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Here I am in Ottawa, all set to go, on my classic BMW, a 1972 R75/5. Lucky for me the convention was just after the /5 Rally in Seneca Rocks WV, and in the same direction. So my trip was well planned right from the start. |
The
ride down was an adventure in its own. Soon, I'll have a webpage
describing that event, but suffice it to say I ran into plenty of rain
between West Virginia and Tennessee. There were some record cold
temperatures being set in North Carolina. I couldn't believe I was
shivering from the cold while riding - imagine that in July in North Carolina!
Finally arrived at the parking lot in good timing, and trading was already
well underway. I did very well by unloading at least half my tradestock.
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Dave Lincoln's Table |
Rich Dragon sorting his tradestock |
Eric Tanner |
Halfprice feeding frenzy |
Fred Agree |
Scott Mitchel, myself and Billy Moore |
All Cuban Collectors from Miami |
Dave Kuehn |
Jon Upton, Billy Moore, Myself and Scott Mitchell in front of Billy Moore's highly reflective Virginia Special Graphic Display |
Impressive display of early and state-shaped Tenn. cycles |
Apron of first issue #1 plates |
Joe Chris Sullivans's LSU toppers |
Close-up of that Tigerrific Tag Topper! |
Rare Japanese plate from Kanze's collection |
The donation auction takes
place on Friday evening, and it is intended to be a fund raiser for the
club. The attending members donate plates they do not wish to bring
home with them, to help the club. In addition, Rich Dragon writes
all the DMVs across North American asking for plates to be donated.
The response is quite good, with some states contributing quite generously.
Mike MacEnaney and Eric Tanner |
Yourga destroys a plate! |
 
There are display awards for members - young and old alike |
The members who come from overseas are presented with a special certificate. |
I helped Steve Raiche, our awards chairman design the template for the Chattanooga award. From this template, awards in porcelain were fired. 2nd place awards were similar except motorcycle sized. |
The Shea award - Best of Show |
The Long Island Award |
made it this far. |
As much as the ride down
was an adventure, that goes double for the ride back. My trip home
was anything but smooth. Taking a curve too fast, I managed to wipe
out, tumbling off the road just outside of Chattanooga - I knew getting
home after this point was not going to be easy! Fortunately I was
not too badly hurt, only a sprained left leg leaving me with a limp.
I could not say the same for my motorcycle however! It law upside
down in a mess, with the headlight busted and valve cover broken.
The towing charges were very expensive, and then where on earth do I get
it fixed? I didn't like the idea of having the bike trucked home
all the way to Ottawa.
Given the weekend to assess my situation, I was lucky to find a local BMW dealer that was more of a hobbyist so he had time on Monday to look at my bike right away. So with some makeshift repairs enough to get me home, I was back on the road the same day. That wasn't the end of my trouble however. Because the headlight was taped up, it wasn't exactly waterproof. I discovered this in Paris, KY where I was caught in a torrential downpour. Water got into the headlight, messing up the electricals. The bike would mis-fire and I got stuck half-way up the hill in downtown Paris. It was fed up, frustrated and decided to call it a day. The next day I drained the headlight, taped it up and I was once more good to go. After encountering an electrical short in the headlight in Ohio causing things to smoke before I yanked out the headlight; I prayed for no more mishaps before I got to Grandma's farm just outside of Windsor. I needed to get there before dark of course, and I barely made it! I fixed the headlight's electrical short problem. Will anything else go wrong before I get back home to Ottawa? The bike did get me home, finally, but what a trip!
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Page created Aug. 5, 2001.
(Yes, that's over 2 years after this event!)