Bicycling around Eugene and visiting Bike Friday

On our last day in Eugene, our plan was to ride over to the Bike Friday factory/showroom in town to order a new stem for my ten-year old Pocket Crusoe folding bike.  We didn't get a sunny, beautiful day for it, but we did have a fun day and ride nonetheless.

On the way there, we donated a few paperbacks at one of the few Little Free Libraries in town.  In the spirit of constant downsizing and simplification, I donated four and only took one!

Here's a fun mural we saw celebrating biking in all its forms on the way to Bike Friday.

And we're here!  We've always hoped to visit after ordering our Pocket Crusoes in 2004.  Only took us ten years to get here.  

The showroom provides lots of colorful Bike Friday models to drool over.

Love this new model -- the Haul-a-Day.  Looks like you could haul a lot of groceries home on this one.  

I loved the colors of all of these.

After having a test stem installed, I am giving it a try on the Fern Ridge bike path.

We saw this very tame fellow along the path. Since I read that muskrats live near water, good chance this is what it is.  I also read that they smell bad, but fortunately I didn't get close enough to smell him.  Note the pretty duck hiding in the grass behind as well.

This pretty community garden was alongside the path.  It was nice to see some color on such a dreary day.

Check out this beautiful kale and zinnia art!

After returning the test stem to the good folks at Bike Friday, we wanted to get some more miles in, so we pedaled over to the Ruth Bascom Riverbank Path.  This trail system runs along both sides of the Willamette and through numerous parks.  

We also rode right by the Owen Rose Garden, which was gorgeous!  I had to get a closer look at my favorites.  Some of them were old-fashioned roses that still had an intoxicating aroma, unlike some of the newer odorless hybrids.

We rode across this cool suspension ped/bike bridge over the river on our way back.

On the way back to the motel, we spied this cool mural on the side of a building.  Looks like you could just walk right into that street scene, doesn't it?

And here we are, back at The Timbers, after seeing quite a bit more of Eugene.  The skies stayed gray all day, but the temperature did warm up enough for shorts and short sleeves by afternoon, and it never rained, so we can't complain.  And we accomplished two errands (library and Bike Friday), which is a lot for us in a single day!

Stay tuned:  Gorgeous Crater Lake is up next!