Lost highway

I told everyone that I didn't need a car in Portland. I'd spent nearly 9 years walking my groceries home, why would I suddenly need a car to take home my two bags' worth of groceries?

Yesterday, I walked the mile or so to the new Whole Foods in Bayside. The walk itself wasn't so hard, but Portland is much more hilly (hillier?) than New York, so that was a bit of a challenge. Factor in the lack of sidewalks along some of the major streets, and I understood why it isn't just distance that can make a walk difficult. Going downhill on the snow-covered no-man's land along the side of the Franklin Arterial and through the massive parking lot of the looming, freestanding Whole Foods isn't exactly the same thing as walking along the sidewalks of the Lower East Side to Earth Matters to pick up some soy milk and cereal. And with my wonderful sense of direction, I of course made a wrong turn, and ended up walking through the "projects," which in Portland look like some ski chalets I stayed in on a family skiing trip to New Hampshire when I was in 7th grade. I'm sure I looked like a nut walking down the front sidewalk of someone's home, only to end up on the side of Marginal Way, which is basically the frontage road for I-295. Ever wonder who those weirdos are who walk along the shoulder of a frontage road? Now you know! They're people new to a city with a bad sense of direction, like me! Nothing like walking along the highway and through a parking lot to get some groceries to remind you that you're not in New York anymore.