Thunder Beach Panama City, FL April 30th - May 3rd

I got back last night from my first bike rally. I started off Thursday with my friend Morris, his wife Brigitte, and about 7 of Morris' biker friends. The day was beautiful and we had a good ride down to the beach. One of the first things we saw when riding into town was a pretty girl in a bikini holding a sign advertising for a bike wash but I couldn't get anyone to stop with me. It sucks being the only single guy in the group. If the others wives weren't with us I know we would have stopped. So I had to ride around with a dirty bike all weekend. After resting a bit and getting some food we headed out to one of the venues. It was amazing seeing the sea of motorcycles lined up in the parking lot. It was fun just looking at all the different bikes people had. There were bikes with V8 engines, bikes with incredible custom paint jobs, and everything else you could imagine. About 11:00 PM, we decided to head over to Destin to the condo we were staying at courtesy of my new friends John & Lisa 1. My other new friends, Roger & Lisa 2 were staying at a condo in Panama City so it gave us a place to go during the day to relax in between all our running around. I drove 350 miles the first day. I was exited about hitting the bed and getting some much needed sleep but as soon as I laid my head down a bird started singing. What kind of stupid bird sings at night!!! Doesn't he know that his mate can't fly at night? I finally dozed off and awoke at 6:30 in the morning and everyone was getting up. I heard breakfast cooking and since the kitchen was right next to my bedroom I knew there was no chance of getting a little more rest. Of course it had gotten light outside and the bird stopped singing. Oh well, I got up and joined the rest of the gang for breakfast which John and Lisa so graciously prepared. We rode back the 45 minutes to Panama City to start all over again. Saturday while the women went shopping at the outlet stores, us guys took off 30 miles out of town in the middle of nowhere to a bar called "The Outpost". We met up with some of their other friends for the ride there. It was on a river and was packed with bikers enjoying live music and beer of course. We kicked back and joined in the festivities. Later we met back up with the ladies at the condo and went to dinner. Afterwards we came back, parked the bikes and walked a block to another party with live music. The band was great and the lead guitarist was a 20 year old kid named Eli who will probably be a star one day. He was so incredible that it was almost hard to take my eyes off his playing to see the art work that was on display walking around. The later it got, the wilder it got but everyone was having a good time. About 2:00 AM I walked back to the condo and slept there for the night. I didn't get much sleep and we had the long ride back home coming up. We gathered all our gear, ate and headed home worrying about the storms that waited for us. We called people in Birmingham and they said there were tornado warnings and thunderstorms with 70 MPH winds. We took our time and did not run into anything until we were about 50 miles below Montgomery. We could see the line of clouds and they looked ominous. We put our rain gear on and drove until a large gust of wind about blew us off the road. We ducked into a service station and after 30 minutes of heavy rain & wind, the storm let up and we resumed our ride. Fortunately, all the storms had passed and we made it home without anymore bad weather.

I wasn't sure what to expect from my first bike rally but what I found was this. Everyone I met or saw was respectful, fun, and just there to have a good time with friends. These bikers all share a bond that makes them brothers. It didn't matter if you rode a Harley(which most of them did) or a Yamaha like mine, everyone got along. I didn't see any fights or anyone acting badly in any way. It made me proud to say that I was a biker. When you can get that many people together drinking and partying and not have any incidences, it says something about the character of the people. I can't wait for my next biker rally wherever it may be.

I included pictures of me and my girlfriend for the weekend..LOL, Morris & Brigitte, John, Lisa1, Roger, & Lisa2. I also included a few other pictures. If anyone wants to see pictures I could not show on this post because young children will be looking, send me an e-mail and I'll send them to you.

I want to thank Morris and my new friends for inviting me to tag along with them on this adventure. I hope we will have many more in the future. God bless you all.

Steve