Today, according to Dylan, we witnessed the quintessential American experience, which I think is a little unfair on America. The incident didn’t happen until later, but the Americaness of a morning tea of donuts is unarguably very American. The lines outside Voodoo Donuts were rather perplexing to us, and we had avoided it until now, but there is a store just out of town which is comparatively empty. We swung our bikes in and were overwhelmed with the pinkness of it all, from ceilings down to boxes. We bypassed the signature “cock and balls” and “bacon maple bar” for a Voodoo doll and an Oreo doughnut. They were just donuts, yummy of course, but no BlueStar. Box checked we headed downtown and back up that hill to the Japanese Garden.

The cherry blossom petals were falling like snow on moss lawns and with bamboo water features setting the mood we felt very relaxed. All which was to be undone as we made our way down the hill for the Experience. As we reached the bottom of the descent the cop car in front of us suddenly went into action mode screeching across the intersection to join another, door flung wide as shields where the policemen crouched with guns drawn. We starred dumb, a man was standing before them just across the street from us, a bulge in his pockets. As he stood there shaking his head in the negative to the cops demands for him to put his hands up, we quickly scooted to a safe distance. There were a whole bunch of schoolkids laughing and taking photos with their eye phones, we couldn’t believe they saw this as entertainment. Two more police cars screamed in as pepperspray was shot at the aggressor’s feet. Then before we had a second think bang bang bang, the man barely flinched so we hoped they were just rubber bullets, then ban bang bang, he finally, but excruciatingly slowly, folded himself to the ground. A fire engine and ambulance joined the melee. He was strapped in and wheeled away. We were relieved the scene hadn’t ended in tragedy, we had to credit the Portland police for waiting until backup with non lethal weapons arrived.

We wheeled our bikes for several blocks before we even thought to get back on, it had been surreal and we were grateful of our gun laws back home where you can only own a gun if you have a genuine reason. It had been surprising to see such an event happen in Portland where we had met the most people disgusted with their countries gun laws. Later when we met up with Lonnie again we looked up the incident and discovered the man was indeed shot with a beanbag gun and was hospitalised more for mental illness than injury. It turns out he had a homemade fake gun in his pocket and police were alerted to the seen because he had been punching cars, as Lonnie said something that is not acceptable in the USA, where car is king. Not too long ago a whole bunch of hospitals for the mentally ill had been shut in Portland and it really had worsened a homeless problem that was already dire. Once again we thought fondly of our home where the government and charities support those at risk. Australia’s not perfect, but at least the majority of people we speak to there don’t say they need a gun to protect them from their own government. A more disturbing fact 50% pf the people we have spoken to actually believe that their government not only knew about 9/11, but orchestrated it. How could you live somewhere where you believed your government could do such a thing?

Lonnie helped us remember the greatness of America, showing us more hospitality. Driving us to an amazing Thai/Vietnamese restaurant, a whiskey bar and then to watch a blues band play.