Ulysses Grand Parade.

Saturday morning, and the entire showgrounds tent city was up and about very early. Assembly for the motor cycle grand parade commences at 7:00am, with planned move-off at 9:00am. Organisinng 3,000 plus bikes into an orderly group takes quite a lot of time and effort. On this ocassion the parade route of approx 10km's circles the Townsville CBD then proceeds along 3 major roads to the finish point at a sporting complex in an outer suburb. Under the control of Police escorts, the entire parade was broken up into 6 groups with a 5 minute gap between each group to allow other traffic to cross major intersections. Each of these major intersections was under the control of traffic police, with the lights switched to flashing yellow. The locals came out in force along the route to wave and cheer the riders along. I was able to "hitch" a ride as a pillion on a BMW 1200 LT (a very luxurious touring bike) with a Ulysses friend. A very enjoyable experience which gave me the freedom to!
take photos and video. Gail drove to the end point of the parade and parked on the edge of the road where she watched the entire parade pass by. I was in the second last group, so by the time we had parked the bike Gail had seen the entire 3,000 plus bikes.
We watched some of the presentations, then had a coffee before driving to the Entertainment Centre where I was attending the actual AGM. Interesting to note that only about 400 of the gathered Ulyssians actually attend the AGM meeting. This is the case each year, consequently this group are known as the "faithfull 400".
While the meeting was taking place Gail took her book into the coffee shop at the Casino next door, where she pal'd up with another "Ulysses AGM Widow". They had a great time chatting and found that they had a lot in common such as Forestville Scouts, as they used to live in Starkey St.
I had packed up my camping gear except for the tent prior to the ride,so we dropped back into the showgrounds and collected it on the way back to the caravan. Sunday morning I went back and packed up the tent and said good-bye to new friends I had made during the course of my stay at the showgrounds.

Kevin and Gail.