It was Thursday April 24th and at 734 am i left Panama city beach for Leesburg, Fl. and Leesburg Bike Fest. I always like riding towards Ocala. Riding the forgotten Coast. Stopped in PCB for Dunkin donuts and then on my way. Traffic was heavy all the way to Calloway and then after Tyndall things leveled out. It was a great ride and my first stop was at rest area in Carrabelle Beach. Always clean restrooms. As i continue east i always have lunch at the Huddle house in Perry. It was a beautiful day. I was looking forward to getting their as i was scheduled to have lunch with the GL1800riders.com on sat. These are the guys that send messages and ride together in central Florida. I have talked to lot of them but haven’t met any of them. I arrived in Ocala and checked into motel for the night. We were on EST, so i lost an hour heading east.
On Friday April 25th i was up and on my way by 10 am. Stopped at dunkin donuts for coffee before i headed to Leesburg. Met a guy there with a Harley and he was a local but had a son in CT and goes up to visit him in summer. We talked for about 30 minutes. I headed south not really knowing where i was going but their were enough bikers on the road and i could follow them. When i got to Leesburg i didn’t realize how big this bike festival was. someone said their estimated 200,000 bikers for this weekend. I parked the trike and headed to where all the action was. One of the main reasons i came was for the vendors. I wasn’t able to go to bike week this year so this would be my first good group of vendors. I was looking for a few things.
The first deal i came across was a summer riding jacket with a liner, it was marked down and just my size, It is now hanging on the back of my chair, and the next vendor was from Iron Horse Saloon in Ormond Beach, one of my favorite [laces to go. They were selling long sleeve shirts for 10.00 each got 3 of those.
As i was walking around i saw fajita mike from Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis. Talked to him and got my pic taken and told him Doug and i were heading that way this year.
After walking around i headed back to motel where i spent the night and packed up and headed south to leesburg to have lunch with Fl Cracker and the rest of the group of Gl1800 forum riders and lunch at the BBQ place. Turns out their were about 60 bikes that rolled in for lunch. A great Time was had by all.
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