By Lulu

There are motorcycle rallies all over the United States, and in every corner of Florida too. Thunder Beach in Panama City Beach is one of my all-time favorites! To begin with the view from our hotel (Holiday Inn Resort) is just amazing! Secondly the restaurants and bars in town are truly happy to have the bike crowd in town! There are bikini contests every day!! I know that isn’t politically correct in 2018 according to Miss America Pageant, but even I enjoy seeing beautiful women in tiny bikinis!! There are a couple of major bike shows and since Panama City Beach is in the panhandle a lot of the bikes aren’t seen in the Daytona and Leesburg shows.

his spring the weather was perfect, not too hot and I didn’t get rained on at all!! Tons of vendors make for days of shopping and some of my favorite people are here each year, so I get to pop in and say hello to Sick Boy Motorcycles, Twisted Tea, Custom Lighting EFX, Rally Leathers and Ultimate Seats…they are usually too busy to do more than wave at me but in the rally world that is a good thing! One more thing that keeps me coming back twice a year is although it is a long ride from Daytona to Panama City Beach the ride through the countryside to get to the panhandle is beautiful. We stop in Perry for a cold one at Cypress Mill Package and Sports Grill. We wet our whistle and off we go, next thing we know we are unpacked and heading to the hot tub to ease our bones.

The next day we make a stop at the Bayer booth for a couple Aleve and we are fine!! Harley Davidson of Panama City Beach gives away a bike twice a year at this rally, and this time Radical Randy called the winners name from the stage, ready as usual to call the lucky winner live on the phone to tell them they just won a new bike. But this time, out of 25,000 entries, the winner was in the crowd and came up on stage to claim is prize. It was awesome! Lastly, the music in Frank Brown park is some of the best. I have been raving about a young teenage guitarist who was playing with Little Ozzie! So, put this trip on your wish list for fall of 2018 or Spring of 2019. We will certainly be there!