Here it is the last day of February and it is raining. Pretty depressing seeing we did not have any snow since sometime in January. On top of that, we had warm enough temperatures to melt any snow we might have had around here. To put it bluntly, our winter here in Bradford County SUCKED this year, AGAIN! I do believe we have the situation figured out though. Here is the plan. Convince Roger Turner to buy a new sled sometime in November. Leave the sled sitting in front of his house, outside and uncovered. Have Roger stand on his back porch every night, look skyward and shout; "I double dog dare ya to snow". From our experience on our New Year's Trip this year, this is guaranteed to work. I personally have had a decent year of riding as I have just shy of 1,000 miles of riding so far this year. That coupled with the fact I am leaving on March 6th to head to Quebec for six days and six nights of riding, I should end up with close to 2,000 miles this year. Not that I want to brag or rub it in to any one but nah nah, I'm going riding in March.
Did you have a chance to attend the Winterfest this year? A lot of club members could be found helping out in one of three club booths we ran this year, the main food booth underneath the Grandstand Building, the club booth underneath the Grandstand Building and the expanded food booth in the Fair Exhibits Building on the north end of the fairgrounds. The purchase of five snow guns made the difference this year with the Radar Run, as it would have been impossible to hold it without them. Between the two days there was a total of 270 runs made on the Radar Run track or the Slalom Run. After viewing the success of this year's Radar Run, Alparon Park is planning on starting them earlier and running them later. A lot of dealers and vendors showed up, some old, some new. Every time I got in one of the buildings on the north end, they were packed and I had a hard time trying to get the vendors attention to ask any questions. No complaints from them. Again this year, Dennis Beach put on a show carving out figures from ice. He is really spectacular. Our club, thanks to Harrison Langley our very own certified instructor, held a snowmobile safety course. Nine children between the ages of 10 and 15 completed the course successfully to obtain their patches and certifications. Anyone under the age of 16 needs the course to be able to ride on property other than their own. There were clowns making balloon characters and a couple of costumed characters walking around. The Vintage Sled Display got bigger again this year. How did we make out in the food booth? Our profit will be right around $1,000 again this year. Thanks go out to all of you who made it possible. I heard nothing but praise from everyone that worked and was involved. I did not hear anyone complain they went away hungry from breakfast either. Just think, next year's Winterfest is only eleven months away.
Saturday night at the Troy Fire Department Dinner Dance, Trish Scott was crowned Miss Avalanche '99. Trish and her husband Bob are Regional Directors of Region One. They live about 45 miles south east of Erie, PA. Congratulations to her and all the other contestants. Thanks to those that donated the prizes for this year's contestants and winners. Holcombe House Bed & Breakfast for the two nights lodging at next year's Winterfest. Gift certificates from Colton's Alba Grocery and Gas, the Granville Tavern, and Steward's Family Restaurant in Wysox. The PSSA donated a year's membership to the winner, or at least I hope they do or I am out some money. Stull's Flowers located on Main Street in Troy donated the bouquet of flowers for the winner again this year. Our club donated a club hat and a year's membership to each of the three finalists. Alparon Park donated a Winterfest '99 sweatshirt to each finalist also.
To close the Winterfest this year, the winning ticket was drawn for the Arctic Cat. This year Arctic Cat donated a Z370 to the PSSA to be given away. Thanks to the PSSA for letting the drawing be held at the Winterfest again this year. As always, Dave Bristol was asked to draw the winning ticket. Davey is blind from a four wheeling accident several years ago. Miss Avalanche, Trish Scott assisted Davey by turning the drum and opening the door so Davey could reach in and draw the winning ticket. According to the winner, this year's ticket was sold by our own club!! Oh yeah, this year's winner was JoAnn Chaapel. You might recognize her name as the wife of Joe Chaapel. Then again you might recognize Joe's name from Joe's Sport Center in East Canton, the guy that sells Arctic Cat snowmobiles! As you can guess, I had some great fun with this at the Winterfest that day. Good thing Joe is such a good sport, right Joe? JOE?!?!?!?!?!? How did we make out with these tickets? Not as good as last year. If you recall, for every dollar's worth of tickets we sell, we get back fifty cents from the PSSA. We have not received the final count (read that as check) back from the PSSA yet, but an educated guess puts us right around $4,000 dollars sold as a result of our club. That should net us a check from the PSSA for real close to $2,000 for our treasury. Another fantastic job again this year everyone. Thanks to everyone that bought or sold tickets. Last year no one came close to us in sales. We will have to wait and see how we compare this year.
One last item on the Winterfest. Channel 16, Outdoor Life showed up Saturday morning to film the Winterfest. Everyone was very surprised. They were less than impressed as they got there just before nine when the gates opened and there was not a lot happening. To make them feel better, Ron Colton, their guide for the day, took them in and gave them breakfast. They were very impressed with that. Then when they got back outside and saw all the activities going on and all the people they were in a semi state of shock. When first arriving they said they had to be back before 2:00 pm and it took them two hours to get there so they had to leave at noon. Along about 1:00 or 1:30, they finally got packed up and out of there. To say the least, they were very impressed, glad they came, and wished they could have stayed longer. Stay tuned early in March as an episode of Outdoor Life on Channel 16 will air and will be mostly about the Winterfest. I understand Outdoor Life airs on Sunday nights? Not being able to access any locale channels in between the two mountains, I will await a copy of the videotape they are supposed to send up to us.
With the bad weather we had in February, no events were able to be planned or put on the last part of this snow season. For those that called our Club Voice MailBox, you probably found it was not updated very often. Well, not much to update it with unfortunately. I did hear of some very good riding out the other side of Wellsboro. Several members trailered over to take advantage of that riding. I accompanied a couple of different groups north to the Tug Hill area for some really good riding there also. One was the weekend I took off before the Winterfest and went riding. I have to give the clubs credit on the plateau as they have worked extremely hard to try and keep trails in as good a shape as possible. For those familiar with the names, we had to trailer to Littlejohn and drop off because there was no snow off the plateau. Normally riding Littlejohn is pure torture taking about 45 minutes to travel six miles on the three-foot moguls placed three-foot apart. This trip it took us ten minutes as it was that smooth. We had excellent riding all weekend. I also took my annual (OK so it is only my second year - I just keep hoping they continue to ask me back) trip with the crew from Canton (ten of us) to Brantingham Lake. That is located about 40 miles north of Utica, New York and is on the eastside of Tug Hill. Again we had to trailer and drop off to ride, but the riding was great all week. Again congratulations to the clubs on Tug Hill for a nice job done. For some reason, I have no explanation why, Joe (the same Joe from Joe's Sport Center above) felt I picked on him a little last year. Not sure why he thought that. I try very hard to treat everyone the same. Any way, this year he fired the first blow. When I pulled in, there he was hanging an Arctic Cat banner on the cabin I was staying in! I have been working on coming up with a counter shot but have not figured out anything yet. Any suggestions from anyone will be greatly appreciated. By the way, the one suggestion I got to paint his truck Ski Doo yellow is just a little drastic. Besides it would be too much work.
As reported in the last newsletter, Robin and Roger Turner and myself went to Franklin Townships Supervisor's Meeting on the first of February. Robin's presentation was very well received. I am hoping we get the OK to mark the Franklin Township roads as dual purpose at their next meeting, Monday March 1st. Still more work to do here as there are several more townships we have to get to and they all meet on the first Mondays of the month.
If you do not belong to the PSSA (Pennsylvania State Snowmobile Association) you probably have not heard about the Spring Meeting scheduled for March 20th and 21st at the Shadowbrook Inn Resort in Tunkhannock. Saturday will be seminars and dealer displays. An awards banquet is set for Saturday night starting at 6:00 pm. Sunday from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon, will be the PSSA general membership meeting. Being a newly appointed Regional Director, I am hoping there will be many members of our club who will take the time to come to the meeting on Sunday. This is where the business of the PSSA is conducted. Many have complained to me PSSA does not do enough. Well? Here is your chance to see and make yourself heard in our very own backyard. Haven't joined the PSSA yet? That can be taken care of there or ask me for membership applications, I have many. Need a ride? Call me, I will be going down as I hope many others will. Enclosed with your newsletter will be the flyer announcing the Spring Meeting. Don't let the deadline completely keep you from signing up. Give one of the numbers a call and come on out to support the sport we all love, SNOWMOBILING.
Meetings are still the second Wednesday of every month at Stewart's Family Restaurant on the Golden Mile in Wysox, 7:00 pm, in the back room. That makes the next meeting, March 10, 1999. Hope you will be able to come out and join us. I will not be able to attend this meeting as if you recall from the beginning of the newsletter, I will be tooling down the trails in Quebec, Canada, not to rub it in or anything. If you are on line, don't forget to check out our new web sight; http://www.goldns.net/dave/smsr/. Any suggestions for improvements, get them to an officer and we will funnel the information to David Fries, our web master. Now that I have started to supply some of the information Dave has been requesting from me for some time, you should start to see changes on the web page. The newsletter will be posted there as soon as it goes to press so you can check it out there before any copies are mailed.
Remember to do business with our advertisers. They are the ones that help us pay our bills by paying for advertising space every month. By the time you get this newsletter, most of the literature for the Millenium Sleds should be out. I was hoping to purchase a new one next year, but will have to wait and see how my finances look, what with college and all. Don't forget we have a Want Ads section but you have to call and let me know if you have something to put in there.
Well boys and girls, this is the last newsletter of this riding season. Here are a couple of events to pay attention for that will be coming up during the non-riding season. The big one is the Big East Show in Syracuse. In September, our club will be holding it's Annual Cruise In again at Steward's Family Restaurant. We will hold a Snowmobile Safety Training Course at that time also. If you know of any kids between the ages of 10 and 15 that would like to sign up, give me a call. The PSSA will be holding their annual show in York in October again this year. Between one of the shows you should be able to view all the new equipment coming out. New officers will be elected for the coming riding season with nominations to be held at the August and September meetings. We still need some people to step forward to keep this club moving forward. One last thing, remember to ride safe today so you can ride again tomorrow. Heard from Babs one last time. She said spring is here and she will not be able to 'dial' me up anymore. Talk to you in the fall.
