We hit the road around 6:00 as the live band was supposed to get started at 7:30. We figured this would give us plenty of time to get down there and get settled.
We arrived in downtown Springfield around 6:30 and there were bike everywhere. If you couldn't see them you could certainly hear them! I was amazed as we turned the corner on to Worthington Street at the number of bikes. Both sides of the street were lined from end to end! There wasn't an opening to be seen...
We decided to pull into the first parking lot we found. This was a mistake! These fellows were charging $8.00 a bike and were packing them in like sardines in a can. If nobody moved by the time we decided to leave we'd have had no way out. Oh well, we'd just have to party a little longer I guess!!!
We headed on in to the event and immediately saw Travelin' Tim from the Republican. He was working the news paper's booth and as per usual was chatting up anyone who walked by!
Our next stop was the Salty Dog. No, we didn't drink!!! Neither of us will drink and ride so we ran up a pretty good tab of Cokes with a chunk of lime. As I'm sure you know, this place has a bit of a reputation and neither of us has ever been down there so we just had to check it out for ourselves.
Now we didn't stay for very long and weren't there very late, but it was a little more tame than I expected. It was plenty of fun though. There's bikes displayed throughout including an old Indian, I'm guessing it's from the 1920's. The staff was all great as well. Very friendly and happy to help. Even when some of the "regulars" were obviously a little irritating.
We headed back out to see the band. Though not my style, they were pretty good. The had a female guitarist who was quite talented! Here's the best part, if you don't care for the band on the stage, there's plenty of other entertainment within a block! The Salty Dog had one of our favorites, Shovelhead, going last night. We also noticed bands playing in some of the other establishments on the square.
We decided to walk around and check out some bikes. I mentioned earlier that Worthington Street was covered. Well so were most of the surrounding streets and parking lots. I was really impressed at the number of bikes this event drew. You'll see several shots of bikes in the slideshow to the right. There's no duplicate shots! There were bikes everywhere...
The one drawback to this event was the lack of vendors. There were a few vendors there selling food and beer, and the local media was represented (Republican and WRNX), but there wasn't much else. I was a little dissapointed not to see regional bike dealers, leather and accessories vendors or at least some t-shirt vendors there...
If you're thinking about heading down, here are a couple of suggestions. If the weather is nice, get there early! Plan on grabbing dinner downtown. You're right in the heart of Springfield's entertainment district so there's plenty of choices. If you can avoid them, stay out of the parking lots! At the very least, stay out of the one on Worthington Street if you have any plans on getting home at a decent hour. Do wander around! There's apt to be some really interesting bikes and people to see and there's nothing cooler than taking these in. Dinally, ride safe! Remember, you're in the heart of the city and we don't want to lose anyone after the party is over...
If you weren't able to make one of the regional bike weeks this year, and are craving a little bike week atmosphere, be sure to set aside a thursday evening and come on down to Stearns Square. It'll give you your fix and probably have you coming back for more!