THE SHARED LANGUAGE OF PASSIONATE RIDERS

The Saint-Jérôme Chapter is all smiles after a memorable trip to New York

Words and photos: Cheryl Haw

I would like to share a story about how fortunate we are to be part of the Harley Owners Group™. A road captain with our Saint-Jérôme Chapter was organizing a three-day excursion to attend the Thousand Islands River Run Motorcycle Rally in Alexandria Bay, New York. When he learned the poker run would be on the Sunday (the day we’d be heading home), the cap’n came up with a contingency plan: Maybe we could join a local chapter for a ride on Saturday? He reached out to the FX Thunder Chapter in Adams Center, New York, and voila! Our first inter-chapter-inter-country HOG^® ride was born.

On Friday morning, 21 bikes and one Chrysler 300 made their way through thick fog to Boisbriand, our departure point for Alexandria Bay. Yep, we had our own escort car driven by one loyal member who was unable to ride his bike. As we rode, the fog slowly dissipated, revealing clear skies and an intense sun that stayed with us the entire weekend.

Soon, we were treated to a male wild turkey puffing and fanning his tail feathers as if to greet us.

We stopped for lunch in Brockville, where we caught sight of some of the impressive tall-masted ships in town for the Tall Ships festival. Parking lots and restaurants in town were pretty full, so we had to be flexible and inventive with our meals. This strategy led us to Don’s Fish & Chips for the best fish and chips in Brockville devoured out of paper bags while leaning against a brick wall.

On arrival in Alexandria Bay, we went for a stroll to pick up our rally T-shirts, then rode to Bonnie Castle for dinner. A look at the menu was enough to get everyone’s appetites revved up, and we were not disappointed.

On Saturday, we met up with our road captain host and a few members of the FX Thunder Chapter, who guided us to FX Caprara Harley-Davidson to shop for souvenirs while our dog, Jack – our mascot – was spoiled rotten by the staff.

I have to tip my hat to every member who travelled with our group that day. It was extremely hot, almost too hot to ride. But Bill mapped out a really lovely itinerary through the countryside. We rode past Maple Ridge Wind Farm, the largest wind turbine farm in New York State at 195 turbines; along the beautiful Black River; and up and down hills that delivered superb vistas and long, wide curves. We even passed a horse and buggy on the road. This is a common sight for our American friends, who live near a large Amish community, but for us Quebecers it was a very cool thing to see!

With the crazy afternoon heat, it wasn’t long before everyone was ready for a cold one. We put the pedal to the metal and headed back to A. Bay for a chilled beverage and a bit of R&R before joining the gang for dinner, where we exchanged chapter patches.

We had a lot of fun riding with members of not only a different chapter, but a different country! And although our American friends spoke English and my Quebec brothers and sisters mostly spoke French, there was no language barrier when it came to our shared passion: riding our Harley-Davidson^® motorcycles as HOG members. That’s something we all understand.

Finally, we rode back home on Sunday under a scorching-hot sun again. Ontario’s beautiful roads are a real pleasure to ride. We stopped at a lock on the Rideau River and for lunch at the Marlborough Pub in Ottawa, which I rate 5 stars for location, service, food – and even parking, complete with wooden kickstand pads.

With lots of fun, lots of surprises and lots of good company, it was a wonderful weekend!

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