Not actually our bike, it's a loaner, I hadn't built our tandem yet. From the era of Skid-Lids and Protecs ('80s).
Yes that's snow on the road.
This picture was taken by a Seattle Times photog, and appeared in the Sunday "color supplement", Pacific Magazine. The title of the article was "Bicycle Dementia". A little rude maybe, but factually accurate!
A moment later, Laurie took her hands off the bars too, but the photog didn't capture that one.