Today's paper estimated the attendance at his year's "MountainFest" at 80,000 bikers. A friend who stopped by the house this afternoon went down town to watch the "Parade of Bikes" and told me that the procession of motorcycles lasted for more than an hour this year. The Parade of Bikes is fun. Anyone on any kind of motorcycle can ride in it. The route of the parade runs for about 3 miles, with the last half mile being the main street of Morgantown, WV (Home of WVU, a town of about 30,000 permanent residents and 25,000 students). Bikes meet up starting at noon at the Universities' Colosseum (Basketball stadium) and the parade starts at 1:00 pm. All intersecting roads are blocked by the police. It is great good fun and there are a few thousand motorcycles that participate. Last year's parade was led by Willie G. Davidson and our then Governor (Now Senator) on new Harlies, of course.
There are events all around town and acres of vendors and exhibits plus a large motorcycle show at the events focal point that is held at a local park from Wednesday until Sunday. There is also music, but its old fart music. I enjoyed it though, Ten Years After on thursday night, Ted Nugent (Yeah, I know, one of those Teabagger jerkoffs) and Molly Hatchet on Friday night.
This morning is the annual vintage bike race, which is held on the down-town streets. A number of "heats" are run in enough classes that every bike that shows up can "compete". Of course it is a gentlemen's race, featuring a number of bikes from the 1920's~1940's
but any bike built before 1981 (30 years old or older). I had intended to finish up my CB550 in time for this race as well as a drive-in custom show - both of which I intended to win, but the cancer has slowed down my plans a good bit. I hope to take them both next year with the Honda though.
There has been no news of any major accidents (though my wife dropped her Sporty yesterday) and that is always good news. Of course there are the rides too. There are far too many poker runs and that sort of thing to count and then there are the rides that just sort of form up and happen. This area of the country has some of the best twisties to be found anywhere and its pretty clear that several thousand of our visitors took advantage of them.
So, if you're in the east this time next year you might want to give it a shot. This is the coastal north-east, so 90% of te bikes you see are Harlie's, but all bikes and bikers are welcome and the town really extends the hospitality.
