One Fine Day
THIS LAST WEEK I’VE BEEN RIDING MY BIKE A LOT. Well, two times in a week is still two times more than it has been.
On Saturday, we took a ride to a place called Pine State Biscuits. All I knew was that it is located on the East side of the river and they put together a mean fried chicken sandwich. We decided to ride our bikes the 56 blocks for me to try this sandwich out. Drew was relentless about how tasty this sandwich was, I had to see for myself what all the jabber was about.
The ride itself was beautiful: golden leaves had fallen on the small neighborhood streets, a cat lingered on one of the porches enjoying the mid-day sun, and the streets we took had more cyclists than cars on them. Not to mention we took the Waterfront Park-Eastbank Esplanade route, which is my favorite, especially on a sunny day. Once we arrived, Drew was preparing me for the line that would extend halfway down the adjoining block, and to both our surprise… there were 5 people in line. At this point I told him if there was only 5 people in line it probably wasn’t gonna be as great as he made it out to be, but I was still up for it. As I read the menu two items stuck out to me, first was the Sweet Tea (I am a sucker for sweet tea, I mean I was born in Oklahoma, wasn’t I?)…
…and then I saw “The Reggie”. It read something like this: “fried chicken, fried bacon, tilamook cheddar cheese, all covered in sausage gravy and stuffed inside a homemade flaky biscuit”. At this point I thought to myself, Man that sounds really delicious. I do love sausage gravy. My eyes wandered down a tad bit further and read “The Reggie Deluxe”, all that other goodness topped with a fried egg! My mouth began to water as Drew began the order. “We’ll take two.”
As I sat down at the table with my quart-size Mason jar of sweet tea and two good lookin’ boys, I knew that this was going to be a good lunch. When I opened the box that held my future 5 lbs, I hoped that it would be as wonderful as it sounded. I would like to state here that it was everything I ever hoped from a sandwich and more. When I saw the masterpiece that stretched a good 7 inches high, I thought to myself “it will take at least another 56 blocks for me to recover from this.” Every bite was as good as the first. Eoghan enjoyed a half portion of Drew’s Reggie, I swear he could’ve finished one on his own if we’d let him.
On our return trip home we went South along the East bank of the Willamette River. We started to pass the places we had seen before and emerged into a place that was brand new to our eyes. We rode down a trail that many had gone before, but to us it was all new and amazing. The city started to disappear and the trees took over the land. The path was set next to railroad tracks and blackberry brambles. Runners and cyclists were racing down the trail and families were enjoying the day together. From where we rode you could see the islands, the foot trails and the kayakers that floated steadily on the river. Honestly it was one of the best days that I have had since living in Portland. We rode through a wildlife refuge before turning around to head for home, through the Esplanade, over the Steel Bridge, across Downtown Portland to our safe abode, the sun shining on us the whole way. [cortnie]
Check out a “Photosynth” (interactive panorama) from where we took these photos near the bridge.
I WANT TO GO ON THAT RIDE!!! SANDWICH AND ALL!!!!!! sorry, didnt mean to yell…