Barb wasn't going to ride tandem

While visiting with an old friend recently I happened to mention my snowmobiles.

He took a step back, a shocked look on his face.

“You have a snowmobile?” he asked.

“Two, in fact,” I told him.

His surprise was understandable. When I lived in the mountains I was a cross-country skier, not a ‘biler, although the choice was more economical at the time than aesthetic. All I could afford were skis.

And I was once even censured by the paper I worked for after writing a column criticizing an effort to increase the number of snowmobiles allowed into Yellowstone National Park each winter.

Apparently I...