By Lulu

One of our favorite rallies is Thunder Beach. Hurricane Michael cheated us out of the fall rally, not that so much damage was done to the actual structures of Panama City Beach but the relief workers, construction crews and displaced homeowners needed the hotels and campsites for temporary housing. Mexico Beach and areas just east of Panama City Beach were hit hard.

So, with much excitement we headed to Thunder Beach for bike shows, bikini contests, concerts, tattoo contests, vendors and good food and spirits. Many of our rally friends, including Sick Boy Motorcycles, Custom Lighting EFX, Bill Grotto and Twisted Tea, Ultimate Seats, Steven with Bayer, GUM and Dr. Scholl, and Rally Leathers were all in attendance either at Frank Brown Park, Harley-Davidson of Panama City Beach or at the new venue called Crossroads run by Scott Demonico.

This year’s headliner, Colt Ford and THE LACS played to a huge crowd Friday night. Black Stone Cherry had a bit of bad weather on Saturday night, but the crowds toughed it out. I think the Miss Thunder Beach bikini contest and the H-D bike giveaway might have added to the need to hang tough. As usual, Hammerhead Fred’s hosted some of the preliminaries for Miss Thunder Beach and for the Ms. Thunder Beach contest.

At Crossroads, the tattoo contest was one of the best I have seen. A great bike show was held by Southern Biker Magazine with surfboard trophies. Cartel Baggers walked away with best of show and even Cory Souza was in town for this one and added another trophy to his collection.

The Gulf Coast economy took a hit with the devastating hurricane in 2018, so put this year’s fall rally on your calendar to support not only the businesses in the area but the vendors and organizers of this great rally. The dates are October 23-27 so lock down your hotel reservations now.