2011 Tour Indiana Passports Now Available

FEBRUARY 23, 2011 -- It’s March again. March usually signals the start of riding season for many of us. Bike Week in Daytona, Florida is in the first week of this month. For me it’s a week late to signal the start. For me the real kick-off of riding season begins with the sale of the Tour Indiana Passport books. In February they were distributed to the Region Directors at the Awards Banquet.

ABATE of Indiana has another great Passport put together for this year, and hopefully, many of you will give the Tour Indiana program a try. It is the only program of ABATE’s many programs and events that require you to ride your own motorcycle.

The Tour Indiana Program has five tours. To participate in the “Tour Program” (as many participants refer to it), you must take a picture that includes yourself, your motorcycle (all or any part of it), the passport book and the sign of 25 towns for one tour, the sign of a point of interest for three different tours or the businesses of advertisers in the Hoosier Motorcyclist for another tour.

If you complete all five tours you have earned a free one year membership in ABATE of Indiana. There are chances for other prizes depending on the amount of tours you complete. I’ll give you a run down on the five different tours.

Let me start with the ABC’s Tour first. On this tour you search for towns that have a name that begins with a letter of the alphabet, for example Arthur starts with the letter A. Indiana does not have a town or city that begins with the letter X, so that means you only have 25 letters to collect. You also must include five pictures of State Parks, or State Forests. We will also accept fish and wildlife areas and other such sites.

The next three tours are completed by going to a Point of Interest of any of the five points of interest in the North Tour (Regions 00, 1, 2, 3, and 4), the Central Tour (Regions 5, 6, 12, and two points of interest in Region 11), and the South Tour (Regions 7, 8, 9,10 and 13).

The HMC Sponsor Tour is completed by taking your picture in front of any business that has advertised in the Hoosier Motorcyclist. Do this at fifteen businesses and you have completed the “Sponsors Tour”.

The Passport cost is only $10 and you can recoup that cost by presenting the book at one event in any Region other than your own for free entry into the event. Exclusions are for any ABATE of Indiana State Event or Region 1 or 2 MDA events, ABC State Charity Events, or events in your own Region. All the details are presented in the Passport. The centerfold of the Passport even contains a ABATE of Indiana 2011 Calendar of Events.

Our past coordinator of the Tour Indiana program has stepped away from the job to take a break and pursue a more relaxing life. If you meet or see Bill McKinley thank him for a job well done taking care of the “Tour Program” for the past years.

From me, personally, a big THANK YOU goes out to Bill! I hope I can do the job as well as he has. That’s it for now, if you have any questions about the “Tour Program” ask any officer in you Region, or the ABATE State Office. If you need to you can contact me by phone at 812-536-2670 or e-mail me.

Later,
Mike Meyer
Tour Director