“Keep The Rubber Side Down”

As Greenville prepares to roll out the welcome mat for a motorcycle rally attracting thousands of bikers, South Carolina’s chief destination for motorcyclists — Myrtle Beach — is telling the annual clientele that their welcome has worn thin. Eric Connor is Staff Writer for the Greenville News.  

This week, the coastal city famous for its wide beaches, neon lights and May bike rallies moved to raise property taxes to generate $1 million to discourage future rallies after years of complaints about objectionable activity that the rallies bring along with their boost to the local economy.”

“We’ve certainly struggled with the scope of the rallies for the past dozen years,” city of Myrtle Beach spokesman Mark Krua said. “They’re simply overwhelming the community. The bike rallies have worn out their welcome.”

read more…

After a good night sleep, Jonanthan and I headed over to Broadway, where many of the Bike Week events were taking place. We spent several hours walking around looking at many of the bikes, visiting the vendors, and of course people watching! 

Here’s one of the few BMW’s

Sweet!

Why not just buy a car!

A Bad Mother!

Oh yea, there were also a couple of Harley’s there as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaMIRa_aK1E

Heading South on I-26 early on Mother’s Day was amazing!  A slight drizzle dancing on the windshield with intermittent rays of sun peaking through, made for a magical display.

We soon settled in, finding the pace the road would give up so early in the morning. Turns out she was giving steady, and calm.  Out of  Asheville, this stretch of Interstate is filled with gentle curves, and amazing mountain scenery, the Smokies mountains are majestic, and  living up to their name with pillars of smoke reaching towards the heavens.  This Sunday morning no one is in a hurry;  at least not yet! 

2 hours into the ride we arrive in Columbia S.C. the skies are beginning to clear and the temperature is climbing.  We make a brief stop to rid ourselves of the rain suites and heavy gloves.  We are ready to RIDE!

The road has changed from gently rolling curves, to long straight aways, and an increased  posted speed limited.  This is no longer a sleepy ride!  We pour on the throttle and set the cruise some where between 80-110 mph.  (no specifics my wife is reading this).

Upon our arrival in Myrtle Beach we settled into our hotel, unloaded and quickly headed to the beach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-07f-SkxA1I

It  was a fantastic ride to Myrtle Beach, more later!

Hey all!  Hope the weather is as nice in your area as it is in Springfield.  This is prep week for me as my 11 state tour begins on Saturday.  My oldest son and I, will head out around 6 a.m.  and not look back for some 3200 miles.  Each night I will be posting an update of the days events, I will work hard to not bore you with the details(here we are loading the bike).  The first part of the trip will be around the Blue Ridge Parkway including ”The Snake” and “Tail of the Dragon”.  Then we will move on to “Myrtle Beach Bike Week” where we will spend a couple of days before heading south to other uncharted galaxies.

If you have some ideas about anything you would like me to post, I am open to suggestions.   I have done this before, but thought I would get some feed back. 

And remember I will bring a T-shirt back for each and every one of you!  If you behave, that is! :)

On May 11th and 12th I will be at Myrtle Beach Bike Week.  Anyone going to be down there?  Let me know!