“I’m about to tell you something you will need to pay close attention to.’’ I don’t want to be the one to tell you this, but if there was somewhere you wanted to go or something you wanted to do this summer, it’s too late, because the summer of 24 is officially in the books. As for me, this year has been a personal best as I have accomplished everything, I set out to do, leaving me with no disappointments. Hope you can say the same.

One of the things that assumed a lot of my summer was preparing for the 4 th Annual ISA ATV Jamboree. Just like the Ride-In there is so much time and thought that goes into advertising, preparing the games, food, laying out the road course, providing all the stakes and signage needed, getting all the critters in place for the scavenger hunt, the typing and printing all the forms that were required, laminating the directional arrows and the list goes on and on. If there is anything I have learned about doing these events, is not to forget anything and to be prepared for whatever curve that’s thrown your way. Safety is our biggest concern as we would never want to see anyone get hurt. We all know when you send out 40 machines on an 80-mile road course or 80 snowmobiles out on 400 miles of trails that anything can happen. The best thing we have going for us is that we have very courteous, capable, and experienced riders at either the wheel or handlebar of their machines. At the ISA ATV Jamboree there were many ways to win some serious cash and there were many different winners. It is our goal to spread the winnings around as best we can, and we were all very pleased that we were able to do just that. I was so shocked that many winners donated their winnings back to the ISA. Those that did stated they had so much fun they just wanted to give it back to the ISA. How awesome. Thank you. Also, I want to thank all the ISA Directors for their part in making this event the success it was. As I stated before, there is so much effort that goes into preparing for an event such as this and if not for the many busy hands and the dedication of your ISA Directors, it just simply would not happen.

Continuing my discussion about ATVs and ORVs, I want to report many positive things that have fallen into place for riders in Elkhart County this past spring and summer. It all began when the County Commissioners called a meeting to discuss the possibilities of allowing snowmobiles, ATVs and ORVs on all county roads within the County. I was able to speak along with a couple of others in support of allowing these machines to share the same right-a-way with automobiles, much like we did in Marshall County several years ago. Because there were no objections from anyone in attendance at this pivotal meeting, a motion was made and all council members voted in favor, making it unanimous. Within 3 weeks an ordinance was drafted, and we are now enjoying riding the county roads in Elkhart County. Since this time cities such as Middlebury, Bristol, Goshen, and Bremen now have ordinances in place authorizing the use of ORVs only