Tuesday, February 19, 2008

A black sheep and the "cool" side of the corral

So last Saturday found me on my motorcycle.

It was a nice day and I just had to be on my motorcycle, so I picked a direction.

The direction that I picked was north.

So I went the back way on Scravel Hill to Jefferson and then north to Salem. (FYI, if you go this way, remember when you come up to the freeway, take the Enchanted Way road just before the freeway. Then you are not speeding along a freeway. When you do meet up with the freeway, there is this odd little sort of exit/merge thing that will allow to to get to Commercial Ave in Salem without actually getting onto the freeway. You cannot go south this way, however without actually getting on the freeway for a short mile.)

If you keep on Commercial and then turn left on the bridge to Dallas, you can turn off at Rickreal, and then go Corvallis.

It's a nice ride. There was a lot of motorcycle traffic before Salem, due to the fact that the roads were really not very well traveled.

After Salem, there was a lot of traffic and no motorcycle traffic.

The speed limit on the road from Salem to Corvallis was 55, but traffic really goes 65+. Probably why there was no motorcycle traffic.

The first time I was on the road, I was going from Corvallis to Salem, and was on my way to my 600 mile checkup for my motorcycle.

I had only 600 miles total experience with a motorcycle and really didn't want to be on the freeway just yet.

It turns out that I probably should have been on the freeway, because that road that day scared the crap out of me.

So anyhow, here is a map of my travels that day. There was a stop off in Corvallis for lunch at King Tin. Click here for the map.

Okay. Now, listen to this.

I get to work just before 8 to an usually an empty motorcycle parking area. It's a cool area that is enclosed with a railing, that makes it a kind of corral for motorcycles. It's also a bit further into the college than regular parking so motorcyclists get to park up closer than the others.

If I am running late then often there will be a motorcycle or two when I get there and I always park in the same place (I like predictable). The others will often be parked in the same places too, but we are scattered randomly around the corral.

When I return to my motorcycle at the end of the day, more than once, all the motorcycles are parked on the other side of the corral.

What am I, a red-headed stepchild?

Is my motorcycle the geek of the motorcycle world?


Look for yourself:


All the motorcycles are clearly on the OTHER side of the corral!

And then it hit me.

My side of the corral is the cool side of the corral.

See look for yourself, and drink in the coolness of the Rebel:



On the "cool" side of the corral, it goes Rebel, Rebel, Vulcan, Rebel.

The other side of the corral, had a Shadow and a sportbike (Sorry, not up on my sportbikes, so I don't know what kind it was.)

It's good to be me.

Ta!

Balisada

2 comments:

  1. Everyone is just scared of the Rebel! I mean, who knows what it is rebelling against? I bet if you asked, it'd say "What have you got?"

    I generally find that most things that can be explained by conspiracy can more easily be explained by stupidity or laziness. Is it easier to pull in to that other side of the corral?

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  2. I can say that my Rebel doesn't appear to have a social disease, so perhaps I haven't socialized it property and it's just a dork. :)

    The 'corral' is at the end of a line of college motor pool spaces.

    It's like they re designated 4 car spaces and the driving lane to be motorcycle parking.

    So getting in is really just mostly a straight shot, although there may be a slight offset to the right, so it could be that the left side is easier to park in.

    If you look at a larger version of first picture, you can see that on each side of the corral, there are paths leading into the college.

    The path at the top of the picture is a gradual slope and the path at the bottom ends in stairs.

    Although it's technically shorter to take the bottom path, I find that I tend to take the top path because it's gradual incline.

    Perhaps the others want to park as close as possible to the gradual path.

    So, yes, I would probably explain it by laziness in some way.

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