DAYTONA BIKE WEEK '09

Kim and I woke up this morning as excited as two eager tots on Christmas morning. We weren’t going downstairs to open presents, instead, we were going to the opening day of Daytona Bike Week-’09. Bike Week is a motorcycle event and rally held annually in Daytona Beach, Florida. More than a half million people make their way to Daytona, lining both sides of N. Beach Street and Main Street, for the 10-day event. The festivities include motorcycle racing, concerts, parties, and street festivals. The event is usually held on the first full week of March and contends with the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally as the most popular motorcycle rally in the U.S.A.

Having never been to Bike Week before, the prospect of going out and seeing the sights was, for us, almost more exciting than Christmas. Unlike the Daytona 500, which confines its madness to the speedway and adjacent grounds, Bike Week infects the entire city of Daytona Beach. People descend on Daytona like a swarm of Bees to celebrate the motorcycle, and as early as 7:00 am, we could hear the steady rumble of countless bikes thundering in the distance. The weather, too, was perfect. A cloudless sky, low humidity, 72-°F and a light southerly breeze combined to make the day just right for walking around town.

We Left the boat around 10:00 and headed toward the old Downtown area along N. Beach Street. Having skipped breakfast, we made a mandatory stop at our favorite fast food place, Hound Dogs. This place is so cool with the Elvis memorabilia on all of the walls and the King singing softly in the background. But the best part is the food, because you can get a genuine Chicago Style Dog, or a Chili Cheese Dog that rivals Skyline, or some of the best N. Carolina Style, Pulled Pork Barbeque you’ve ever had. We absolutely love the place.

From Hound Dogs, we wandered on down Beach Street, towards Main Street and across the bridge to Daytona Beach proper. We spent a little better than 6 hours walking the 5.2 mile round trip and taking pictures of the bikes along the way. I honestly don't think we ever saw the same bike twice. People were really friendly and it was fun watching all of the bike displays, partiers, pedestrians and crazies on motorcycles. It was truly just one big party.

We finally got back to the marina around 5:00 pm and kicked back for a bit to rest our feet. Once our feet stopped aching, we put together a slide show from some of our day’s pictures and have posted them here for your enjoyment. If you want bigger images that are in the blog slide show, you can click on http://sailpoints.com/bikeweek/bikeweek09.htm and view them there. The website takes less bandwidth, plus you can RIGHT CLICK on the show and a control panel will pop up so you can stop the action for a longer look. Either way, we hope you enjoy what we saw on Opening Day.