AMERICADE—A VIEW FROM THE TOP

By Larry Schwartz

It was a week that will long be remembered. Americade ’99. The largest, beefiest, busiest Americade ever. Over fifty thousand registered motorcyclists through the week. Who knows how many thousands of ride-ins with a probable total of the week somewhere between 50 and 100-thousand. Police estimated 60-thousand motorcycles. And we know that somewhere around 10-million dollars is spent in that area’s economy, that week.

For the 200 volunteers, including yours truly, who come to the event, it’s a week of pleasant and wonderful servitude. Yes, we work the event; we make it happen and happen it does. This year, more than ever.

How can I count the number of events, seminars, demo rides, tours, boat trips. On a scale of 1 to 10, you’ve got to make it a 10 for those things. For every one of them, there is organization, coordination, staffing and all the rest of the million and one things that make the event run smoothly.

For me, it was Special Projects. That means any kind of job that comes along that needs doing. Most of the time, my view was from the top…literally. Special Projects, headed up by Brad Barrett, is in charge of everything that goes on at the summit of Prospect Mountain.

It may seem that parking motorcycles on top of the mountain in the two huge parking lots that lie at the pinnacle, would be easy. I mean there shouldn’t be a problem, right? Think again!

I arrived at Americade the weekend before it all started. We were being offered something of incalculable value; a chance to take the MSF Experienced Riders Course. Anyone on the staff was eligible. I wasn’t going to miss the chance. I had learned how to ride with the basic Defensive Drivers Course over twenty years ago, when there was no official New York State course. I took it at a private school, Chauffeur’s Training School in Colonie, N.Y. It was the best thing that ever happened to me in terms of learning how to ride correctly. I wasn’t going to miss the chance to take the Experienced Riders Course, for the third time.

We gathered, where else..atop Prospect Mountain where the course had been laid out in the huge upper parking lot. Let’s just say it was a real experience doing it again. I found out how many bad habits I’d fallen into. When had I forgotten to always look out at the horizon, not down in front of the bike? When had I lost some skill in slow parking lot maneuvers, the real test of whether you can handle your bike skillfully? These things and many more little details came back to me as we went through the nine hours of training. But, that was just the beginning of my experiences.

It was Tuesday when Special Projects had its first real job. We had gone up the mountain on Monday to lay out the parking for the North American Drill Team championships to be held on Tuesday. That took most of the morning. There’s so much more to making parking look easy than you can imagine. Came Tuesday and we were on top of the mountain again and early. Our team became a well-oiled machine, as the saying goes. As bikes spewed on a never ending line onto the parking surface, each one of us knew what to do and how to do it. It’s that way with all the 200 volunteers who do the hundreds of jobs needed to make Americade run seemingly without effort.

Tuesday, however, was just a taste for what was coming on Friday night; awards and fireworks night. The planning was meticulous, but even we did not expect the twenty thousand motorcycles that hit the mountain for that event on a beautifully crystal clear evening. It was something to behold and my hat is off to Brad for the planning and the agony of actually making it happen.

The same for Saturday morning on the last weekend of Americade, when hosts of bikes were on the mountain to make the "Living Logo" of Americade. Again, with meticulous planning and the hard work of the staff, we had hundreds and hundreds of motorcycles spelling out the Americade logo. Beautiful morning, beautiful logo!

Friday, for awards and fireworks was a 16-hour day. That was typical for so many of the volunteers this year. We noted at the Sunday staff meeting that the event was getting so large, we actually had worries now that it would simply outgrow the Lake George area. We all don’t want that to happen, but there will be much conversation about this at future meetings.

One might ask why you would take vacation time to go to work like that. Choices are what make up the end product of what we are and what we do. It’s true that the volunteers don’t have the time and sometimes even the energy to take in all the wonderful adventures that make Americade what it is. But guess what! It doesn’t matter. When all is said and done, all 200 of us have had a tremendous amount of fun. Whether on top of the mountain, or down in the Village, at the Trade Show or on Tour or taken up with the mountain of other jobs that have to be done, we DO have fun!

Think of the hundreds of terrific motorcyclists from all over the world that we get to meet. Nothing makes you feel better than that couple, riding by you, noting your staff hat and saying to you: "Geez, you folks do a wonderful job." Yes, you do get a warm and very pleasant feeling from all that, as hokey as it sounds. And when Saturday evening rolls around and so many of the staff collect for our traditional trip to dinner at Ciro’s , you’re just satisfied and happy that you’ve done it again for the tens of thousands that came. Oh yeah- you survived, too! We’ll be back again next year, of course. My view was mostly from the top of Prospect Mountain, but the beauty of that view was surpassed only by the happiness I encountered on the way up..and the way down.