Original Post Date: 4-14-2008
Saturday was, without question, the finest day of the year so far. Clear skies and warm temperatures made for perfect riding conditions. I woke early and, after rousting my son, headed South to Snohomish to meet up with the SCRC folks for breakfast.
Cruising down I-5 we enjoyed the sight of Mount Rainier and the Olympics. Passing through Arlingon we saw a pair of ultralights buzzing around. Just before reaching our destination at Harvey Airfield, two colorful hot air balloons launched into the morning sky. It seems that everyone was taking advantage of the great weather.
We arrived at The Buzz Inn at 8:30 and saw the first members of the group heading in to the restaurant. We followed and ordered our breakfast at the counter. We headed back into the restaurant to join the rest of the group only to find that they were seated in the bar. My son, not being of drinking age, was not permitted in that part of the restaurant. So we sat by ourselves in the main portion of the restaurant.
There was quite a turnout as rider after rider streamed in. I soon found out that, in addition to the SCRC group, an ABATE chapter was meeting at the restaurant and soon the place was full of bikers.
After finishing our breakfast, we went outside to look at the airplanes and maybe spot some skydivers (also out in force this morning). As we walked around and saw the parking lot it looked like a bike show with all of the machines glistening in the sun.
At 10:00, right on time, the group came out of the restaurant and started to form up behind Ride Captain Dave. We were third in line behind the Ride Captain and a rider named Curtis on a beautiful Indian. The day’s ride plan was North up to my backyard, the Skagit Valley, to see the tulips and then to LaConner. I did not get an exact count, but there were well over 20 bikes in the group.
We headed North on Highway 9 to a Chevron station in Arlington to pick up a couple more riders. After a 20 minute stop, we continued North. While looking at the map the night before, I thought the route might turn West on Highway 530 and go through Silvana and Stanwood on Pioneer Highway. Instead we continued North to Lake McMurray and picked up Highway 534 to Conway.
Not unexpectedly, for me at least, there was a fair amount of traffic on the roads near the tulips fields of the Skagit Valley. Although the Tulip Festival has, according to the calendar, been running since April 1, precious few tulips have bloomed due to the cool weather. Other than a few fields of yellow and white daffodils, the large fields of vibrant color were not to be found. Nonetheless the tourists were out en masse. If you are thinking about visiting be sure to check out the Bloom Map to see where the color is.
We stopped at Roozengarde, perhaps the most famous of the tulip gardens, and I was immediately reminded why, as a local, I avoid the entire west side during the month of April. Hordes of people, some walking and some driving but none paying any attention to either. We were directed into a bark-covered parking lot and herded to a “motorcycle parking area” in the rear. The ground was soft and sidestands tended to sink into the ground. Poking around between a couple of tulip trucks I found a couple of milk crates full of one foot square pieces of 3/4 inch plywood. I have no idea if they were there for our use but I grabbed several and passed them around for folks to use under their sidestands.
By now it was downright warm and coats and chaps began to come off. The group agreed to meet back at the edge of a daffodil field at 1:00 for a group photo. That gave an hour to explore the fields and the garden across the street (admission required.) My son and I took a lap of the daffodil field and walked the roadside tulip bed up to the point where we would have to pay admission to see any further. I like tulips as much as the next person, but I did not feel compelled to pay to see any more. Plus, my son was getting restless.
We headed back to the bikes thinking we would bug out for home. I knew we were pretty much sandwiched in and might not be able to get the bike out until others left. As we walked back across the daffodil field we witnessed some idiot arguing with one of the traffic control people. The worker was a kid, perhaps 17 or eighteen and likely a Roozen family member or friend. He was trying to get this moron out of the road before he got run down by an inattentive driver. This guy shouted the kid down, screaming something about giving him “a ticket.” What an a**. The kid was just doing his job trying to protect people from their own stupidity.
At that point I’d had enough and so had my son. I saw three motorcycles leaving and was pretty sure that I recognized them not from our group but as the ones that had been parked in front of us. Sure enough, when we got back to the bike we had a clear path out of the parking area. We had to “off road” across the soft bark but eventually made it back to road. As soon as I could I cracked the throttle and put that madness behind us.
We got home in plenty of time for my son to go to the Mariner game (they won.) I stayed home and washed the bike. After polishing everything up it was still warm and there was some daylight left so I took a little ride to enjoy the evening.
This was definitely a great riding day and I can only hope that we will have many more like it to come. Of course, as I write this on Sunday morning, the skies are cloudy and gray and rain is in the forecast again. Perhaps I should not have washed the bike; I may have jinxed it.
