No matter where you go in Daytona Beach, Florida this week, you’re completely surrounded by the sites, sounds and smells of motorcycles. From early morning until late at night, you hear the roar of motorcycle engines and aftermarket exhaust.
Riding along the streets, you pass vendor after vendor selling Bike Week shirts and other souvenirs. The smell of street vendors cooking every food you can imagine wafts through the entire town. "Welcome Bikers" signs are in almost every store window and even businesses that aren't motorcycle related have shifted their merchandise and services to target this week's captive audience. Every bar along Main Street is packed; balconies full of people looking over the railings watching the motorcycles go by for hours.
Main Street is 'Motorcycles Only' during this week and there is a non-stop parade of motorcycles driving through the narrow streets. A few Motorcycles are lucky enough to get a sidewalk parking spot, thus avoiding the '$5.00 motorcycle parking' lots littered throughout the area.
The sidewalks are so thick with people you can barely move. One slow person can determine the pace of an entire four block wave of people. Dogs dressed in Harley gear walk along side their owners, causing human traffic jams as people stop to coddle them. Spiderman stands just off the stream of people in an alley way with his partner asking for donations for photographs. A man walks through the crowds with a 12 foot albino python which you can hold draped across your shoulders and take photos for $10.00.
An older couple, each riding their own Indian Motorcycle, wore what resembled buffalo skin and horns on their heads. An entire wedding party rode through Main Street. The groom adorned in his Navy dress whites, the bride in her wedding dress, and the rest of the bridal party rode through to hoots and cheers all along the people jammed streets. A woman riding a Harley Davidson, complete with a sidecar, rode through a fury of camera flashes and whistles. The attention was not directed at her, but at her passenger. A yellow Labrador retriever outfitted with Doggles, sat in her sidecar looking bored, as if she was craving the freedom of the open road.
Daytona is truly a motorcycle lover's paradise during Daytona's 69th Bike Week.
Watch throughout the week for updates, live from Daytona.
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