As soon as we got there, Andrea took us to see this. The Brewcycle. It’s this giant bike that seats 15 people. You sit at the bar and pedal. They go on tours and go from pub to pub on this. It’s awesome. Andrea and Charlie just started up the business, and what better place to do it than in Portland! If you are out in Portland, or know someone who is, tell them to check out BrewcyclePortland.com. It’s definitely something worth experiencing.
That night we had a show just outside of Portland at Maher’s Pub in Lake Oswego. It was a cool place. They had outdoor seating in the front, the inside bar, and then a back patio with a kitchen and grill outside and a stage in the corner. We played out back and it was good, especially the last song. We ended with Leave the Light On, and it was just the perfect ending.
Mark loves when the places that we stay have animals. This is Murdoch. Andrea and Charlie’s cat. She’s a bit of a spaz, but they had a good time playing together.
We decided to go out for breakfast to start out the next day. Andrea found some place online and just as we got outside to start our walk we saw this sidewalk chalk drawing. As soon as Mark and I saw the “JoJo” we looked at each other and laughed, because he calls me that from time to time. I guess the chalk artist must’ve thought his name was Sher Bear.
Breakfast was fantastic! Andrea and Charlie both had these giant omelets and Mark and I each had homemade banana bread French toast. So good!
Then we each spent the afternoon doing what we needed to do. Andrea and Charlie doing Brewcycle stuff, Mark went for a long run around Portland, while I worked on editing the vlog.
This is the view from their apartment. It has this garden atmosphere and then fake grass and a fake fire hydrant for people to bring their dogs to. No joke. It’s a really pet-friendly apartment building.
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We had another show that night, this time in downtown Portland at a place called PINTS. It’s a coffeehouse by day and a taproom by night.
Cory, the bartender, hand picks each of the beers that they have on tap and it’s constantly changing. This is what they had on tap the night we were there. You should check one or two of them out.
As we were setting up, we were totally surprised to see a familiar face that we weren’t expecting to see. This is Emily. She used to live in Madison, but recently moved out to Portland for work. A mutual friend of ours had told us before we left, but we forgot that tidbit of information along the way. So when Emily came through the door, we were really glad to see her.
We were also surprised by these two, David and Grace. They had seen us out at Maher’s Pub the night before and we let them know that we would be playing in Portland the next night, and they said they wanted to come down. We were taken by surprise when they came down the next night. It was awesome. Really encouraging that they enjoyed it so much that they came out for a second night. Very cool.
Mark and I had a pretty interesting experience that night. We had the guitar case set up in front of us as a tip jar. We typically throw in a $1 and a $5 to start off the case. This lady came in from out on the streets when we were doing our medley. She said she heard us from blocks down and loved it. She danced around a bit, gave us hugs, and told us that we should have went on American Idol.
She stuck around for a couple songs. Mark was doing one by himself while I was sitting at the bar. I noticed her hanging by the guitar case. She was putting some coins in, but I noticed her grab a bill out of the case. No one else caught it. She came over by the bar and talked with my friends and I for a little bit, and I asked her what she took out of the case. She told me that she just made change. I didn’t trust her, but before I could do anything else Mark called me back up to sing the next song with him. I glanced at the case as I sat down, and sure enough the $1 bill was still in the case, but the $5 bill that we had put in was gone.
I sang the song with Mark, but I was completely distracted. As soon as we finished she gave us more accolades and then walked out. I couldn’t just sit and not do anything. I jumped up out of my seat, Mark asked what I was doing and I followed her outside a few feet. We were about 20 feet from the bar when I caught up with her and confronted her. I told her I knew she took $5 out of our case, that this was what we did to make a living. I wanted to give her another chance to be real and ‘fess up. She just couldn’t do it. She said that she took one dollar out to make change and handed me the dollar and quick walked away.
Man, it really messed with my mind the rest of the night. I’ve seen homelessness, poverty, and I bet she is living a pretty tough life. I can understand why she would steal from us, but it doesn’t make it right. And it makes it worse that she had two opportunities to rectify her actions.
Five dollars isn’t going to kill us. But was that whole situation worth five dollars? She knows that we know what she did. I would have been really angry at myself if I hadn’t said anything and just sat by. I can’t help but wonder if she went off and was angry with herself for doing what she did and denying it, or if that didn’t phase her at all. I don’t know. Won’t know. But the scenario affected me. I know the story was lengthy, but I needed to write out my thoughts about it. Hope you don’t mind.
The next morning we decided to get breakfast again before hitting the road. We called up Emily and had her meet us, and the five of us all had a nice breakfast together.
I ordered the short stack of blueberry pancakes. The pancake was as big as the plate. It was huge. I could only eat one. It was great having some time to hang out with friends before leaving for the ocean.
Portland, you were good to us. Friends, you were even better to us. I wasn’t quite ready to leave, but that’s how the story goes.
Until next time,
Jordan
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