September 6 2015 – Sun and rain, 65 degrees

Miles Today: 21

Miles to Date: 6,507

States to Date: 23

Today marked the four-month anniversary of being on the road and I celebrated by reverting to my roots – I went to yoga! Aside from morning stretches and deep uphill breathing I haven’t practiced organized yoga since I left Cambridge.

My Portland warmshowers host invited me to his Sunday morning class, so we walked to YoYo Yoga and joined about 35 others for what might pass for church in this city. The teacher quoted inspirational verse and got us chanting before he put us through challenging vinyasa flows. My muscles are a lot tighter than they used to be and my one-legged balance is skew, but I did okay. Terri Cole, one of the owners, told me about their cross-country trip to practice yoga in 100 studios in 100 days. They’ve got a cool blog.

I cycled up Terwilliger Road in the Portland mist to the southwest part of town to talk with the director of the Cascades AIDS Project to talk about tomorrow. I returned along the Willamette River past downtown and out the industrial corridor. Portland is a much more industrial city than I anticipated.

I crossed the beautiful St. John’s Bridge to the remote St. John’s neighborhood. St. Johns feels like a separate place, which it once was. Portland annexed the town of casual streets, tall trees, vintage bungalows and tiny ranch houses. It’s authentically funky.

My Quaker warmshowers host moved here eight years ago because he liked the atmosphere. He pointed out the neighborhood’s merits on our walk into the commercial district for dinner, good beer and live music at Slim’s. On the way home we stopped at the Mexican grocery for a sweet and took a different route through this fascinating neighborhood.