Food Van City

As much as we like a beer as the next person, we never touched the six-pack.

   Our way into Portland took us to a central park for a brief stretch of the legs and some lunch. After a convenient offer of accommodation earlier, we were able to leave the van at a residence and catch a bus into town. Riding public transport brought back instant memories, that and the fact that the moment we stood at the bus stop waiting, another prospecting passenger engaged us. A brief hello turns into a question of background, our new friend could only be described as 'The Lady in White'. Long grey hair, white flowing top became what could have been a white pant/single cotton suit. Almost ethereal if it weren't for a brown paper bag she held closely and a nervous look over her left shoulder when a car would pass. This lady enjoyed New Zealand films, so we had that in common. While we continued to converse on the bus, three other passengers joined our group, we spoke through New Zealand films, some Australian, the Great Barrier Reef and lastly, 'Yes, we do say Mate.'
   Portland was a pleasant city, an italian festival organised for us was a special treat. They also had a regular Sunday market with plenty of nick-nacks. We wondered about the city's serving of food licences as they had a plethora of food van parking lots and vacant land with caravans selling an array of cultural food's. From thai, italian, greek, chinese, indian and american an option, we ended up settling for the scottish and chose fish and chips.
   After food we made our way through the town to Powell's Bookstore. A recommended venue of multiple floors and every book you could ever think you would never need. Just as we were about to enter the bookstore we were asked by a very nice gentleman if we had seen his six pack of beer that he had apparently left nearby earlier. While we told him sadly no, he didn't seem particularly convinced by our response. He explained again what he had done, he'd left a six pack of beer beneath these seats and now they were no longer there. We did agree with him the beer no longer was there, but we could not answer his riddle of where they had gone. We certainly had our hunches, most prominent the alcohol was coursing through his blood stream, but we didn't provide this suggestion. At this point he was stating we were liars and requesting some form of response to that. So we stood up and made ouselves appear a little larger to the drunken eye, then moved away while maintaining eye contact.
   Powell's bookstore was truly a delight and a worry. We could too easily spend months in there when our intention was to view the sights of where we were. So while we enjoyed walking between shelves, we opted to go back outside to the city we'd never been in before. While outside, we encountered our first Pokemon crowd. A large gathering of individuals staring intently at their mobile phones. At first we weren't sure what was going on, so we walked through trying not to bump the zombies. They were all trying to catch certain creatures of a mobile computer game. They seemed peaceful, and happy. Maybe they took the six pack.
   In the afternoon we caught another bus North of the CBD to a recommended street called Mississippi. A groovy strip with funky little bars and music venues, odd merchandise stores and a friendly crowd. We enjoyed walking and browsing before settling on an off street bar called 1905. We listened to a jazz band while eating pizza and having some drinks. This was definitely a city we could get used to. As we tired, we caught an Uber back to our van and knocked on the door of our friends, Milton and Niki. They were still up and about and we caught up over the day's events as well as planned some things to do in the morning.
   For the first time in nearly two weeks we settled in to a bed that wasn't our van. We felt a little strange like we were cheating on our Big Bird, but that passed in seconds as our heads hit the pillows and we were deep asleep.
In the morning we felt spoilt by having another shower, convinced that having so many showers in such few days meant we could go at least four weeks until our next one.
     Another first for a very long time, in the morning we actually did separate things. Jamie stayed at home with Niki while Ian walked the dog with Milton. That too felt a little strange as we literally had not left each others side for over three weeks.
   A local market in the mid morning meant a re-supply and we gave our very sad farewell to two incredible people we are so very humbled and thankful for meeting. They will always have a place to call into if they choose to make it out to Australia. We say a very big thank you to Niki and Milt.