The following appeared in a local publication -

The following appeared in a local publication - Metroland. We've reprinted it here without anyone's permission, followed by our response, for your amusement.

You Are Here - By Travis Durfee
Harley Rendezvous
Indian Lookout Country Club, Pattersonville, NY
June 21-23, 2002
Date we checked it out: Saturday, June 22, Noon to 4 pm

Upon arrival at the third leg of the triple crown of Capital Region bike events (following Cobleskill's AM-JAM and Lake George's Motorcade), I was made to sign a release stating I wouldn't sue the family hosting the event should I find myself offended by what lay in store inside the gates. Official particulars out of the way, I entered the gates followed by an admonition from a skull-capped, wheelchair-bound ex-biker (the spokes of his wheelchair were chromed out) that I wasn't entering Disneyland.

The age of the motley crew inhabiting the country club for the extended weekend appeared to start around mid-to-late 20s, and went up from there. You might've been questioned for terrorist associations if you weren't sporting Americana or Harley Davidson gear, blue jeans, black T-shirts and leather anywhere it would fit.

Irony of the day: dig Wingnut, looking like a vagabond in his oil-stained tattered denims and beer drippings marking the neck of his overly worn T-shirt, from which sprouted his scruffy face and scraggly hair. He stood next to his 1974 chopper, all its polished and pampered chrome shining like a big, fat diamond.

The overall vibe was decidedly misogynistic. Early arrivals were sure to get their camp sites right on the edge of Titty Alley, the campground's main thoroughfare, where the fellas sat, bullhorns in hand, and hollered the mantra of the weekend: "Show your tits!" And surprisingly - or not depending on how often you frequent bike events - some of the lucky ladies obliged excitedly. But it didn't end there. Inside a nylon-tarped mall of sorts, gypsy merchants hocked various bitch, tit, and dick vulgarities silk screened on T-shirts and embossed on stickers. Most of it was displayed right next to cute little Harley Davidson jumpers and two-piece outfits for baby girl bikers, probably irony of the day number two.

Bike competitions, like the tractor pull and figure-eight race, saved a little face for the day, and while the afternoon's cover bands proved that rock & roll really doesn't forget, the day, for the most part, was a lot like trip to the zoo.

Best overheard line of dialogue:

Couple of female friends looking at a pair of black, eight-inch platform heeled, thigh high leather boots.

"Oh, those are so totally my daughter!"

"How old is your daughter now, 9?"

"Nope, she's 12."

The Last Word:

Like going to a carnival and replacing all the rides and people with more carnies.

Rendezvous' Response:

It sounds like Travis, the Metroland reporter - who calls Americade "Motorcade" - obviously knows nothing about us or our lack of inhibitions from mainstream media's constantly telling us what's okay and what isn't. This biased, virgin reporter refers to a wheelchair-bound Viet Nam vet as a skull capped ex-biker. He said the rodeo "saved the day" after having to see "tit and dick vulgarities" on T-shirts next to a booth selling outfits for baby bikers. He makes fun of a biker in worn jeans and not very fancy T, beard and scraggly hair, standing next to his polished bike. He even called it ironic. He's obviously never done any manual labor, like polish a bike, or his shirt might have a stain or two, and his hair might look a little mussed. Or maybe we aren't supposed to wear any item of clothing past the point it begins to fade? I just don't see what he saw wrong with that picture.

How dare this publication, Metroland, attend our event for the first time ever (that we know of), and send a Yuppie to assess our lifestyle. How can such an obviously biased individual possibly write an honest review? Or was it supposed to be biased?

Don't ever forget the early years, and how hard we had to fight to be accepted for who we are. Just because we like to be ourselves, and not what someone else thinks we ought to be, doesn't give anyone the right to discriminate against us. "Live and let live."

I count three bold outright lies in the article, and on top of that, when he referred to his visit to the Rendezvous as a day at the zoo, I got upset. The gate has always been open to the press, and we've taken the bad along with the good. But never before have we been subjected to such hatred by a local publication.

After I clipped the article, I filed the Metroland where it belonged - in the trash. And then I felt a little better.

No one forced him to sign a release form.

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