Thursday, June 16, 2011

Americade 2011

 Americade 2011 was once again a fun event to attend.
Temps cruised into the high eighties and nineties.

Despite the great weather there seemed to be fewer numbers as demonstrated by the absence of long wait times at the Sierra electronics booth at Tour Expo.

Later, speaking to one of the Americade administrators, he told us the numbers were down by single digits for a second year in a row..
I'm of the opinion, the thinner crowds were a reflection of the continuing sagging American economy...
Strangely enough Warrensburg, a town six miles away, seemed busier than ever with even more vendors ("cling-on's").

The move from Roaring Brook Ranch to Fort William Henry downtown Lake George was generally accepted as a good move. The hotel was a classy setting with fantastic vistas of Lake George.

Our group was lucky this year winning several prizes...
Kim won a Tourmaster jacket at the Thurs night Tourmaster dinner, this after having bought two Olympia jackets earlier in the week. Don Stoodley won a riding jacket which Heather quickly redeemed at TourExpo. One member of our group, Dave Holden, actually won one of the grand prizes, a Bushtec motorcycle trailer of his choice!!!

He left Sat without knowing so I called him on the phone while enroute home but he refused to believe me, "You're shitting me!" were his exact words, until he got home and retrieved the winning
notification message on his phone!!

Early Fri morning - 7am to be exact -  met up with Andy Delivron, an Americade photographer who frequents the Americade message boards. Believe it or not this was arranged by Bill Dutcher - the head honcho of Americade - the night before. We had introduced ourselves at the Tourmaster presentation and Bill said it was long overdue to have pictures of campers at Americade and promptly arranged to have a photographer take pictures of our group at Battleground State Park.

Pick a puppy
Got to speaking with an affable Andy and before I knew it he offered to escort us to Crown Pt crossing on our way to Vermont. The ride was great and I made sure to log the route to secure several great roads incl a breathtaking overlook.


Never had any intention of buying much stuff this year but did purchase his and hers Olympia Air Glide 3 jackets (love em), EC ground block, Canadian flag, 2 new JM headsets, gloves and Signal Dynamics
Wig Wag brake modulator for the Wing


Can't wait to give my new purchases a thorough workout for the 2011 riding season

Fred (aka Derf)