Scooters are back, be careful

They're back.
The Whizzers, the Vespas, the Cushmans, the mo-peds, whatever you want to call them, they are back.
And it's up to us as a community to shift gears in a couple of ways.
The first, obviously, is in terms of hospitality. We have guests in town. Even before the Vintage Motor Bike Club's annual gathering kicked off, there were something like 100 campers at the Jay County Fairgrounds.
And these aren't just any visitors.
They're pretty much family.
The VMBC has been gathering at Jay County for decades now, and the organization made a significant buy-in earlier this year with a generous pledge to help upgrade electrical service at the fairgrounds. On top of that, they're just pretty darned nice people. If you doubt us on that, ask Jay County's Ray Gabbard. He'll fill you in.
The second shifting of gears has to do with safety.
For the next several days, Portland's city streets and the county's rural roads will have an unusual amount of traffic in terms of motor scooters and motorbikes. They'll be doing poker runs. They'll be seeing the sights. And they'll just be out to have a good time.
For the rest of us, that means we have to pay more attention than usual.
If you're driving a car, the return of our VMBC friends means that you need to be more aware than ever. That's especially true at rural intersections after a wet spring has made it difficult for landowners to keep up with mowing. Visibility may be limited, so slow it down and take a second look.
It's always seemed a bit of serendipity that the Vintage Motor Bike Club chose Jay County as its touchstone each summer. We don't want to lose that magic. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]