I was taking a look back at our business journal of activity over the “slow” winter months and it reminded me that we still had events to participate in almost every day. The first week in December was full of Bicycle Business League meetings, Car Free Happy Hours, Willamette Pedestrian Coalition socials, Axles of Evil Bike Polo, and even the annual Bike Craft Fair. Before the halfway point of the month, we had a Christmas lights ride, Marketing workshops, and attended the Travel Portland Open House. We had the first ever Trans Con PDX meeting, and saw “The Metal Cowboy” present his new book at River City Bikes. More Holiday Parties, and Tall Bike rides, polo games, and BBL meetings rounded out the month before heading home for the Holidays.

January Started out just as busy with a New Years Day ride with the Bicycle Transportation Alliance – BTA. We explored the new Bike Boulevard on Spokane St. in Sellwood and took the lane on the Sellwood Bridge. I  started organizing for our Rain Garden Class that we are co-hosting with Sustainable Site Specialist Maria Cahill. For More Information and to register: http://www.greengirlpdx.com/rg201.htm

I also started meeting with the Portland Farmers Market about our “Farm to Fork” ride planned for September 2010. This is also a project with Portland Community College, and I will be hosting a few tours for the Summer Catalog. I was invited to be in a Nutcase Helmets photo shoot and they gave me a free helmet for my time. Not to shabby. I finally got the new Bike Tour Fliers that I ordered two months ago (still looking for a reliable printer in this town ) and helped my friend Ben with his bike move. A group of 20 of us used trailers and cargo bikes to move all his possessions across town to his new house without any fossil fuel.   I attended the annual Portland Traffic Safety Convergence and we talked about solutions to problems in out transportation infrastructure. Lots of pedestrian issues to improve if you ask me. Next I visited the monthly Volunteer Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting and sat in on presentations from the Bureau of Transportation on the Bicycle Master Plan update for 2030. Still some bike rentals and BBL meetings, and a presentation from National Geographic on the new Geo Travel NW map. This is a beautiful resource that was made possible from Travel Oregon and other partners.

I was invited as a guest to attend on of Portland’s Sustainable Un-Conferences and it definitely made me think about all kinds of stuff. The model is that the participants get to choose to lead small break out groups on any topic they want. Four or so topics are chosen by popularity of a sign up sheet and the groups move to separate and start discussion. Participants can change or update a group anytime they want. Naturally I did a talk on the Bicycle Business League, but then moved on to visit other groups and their topics. Thanks to GreenPosting.org for the guest pass. I finished out the Month with freelance guiding xc ski trips for a company called NW Discoveries and parties for the former BTA Executive Director. Still hitting up the late night bike club rides and participating in the occasional ZooBomb. We hosted a sign making party at the Pedalworks shop for the upcoming Bicycle Master Plan Rally that was held on Feb 4th.  Oh, Man… We had our first annual  Tweed Ride and I had a blast. I took the Penny Farthing out to show it off, but the start location was surrounded by train tracks, so it made things a bit difficult. I like to ride that crazy bike, but could not keep up with the group – so I switched out to rock the leather single speed- “Patina”