Motorcycle Santas

One Santa

 

Motorcycle toy run

Another Santa

  Judy has counted herself lucky in recent years to catch sight of hundreds of Harley-Davidson motorcycles roaring through town, carrying large stuffed animals.  Sometimes the bikes are decorated for Christmas, and often driven by a biker Santa.  They navigate en masse up our windy Pill Hill to the Shriners' Hospital, where the designated Santa gives the stuffed animals, along with a trailer truckload of donated new toys, to the young patients.  The bikers also raise thousands of dollars to buy braces, wheelchairs and
other medical equipment  for the kids.

All kinds

   

of bikers

 This year we decided to find the beginning of the toy run.  I found the least illegal parking place directly across from the parking lot where 2000 motorcycles were gathering.  I parked the wrong

Another kind of Portland biker

way in front of the driveway of a distributor of gluten-free soup.  We had about 45 minutes to stay there and photograph the cyclists as they rode in.  To my dismay, the driveway just behind us became the meeting place for the motorcycle cops who were to form the escort for the parade.  As one cop, then another, then three more pulled into position behind me, I got more and more nervous.  "Put your oxygen on," I urged Judy.  She just laughed and continued taking pictures.  She was having a fine time.   The police made sure not to notice us, but I was greatly relieved when they drove off to begin the parade.

Illegal parking