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

  I was hesitant to leave Cape May for three months because I'd miss my friends but there was a definite upside.  License plate collector and ALPCA member Jeff Francis hosts a license plate meet in January at his huge warehouse in St. Petersburg Florida. The warehouse is filled with license plates, all kinds of memorabilia  from highway signs to even a few antique cars. He also has a few phone booths, although I checked and no dial tone.  It takes days just to see everything then you get to the license plates!! I actually found one or two plates in the vast sea of tin. One of the many highlights was travelling with my buddy  Rick Kretschmer.  who I first roomed with at the 2007 ALPCA Convention in Huntsville and have done numerous trips out to Hersey  before I moved from Woodcliff Lake down to Cape May. One of the first thoughts when my dad bought the house down here was Rick had to drive through SC to get to Florida so I had my chance!! It just so hap...

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

       For a few months there has buzz around Cape May NJ that Bob Dylan was coming to America's Oldest Seaside Resort. No he wasn't playing a concert at Convention Hall. For most of this weeks parts of 2024 Cape May,NJ was transformed into 1965 Newport, RI. A Complete Unknown is a new film about Dylan's conversion from acoustic  to electric guitar starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan is in production and the location scouting team decided that  Cape May today looked like Newport back in '65. Bob Dylan debuted  his hit song Like a Rolling Stone   at t he Newport Folk Festival. They even transformed Perry Street  into Belevedere Avenue. Shops along the Washington Mall were temporarily renamed to match shops up in Newport.  The Victorian Motel was baptized then Viking Motel for the film  Days prior I started seeing filming equipment  being transported into town.       Like most o f the town I was hopi...

       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...

Like millions around the world I'm mourning the passing of legendary singer Jimmy Buffet. Facebook is obviously filled with tributes to the Mayor of Margaritaville, some pretty funny memories out there. One stuck out particularly, Zak Brown called Jimmy Buffet an "American Poet", which  seems fitting. Buffet lived in Key West where another writer, Ernest Hemingway called home and did most of his writing. I think Jimmy toured the Hemingway house a few times  for inspiration and even wondered how he wrote. It makes me wonder about the conversations between Hemingway and Buffet are having right now. I can see Hemming smoking a pipe while Buffet toking on the finest marijuana ever created. They are talking about writing, their adventures on the sea and how they lives impacted their craft. Man would I love to be a fly on that wall. I wonder if their ghosts are going to wander the streets of Key West Florida together?? You never know what will happen. While Buffet was a beloved...

 Well history always seems to repeat itself. I obtained"justinmattes.com after I struggled to get " bergenscanner.com back. At the time I knew about website design but not website management. I started on Tripod, a free hosting services with ads with some frequencies which grew into a  then a radio associate who worked for a web hosting company offered to partner up with me, he host the site on one of his company's server and I would edit it. Well everything was all and dandy until the hosting company went out of business. Even though I had access to change the site, it wasn't always easy, the site went dark a few times./ Pretty soon the company went out of business and the website went with it Including the domain name which got scooped up by a company that waits for domains to expire and then pounces. It's very common, another lesson I learned on the fly. Another friend helped me get the domain back and switched the site to another server. I had the domain under...

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!!!!