Winter sucks.

I'm thankful for heated gear, warm base layers, balaclavas, and the occasional dry enough day to ride. Not that it happens much. I'm going stir crazy here. Going to the gym regularly helps but not enough.

Recently I had the idea that we (the boys) should take a spring road trip. My initial thought was to run Hwy 3 down to HWY 36 in Northern California. Then reality (my dad) said that HWY 3 will probably still be in bad shape in spring. He suggested that we instead to a run down to San Francisco for a photo op.

So that's the tentative plan. Looking forward to it. I could go to a shakedown day at T-Hill sometime this winter, but the logistics on that would suck.

The most riding I've done lately is two miles out to bike night.

Two lovely rider ladies playing with my bikes at my Solstice party.

For an enthusiast like me the Winter Solstice is a bigger deal than Christmas, New Years, and Thanksgiving combined. It means a turning point, more light in the day, and a countdown until the nice riding season is at hand. Although technically the 21st of December is the start of Winter, in the Pacific Northwest Winter really starts in Mid November. The 21st of December is the reminder that the sun god will return, as will MotoGP parties, Pre-Rides, TrackDays, Sport Touring, and minivans holding us up in the corners.

Corvallis Oregon is a unique place. It is the juxtaposition of the rural and agricultural roots of Oregon with the modern University town growing too fast for its own good. One quite unique facet of Corvallis is a parking ordinance dating to 1971 that prohibits motorcycles from parking in a normal automobile parking spot in downtown (which there were no available committee minutes to support the reasoning). Corvallis has a handful of motorcycle spots in the corners of downtown.

This ordinance is intermittently enforced and is not indicated with signs anywhere in downtown. This ordinance is also unique in that no other Oregon city has one. In summer of 2014 the parking enforcement lady ticketed my friend Paula. Paula happens to be politically active and a legislative director of BikePAC (political action committee) of Oregon.

Fast forward to January. Paula raised enough hell with the downtown subcommittee that they added an agenda item to review the ordinance at their next meeting. Paula used social media to make sure hundreds of motorcyclists in the Linn-Benton-Lane area knew about the ordinance and the meeting.

My pictures don't do it justice. There were 50+ bikes at the meeting. Ten of us (including me) gave comment during the public comment portion. Two community members asked the committee to keep the ban in place. The committee voted to recommend repealing the ban to the CC.