By Lulu

Just before Bike Week Roadside Tavern opened their doors, bringing back music and food to one of the favorite biker establishments in the Daytona area. A large inside non-smoking bar has a great back porch with a stage and cornhole pits. The owners of Boot Hill Saloon have taken over the bar and with their knowledge of motorcyclists and bars we are certain they will fill the Port Orange area bar with lots of great music!

By Lulu

The Boat Bar in Port Orange may be one of your places you haven’t visited yet, but you should! First-off the owners are awesome folk. Tony and Dar have been in the area for years and years and everyone loves them. You also should know they have CHEAP ice cold beer! And during Bike Week and Biketoberfest they have a free BBQ that is awesome home cooking. All year long their beer is the same price $2 domestics and $3 imports…you can’t beat that! So, take a short hop on your scoot and visit The Boat Bar soon.

By Lulu

Well thankfully Mother Nature didn’t do as much damage to the beautiful old oaks on the Broken Spoke property as it seemed Biketoberfest. Cleaning up the property was an ordeal after Hurricane Matthew, but honestly the pretty grounds of the Spoke seemed no worse for wear! Bike and rat rod shows, beautiful bartenders and fantastic music is what the Broken Spoke is known for and this year they brought it all! I could sit under those trees and drink all week; my only regret is there are so many events to cover during Bike Week that I can’t spend enough time there and when Bike Week ends the gates close and don’t reopen until the next big event…

By Deborah Speicher

The 10th Annual Harley-Davidson MDA Women’s Ride is one of Daytona Bike Week’s best organized rides just for the ladies!  Attendance has ebbed and flowed over the years and I think some of the former participants forget what the ride is all about – raising much needed funds for MDA, taking children/young adults with muscular dystrophy on a motorcycle ride and the camaraderie of being with a large group of women riders.  For those of us who keep coming back each year, it’s a reality check.  We know that we are truly rich and not just because we can afford our own motorcycles.  We are rich in health, rich in friendships and enriched by being a part of this event.

This years’ ride started out just a tad chilly (36 degrees!) but the sun was out and warming up.  We staged and left from the Daytona Beach Speedway, and our police escort took us on a back roads ride to Destination Daytona.   Announcements, prizes and kudos went to all at that time.  This was followed by lunch at Saints & Sinners.

Participation was down a bit this year due to one factor which was the change in date.  Historically, this ride has always been the Tuesday during Daytona Bike Week but was changed to the Thursday to accommodate our Road Queen, Karen Davidson.  Karen has led this ride every year and it would not be the same without her.  Although donations were still being collected at the time of my writing this article, at last count it was approximately $17,000.  Way to go ladies.   I will be back for this event next year!

By Lulu

St. Patrick’s Day was during Bike Week, a bit cold that day, but we took the afternoon to ride out to Starke to see how they celebrate the Luck of the Irish. On our way, we stopped in McHenry’s Irish Pub in Keystone Heights. We were served a huge portion of corn beef and cabbage! A great way to start an Irish celebration. Then off to the park in Starke where there was plenty of ice cold Bud Light for drinking or snow cones for those who were under 21! Live music was the fare for the evening including the Ben Carter Band. Don’t forget that Starke has their Bikefest August 11-13 with vendors and live music Friday-Sunday!