The 27th Oyster Run in Anacortes (http://www.oysterrun.org) was Sunday September 28th. This is the largest motorcycle run in the northwest and there were thousands of motorcycles lining each side of the main street of Anacortes and a double row down the middle with room to ride a single bike each direction between the motorcycles. The weather was warm and sunny so even more motorcycles and people than usual turned out for this event.
Some people arrive on Friday and party for the weekend while most of the bikers arrive on Sunday, clogging up the freeways, and every major side road for miles in every direction. Parking is just about non existent for bikers and cages alike. You can drive around the block and around in circles trying to find a parking space.
The Mt. Baker Chapter HOG group volunteered to work the information booth at the Oyster Run. Larry and I had the 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM shift and we drove down in the big red truck which meant parking was going to be doubly hard for us, or so we thought. We found a spot big enough for the truck and it was only three blocks away from the information booth. Lucky! That is all it was, just plain luck.
When you work at the information booth, everyone comes to you, your friends, the lost, those looking for the ATM machine, questions like where are the oysters, and our favorite answer to the number one question was “one block down and to the right”. So what was the question? Where can I get an Oyster Run t-shirt or pin!
Now, it usually takes us about an hour to get to Anacortes but Sunday afternoon it took us 3 ½ hours to return home. Forty minutes just to go from downtown Anacortes to highway 20 to head out of town. It was bumper to bumper, cage to bike, bike to bike and no where to go. Bikes were overheating and pulling over to the side of the road and riders with cell phones in hand to call for help--although I’m not sure how anyone could reach them for hours with the traffic jammed up with people trying to get home. Traffic thinned out a little and moved slowly and steady until we were almost to Burlington when it came to a dead stop again. We took a side road no one seemed to care about and wound our way to the freeway and thought we had it made. Not so fast as saw the red taillights and make a quick decision to get off the freeway and head around Lake Samish. Even with this detour we still did not arrive home until 7:00 PM after leaving Anacortes at 3:30 PM.
At the Oyster Run, we had time to wander up and down the street, check out the bikes, order barbeque sandwiches and turkey legs, saw lots of our friends, and enjoyed being part of the Run. But, I think we may volunteer for an earlier shift next year--less traffic coming and going!!
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