Motorcycle Sunday

Every August, sleepy Vashon comes alive with the rumble and roar of hundreds and hundreds of vintage and unusual motorcycles.  The Vintage Motorcycle Enthusiast club, or VME, holds their annual ride here, and if you get up early you're in for quite a treat.

This year, finally, I didn't forget.  I got up at 7:30, kissed my party-pooper family bye, and headed to the dock to capture the sight of a 300 foot ferry filled to the brim with hogs.  The crystal clear morning down at our farm on the south end of the island became mistier and mistier as I drove north, finally socked in completely at the dock.

I wasn't disappointed as I parked my car where it didn't belong and bought a long tall coffee from Wanda.  The dock was almost eery with fog and birds and near silence.  I couldn't help but shudder at the cool quiet solitude I knew was preceding an imminent deafening storm.

Soon enough, the boat was unveiled between the misty curtains of Puget Sound, and there they were - hundreds of hogs lined up to invade our peaceful rock.

I took photos then, almost getting hit in the process, then headed to town to witness the traditional line-up of these beauties down both sides of our main street.  Amazing.  Bikes from the 50s, from the 70s, experimental contraptions that almost never see the light of day, sidecars.  It's all there.  

Estimates preliminarily say over 3000 bikes drove onto Vashon that day.  A slam-dunk record by far.  I believe it.  It was hard to to capture and remains hard to describe...