By Lulu

The spring and fall Panama City Beach becomes a motorcycle mecca. This year the fall rally had beautiful weather even though hurricanes had plagued most of Florida. We always stay at Holiday Inn Resort and the view is absolutely amazing! Frank Brown park was bustling with people shopping the vendors, drinking Twisted Tea and listening to great music. The headliners at the fall rally Included Shinedown which I had never even heard of, but boy what a show! 3 Doors Down, Dierks Bentley and Colt Ford completed the weekend of headliners. Hammerhead Fred’s hosted the Ms. Panama City Bikini Contest, and those bikini clad ladies packed the place every night. This year’s dates for spring are May 3-7, and Pantera May 6th, Lynyrd Skynyrd will rock the stage May 5th, Rob Zombie May 4th, & Buckcherry May 3rd. The VIP tickets are well worth the money so if you don’t have yours better get ‘em!

By Lulu

Sorry Charlie’s Corner on Highway 44 in Samsula knocked it out of the park with their first anniversary bash! This bar’s popularity has been growing by leaps and bounds with people in all vehicles, and particularly those on motorcycles. Lisa Henson helped organize the event and with the help of Willie’s Tropical Tattoo crew, sponsors which included Rue & Ziffra, The Ice Queen Truck, Cochise Chops Magazine, Busch Light, Twisted Tea, and A OK Guns they were packed and prepared. They got the word out that a party was happening on their huge property complete with country music star Whey Jennings, a Daisy Duke contest, Uncle Jess look-alike contest, and the General Lee. Sam Lowe and Christie Beu also performed and the National Anthem was sung by Michelle Marie. The Veterans Support Fund was the recipient of proceeds that day and Lisa presented them with a wad of cash, the total raised was $4059!! Great job everyone! A-OK Guns did at least 4 gun raffles to help fill that kitty.

If you haven’t been out to Sorry Charlie’s Corner it is a great spot for an ice cold brew and they do a bike night on Thursdays 6pm. Check them out and tell them Thunder Roads Florida sent you!

By Lulu

One of the biggest events of the year in the greater Daytona area is the Midwest Motorcycle Anniversary Party and Bike Show. Vendors, bikes, and hundreds of people are on site to enjoy the day at Beaver Bar in Ormond Beach. Too many trophies are given out to put all the photos in the magazine but all the photos of the winners are available on our Thunder Roads Florida Facebook site in Albums. The crowd was elbow to elbow and once again Heavy and Christine threw an amazing event. The band Greentree Brothers kept the large crowd entertained and rocking in the rocking chairs scattered on the Beaver grounds. Congratulations to the bike show winners and to Heavy for 29 years of success!

By Lulu

This yearly music & motorcycle festival is becoming one of our favorites of the year. Every motorcycle event has its own feel and this one is kind of a motorcycle Woodstock. Hosted at the Sarasota Fairgrounds there is a small fee to attend, but the money raised goes to the Suncoast Children’s Charities so all who attend can enjoy the music, vendors and fun knowing they have helped a good cause! There is also a VIP experience with a huge auction that helps feed the kitty. The bands this year were all great. One I heard for the first time and really enjoyed was Twinkle. Headliners included 38 Special, Colt Ford and Bobby Friss. Highway to Hell, Maiden Cane, Nobody’s Fool, and Nuthin’ Fancy filled the rest of the weekend with great music. This was the 25th Anniversary of Thunder by the Bay and by far the largest crowds I have seen. Included was a bike show with Kory Souza, sound off by Jim Lynch’s Bike Show Mafia, Choppertown by Born to Ride, stunt shows, burn out contest, wrestling and bike games. PLENTY to keep you entertained the whole weekend. There is also a ride on Sunday, but we have not been able to stay on Sunday to attend this yet!
I am sure that Suncoast Charities Executive Director and Event Organizer Lucy Nicandri would like to thank all who attended and those who helped to man this event. A special thank you to presenting sponsors S & S and Adrenaline H-D, and to all the following who help make this important event possible: Ford, FCCI Insurance, Greg Linehan Law, Hap’s Cycles, Badger Bob’s Services, Gold Coast Eagle Budweiser, Sonny’s BBQ, Born to Ride, USA Fence, United Rentals, Everglades Equipment, & Homs Partners. This event is every February and if you are a camping kind of guy or girl, they have on-site camping available and bring lawn chairs!

So, Bike Week came and an amazing 10 days it was! But truly amazing is this story of some bikers with hearts of gold…
Drifter’s on the River in Astor is owned by friends of mine and they were packed, when a large group of bikers rode in. They knew the food was good, and that there would be a wait by the full parking lot but decided to stay and eat anyway. They happened to be served, after a 45-minute wait, before a table who had been seated before them. The man at that table was livid. The waitress apologized profusely and, in the end, told the man with a large table she would personally pay his bill! Whether the wait was slightly longer because of the food choices, or amount of peeps at each table, or maybe she even forgot to put his order in…I do not know, but her graciousness was witnessed by the bikers and his rudeness was too. His table ate, drank and took leftovers to go all on the waitress and then didn’t leave a tip.

The biker table started throwing in money to pay for the rude table’s meal and even some for a tip, as well as tipping her for her service, hard work and kindness for their own meal! Here is the best part of the story. As they exited the building, the rude man was still in the parking lot holding his leftovers! His car had been towed for parking in the Bridge Master’s parking spot!! One of the petite blondes with the bikers went up to him and let him know Karma is a bitch, and that they paid for his table’s meals. He just stood there with his BIG mouth wide open!!
Just gotta LOVE good people who deliver justice in a kind way while leaving a positive impression of bikers!! And a waitress who probably would have lost money that day trying to make his wait acceptable while tolerating his rudeness for being a better person than most!

Enjoy this beautiful spring weather, do a kind deed, and don’t forget your sunscreen!

By Holly Will Bond

The 23rd Annual Riding Into History™ (RIH) planning committee created a new class for their Premier Vintage Motorcycle Concours d’Elegance event on April 15th, 2023 at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida. With this new class, Under 35 is Alive!©, RIH is working to attract younger participants to get involved with our event and hopefully get bitten by the bug of collecting, restoring and showing vintage motorcycles.

If you have attended any type of motorcycle event or gathering of late, one thing you notice is none of us are getting any younger. This is especially true of the collectors of fine antique and vintage machines that RIH is known to be host to. Not to mention the volunteers who work tirelessly throughout the year to make the event a success for our entrants and our charity partner, K9s for Warriors. For years we have racked our brains to come up with ways to involve younger people, in the hopes they too, will catch the bug and usher in the next generation of passionate collectors, judges and volunteers.

For a motorcycle to be considered for judging at RIH, it has to be 35 years of age or older. The name of the new class, Under 35 is Alive!©, speaks to both the age of the machine as well as the age of the entrant. This class will allow bikes that are not yet 35 years old, and the class is limited to participants who are 14 to 34 years old. Hence, the name Under 35 is Alive!© was born. As an added twist, the motorcycle being entered must be as old as the entrant. For example, a 20 year old person would have to enter a 20 year old, or older bike. More information and the online registration form can be found at https://ridingintohistory.org/under-35-is-alive/.

In addition to this new class to attract younger entrants, RIH began the first youth judging program for any motorcycle concours in the US in 2014. More information and the online registration form for our youth judging program can be found at https://ridingintohistory.org/youth-judging/.

The featured marque for this year’s show is GET YOUR HEART RACING-COMPETITION MOTORCYCLES.

Our Grand Marshals for this year are AMA Hall of Famer, Brian Slark of the Barber Motorsports Museum and Motogiro D’Italia Hall of Famer, Vicki Smith of Ducati NA. Our Honorary Grand Marshal is none other than AMA Hall of Famer, Mary McGee, Pioneer Woman in Women Racing. Read more about the amazing careers of all three of these individuals at https://ridingintohistory.org.

We look forward to seeing you April 15th, and please bring the kids.

About Riding into History

Riding Into History™ is the premier all motorcycle Concours d’Elegance in the United States. Riding Into History™ is a non-profit 501 (c)3 organization with its primary charity, K9s for Warriors which provides service dogs for disabled veterans. Riding Into History™ has donated over $600,000 to local charities since its founding in 1999.

By Lulu

Some hardworking guys in Bushnell have been busy keeping bikes on the road since 2019! Neil & Fred at Twisted Evolution have enjoyed 5 years in business. The guys recently purchased a building to store motorcycles for snowbirds and others that need their bikes maintained in a safe environment. This year’s BBQ was held at this new property, and it was awesome. This was their biggest event so far! Sticky Fingers BBQ put on an awesome spread again and the band Carry the Day rocked the inside of their new building. A bike show was also part of the event this year.
Hours of operation are Monday through Friday 9a-6p. Stop in and visit if you are in the Bushnell area. They are located at 212 N. Main St. The phone number for Twisted Evolution is 352-617-5224. Good guys who really enjoy what they do!

By Phoenix and Metric

Hurricane Ian devastated SW Florida and large portions of cities across the state. Despite the devastation, one thing that will always stand is the fighting spirit of the American people especially that of our veterans. The American spirit was on full display this past weekend in Desoto County. The American Legion Post 11 in Arcadia sits on the banks of the Peace River. Just about every time we have a hurricane the post experiences a lot of damage, but this time the post was almost completely under water. It has been a long and expensive road to recovery. There is still a lot of work to be done to restore the post, but this weekend was a step in the right direction. The community came out to help with the cost of the recovery. We had a day filled with great food, fun, and entertainment. Commander Ronnie Jones and all the members of the post would like to thank everyone who came out to support this effort. Special thanks to all the veteran organizations that came out to make this event possible.

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND OUR VETERANS!!!