ACMM Jennifer Butt is on an adventure of a lifetime. She and Abe left Halifax on their bikes in late September, with four months of free time and dreams of extraordinary adventures. From her FB comments and some of Abe's, it appears dreams are coming true. We're excited and proud to have you as a sister, Jen!
From Abe: I've had the privilege of riding alongside this woman for 3/4 of that journey, and in that time I've seen her do some pretty extraordinary things with that motorcycle. Navigating the insanity of Acapulco, dodging chicken buses on switchbacks in Guatemala, and braving storms and gale-force winds on the Blue Ridge Parkway simply to name a few. All the while keeping her cool, and looking fabulous. She's been an inspiration to ride with, and she's proved to everyone, from Alabama to Zacatecas, what an amazing rider, and human, she is. Congratulations on a motorcycling milestone.
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75th Anniversary Motor Maid Convention
December Advisory Article by Catherine Lawrence and Janet Gallagher Your friends in Atlantic Canada are so looking forward to hosting you as we all celebrate the 75th anniversary of our fabulous Motor Maid organization. The ladies have been very busy over the past several months planning, scheming, recruiting, organizing and finalizing details to ensure your enjoyment is maximized while you are in our neck of the woods next summer. Below is some information to help you prepare for the upcoming convention and road trip. To-do list for convention 2015 participants:
Registration In addition to the registration form included in this edition of The Advisory, an electronic copy will be on the Motor Maid Inc. website http://www.motormaids.org. A link to the electronic copy will be on the ACMM website noted above. In celebration of this 75th anniversary a special collectors item is being offered this year-a pewter commemorative sun catcher designed by ACMM (soon to be Silver Life member) Gail Neilson. We are also pleased to offer two clothing items– a golf shirt and a jacket as well as patches and pins. Pictures of the items for purchase as well as the shirt/jacket sizing charts, are available on the ACMM website. Convention Raffle Tickets – Win your convention stay Atlantic Canada has 2015 Convention raffle tickets available if you would like to win the convention package – a $660 value including 1 registration, 4 nights accommodation at the Delta Beausejour in Moncton, 1 charm, 1 convention shirt and 1 convention photo. For district directors who do not have raffle tickets to offer their members, please contact us at acmotormaids@gmail.com. For the districts that have already sold convention raffle tickets, please mail the stubs and funds to the address noted on the tickets. Individuals can also purchase raffle ticket(s) through the registration form process. Convention Hotel Host Hotel – Delta Beausejour 750 Main Street, Moncton, New Brunswick, E1C 1E6, Canada Phone 506-854-4344, Fax 506-858-0957, Reservations 888-890-3222 Check-in 4:00 PM, Checkout 12:00 PM Be sure to use the booking name- Motor Maids. Rates are $129 for 1-2 people or $139 for 3-4 people. All rooms are the same size and all have a coffee maker, fridge and free wi-fi. Use the link below to book your room. https://www.deltahotels.com/Groups/Delta-Beausejour-Groups/Motor-Maids **Please note** with 225 rooms blocked for our convention, there will be enough rooms for the attendees. We greatly appreciate it if members would book respectfully. Bookings are limited to no more than 2 rooms. If the block is full, ask to be placed on the waiting list. This will be monitored and matched to registrations as we get closer to convention, so we can ensure everyone has a room. Recap of how you can obtain information about Convention 2015:
Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us for more information at acmotormaids@gmail.com Thank you for your support and we can’t wait to see you all in Moncton in 2015! Atlantic Canada Motor Maids
Advisory Article by Elizabeth Pass It’s a bittersweet time in Atlantic Canada for Motor Maids. During the long, and at times, bitter winter, our bikes hibernate and Parked Motorcycle Syndrome ravages our restless spirits. The bulk of our gatherings and riding adventures for the past year are still providing some sweetness, as we enjoy them again through chats with our sisters, occasional meetings and pictures. We’ve grown from 55 members in October, 2013, to 80 members in October, 2014 – sweet! The last monthly meeting of 2014 was a two day extravaganza in Prince Edward Island. We crossed the Confederation Bridge to fly kites, attend a BBQ, have a lobster dinner and be scared or amused at the Kool Breeze Farms Scarecrow Festival. The winds became too strong for kites, so they stayed tethered to our bikes in their wrappers. We missed Joyce’s four newest kites she brought back from China (she has a collection of about 45), but there is always next year. Joyce provided an impressive spread for the BBQ at her house, with tastes enhanced by her special spices from Quebec. Rides to The Bottle Houses and Kool Breeze Farms provided us with unique photo ops, gasps and laughs. A lobster dinner at the hotel was the culmination of the weekend event and filled us with Northumberland lobster and chowder. We gained two new members from PEI, now boasting three. We are hoping for an Island membership explosion during 2015. Meet and Greets in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were very popular and well attended. Visitors came to check us out and must have liked what they saw. We have new members from each of those provinces as a result. The year end meeting in Moncton was nothing short of FUN. Reports from all committees for Convention 2015 verified how much we have already accomplished and pinpointed how much we still have to do. The excitement ran high as we met at the convention hotel, the Delta Beausejour. The awards committee did a first-rate job of identifying appropriate and functional awards to honour the accomplishments of members this year. Who would have guessed toilet paper comes in Motor Maid blue and is such a prestigious award? Congratulations to Jo Miller and Peggy Dingle, our highest rollers this year. Cheryl MacLaggan, was the winner of the Gail Neilson Atlantic Canada Motor Maid of the Year Award, for her exceptional contributions to ACMM over the past year. Numerous other awards were bestowed upon members for fun and serious accomplishments. An evening dinner at the Old Triangle Irish Pub and the ever popular after hours suite party with games, stories and merriment, brought to a close another extraordinary year for Atlantic Canada Motor Maids. Fighting symptoms of Parked Motorcycle Syndrome, ACMM members met at the home of, who else, two pharmacists for a shot in the arm. It consisted of two movies, Driven To Ride and Why We Ride. Both are documentaries, and although they are not about Motor Maids, we did find some sisters in the documentaries. What would have been about two hours ended up lasting five hours for some, with lots of head nodding, exclamations and side conversations. And, of course, there was popcorn, cookies, and more treats to ward off other symptoms.
If you haven't seen these documentaries, click to see the trailer for Why We Ride and read about Driven to Ride (trailer embedded in the article). Red Ribbon thoughts - Advisory Article
by Janet Gallagher The journey to and from Kerrville was my first long trip on a motorcycle and my first Motor Maid convention. I have so many things to say about the trip, sights, experience, fellow travelers, convention, sister Motor Maids, friendly people along the way...that I am having trouble condensing it for an entry in The Advisory. Last summer was my first full season with my license and motorcycle, and the year I joined this unique organization. Since we will be hosting next year and many of us in Atlantic Canada are new members, I wanted to learn all I could about being a host and experience a MM convention first hand. I was encouraged by our wonderful District Director and others to attend the 2014 convention. Three of our experienced members allowed me to tag along with them on the journey to Kerrville, as well as my fellow “Red Ribboner” Kathy Gallant and her husband. The six of us teamed up in Bangor, Maine and stayed together all the way to the convention and part way back. Lynne Campbell and Elizabeth Pass had spent time in advance to propose some very interesting routes for us to follow that included some interstate travel for speed but also lots of interesting twists, sights, parkways and routes to make the journey memorable. Travel highlights that stick in my mind would be: the Mohawk Trail; Route 50; Route 219 through West Virginia; Natchez Trace Parkway; rural routes around ranches in Marble Falls; and Taconic State Parkway. Living in a small city like Fredericton and growing up in the woods, I was in awe and loved the challenge of major interstate traffic and lanes going through/near big cities. Keeping all six of us together and alive was no small feat! I have so many happy thoughts and memories as I think about the convention itself, that I cannot list them all. From: the moment we arrived at the hotel and saw so many bikes; felt the buzz in the air; were warmly greeted at the front door by the smiling and friendly Trish from Florida to: the opportunity to meet and socialize with amazing female riders from all over North America; the red ribbon meet and greet and lunch; the challenge and excitement of my first Dot Robinson Road Run; and the emotional feeling of participating in the traditional and formal parade with the official uniform and visit with the veterans....it was all so very exciting, moving and memorable for me. Wearing the red ribbon meant that more experienced members were very welcoming, helpful and informative. We really got the red carpet treatment. I smiled when we received a nice little diary/book as a gift so we could document trip details. My fellow travelers had been teasing me about the level of detail I was keeping about locations, travel times, start times, rest times, dollars spent, etc. I love detail so the trip diary will come in handy. I was impressed with the job done by the gals from Texas and was very pleased at how willingly they offered advice even in the midst of their own hosting demands. Volunteering in the Hospitality Room gave me an opportunity to meet lots of people and spend time with them in a more relaxed atmosphere. Meeting the MM executives was a highlight for me, allowing me to put names with faces. Having spent years volunteering myself, I know and appreciate the time, effort and talent these ladies graciously provide to the rest of us so we can sit back and enjoy the benefits of a well-run organization. I found the election a challenge as I was impressed by the quality of candidates and I had a really hard time choosing between them for various positions. I loved to listen to other Motor Maids and hear the stories of where they came from and how long they had been riding, etc., but highlights for me were the stories of our longtime members. They really inspire me, just as our very own Gail Neilson does. What an opportunity for me - to share breakfast and conversation with Gloria Struck on her birthday and hear her stories of riding in decades gone by. Life was so different for them than it is now. They have really paved the way for us. Being able to share the convention experience with 4 sister Motor Maids from Atlantic Canada who traveled with me and two others who flew (due to work commitments) to the convention provided a great opportunity for us to make plans/notes and discuss lessons learned in preparation for a super convention in Moncton to celebrate 75 years strong for Motor Maids. I am so glad I made the trip to Texas (9,882 km / 6,142 miles) and I look forward to many more conventions in my future, including celebrations in Moncton next summer and then on to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2016. I really look forward to seeing a few hundred familiar faces in Moncton. Thanks to all of you who helped make my first convention and trip an awesome experience for me. by Christine Fernie, ACMM Safety Officer How old are your motorcycle tires? Tires can become dangerous when they get too old because they can become brittle from exposure to sun and oxidization. I had this experience in my second year of riding (crystalized and bald tires). For people who ride little, the risk of their tires being old is higher. So, share this great knowledge with others and maybe get someone to buy you a coffee for eliminating a hazard they did not know they had. This is your safety tip for the month. Check the dates on your tires and check out this article to see how to find and read the date. From one of our Safety Officers, Christine Fernie
I was doing research to find out how hot is too hot for my bike (Texas in July) and was pleased to learn that a well maintained air-cooled bike is usually fine as long as you can keep moving. In my research, I found this article that said there are 3 things you should carry in hot weather: a charged cell phone, a water bottle with a 1/2 day supply of water and an umbrella for shade should you break down. I think these are excellent tips to heed for all of us headed to Texas. Another option for shade might be to set up your tent for some cover. Don't underestimate the danger of overheating yourself as well. Happy travels everyone. http://classicmotorcycles.about.com/od/clubscommunity/a/hotweathertips.htm Atlantic Canada Motor Maids Advisory Article
by Lynne Campbell Atlantic Canada Motor Maids are taking full advantage of the summer weather and doing lots of riding. Every Wednesday a group of New Brunswick members get together for "Wicked Women Wednesday" and head off exploring; coastlines, farmlands, riversides, you never know for sure where they will end up. Recently several MMs spent the weekend touring the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. They were able to meet and ride with some women from another motorcycle group, the Saddlebags. Lots of good times! Five MMs and one guest were fortunate enough to ride to Texas for Convention, and two others were able to join us there as guests. What a great trip it turned out to be, despite some bike troubles and more heat than we are used to riding in. We found that stuffing our jackets with ice at every gas stop made it possible to keep going. It was another great Convention and we tried to learn everything we could in preparation for hosting next year's 75th Convention in Moncton. In June we participated in the Ride for Dad in New Brunswick and one of our members, Catherine Lawrence, was the third highest fund raiser! Some of our members also made it to Atlanticade in Prince Edward Island, always a lot of fun. Coming up in Aug is the annual meet with Eastern Canada Motor Maids, this year in Chicoutimi, Quebec-always a wonderful time with a fun group of ladies. There is a bike rally in Cape Breton the first weekend in August, another bike event in Moncton mid-August and at the end of the month is the Wharf Rat Rally in Digby, NS, one of the biggest in this area. There will be white vests to be seen at every event. In the meantime we are getting into gear for the 75th Convention next summer. It is going to be a busy winter but we are looking forward to the challenge. The Halifax show went on during snow and cold weather, as did the Moncton one, but that didn't stop Atlantic Canada Motor Maids from participating in the event at Exhibition Park. As usual, many visitors stopped by our booth with questions and curiosity and left in amazement and excitement about what women on motorcycles are involved in this day and age.
Pictures from the show are in the photos: shows section. A few new members have joined since the motorcycle shows and our chapter has now grown to 70+ members! As usual, the Atlantic Canada Motor Maids booth generated lots
of interest among female and male show goers and offered members a chance to break out of winter blues and dip into summer by looking at new motorcycles and accessories. As usual, the show occurred during a snow storm, but this is the first time in our 4 years of participation that it was closed a day due to the storm. In response to Catherine's question to members who worked at our booth, here are a few responses to "What did you learn from the m/c show?"
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