Pretty soon Marty and I will be married 25 years. How did we get here? I can honestly say the romance began on a motorcycle. Zooming around Marin County hills and feeling like it was Ireland. Fog, eucalyptus, and Dogtown, a heady mix back in 1987.
There were many miles of touring California once we got married. Delivering illustration jobs to Fed Ex on Harrison Street in San Francisco made deadlines more fun, as seen here in Marty’s work:
Then he surprised me with a gift certificate for a motorcycle safety class. At first I was slighted: you don’t like me as a passenger? Yet getting my own motorcycle license in San Francisco was a liberating achievement. We moved to Peaks Island a year later, where the speed limit is 20 mph and the ferry ticket prices for motorcycles changed our riding habits. Oh, and then we had a child. Motorcycling is not much of a family hobby. We began calling ourselves the Barnacle Family, rare to leave the Rock.
B is for Barnacle is by Michael Connor.
Yesterday it was time to take the bikes in for servicing, a 16,000 mile check-up. Yeah, that’s not a lot of miles in 22 years, since I began riding my GB Honda. Luck has seen some sunny rides, but yesterday’s was downright soggy. We rode to Two Points Lighthouse and jammed in with the other tourists at the Lobster Shack. Winslow Homer would have liked the waves crashing.
We rode back into Portland to dry out at Crema among locals.
Then over to Reynolds to drop off the bikes and buy new waterproof gear.
I am a complete fool for taxidermy. Especially bears, being a mountain girl.
We’re hoping for a sunny ride on Friday, when we return to retrieve our Hondas. Our next stop will be SPACE Gallery for the return of the Sketchbook Project. Zoom on over, 4 – 8 PM! Let my Moto Ood show you the way.
In the last few years, motorcycling has become a little more family. Here is Daisy’s uncut view, shot on a borrowed iPad, of our last ride of 2012. Be an Easy Rider HERE.
Visit JamieHogan.com
