Inaugural Nature Coast Thunder Rally, April 13 - 15, 2007
Recap Sweet & Simple
Send us your road stories and pictures. We'll post 'em when we can.
Send us your stories and pictures. We'll post 'em when we can.
Well, we're in the history books for our first year of the "Nature Coast Thunder Rally". Will we "make" history or will it fall to the wayside because of some small HUMAN errors? I'm not going to sugar coat this event just because it was my idea. I am going to pick it apart just like ANY event. I would love to say it was a total success but I would be fooling myself and not telling the truth.
We'll start this off with Dice's take on the event. Iv you'd like to add some comments, there's a guestbook link at the end of this article. Thanks for comin' by.
Words and Pictures by Dice
Ya see, I had this idea to bring a Day-
tona size event to our neck of the woods
(Citrus County and surroundings) without the Daytona size price gouging. Me and a few other VERY awesome people, which I will thank later, put this thing together in just a few months. That’s right, just about three months to plan, organize and execute an event this size. I never imagined the work and time it would take to do such a thing but I sure found out! It's definitely a
huge undertaking, and then some. The hours and logistics and getting everyone on the same page and trying to keep everyone happy was a tough one. Though I had the best interest of everyone in mind, there were people who were still not happy.
Boy do I hate those sayings "You can't please everyone all the time" or " You can't make everybody happy", even though that may be true, I still try. We had sponsors who outdid themselves and those were the ones who were successful and then there were others who expected us to do all the work and still bitched when we did. That taught me a valuable lesson.
Friday afternoon crowd at Sleep Hollow, Floral City.
I will let everyone know right now that if this Rally is going to continue, it will be with the sponsors who did their job and took care of their business and the bikers. There weren't many that didn't do their job, very few as a matter-of-fact, but all the same I think it could have been a better experience for EVERYONE if there was less complaining and more planning. I'm not blaming any one person or sponsor but they know who they are. For an undertaking of this
magnitude to succeed, we ALL need to work together and understand when there’s a problem. I did all I could to get the word out about the event and plan the event for the BIKERS, who are most important to me, in mind. That’s what this event was ALL about. NOT to line anyone's pockets with tons of cash.
The beautiful German blond, Biggy, Sleepy Hollow.
Above - Kori, NuttButter, with a couple of locals. Below - Told ya this was a biker friendly rally!
So as of right now the next year’s event is in limbo until I get the true feedback of the people who I care about most of all, YOU the BIKERS! And I'm talkin' Ol' Skool, New School, Rich Biker, Poor Biker, weekend camel jockey, Young, old, Crotch rocket
Riders, I don't care, I want all your feedback good or bad but I want you to be sure to include a way to contact you so I know your not just one of the Jealous people we had for this event that would want to trash it even though it went well. Yes, we even had a few of them, trashing the event, like businesses and people who didn't make it onto our sponsor's list or the ones who had tried to put on an event a few years back that didn't succeed. Just mean-spirited people who only have themselves in mind. If you want to give me your honest feedback please put a note in the guestbook at the bottom of this page or e-mail me at dicedbi@bellsouth.net. Don't be a wuss or coward if it's something bad, I don't mind, but don't bitch if you want this Rally to continue. I don't do well with bitchin'. I do, however do well with constructive criticism.
This is the rundown on what I got feed back for so far.
Everyone thought the prices on everything were absolutly the best. I have to
give it to my sponsors who gave me their word that they would keep their prices
as low as what they would do every day. Not only that some actually lowered
their prices! Thank You for keeping to your words! The only problem was some of the hotels who actually went up from what they had originally told us. One that I know kept his word was Henry, from Comfort Inn in Crystal River at $65.00 per night. Thank You Henry, you the man!
I did find one vendor who had extremely high prices on food and I will be sure to talk to the sponsor who had them on their lot to be sure they either bring down their prices or STAY OUT of the Nature Coast Thunder Rally. This was NOT Daytona and will never be as long as I am running it!! The sponsors who had vendors on their premises were charging ridiculously low vendor rates or offering FREE vendor spots so there was NO reason to be charging ridiculous prices to the public. Some places did better than others and I saw the reasons why. These are the building blocks for next year if I decide it's worth doing again. We did have a few small accidents along the way but from what I heard they were all fine and not seriously hurt.
The CITRUS COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE did a great job of helping people and NOT harrassing them. I want to THANK them for being so considerate, you guys were wonderful! No Daytona cops here. THANK YOU!
Above - A meal in a glass! The Bloody Mary at The Dam Pub.
The Poker Run was a bit long and I know some complained about that but this was called a "Riders Rally" for that reason. We tried to let people come in as late as we could because of traffic and an accident on Hwy 44. We extended the time to be back by more than 2 hours. That still wasn't good enough for a very few people, all I can say is we did the best we could. Maybe next time we'll do a 5 stop Poker run right around the corner from each other less than 20 miles, what about that?? NOT, I'm a rider as many of you are and I got alot of "at-a-boy's" from alot of ya'll, saying that it was THE BEST Damn Poker Run they had ever been on. I didn't mean for it to be the "Iron Butt" Poker Run, I just wanted all ya'll to see the great roads and business establishments that are biker friendly so after the Rally you'd want to come back to your favorite place again. Again, another learning curve for me......
The Miller Lite Girls from Cone Distributing get in on the hula hoop contest.
You all did however managed to raise just about $4,000 for the Boys & Girls Club of Citrus County and Harley-Davidson of Crystal River raised around $7,900 for The Big Brother-Big Sister Organizations. There were 342 people on the run for a total of $3,420. Then the winner, DALE, gave back $500 for a total of $3,920 and Florida Thunder Rally, Inc. chipped in the rest to make it an even four grand. YOU FOLKS are what Bikers are all about! Generous hearts and minds!
Crystal, Bikini Contest.
Other numbers for the event were about 7,500 to 8,000 total attendees. Not bad but I think that can be improved, too. A buddy of mine said "Dude", "Thats awesome"...."Leesburg only had 50 attendees their first year!" That did make me feel a little bit better.
I honestly hope to bring this around again next year with the help of all the GREAT people who made it what it was this year. I have been contacted by some major sponsors who liked what they saw and would like to be included next year. As of now I put them all on hold, it's up to YOU, the BIKERS, if you want this to continue.
My honest pledge to all of you was to TRY to give you the best damn event I could put together that wouldn't drain your pockets and give you a good ridin' experience over here on our Nature Coast.
I sincerely hope you had a good time while you were here and met some new friends along the way, I know I did. I have to Thank all the Sponsors who did the best they could and these VERY SPECIAL people. CHERYL from Harley-Davidson of Crystal River for your unbelievable help and hard work. You are an amazing
human being and I was VERY honored to work with you on this event! YOU KICK ASS!
Also Shannon from Cone Distributing for making this happen as well. You went out of your way to help all the bars get ready for the event, alot of it on your own time. Your help to the Sponsors was just as amazing. YOU are an absolute sweetheart and an amazing person! THANK YOU and Cone Distributing for making this event a joy to do!
Though I love these Ladies immensely, I have to THANK my WIFE and DAUGHTER, who are THE most important people in my life, for putting up with me while I bitched and complained for the last three months trying to make this event right for everyone.
Monk and Boots, Dixie Biker Illustrated. There's not a lot I can say. We've been together for over six years now and it certainly wouldn't have happened without your awesome work. You guys know how I feel. Thanks.
To EVERYONE who helped in any way, THANK YOU, and you know who you are! This will be about it for my article because there is so much more to be said, but that all has to come from you. . .
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO WERE HERE TO SUPPORT THIS RALLY AND OUR SPONSORS. WE COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU - THE BIKERS! IF YOU WANT MY HONEST OPINION, I THINK IT WAS GREAT SEEING ALL THE NEW FACES IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD!
There's lots more pictures below, and we'll add articles as they're written.
Heather S., winner of the bikini contest, and Reverend Rich, owner of Sleepy Hollow.
Above - Dice, center, with some friends at the Oar House.
Right - Heather and Tina, Backyard Chopper Chix.
Below - Bobby, Monk's best friend visiting from Germany, with Heather.
Good Lord A'wmighty. We like hot bikes and long rides, but nothin' beats hot chix! Here's Stephanie, Nicky and Kori from NuttButter.
Above - A Dixie Biker Hello at Harley-Davidson of Crystal River.
Left - Cheryl, events coordinator at HD of Crystal River and Shannon, Cone Distributing.
Below - Pulling in for the FREE breakfast buffet on Saturday's Poker Run at The Loft Neighborhood Bar and Grill.
Above - Jimmy Sparks kicks it at Thunder Inn.
Right - Jacksonville Rockers, Big Engine, rocked Harley Davidson of Crystal River on Sunday. Monk calls 'em the best friggin' biker band in Florida. They put on a helluva show, that's fer sure.
Below - The Old School Band wowed us at Backyard Choppers on Saturday.
Below left - Tribal Tongue was the headliner on Sunday. They played a lot of classic and Southern Rock.
Dale, the winner of the $1,000 first prize in the Poker Run on Saturday. He donated over half of it back to the Boys and Girls Club. You da man! He's with teh NuttButter Girlz and Heather, Ocala, Miss Nature Coast Thunder Rally 2007.
Just a little burn out at Citrus Motorsports on Saturday while waitin' on the Poker Run awards. Actually it was one of the all time best burn outs and I think we're gonna have to get it posted to You Tube or something. Monk shot a video of it.
Above - Mac's Place in Floral City was jammed with bikes all weekend.
Right - Heather won the Miss Nature Coast Thunder Rally Contest on Friday Night at The Oar House. She gets a cover shoot, a trip to Vegas, $500 in chips and $500 cash. Congratulations Heather!
Below - Debi from Melrose, a proud grandmother, was the Runner-up in the Miss Nature Coast Thunder Rally and went home with $300 cash.
Right - Eddie was one of the winners in the Bike Show at Citrus Motor Sports on Saturday.
Below left - Dale, owner of Mac's Place with Monk and Boots.
Above - Marcus stamps a poker run sheet at Iron Horse Parts in Lecanto.
Below - The great group I rode with on the Poker Run.
Above left - Hanging at the Thunder Inn during Saturday's Poker Run.
Right - Rich Inman is doing my paint and here's one of the saddle bags. He does awesome work.
Left - There's always room for a pretty lady. Boots interviews Tina during the Miss Nature Coast Thunder Rally Contest on Friday night.
