a special time in our nation's capital. There was a music festival going on and with a new president in the White House there was a buzz in the area on the day before Independence Day.



We enjoyed the National Mall and coerced the girls to walk almost two miles as we went towards the Washington Monument with the prospects of playing on the grass and rolling down the hill. The idea of going to visit the White House was very exciting for the girls as they wanted to go talk to Barack Obama and say hello.

We ended up making the turn from the White House north to K Street and we took the Circulator bus towards Union Station where we caught some dinner and then headed back to the car.

Entire Koonce Family Rides Subway

Washington DC - Family rides Metro from park and ride to Smithsonian Station. Big surprise, right? Wrong! We chose a park and ride that was not on the way into DC. It was strategically located to reduce Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) and give the kids a taste of the subway, introducing it by starting above ground.  
When we had to transfer lines, we recognized that we weren't in Kansas any more and there was quite a crush of riders when we finally got to the Smithsonian. Yes, we weren't the only folks planning to visit the Museums on the mall on the federal holiday.
 
This inconvenience did give me a chance to see the subway station work at maximum capacity and so I snapped a few photos to recall the fun we had (at least I had) on our visit to DC.
 

Baltimore Aquarium

If you visit Baltimore with kids, it is nearly a requirement to visit the Aquarium in downtown. Although in 2006 it won a Best of Baltimore award for "Best Overpriced Destination for Families" from Baltimore's City Paper. The aquarium has an annual attendance of 1.6 million to see its collection of 16,500 specimens of 560 different species. Particular attractions include the dolphin display, rooftop rainforest, and central ray pool, and multiple-story shark tank. The National Aquarium in Baltimore is only 15% as large as the Georgia Aquarium and just slightly bigger than the Tennessee Aquarium, which we visited a couple of years ago in Chatanooga with the Urbaniks.

The kids got a kick out of the dolphin show and enjoyed being splashed as a part of it.

The jellyfish were a hit with the kids and the Australia exhibit was very nice. This was a nice first day introduction to the vacation as it allowed the kids to ease into the time change very nicely.

Flying to Baltimore

Our flight to Baltimore for the 4th of July holiday was rather eventful. We left Portland just before noon and went through Houston because we were flying Continental, our favorite airline.
The girls were pretty excited about the trip and had been talking about going to Baltimore for a couple of days in advance. I am not entirely sure that Amelia knew the length of the trip when we started, but she did quite well on the first leg which was almost four hours. We got to Houston with a little time to get dinner and enjoy a leisurely ramble through the airport.

We got on the plane a little early and Amelia took a left turn into the cockpit. The pilot heard them and invited them to take the seat and fly us out to Baltimore. They got a kick out of that and it helped break up the trip.

One Pedalpalooza Ride that I wished I was on...

This must have been a fun ride. Meeting Seski, the Sasquatch and having him along the bicycle ride.

Multnomah County Bike Fair

We dropped the kids off with Grandma and Grandpa so we could attend the Multnomah County Bike Fair. This year was the first time, there was a kids tent but alas a mixture of overly progressive folks, with 12 kegs of beer on a hot day is probably not the best environment for kids.  
Patrick McMahon joined us and was brave enough to bring both kids, so I guess we missed out.  
The event was good overall except for the chicken jousting, where on the first heat we saw a participant (the one with a straw helmet on) go down with a skull fracture. This made the event seem misguided in the worst way, but the rest of the activities on the tennis courts were tame considering the crowd and some of the participants.
 
It was another excuse to bike around the City going on different routes, so all in all we enjoyed the unseasonably warm day in our fine City.
 

Sunday Parkways NoPo - 1st of 3 in 2009

I love Portland. The bike events in the summer can not be beat by any community. It used to be that there were a few here and there, now there are so many that you have to make tough choices.
We chose to do Sunday Parkways the day after Tour De Blast, which was a bit questionable, but Susan and I decided that it might be a good idea to get our legs moving again, so we didn't just bike from Dad's house in Overlook, we biked from Sellwood to the event stopping to pick up the folks for the ride.

We got a bit of a late start and it was fun to see so many people on the way there. We ran into Greg Raisman who works at the City and he wanted to show us the new park that's going in next to Beach School, part of my old stomping grounds.

We took it slow with the girls (Abby on the trail a bike and Mia in the Bakfiet), but still got to Pennisula Park to see the Sprockettes. Abby said she wanted to be a bike dancer and that one of the girls was dangerous because she was standing on an upside down bike.

We ate a quick bite to eat and then ran into some friends (Jamie and Annie Parks and Carl Sundstrom). It was good to see Carl and we kept bumping into him throughout the ride.

Susan remarked at how many people I ran into on the ride. I saw Ellen Vanderslice, Mia Birk, April Bertelsen, and a few others from the transportation world. Susan also spent a little time talking the our friends at the Bike Gallery, it's fun to hear her talk about her bike and how much she loves it. (That's the third birthday in a row we've bought her a bike... and she thinks I have too many :)

On the way home, I asked the girls to pose for a picture before we headed back home. It was a combination of my favorite things... my family, biking, and Portland. It's a wonderful world.

Tour De Blast

Susan and I did Tour De Blast with our neighbors Matt and Tina Farley. Tina's friend Chris and her Dad joined us. Little did we know that we would meet up with friends along the way as it was a popular ride with almost 1,700 people tackling the mountain. The ride goes from Toutle High School up State Route 504 (Spirit Lake Highway) towards the national monuments on Mt. St. Helens.

The Tour De Blast website has a video summarizing the pats of the course, I think this picture of Susan is of the bridge that they highlight in the first minute.

Tina Farley and Susan at Mile 20, pounding on the pedals and taking it to the road. It was a chilly morning for the ride. We started about 8:30 AM after leaving Portland about 6:45 AM. It was a nice drive up to Toutle and the miles in the car flew back because of my excitement about the ride. This was the longest either of us had attempted to ride and while we had been training pretty regularly, it was a lot of elevation.

Details on the event include:

• 87K (54-mile) round trip to Elk Rock. (we cruised by that!)

• 132K (82-mile) round trip to Johnston Ridge viewpoint.

RIDE PROFILE:
Mile 0: 500 ft. (Toutle - Starting Line)
Mile 11: 1,000 feet (Sediment Dam)
Mile 16: 1,400 feet (Hoffstadt Bluffs - Pit Stop)
Mile 24: 3,000 feet
Mile 27: 3,800 feet (Elk Rock - Pit Stop)
Mile 34: 3,159 feet (Coldwater Ridge - Closed)
Mile 41: 4,314 feet (Johnston Ridge - Pit Stop

We encountered Jen Bachman, a cohort from DKS Associates and Lynn Petersen, a Clackamas County Commissioner and Current Chair and a few others.

It was a fun time, except for the last 10 miles.... I don't think the training prepared us for the downhill tucks that we did. We were trying to get back to the kids who were staying at Mike and Sara's.
They had a big sleep over at their house, which was a fun event for them. They didn't nap during the day on Saturday, so while we were exhausted, they were too, which made for a fun evening. It was for the best, we all went to bed about and hour earlier than usual.

Urban Assault Ride

Yeah! I am a winner! I entered a contest for the Urban Assault Ride, which is a fun event put on by New Belgium Brewing. Neighbor Mike and I participated.
http://www.bikegallery.com/blog/2009/we-have-an-urban-assault-ride-haiku-contest-winner/

It was an event that combined a quiz at the start that gave clues about one secret checkpoint and required a multiple choice questionnaire that dictated your start time.

I have to admit, at the start I was pretty excited, not that I believed we could win, but there was this air of competition surrounding the kickoff that made it a fun experience. From Pionweer Square, we raced over the Hawthorne Bridge to Plan B (a bar that required a ring toss), with a quick stop at River City Bicycles, followed by a longer trip up to Whole Foods on NE Fremont (the first secret check point). The trip continued through Laurelhurst Park, Sunnyside School, Downtown Bike Gallery (the super secret spot), and finally Fat Tire Farm which is in NW Portland. When we completed that checkpoint, the guy said he hadn't seen many people with all their beads, so I thought we might have a shot at winning as we raced the three miles back to Pioneer Square for the big wheel/slip and slide finale. Alas, we should have chosen the opposite direction of travel hitting Fat Tire Farm first then Whole Foods, because we came in #5 in the men's category and 11th overall out of 120 teams.

All in all, a good event because we were drinking beers at 11 AM (weird!) in Pioneer Square and enjoying the early weather (it was mid 80s on the day!).

I will definitely do this next year.

Award winning kids!

Abby and Amelia are art producing juggernauts. Amelia won 3rd place after placing 2nd place in the last competition. In this piece, you can see howo she is perfecting the up and down stroke with short bursts throughout the page. The texture of the crayon speaks to her inner child and screams, I am a two year old, hear me roar! She respects the lines of the flowers petals, but not those of the leaves and focuss on the activity above grade and leaves the foundation of the flower to the initial artist. She was experimenting with different colors throughout the piece and worked to bring the entire work together with the purple in the flower face and the sun smile.

Abigail previously won the age 3 years and under category at New Seasons and recently won a second time, with a glitter inspired springtime piece that suggests that there are clouds on our way to this sunny and blooming future we see as we look past February. The glitter surrounding the New Seasons Market was inspired by her father's encouragement.

Do we have to claim the $10 gift card on our taxes?

Peter honored with an Oregon Stater Award

In an exciting personal achievement, I was awarded an Oregon Stater Award for Early Career Excellence. The Oregon Stater Awards have been around since 1998 and there have been about 400 awarded. This includes Civil, Constructuion, Environmental, Mechanical, Nuclear, and Industrial Engineering. Approximately a third of those are in the category of "Early Career", which is loosely defined as someone with less than 20 years. The other categories are more than 20 years, and Hall of Famer. Basically, there's one Civil in each category, so the University is selecting from about 1,400 engineers that could be awarded every year. So, it is quite an honor for me.
The visit to OSU included a tour of the new Kearney Hall, which was beautifully remodeled with donations from alumni like me.
It was a great dinner and the family joined me for a wonderful celebration at the Alumni Center. The kids needed a little time at Avery Park after I toured the "new" building, so we met downtown and then headed back to the Alumni Center for the dinner that night.

Here's what mom wrote to the family, excerpted from the program:

The Oregon State University College of Engineering introduced the Oregon Stater Awards in 1998 to honor outstanding Oregon Staters for their contributions to the engineering profession and OSU. Each year, on the Friday of National Engineers Week, the College inducts new Oregon Stater Awardees. Peter was inducted on February 20th, 2009 to the Council of Outstanding Early Career Engineers for Civil and Construction Engineering. Peter's citation read:

"After receiving a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at OSU, Peter Koonce attended graduate school at Texas A&M.
He has worked with the Texas Transportation Institute and is currently an associate engineer at Kittelson and Associates. Considered one of the nation's foremost authorities on bus and light rail transit signal priority, he has worked on transportation projects in areas such as Denver, South Florida, Baltimore, Portland, and Eugene. He has national visibility and credentials as a leader in transportation engineering and continues to develop the profession by providing training materials for various educational programs. Peter works with the OSU CE transportation faculty assisting in student field trips to Portland and continuing education programs offered on campus."

A Classic Weekend

This weekend is one of those that I can reflect back on and say with a certainty that there are several things that I enjoy doing. Today, I mixed in a little work with calling about donations for the Llewellyn School Auction. I visited the local bike shop, the library, the cleaners, and several local businesses in between to ask whether they would support the school.

I enjoy volunteering especially when it is for a good cause. It is also fun when I can use some of my strengths to improve what's been done in the past. I got off to a slow start on this task of connecting with folks that have made donations in the past. There were 11 people on the list and I knew some of the businesses, but for some of them asking for donations seemed a bit superficial to me because they aren't ones that I personally frequent. I guess at the core of my motivation is working with those that have similar values (it happens in my work too) to achieve a goal. Businesses that I frequent are those that should donate to my causes, since I help make them successful, or at least I do my part.

Since that start, I have identified a list of about 15 more that I am in the process of contacting. They're folks that I patronize on a regular basis or people that I know personally. The response has been really great. Some of the local folks include Garden State, the food cart at the end of our street, which I was suspect about a cart two blocks from our house, which doesn't quite get enough foot traffic in my estimation, but he does really good, because it is soooo tasty! Staccato Gelato also donated as did Peet's Coffee, so I am feeling pretty good about my these guys too.

Well, I had better get to bed, the Sunday is full of helping get people registered at the Worst Day of the Year Ride, which is a benefit for the Community Cycling Center. I have to leave home by 6 AM to get there, a little earlier than a work day!