Camping at Wauseon?

[Cass]

Anyone ever camp at the meet ? Do they have Electric Etc. ? Is the area far away from everything like Rheinbeck ?
Thanks for any Info.
Cass
Sr. Field Judge

[duffeycycles]

I camp there every year.sometimes they don't mow all of the area and the bugs will eat you alive. sometimes it's not bad.close camping.Great meet Great people

[hogchild71]

Wauseon camping

Cass. You may camp on your vending space if your camper is not too big. We do have new motor home sites with electric and water. Also a large open camping area with some electric.

Duffy. Thanks for the good words.

510 vending spaces sold as of this morning.

[aka HAWG]

510 spots - great

any provisions in place to keep the dust down and what is being done to prevent children from hot rodding around on those chain saws on wheels

hope to see everyone at wauseon in a few weeks

aka HAWG

[Cass]

Thanks a Bunch for the info. I was told Vending app. was closed, but thats OK. You see we have an adult handicapped Daughter that has to travel with us & Electric would be great.
Thanks again
Cass #10592

[spajohn]

Wauseon Camping

The Fulton County fairgrounds has a towable water tank that we may explore using for dust control this year.
The volunteer staff is aware of the kids on wheels and tries to be on the lookout for them, but we can't be everywhere at once. My wife Suzanne busted a couple of them last year. If you're a parent and bring a kid, leave its scooter at home.
We publish the rules in our advertising and website, if more parents paid attention and policed their own kids we wouldn't be having this discussion.

http://www.wauseonnationalmeet.org/vending.html

John Prusnek
AMCA #2430
http://www.wauseonnationalmeet.org/index.html

510 spots - great

any provisions in place to keep the dust down and what is being done to prevent children from hot rodding around on those chain saws on wheels

hope to see everyone at wauseon in a few weeks

aka HAWG

[Knotthed]

Kids and Scooters

I would like to offer a different point of view.

background about me:
I am in my mid-30's with 2 young kids - making me one of the younger members of this organization according to the recent survey.

As a child, I went to the Davenport meet every year with my parents. Here is my list of what is most memorable about it to me:
1) It was damn Hot outside!
2) Standing next to my dad for countless hours looking at piles and tarps full of parts till my feet hurt really stunk.
3) Don't touch anything - especially those really shiny attention drawing bikes in the special building with those funny paper tags hanging off of the handlebars of them.
4) Dad wouldn't miss the show - come hell or high water we were going!
5) Mom could have cared less if we went. (I believe she enjoys it now.)

Other cycle related childhood memories not revolving around the meet:
1) getting rides on the bikes/sidecar, be it from friends, uncles, dad whomever was great!
2) sitting on Dad's 53 Servicar in the garage was great.
3) riding my honda mini-trail or anything for that matter was really fun!

So to sum it up for me - the meets stunk and cycle stuff outside of the meet was fun.

Point being, to keep a kids attention span they need something to do or they are just going to cruise around the grounds aimlessly if they are big enough to do so.

My suggestion would be to incorporate some special activities spaced out thru the day to keep the kids busy and to make the meets fun for them.

Possible things that come to mind are:
Field games for the kids
Touchable display bikes to sit on take some pictures etc...
Sidecar rides
Some kind of information treasure hunt - could be bike related and maybe have a small drawing for a prize

Hopefully you get the idea here. I don't envy Matt Olsen's position as youth director, but the club will need to find a way to make the meets fun for both the kids and adults to grow the membership in the future.

My comments on the Wauseon meet - I went for the first time 2 years ago as a shopper - not a vendor and it was great! My thanks go out to the people that made it happen. I was very disappointed that I did not make it last year.

I don't bring my son because I know he will not enjoy himself at his ripe old age of 7. He does enjoy getting the occasional ride at home and he really enjoyed sitting on a bike at the HD museum - so much so that he moved the handlebars back and fourth so many times that he had actually walked the bike about 10 feet from its original location by the time I met him with this mom at the display. He also learned how to ride a small dirt bike last year and had fun with it.

Just thought I would share some of my experiences.

[cube74]

I would like to offer a different point of view.

background about me:
I am in my mid-30's with 2 young kids - making me one of the younger members of this organization according to the recent survey.

As a child, I went to the Davenport meet every year with my parents. Here is my list of what is most memorable about it to me:
1) It was damn Hot outside!
2) Standing next to my dad for countless hours looking at piles and tarps full of parts till my feet hurt really stunk.
3) Don't touch anything - especially those really shiny attention drawing bikes in the special building with those funny paper tags hanging off of the handlebars of them.
4) Dad wouldn't miss the show - come hell or high water we were going!
5) Mom could have cared less if we went. (I believe she enjoys it now.)

Other cycle related childhood memories not revolving around the meet:
1) getting rides on the bikes/sidecar, be it from friends, uncles, dad whomever was great!
2) sitting on Dad's 53 Servicar in the garage was great.
3) riding my honda mini-trail or anything for that matter was really fun!

So to sum it up for me - the meets stunk and cycle stuff outside of the meet was fun.

Point being, to keep a kids attention span they need something to do or they are just going to cruise around the grounds aimlessly if they are big enough to do so.

My suggestion would be to incorporate some special activities spaced out thru the day to keep the kids busy and to make the meets fun for them.

Possible things that come to mind are:
Field games for the kids
Touchable display bikes to sit on take some pictures etc...
Sidecar rides
Some kind of information treasure hunt - could be bike related and maybe have a small drawing for a prize

Hopefully you get the idea here. I don't envy Matt Olsen's position as youth director, but the club will need to find a way to make the meets fun for both the kids and adults to grow the membership in the future.

My comments on the Wauseon meet - I went for the first time 2 years ago as a shopper - not a vendor and it was great! My thanks go out to the people that made it happen. I was very disappointed that I did not make it last year.

I don't bring my son because I know he will not enjoy himself at his ripe old age of 7. He does enjoy getting the occasional ride at home and he really enjoyed sitting on a bike at the HD museum - so much so that he moved the handlebars back and fourth so many times that he had actually walked the bike about 10 feet from its original location by the time I met him with this mom at the display. He also learned how to ride a small dirt bike last year and had fun with it.

Just thought I would share some of my experiences.

I agree with you. I was in your position 20 years ago and the fact is that there is not many members who bring their families. I did and I am glad I did. Now both my kids are avid enthusiasts and thet have great memories of the meets. Riding on my bikes and as they got older riding our Indian Verticals. They are the future of the club. This is why meets like Rhinebeck are great.

[hogchild71]

Knotthed & Cube. Thank you for your input regarding the Wauseon National. The Wauseon Committee will look into ways to entertain children that does not involve children riding motorcycles, golf carts, 4 wheelers or any other motorized vehicle. It is the policy of AMCA that children not be allowed to ride any motorized vehicle at any AMCA meet.
You are invited to volunteer to join our committee to develop programs for children at our meet that does not involve children using motor vehicles.
As always, kids may ride pedal bikes anywhere on the grounds.

[Knotthed]

Fred,

That is great that you will try to come up with something for the kids. I would love to help if I was closer and not already volunteering for other things like Boy Scouts.

I was unaware that it was AMCA policy that kids not be allowed to ride - what a shame! I would bet that most of the membership was riding before they had their official mc license....... I know I learned how to drive stick shift pickup when I was 11 or 12 and I was riding a mini-trail before that. Heck, you take a look at the old Indian News from the late 30's and there is a picture of a 9 year old that was riding in a 100 mile race! Ohh, how times have changed.

I was thinking more along the lines of giving them a place to do it. I personally don't mind the kids riding around, as long as they are not damaging anything. On the other hand, I also see the vendors point of view of them going up and down the isles over and over. That is why I was thinking that they need something to fill their time.

I think it would be awesome if there were some whizzer type machines that the kids could try on for size so to speak. Maybe make them take a little riding test on a bicycle to qualify to get a couple laps on a motorized bicycle. I don't think it gets any better than that for introducing kids to motorcycling.

I have volunteered for a few years at a local conservation club in my area that puts on a youth event. We let them(all under close supervision of course) shoot pellet guns, trap 12 or 20 gauge, archery, casting contest, etc... Even let them make a turkey call out of a spent shotgun shell. The kids love it..

Please pass on my thanks to your group for putting on such a great event at Wauseon.

[fillibuster]

And, it's about the grandkids too! I've enjoyed their company immensely. Course, we were at Farmington and St Paul, small meets.
Grand-pappyin' is great! Leaves pretty good impressions on them. .. as long as we act like adults.