Portland - vegan Mecca and most strip clubs per capita!

We arrived at Agi & Eugene's place and got a warm welcome. Eugene allowed us to stay in the flat of his parents. Wow – this was really really kind of you! Thanks a lot!

It got even better since the flat was rather central and plenty of vegan places, restaurant etc. nearby ... Portland – the vegan Mecca was calling us :D

Agi and Eugene led us to this place on our first night together. Heavenly!

Bingo!

Those were sooo delicious! And we got all the tasting samples for free plus some choco-pretzels.

The weather was most of the time very warm and we could walk around in shorts and T-shirts. A nice change compared to the rather chilly past few days. When we had a few chilly and rainy days in Portland it did not ruin our mood.

View from the apartment.

Evening walk along the river and the moon was shining bright.

Fascinating moon over Portland skyline.

Wolfi made a vegan cake - kind of "Marmorkuchen".

We did not have any hard agenda for Portland. Bike maintenance was all done and no required visits to a doc and/or vet. The only real issue was where we will stay during winter as our permission to stay in the US expired soon. It became quite a story so that I will post the background and the options separately.

In the meantime Agi got me hooked up with See See Motor Coffee and I was able to give a presentation and tell a few stories. I love telling stories so I was happy. We also hoped to raise some money for our journey. Even with this short notice we were able to get a bit over 10 people interested to watch the video I made and listen to me. It was really fun for me ... and I came to realize during the preparation how much we already have been through and also that we are “only” about 1/3 into the journey.

The audience liked our stories and they had a lot of questions. I also told a little bit about veganism and how easy it is to be cruelty-free on the road though I am not sure how much that was received. That was nice ... much better this way then to have no questions at all. I took some learning's for the next time ... I hope it would get even better then ;)

Great coffee (I loved their soya latte) and an interesting helmet collection.

Dillon - the manager of the coffee shop - sponsored me with a bag of their house brand coffee -Stumptown- really tasty stuff! Agi & Eugene invited us after the session to have dinner at the Dove Vivi for some vegan pizza ... oh I loved it ... really good. Thank you guys! You were sooo kind :) (BEAR HUG to you).

Another thing to re-think was what we do about camping and our gear. We have been freezing too much and something must change if we wanted to continue camping in order to keep our budget. Then on that Sunday morning I was able to lure Skippy into REI to check out my future sleeping bag. Once in the shop, we checked other ones for her and we got lucky. They had one where Skippy felt more comfortable and which had a much better temperature rating than her old one. Now the job was once more to find out a way to get them as cheap as possible.

The view from our living room: Mount St. Helens Volcano.

Neighbors got ready to observe the ongoing fashion show (Biggest on west coast).

All the sudden there were those noises at the window, girls went all ape and barked as much as they could ... window cleaning was coming :D

Police on horses - folks how about bicycles? More healthy for you, less stress for the animals and LESS SHIT ON THE STREET!

Skippy was able to arrange a photo shoot and "earn some money" in order to pay for her next tattoo. She could not resist as Portland is home to a vegan tattoo studio, just besides a vegan supermarket, a vegan cloth shop and a vegan bakery ... Portland was (better say is) a heaven for vegans :) So tattoo for Skippy, coffee and cake for me :D

Vegan mini mall at corner Stark and 12th.

The downside of shooting nude pictures in October was that Skippy was freezing her tail off and as a result she got a cold. That tattoo was paid dearly!

Portland is widely considered to have more strip clubs per capita than Las Vegas or San Francisco (source wikipedia) and why not to combine Striptease and veganism? Those were the thoughts of the owner of Casa Diablo (House of the devil) and of course we had to go in there :D

The Diablo burger was excellent, the nachos delicious and the girls were a delight for our eyes. We met one other lady (NO - she was a guest as well and not working there) ;) Cannot remember her name but she was from the UK, rode the TAT across US on a KLR650 and visited the local MC club. Hello to you!

Casa Diablo - VEGAN striptease club in Portland.

Boobs became bigger and more artificial after 8pm, so if you prefer natural ones go there earlier! ;)

We had a great time in Portland, were able to get our blog up-to-date, relaxed a lot and I am pretty sure we will visit there again.

Skippy made some delicious raw vegan food. Follow her on Facebook: Raw on the Road.

We had to vacate our apartment a few days earlier as planned, as the owners came back earlier, and I did not feel sorry at all. My road fever had been rising already!

Last evening with Agi at the Apex biker bar - 50+ beers on draft. I enjoyed a Weizenbock ... cheers!

Agi & Eugene with Agi's 650

But where were we going now? Mexico? Canada? Our first idea was to go to Mexico because it would be warm there and we could see a few things along the road. On the other hand, we might get "stuck" there for a few months if US immigrations did not believe our story and we would need to wait for our new stamp. Canada on the other hand was on our list for next year and Vancouver Island should be pretty much freeze- and snow free area. Skippy found a huge bonus. Victoria (south Vancouver Island) is home to several Wadokai Karate clubs. At least Skippy's winter and time spending was settled. Canada - here we come!

Skippy made a travelogue ... enjoy :)

~ Wolfi