Bike Week, Part I

So I figured I'd use up some leave at my day job before Uncle Sam claims me for another year or so. My Army buddy Mike had been wanting to go to the Myrtle Beach Bike Rally, so I told him I would. This would be my fourth and his first. Always a good time.

Tuesday, May 8

One of us is ready to go...

I got on my Softail and Mike got on his Dyna, backpacks and saddle bags loaded, and we started heading south at about 6 PM. NoVa traffic, as always, slowed us down quite a bit. We also got rained on in the Richmond area as has been a Bike Week tradition for me. It was almost 11 PM before we hit the North Carolina border.

I work a midnight shift and was ready to ride all night. Mike on the other hand, has "regular" hours, and when I realized he was dozing off behind the handlebars on I-95, I figured we had better stop for the night. We pulled off at the first place we found. The small motel only had one room left, which happened to be a honeymoon suite. I didn't really know what exactly that meant, but the guy gave it to us for the regular price so I didn't say anything. The jacuzzi in the middle of the bedroom made me laugh when we walked in the door. "Dude...I hope staying in this room together doesn't mean we're gay." I think he was about asleep at that point. I sat in the chair and watched TV for a few hours before I nodded off.

Wednesday, May 9

Bright and early at the crack of noon, we continued our journey. We pulled into Myrtle Beach at about 3 PM, except we didn't actually pull into Myrtle Beach because I made the mistake of turning south onto the 17 bypass instead of 17 business. We were in Murrell's Inlet before I realized it, but no big deal, that's a cool place, too. So I showed Mike around. We finish up the night at some place called the Beachwagon because they advertised live country music. Turns out live country that night was Karaoke. I wasn't happy about that, but it didn't stop Mike from getting on stage and singing Brooks and Dunn...

Mike continues the Karaoke off the stage

Thursday, May 10

We ride around and see as much as we can. Not too eventful, but Bike Week doesn't actually start until tomorrow.

Friday, May 11

Bike Week finally starts for real. Funny how all the spring-break type places suddenly become "biker bars" overnight.

My girlfriend Jessie meets up with me at 4 AM. I had promised her I would wait up, but Mike was crashed already and I figured I'd better find something to do if I was gonna be awake when she got there. So I hung out at a bar called the Dog House all night. When she got there I told her to come in, but she just wanted to sleep so that ended the fun that night. It's funny, I wasn't in trouble until I was out of the Dog House...

Jessie and I

After some rest, we hit the beach for a little while and in the evening, we went down to the SBB Biker Burnout Bar to see the band Rebel Son. SBB is a cool place, you ride your bike right through the bar to get to the parking lot. The burnout pit is right there inside.

Rebel Son

SBB's Burnout Pit