880 Champlain Ave.
( 401 & Thickson Rd. )
Oshawa Ont. L1J 7A6
905-434-6550 or
1-800-668-5828
www.mackieharleydavidson.com
Director: Nick Fiore
Asst. Director: Arnie Stewart
Treasurer: Annie Pistagnesi
Secretary: Phyllis Stewart
Road Captain: Dave Vella
LOH: Annie Pistagnesi
Membership: Sarah Collins
Public Relations: Teddy Collins
Activities: Darrell Day
Asst. Activities John Archer
Safety Officer: John Archer
Photographer: Dave Vella
Historian: Marshall Crotin
Webmaster Bob Burke
News Editor: Phill Tsolakis
MEETING ROOM:
Thank you to the Stone Cottage for the
FREE use of the meeting room twice
monthly and also for the quality service
you provide.
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 # 9 2 4 5
Scarborough H.O.G.
www.scarboroughchapter.ca
Elections for 2013
At the October general meeting, the following mem-
bers have so far been nominated for the Executive posi-
tions:
Director - Teddy Collins
Assistant Director - Arnie Stewart
Secretary - Phyllis Stewart
Treasurer - Annie Burke
Newsletter Editor - Phill Tsolakis
Membership - Sarah Collins
Ladies of Harley - Annie Burke
Public Relations - Teddy Collins
Activities Officer - Joe Fournier
Assistant Activities - Al Crockford
Photographer - Dave Vella
Safety Officer - John Archer
Historian - Marshall Crotin
Nominations are still open until the
November general meeting. If you are interested in an
Executive position, you must be both a paid Interna-
tional HOG and Scarborough Chapter member.
Please see pages # 13 to # 17 in this issue of the newslet-
ter explaining the job descriptions of the Executive posi-
tions. If you have any questions in the meantime, please
do not hesitate to ask.
Teddy
MINUTES OF SCAR. HOG GENERAL MEETING TUES. SEPT. 4, 2012 3
Nick Fiore, our Director, commenced the meeting at approximately 7:45 p.m. and acknowl-
edged that we had no new members present so went on to once again thank Phil Tsolakis for
the great job on the September newsletter noting the picture of the newly wedded couple on
the front page.
Nick discussed the Ontario Rally in Windsor and since he was not present, he had asked one
of our members (Al) to attend the Directors meeting on his behalf. Al reported that 13
chapter members attended the rally and went on to give his report providing a great amount
of detail some of which are listed below
A discussion took place about the HOG magazine fall issue. HOG needs more pictures, they
need more people to sign up for the newsletter, they are looking for Canadian suppliers vs
U.S. suppliers for the HOG type of supplies. HOG will now only provide one patch per posi-
tion and 10 patches for the road captain position which will have to be distributed accordingly
At parades, a deposit will be needed for the flag poles and that deposit will be given back
upon return of the flag pole. HOT training will take place on April 18, 19 and 20 in Milwaukee
and any number of members can attend unlike in the past. Registration takes place in January.
HOG is also looking for a chapter to host the National Rally in 2014. Next year, Durham
HOG and Mackie’s will be hosting the Provincial Rally June 27, 28, 29 & 30. Host hotel is not
far from Mackie’s. Our chapter offered to assist wherever possible. At the meeting they also
discussed what the chapters do for charities and the bottom line is our goal is to ride and
have fun – good to support charities but let’s keep our goal in mind. Next bike show is De-
cember 8th. (MMIC Motorcycle Show)
• Arnie Stewart provided an overview re his thoughts on the Moncton Rally (not positive at
all) – please read the article he wrote in our September newsletter. The ride to Moncton was
great – in all 14 people from our chapter attended the rally.
• Our Christmas Party will be held at Sisters on Saturday, December 1st. Tickets will be for
sale at the next meeting.
• Phil’s ride to Dorset is scheduled for Saturday, September 15th, and a ride to Port Carling is
scheduled for Saturday, September 29th. – two rides worth reminding our members about.
• National HOG and Scarborough HOG memberships are due and to be paid at the next
meeting. If you are not a member , you cannot nominate or vote for members to the Execu-
tive Committee.
con’t….
• Dean Mackie provided an update re activities taking place. Saturday, September 29th. Is Cus-
tomer Appreciation Day – ride leaves at 10:00 a.m. Demo Day is Thursday, October 4th. Volun-
teers Dave, Phil, Cory, Arnie, John, Marshall, Ted, Al, and Darrell should arrive at Mackie’s at
9:00 am. Dean reminded the members that the F13 bikes are coming in fast and furiously.
• Darrell reported that the cottage ride that took place was a great success – they did a trip
around Lake Roseau and after had a fantastic BBQ. The members confirmed with Darrell that
we all agree to the raffle again for an LCBO gift certificate.
• John Archer reminded the members of the Saturday, September 9th. Black Knights Toy Ride
leaving from City Hall. John also suggested that we have some safety courses during the win-
ter on how to deal with mud roads (especially for ORA) also things like riding in the rain, etc.
• Marshall discussed his ride to Indiana – best auto museum, restored homes and great archi-
tecture.
DRAWS - $60.00 in the 50/50 went to Marshall, Mystery Ride prize to Warren Caine and the
Piggy Pot to Dave Vella which he donated.
Phyllis S.
The Chapter has secured a booth for the motorcycle supershow in early January. Some-
thing to think about is if any member is interested in showing off their bike. We would
need to know how many bikes would be displayed in order to determine the size of
booth we need. So the sooner interested members decide the better. It helps knowing
before everyone’s busy Christmas and News Years schedules. There will also be a need
for volunteers to man the booth over the course of the weekend, so that would also be
something to think about.
Demo Day at Mackie H-D 5
Our Chapter successfully participated
at the October 4th demo ride at
Mackie H-D. We did the morning shift
and thankfully had no mishaps. Weather
was good and all had a good time.
Thanks to John, Teddy, Dave, Stan, Bob,
Al, Arnie and I. Also to Corry who
showed up for some support.
Phill
Chapter Meeting Dates at the Stone Cottage 7:30 pm
Executive meetings: General meetings:
October 30th November 6th
November 27th December 4th
December 18th January 8th
Please note that due to Christmas and New Years Day falling on Tuesdays that we would normally hold our Executive and General meetings. We have re-scheduled the Exec. meet-
ing one week earlier to Tues. Dec. 18 and the Gen. meeting one week later to Jan. 8th
Membership Report
I am please to report Nelson Assuncao has joined our Chapter recently.
Sarah Collins
Normandy to Arnhem: A Highway of Tears. 6 In late June and early July 2012 Dave Vella and Marshall Crotin decided to make a fourth motorcycle trip through western Europe. This time their route would follow the Rhine River south from Frankfurt to Strasbourg France, then through the scenic and challenging Vosges Mountains to Orleans (famed for Joan of Ark's birthplace) then at that point down the Loire River with its famous chateaux, most of which were seen in Tours. We then headed north having competed the first scenic portion of our jour-ney. The third night we were in Arromanches on the English Channel at the edge of Omaha Beach. It was here that we began our historical journey which for the most part, as far as Canadians are concerned, was a highway of tears. The next morning
we traveled from Omaha beach through Sword Beach, Juno Beach and Gold Beach to Pegasus Bridge, so named for the British para-chute battalion that seized the bridge in a dar-ing glider raid at night and so
was the first objective taken by allied forces in the Invasion of Normandy. No visit there would be complete without a coffee and a few minutes spent in Pegasus Cafe at the end of the bridge, the first building liberated in France on June 6th 1944. The cafe is a virtual shrine visited by paratroop-ers from all over the world.
We moved on to the Great Bun-ker in Oistreham at the extreme northern end of the invasion beaches. This five story for-tress was preserved exactly as the it was in 1944 with accuracy down to the German army ban-dages and oxygen tank in the dispensary. Our travels then took us to the Canadian War Museum at Juno Beach which gave great insight into the part played by the First
Canadian Corps (later First Cana-dian Army). Further along the beach we saw the Mulberry artificial har-bor. This harbor made possible the supply of Allied armies in western Europe until the Canadians cap-tured the port of Antwerp Belgium in August of 1944. It was an engineer-ing feat never repeated before or since as the entire harbor was con-structed in England and floated across the English channel for reas-sembly in Arromanches.
We visited Omaha beach and the beau-tiful but poignant American cemetery with its 9700 graves overlooking the beach. Further along we passed Utah Beach, a killing ground of unimaginable propor-tions. We arrived finally at the southern end of the invasion front at St. Mere Eglise. This was the first objective taken by the Ameri-can 82nd Airborne Division on the night of June 5-6 1944. The church steeple
snagged a paratrooper and he re-mains hanging from his chute to this day, a scene made famous in the movie, The Longest Day. We then traveled to an ancient island fortress dating from 900AD known as Mt. St. Michel. Now a monastery, it is the most visited site in all of France , receiving 3 million visitors annually.
When the tide is in, it is an island, and is
only accessible across the ocean floor
when the tide is out. Next day we trav-eled to Caen to visit the Memorial Museum which housed many artifacts from the In-vasion of Normandy. This part of this vast museum took three and a half hours to cover and was only a small portion of the building!...
A Highway of Tears con’t…. 7
Our journey then took us to Beny Sur Mer where 2090
Canadians who died on Juno Beach and in the month after
the invasion are buried are overlooking the sea. This
cemetery given to Canada as Canadian territory by France
was dotted with Canadian flags as we were there July
3rd. Needless to say, as Canadians we were very touched by the solemn beauty of that place. We pro-ceeded north to Dieppe, the sight of a Canadian tragedy on August 19th 1942. It was here that 936 of a force of 5000 Canadians died attempting to cross
the stoney beaches in the face of withering German fire. We attempted to find the Canadian museum fruitlessly as they have moved it from the sight shown on the GPS. We finally gave up and came to the beach of Dieppe to have dinner and when we parked the bikes we found ourselves right in front of the museum which had closed 10 minutes before we got there! Needless to say that Canadians were well respected in Dieppe.
Next day we proceeded north to Vimy Ridge, a sight
that is deeply imbedded in the Canadian psyche. It is
here that Canada truly became a nation both militarily
and politically. The imposing monument towering above
the ridge honors 11285 Canadians for whom there is
there is no known resting place. The fact that there
were over 100,000 casualties in this area is very sober-
ing but makes you proud to be a Canadian as you stand
on the monument. Our visit was followed by a trip to
Ypres Belgium, a town made famous in the poem, In Flanders Fields. Here one finds the
Menin Gate, a monument containing the
names of 56000 Commonwealth soldiers
with no known graves. The true horror of
WWI is brought out in this town as there
were 185000 British dead of whom 113000
were never found. For all these lives lost in
four years the line changed only 7km.
8 Windsor rally A Highway of Tears con’t….
Windsor rally 9 A Highway of Tears con’t….
Happier times now awaited us as we made our way to the ancient Belgian city of Brugge. This is the sight of the invention of Belgian chocolate and we partook of far too much, along with a dozen or so waffles! Brugge is a walled city surrounded by a moat with many canals. It is well worth the time to visit. From Brugge we went north through the Scheldte Estuary, an area made famous by the costly battle fought by Canadians to free Antwerp. We arrived in Amsterdam where we had an Amsterdam good time for two days. Amsterdam is a delight with its museums and canals but unfortunately we were un-able to satisfy David's need for a Heineken experience at the brewery. After thor-oughly exploring the red light district, we moved on to Arnhem, the scene of the larg-est airborne invasion in history--Operation Market Garden. This attempt to seize a bridge over the Rhine river in September of 1944 proved to be a Bridge Too Far. (The title of a book and a movie). Of the 10000 British, Canadian and Polish paratroopers who landed here, only 2300 were not killed wounded or captured. Canadian engi-neers saved the lives of those lucky enough to escape in small boats. The final leg of our trip took us down the Moselle river in Germany. On the way we found a terrific Harley dealership with an American roadhouse restaurant and a cus-tom motorcycle shop second to none. The ride down river was a fantastic route which resembled The Tail of the Dragon. It had many switchbacks and mountains to climb and followed a wonderfully scenic course along the bank of the river. There were many towns of pristine beauty and ca-fes too numerous to count. Amid a heavy downpour we made our way along the autobahn at breakneck speed to Frankfurt where we left the motorcycles and vowed to return to the Moselle to ride its 512km on the next adventure in Europe. The End. To view all of our Europe 2012 pictures and many others stop by our Picasa site at http://picasaweb.google.com/Scarboroughchapter Marshall Crotin and Dave Vella
1 0 Dorset ride — not
This has been two years in a row that I just can’t seem to get the Dorset ride in
due to weather. Back on Sept. 15th there was about 10 bikes on a nice looking
Saturday morning leaving Markham Station. About 30 minutes into the ride the
weather turned cloudy, some light rain and the temperature started lowering a
bit. Nick who was leading, pulled over for anyone that wanted to, layer up ( that’s
when Grizzly said, enough and headed back ). We continued for about another 30
minutes when we stopped again and decided that Dorset would have to wait for
another day. Orillia was set as the new destination and we made it there just in
time for lunch ( I think most had a hot soup ). Once we were done I figured that
everyone was ready to head for home but instead it was suggested to head
north/west to Gravenhurst and then onto Bala. Well just before Bala we see Hwy
13 and decide to take it. As most of you know it’s just a “great road”, and about
half of our riders have never been on it so we had to show them. They were not
disappointed and glad they experienced it. All in all it was a great day of riding.
There was Rob Cao and his daughter Giordan, Nick and Sylvia, Al, Wayne,, Nelson
( who has since joined the Chapter ), Arnie, Armondo and John. As for Dorset,
next year I think I am just going to keep it off the ride calendar and wait for a
sunny summer Saturday that there is no scheduled ride and give it a try then.
Phill
1 1 October 20th Ride and Barbecue
Hi everyone, Joe and I put together a ride and barbecue on October 20th. It was a good ride and a lot fun. The weather started off a little cool when we left Markham Sta-tion but by barbecue time it was great. We started out with Joe leading but after two missed turns and one closed road we turned that duty over to Garry. Joe really made up for it when we got to the barbecue. We rode up to Raven Shoe, 48, Jackson Point and we stopped at a nice refreshment stop by the beach just outside of Keswick. After the refreshments we road back down to Joes place for a great barbecue. At the bar-becue Joe and his lovely wife Lori put on a fantastic spread, Steaks, Bake Potatoes, Caesar Salad, Sweets and of course refreshments. Joes cooking ability is fantastic, It was so good that Garry gave Joe a new name, FLIPPER, because he loves to flip steaks. The Caesar Salad that Joe made was great, it was so good that Wayne dug right into the salad not realizing the steaks were not done yet. That made Joe happy because he had to make more salad. Once Wayne noticed, he looked like a Deer caught in Headlights. We ended up with about 14 bikes and about 20 people at Joe and Lori’s place. All and all it was a great day, Good Riding, Good Food, Good Laughs and of course Good Friends. On behalf of myself and the club I would like to thank Joe and his lovely wife Lori for putting on such a Beautiful Spread, it was fantastic and you made everyone feel very welcome. I am sure everyone had a great time.
Thanks Again. Al Crockford
H.O.G. Chapter Job Descriptions 1 3
1 7
• I would like to thank the following for contributing to this issue of the
newsletter and I apologize if I missed anyone:
Teddy, Phyllis, Marshall, Arnie, Jeff, Dave, Al and Stan.
Phill