Those ducks love their bikes

A campus tour

The campus touring season is in full swing. By the time parents are preparing, er, I mean paying, for High School graduation and one final prom, it’s likely that they’ve visited quite a few college campuses, both near and far from home.

This story is not about motorbike travel. It’s about another kind of specialized mini-vacation of sorts — the college campus recon mission. In this case, it’s the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Apologies for straying from the usual subject matter for Dirt Riders’ Digest, but what the heck, the pictures are pretty — and there are the bicycles. Yep, those ducks appear to love their bikes. As one current student explained, “having a bike is, well I guess it’s pretty essential.” There are more bicycles parked on campus than I’ve ever seen in one place at one time. So, that’s the bit about two-wheeled transport, just to make this almost about motorbikes. And while in Eugene, there is a plan to visit the local BMW motorcycle dealer, so there is that.

But I digress. The UO campus is an interesting mix of old and new, but mostly new. The park-like atmosphere is heavily treed and very green. On an early spring day the smell of freshly mown grass is heady. It’s all very far from New Mexico in so many ways.

The tour’s focus is on the two most essential questions, where to sleep and what to eat. For parents whose college experience in now far in the past, it’s a jolt to remember just how small typical dorm rooms are. They seemed so much bigger back then, am I wrong? There does seem to be much more choice in dining, as well, so much more than beer and burgers — in fact there don’t seem to be any beer or burgers, oddly enough.

Anyway, the university’s student recreation facilities, student union, business complex, Knight library, and science complex are all very impressive. It really is a big, beautiful, and on a sunny day, busy campus.

For those of us who were in college when the movie Animal House was released, there is a final highlight. Johnson Hall, the UO administration building, doubled as the administration building for fabled Faber College in the movie, which was filmed largely at the University of Oregon. Ah, the memories of Bluto, D-Day and Flounder giving that White Stallion a heart attack in Dean Wermer’s office … but maybe that’s just me.

So it looks highly likely that there will soon be an Oregon Duck in the family. Call me obsessed, but I’m already trying to figure out routes to central Oregon that’ll make an interesting motorbike trip.