Cooler weather and Biketoberfest has begun

Temperature this morning is a cool 64 degrees at 6:30 am....it's the same in the house as outside.  The clouds must have been a little thinner this morning, as I was able to see the 'glow' in the eastern sky through the trees as the sun began to rise.  Haven't really seen much of that lately with my sleeping in...lol.  We have a cool front moving in across the state that is supposed to bring us temps in the low 60's at night in the coming week and highs in the low 80's.  The lower humidity makes it feel much cooler...but I am totally enjoying the Fall weather this year.

Biketoberfest began on Thursday and the Bikers have been rolling into town all week.  The paper has had several articles about how fewer people are in town for this event and fewer dollars are being spent.  Well, DUH...the whole economy is in the toilet and yet our area expects these people to come throw their money our way?  One of the news programs last night was saying how in years past we've had over 500 thousand people come in for this event and now we are seeing less than 200 thousand.

Well, for starters, our city leaders and the local people pissed and whined about the noise that accompanies the Biker events to the point they began heading out to other 'biker friendly' areas.  These same people griped about all the traffic, both bikes and people, clogging up the main roads as they stopped at vendor tents set up along said main roads.  Yeah, it was a headache at times to navigate through the sea of bikes in some areas, but the businesses sure didn't mind taking their cash.  These same Bikers dumped millions into our local economy twice a year and have been doing this now for over 50 years during Bike Week in the Spring.

Since all the whining and increased fees for the vendors, one smart person or group, developed a huge, multi-acre Motorcycle "Mall" on the far North end of Daytona.  That sure pulled a lot of the Biker traffic away from Daytona proper.  Of course, now, the same ones who pissed and whined over the traffic and noise, are now pissing and whining about the loss of revenue from these events.

Granted there are those Bikers who still are the hard core 'bad boys' most people think of when they hear Biker, but for the most part, these people are rarely the 'rowdy' crowd of the early years.  Our local cops have imposed fines on those who insist on 'showing off' either by driving reckless or exposing more skin than some people care to see.  Not so long ago the phrase "show us your tits" would have the gals lifting their tops, flashing the crowds as they rode past.  Nowadays, the gals are being cited for 'indecent exposure' for lifting their tops.  The 'bad boys' showing off barking tires, pulling wheelies and rumbling loud pipes are also handed pretty steep fines for their behaviour.  The local cops are constantly harassing the Bikers when they are in town and it has become a bit of a joke about coming down for Bike Week and ending up staying because they got jailed.  One would think that some of the citations and fines are just the city and counties' ways of making a profit from the events.

We used to go to some of the festivities up until a few years ago.  Since hubby's accident in 2004 we haven't went much.  All the walking and standing tends to put the both of us in major pain afterwards.  Since we don't have a motorcycle we just don't hang with those that do.  Personally, with all the idiots on the roads around here, I'd just as soon have as much steel as possible around me.  We used to trail ride the motorcyle and that was way more fun than playing dodge the idiot on the roadways.

Last night we headed over to a friend's house and the road that leads there has a biker bar on the corner...a very popular place way out here in the country.  As we were coming back home several bikers were heading into the parking area behind the bar....they were making left turns across the main road to get there....instead of waiting for us (we were heading straight on the main road), about six of them cut us off by turning directly in front of us!!  We were in the van...can you not see this monstrosity heading your way?  Hubby had to actually stop in the middle of the road to avoid hitting these morons.....and they wonder why so many die on the roads during these events.  Granted, some accidents are caused by people not paying attention to the bikes on the roads, but many more are caused by the idiot on the motorcycle doing dumb shit like pulling out in front of someone.  Good thing the brakes work well on the van is all I can say....especially as it was already dark when this happened.  Sure would be nice if these out of towners acted like they had a bit of common sense...wonder if they drive the same way when they are in their home area?  Or in their vehicle instead of on a motorcycle?  Really makes me want to be on a motorcycle.....NOT!!  Sad to say, I used to adore being on a motorcycle...not any longer...not in this state.

The day is looking very nice...cool air here at 11:45 am, bright blue sun filled skies with a very nice breeze.  I've had several deer visiting the yard this morning...a couple of does, the young spike and even a small fawn came out for a run across the front yard.  They wandered to the neighbor's pasture and hung out there for a bit after visiting my yard.  All of them are wearing their darker 'winter' colors now.  So cute to see them in the middle of the morning...they were here just after 9 am.

Guess I'll head into town and get my grocery shopping done...I'm out of several things at the moment.  Wow, just checked and its only been ten days since I went to the grocery last...must have forgotten several things on that trip!  That's what happens when I'm not in the mood to go to the store...I truely hate grocery shopping nowadays....unfortunately, I enjoy eating....LOL