Mattes's Musings by KC2GIK

Besides visiting some cool museums and attending two baseball games  with Clark & Dean on our  way out to the ALPCA Convention in  Ft Wayne, I managed to tack on a few more counties in Michigan, Ohio and of course Indiana. Since Dean was riding shotgun, it was hard keeping track but I think I did a pretty decent job! 7/12/26-7/18/26 Wasentaw CO,MI Monroe CO,MI Ottawa CO,MI —-- ——————— Lapeer CO ,OH   Wood Co, OH Sandusky Co,OH Erie Co,OH Henry Co. OH Williams Co,OH Paulding Co,OH Defiance Co,OH Lucas Co,OH ________________ DeKalb Co,IN Allen Co,IN Henry Co,IN Wayne Co, IN Grant County ,IN Huntington C o, IN

     It's almost been three years since I decided to abandon my   paid web host  and moved my  website over to Blogger. I realized I hadn't really explored the "pages " feature that  creates single pages you can link to like regular pages on a website. At first I was hesitant because I wanted to keep my HTML coding skills up to par, but I am just happy to get it back !!  I will continue to write about the ALPCA Conventions on here but have an index of all license plate writing on there. .I also plan to cross-post  both blogs. I also have links to the license plate collectors' eBay handles and the "What We Collect" pages from my old site!! The link is http://plates.justinmattes.com

As I have written before  about losing hosting for various reasons, mainly because the hosting fees get jacked up and I wasn't using half the services they provided.  After much consideration I decide to move the entire site onto Blogger/Blogspot., This includes both my license plate trading list . links to other websites.  Although I'm divided on whether to put actual license blog entries on the new site or leave them here!  There might be a little cross-posting in the near future, stay tuned!!! Justin Mattes License Plates

   A soggy Saturday in October didn't stop 74 people (70 members, 4 guests) from attending the annual ALPCA Garden State Region meet at the Pennington Fire Company in Pennington NJ. People traveled from 13 states, including as far away as Arizona to exchange plates and renew friendships. As usual bagels and coffee were served to get everyone's day started off. Every year members bring some amazing displays, this year did not disappoint. Congratulations to Allan Attanasio for taking home the best display award for his very detailed display of the history of NJ Motor Vehicle Inspector plates & memorabilia. Best single plate went to a Pennsylvania We The People plate owned by Marco Sordi. Once again Kerry Weishaar traveled from sunny Arizona picked up the Long Distance Award Thanks to all the volunteers that help keep this meet running. We anticipate on having our fall meet next year on the 2 nd  Saturday in October. Stay tuned to Plates Magazine for details!!!! Submitte...

It has been a dream of mine ever since I visited my uncle out in California, not TRAVEL Route 66 entirely, but to see different parts of it. The annual ALPCA Convention rolled into Tulsa Oklahoma the second week in July. I was especially thrilled beca u se the club was supposed to visit Tulsa in 2022 however it was cancelled due to  the Coronavirus.    So three years later I finally got the opprinuity thanks to my brothe4r Pete and his -wife Sue. The planning started back in January! Since they had so much travelling to Lansing last year I thought they would like Tulsa!!! We  booked the host hotel way in advance this time, so we were right in the middle of all the action, although once again we had to  change planes, so I decided to  ditch the scooter once and for all! The walker worked perfect and since we had to change planes both on the way out and the way home, it was easier to hop in a wheelchair provided at the airports!!  We didn't argue too muc...

 This came in the mail in early Feburary of last year, it's my new membership card signifying I paid my 2024 dues to the Automobile License Plate  Association. It's especially special because it means I have been withALPCA for 30-years, I joined in 1994 when I was 16. Well I didn't "join" I received it as a Christmas gifit from my parents, but my license plate collecting story starts a full year earlier. I decided to end my 30th year in ALPCA by writing a little about how I started and then highlighting some of  entries I have written  When I was around 14 I started to pay attention to the different licenses platess on cars. First it was antique cars that in NJ had the letters"QQ" either at the beginning or the end of the license plate. Then I looked at police cars and firetrucks had "MG" and some had "CG". I later found out later in New Jersey "MG" stood for "Municipal Government", "CG" stood for "C...

Trying to start to   writing regularly on the blog  again. I have been working on other stuff like adding links and uploading more poetry, but no real enteries so I decide to put up this license pla ete meet report. Really interesting story  on how  I go t to the meet itself. Dad was planning on helping Pete work on his house. He said he wasn't going to drive back to New Jersey  all weekend. Luckily my friend John Willard lived near Pete's house and I got him to pick me up. Below is  the meet report I submitted to the ALPCA Magazine On a crisp October day 50 ALPCA members and 16 guests assembled at the Pennington Fire Company in Pennington, NJ for the 15th Annual Garden State Region Meet. People arrived before the 8 AM and were greeted with coffee bagels and doughnuts. Trading was very active as members showed off their latest finds from the car show and flea market out in Hershey, PA just a few days prior. This was the first year we gave awards out fo...

Over nine hours, 634 miles and  twenty five counties between Pete and Sue's house in Chadds Ford, PA and Lansing, MI! I got to the hotel. We did an overnight in Detroit on the way out and saw a Tigers game Delaware  CO, PA Chester CO,PA  Bucks CO,PA Dauphin CO,PA Bradford CO,PA  Fulton CO,PA Somerset Co.,PA Fayette CO,,PA Westmoreland CO PA Lawrence CO PA Mahoney CO, OH at 14:56  Manhong CO OH Portage CO OH  Trumbull CO OH Summit CO OH Cuyanuga CO OH Loraine CO OH Erie CO OH Sadusky CO OH Wood CO OH Lucas CO OH Wayne CO MI around 4PM 6/25/24 Oakland CO MI Livingston CO MI Igham CO,MI

       On a brisk October day 65 people (51 members and 14 guests) assembled at the Pennington Fire Company for the 14th Annual Garden State Region meet. Once again Ed Butler and Justin Mattes hosted collectors from a half a dozen states in a hall filled with close to fifty tables.Among the attendees was long time New Jersey ALPCAn Phillip Leib who brought some incredible old New Jersey plates to display Plenty of coffee, bagels and doughnuts were provided to feed hungry collectors during the morning into the afternoon as they swapped stories and tin. Among the newest members was also the youngest in the group;. Miles Klenk attended his  first meet accompanied by his mother Rebecca and his father Matt. Miles reminded the veteran collectors what it was like going to a first meet. His eyes were all lit up when he saw tables of plates.  The Garden State Region thanks all attendees for their continued support over the years. We will seeing your again at the...

Hope folks who attended the big show in Denver made it home alright, with a few new treasures. My sister-in-law, Sue had a ball and I want to thank everyone for making her feel so welcome. She even started her own collection with oneplate. Somehow she s already talking about Michigan I found some great plates and even managed to snag another 99 plate. . The Forney Museum was the perfect place to host the dinner this year. I still think Tiger Joe will still be in the motorcycle section if we didn't escort him out. Thursday night we saw the Rockies get destroyed by the Dodgers! Friday night was of course the auction and I'm glad to report I have another # 99 in my collection. The highlight of the business meeting was watching Scott Mitchell and Clark Wothe be inducted into the ALPCA Hall of Fame. They would both very surprised!!! Well it certainly was one for the books! I wasn't sure how I was going to pull it out since mom passssed away, but Sue helped me pull off a little m...

  One of the highlights of the convention was seeing ALPCA member and all around good guy Norm Ratcliffe get inducted into the ALPCA Hall of Fame. I actually knew he was going to be inducted months ago because I wrote the biography for his plaque. It was a writing project I worked on since January and had to keep it under wraps until the convention. Norm has been a member of ALPCA for forty years and has definitely made his mark. Congratulations to one of my best friends from Canada!!!!

I convinced my folks to drive out to my brother Chris's   house by Trenton to meet Ed instead of having Ed drive down to Cape May! As I said in the previous entry , Ed explained  in an email he wanted to do some sightseeing on the way down to Knoxville. I was a b it concerned ' a long four day car ride wouldn't be good for my back, but I figured I would give it a try.  Some of the members of the license plate group are also members of the Extra Miler Club which is a group of folks that try to visit every county in the United States. There's a website called mob-rule.com which allows you to keep track of how many counties you visited.  I have been trying to keep up and remember all of my travels. Ed mapped out our route to maximize the number of counties we could complete between New Jersey and Tennessee. That's why you see we dipped into Ohio and Indiana which were also two new states under my belt.  The back roads were windy  but ...

I forgot to post these series of emails to the blog!! Below is a  I have since been to Knoxville and back! Since this was written before  the trip I decided to do a number of posts about the epic trip I took to the 65th ALPCA Convention in Knoxville, Tennessee. I will devote a few posts to include the road trip with Ed Butler, a fellow New Jersey ALPCA member, the convention itself and the achievements I had along the way. Ed and I joined  ALPCA around the same time so we grew in the club together. He knew I wanted to go to this convention because the next convention is in Tulsa Oklahoma, a lot harder to get to from Cape May!! Knoxville was hard enough!! Like in previous post about travel I will break this down into multiple posts Ed and I casually talked about driving to Knoxville together  dates back to early April! As he mentioned in his e-mail we did indeed do some sightseeing, but more about that later!!!1 Ed's Original E-mail:  Hi Justin,  ...

I sent t he following e-mail to a select friends, then I realized I haven't written an entry in quite awhile!! Talk about killing two birds with one stone. It takes the place of about ten entries so if you're reading it have a happy and safe 2019! Justin Friends, Happy New Year-- 2019!! First and foremost this IS NOT a chain email! I'm not promising a million dollars for every time you forward this e-mail. Just want to wish all of you a happy new year and highlight what I have been up to in 2018. From getting my first article published about a fire here in Cape May, celebrating my 40th birthday with my dad, brothers, uncle and a handful of friends,to travelling with the family to Italy, it has been a wonder 2018. I won't dwell on each one too much but need to express both my gratitude  for th e past and hopes for the future As I turned 40 I realized I need to get into the 21st century so I traded in my LG SLIDE PHONE for an  Iphone 5S!! Yes ladies and gentleman ...

Before I get to the license plate meet itself I must, include a little background. Clark Wothe, who is in charge of ALPCA's eleven different regions has been trying to get to a meet in every region. He lives in Arizona and is always travelling for business and has like a million air miles. Since moving topCape May I have been attempting to invite anybody and everybody down to visit us.  I've have other ALPCA members stop by, even Gary Walker all the way from Australia!! However Clark was different. Every where he travels on business, he sends me a post card, I literally have cards from all over the country, the money he spends. Clark says he's "extreme" a few weekends ago.  I had a chance to  play "tour guide. We started out at where else but the Cape May Lighthouse. While it wasn't open to climb I took Clark on a tour of Cape May State Park Our tour then took us to   Atlantic City to meet Lucy the Elephant.  Oddly enough for all the times I have bee...

Nothing is more upsetting than to come on this blog to try to comprehend another death of a friend. Dave Kuehn was one of the first members of ALPCA I actually met in person. when I first joined back in 1994 my first meet was in New York City the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Some how I got my dad to drive me into Manhattan to a community center in the middle of the city. We arrived to ind a group of collectors from the area and surrounding states and sign on sheet. I vaguely remember actually meeting Dave but I remember him showing off rare and valuable Connecticut plates for sale. When someone inspected them Dave gave a brief history lesson on the plate, where it came from and if it was for sale. Usually he notice the young collectors at the shows and give them a few pointers on how to build  up their collections. Dave knew where we were coming from because he started collecting as a teenager himself. Dave joined ALPCA when the club still held their yearly conventions in s...