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