Connie Tabbert
Editor
COBDEN — “It was a fabulous trip,” said Charlene Jackson.
The Cobden-area woman just returned from a 5,600 kilometre motorcycle ride through Europe. She left July 1 and returned home July 24.
A motorcycle rider for the past nine years, Ms. Jackson noted this was a trip two years in the planning. The European Posse Ride, which was from July 5 to 20, started in Antwerp, Belgium and ended in Berlin, Germany for her. The main cities visited include Klobenz and Berlin, Germany; Strasbourg, Montelimar, Millau and Nevers, France; Biel and Geneva, Switzerland; and Targona and Valencia, Spain. (whitewaternews.ca posted Ms. Jackson’s blogs, with photos, each day in the features section of our website for your reading pleasure.)
“We stopped in a different city every night, but three stops were for two nights,” she said.
Ms. Jackson rented a 2014 Harley Davidson Street Glide, which is similar to her motorcycle.
The three mountain ranges she rode through were most memorable. They were the Vosges in eastern France; the Pyrenees, which is the border between France and Spain and the Alps, in Switzerland. Due to the rain, they weren’t able to go all the way to the top of the Alps.
“The scenery was just amazing,” Ms. Jackson said.
There were 75 bikes on the tour and they were split into three groups. Every two days the groups were switched, so everyone got to ride with each other, she explained. There were 21 different nationalities and Ms. Jackson, along with six others from Montreal, Quebec, were the only Canadians.
Travelling Europe is something Ms. Jackson has always wanted to do, and what better way than by motorcycle. On a bike you can see and smell so much more than you can in a vehicle.
“When we rode by the lavender fields, you could smell the lavender,” she said.
Ms. Jackson noted the Posse team was amazing. They had everything organized so there were no line-ups to get hotel room keys and all of the meals were fabulous.
While on the trip, Ms. Jackson had opportunity to try many new foods, including octopus, calamari (squid), mussels, a variety of fish, and escargot.
“I tried more foods than I’ve ever tried before,” she said. “The food was absolutely delicious and fresh.
“I saw someone go to the bakery for fresh baquettes,” she recalled.
Ms. Jackson is not a beer drinker, but she had her fair share on this trip. With beer being the main drinking refreshment, she decided to try the area’s best, and she always asked what was recommended.
“Belgium has the best beer apparently,” she said.
And since this was a Harley-Davidson owner-organized tour, there was a stop at each dealership, which had a bar, she noted.
There was also plenty of music, she said.
“Music brings everyone together,” she said. “They can sing all of the songs in English.”
This is not Ms. Jackson’s first motorcycle trip. She tries to take a two week trip each summer and brings home at least one chotchkie for her desk at Laurentian Valley Township. For those not familiar with chotchkie it is more commonly known as a knickknack.
She has travelled in almost every state of the United States and the eastern portion of Canada. She does one day want to travel the rest of Canada. The trips can be a professionally organized tour or a group planning a tour, she said. Next year she is planning to go to the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota with an uncle. There will be between 250,000 to 300,000 bikes, she said.
Ms. Jackson has also travelled to Port Dover, Ontario for the Friday the 13th gatherings. However, she doesn’t plan on participating in a Friday the 13th ride for a while, as the next ones are in February, March and November, 2015. There is only one Friday the 13th in 2016 and that’s in May while in 2017 it’s in January and October.
This is Ms. Jackson’s ninth summer riding a motorcycle. She recalls a niece pulling up to her house while riding a motorcycle and thought, “If she can do it, so can I.”
Thinking it was a kickstart machine, she figured she’d have difficulty. But that’s not the case.
“You just turn the key and press a button,” she said.
Riding a motorcycle allows a person to experience the whole ride, Ms. Jackson said.
“You can see more, smell more and feel more,” she said.
To read about Ms. Jackson’s trip, please visit the features section of whitewaternews.ca. Each day Ms. Jackson posted a report of her trip and gave us permission to run those posts in our paper.
