The family of four are all Harley Owners Group\u2122<\/sup> members \u2013 Michael and Katelyn are full members of the Tasmanian Chapter, the girls signed up as associates \u2013 and have thrown themselves into the annual photo-based scavenger hunt with gusto. Riders earn points for snapping photos at towns, Harley\u00ae<\/sup> dealerships, national parks and big things, each with its own value. A town or big thing might be worth one point, while ticking off a state adds three. It\u2019s competitive, sure, especially in the smallest state of Australia, but for the McCarthys, it\u2019s never really been about the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe girls just really wanted to get involved,\u201d says Michael. \u201cObviously being kids, they like pins and patches and stickers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What started with couple of badges on the wall when the couple tackled the challenge a few years earlier has now turned into a full-blown family project. Most weekends, and especially during school holidays, the McCarthys can be found somewhere between A and Z, literally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Participants are given a full year to collect as many points as possible by uploading photos from their travels. Riders upload snaps along the way, and while some entries \u2013 like letters Q or Z \u2013 are harder to come by, you don\u2019t need to complete them in alphabetical order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can just grab the photos and upload them as you go,\u201d Michael explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge looks a little different when you\u2019re riding in Tasmania, where there\u2019s just one dealership and only one state to claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA state gives you three points. So obviously being stuck in Tasmania, it\u2019s quite difficult,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you lived in Victoria, you\u2019re not far away from other states to grab those three points. So a lot of people can get a lot more out of it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a maximum of around 50 points realistically on offer from the island, the family isn\u2019t chasing the top-tier prizes \u2013 though they\u2019re well aware of them. \u201cIf you get so many points, you get a pin. If you get so many extra points, you get a patch. If you get so many points extra, I think it\u2019s a stubby holder,\u201d Michael says. \u201cFirst might be a AU$1,000 H-D\u00ae<\/sup> gift card and second might be AU$750\u2026 we don\u2019t look at that too much because this year it\u2019s out of reach for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, the real reward has been time together and the small discoveries that come with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve really loved chasing around the big things,\u201d Michael says. \u201cYou don\u2019t probably necessarily have a good look at these things otherwise, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every photo submitted to the ABCs program has to include the Harley-Davidson which got you there, the destination sign and the official H.O.G.\u2122<\/sup> ABCs of Touring poster or handbook cover. With two bikes and four people, getting the shot isn\u2019t always straightforward, especially with two cumbersome bikes and when roadside stops aren\u2019t the safest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cQuite often Kasey stays on my bike and Hannah jumps off with Katelyn,\u201d Michael says. \u201cShe jumps off and takes a photo of me and we all take turns. Sometimes they have better photos than us. You know how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019ve kept up momentum through Tasmania\u2019s famously unpredictable weather, including one rally ride in February that took them through unexpected snow. \u201cThat\u2019s just unheard of. But of course, it\u2019s Tasmania\u2026 and it snowed!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Riding two-up has meant adjusting their routes and expectations. Some national parks or forest entries have been skipped to avoid gravel roads, and ferry costs have so far kept them from riding interstate, though that\u2019s set to change in 2026 with plans to attend the H.O.G. Rally in Shepparton, Victoria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the limitations, they\u2019ve managed to collect almost everything they can within Tasmania, including all the big things and all but three letters of the alphabet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think X, Y, Z we\u2019re missing. That\u2019s it,\u201d he says. \u201cSo we\u2019re organising a trip over to Zeehan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The girls, both still in primary school, have embraced the challenge. They take turns behind the camera, help spot signs from the back seat and rarely complain \u2013 even when the relentless Tassie rain sets in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019ve been pretty good about it,\u201d Michael says. \u201cWe just throw their weather gear on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fitting it all in around work, school and weekend sport hasn\u2019t always been easy, but the family does what they can. \u201cWe have times where we can\u2019t get on the bikes for months at a time with work and kids\u2019 activities,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then other times we\u2019re on them every weekend or whenever we can.\u201d Asked what he\u2019d say to other families thinking about giving the ABCs a go, Michael doesn\u2019t mince words. \u201cA lot of people say that it\u2019s expensive and whatnot. But I guess it\u2019s one of those things, if you want to do it, you just do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We catch up with the Tassie family of four H.O.G. members that are collectively tackling the ABCs of Touring and loving every kilometre There\u2019s more than one way to tackle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[6,9],"class_list":["post-1367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-community","tag-riding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1367"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1724,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions\/1724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_9870-732x1024.jpg\")
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