DAYTONA BEACH — Activity started picking up on Main Street Sunday afternoon, but while motorcycles slowly trickled in for the last day of Bike Week, Rick Bodine and Jessica Kurczeski and their two kids – baby goats – got all the attention.
“It’s pretty wild, ain’t it?” said Randy English, of Port Orange.
English and his wife, Janet, joined a crowd milling around the baby goats and the couple in front of One Sexy Biker Chick apparel shop on Main Street.
Earlier this week:Daytona Bike Week 2022 opens with big, colorful crowds on Main Street
‘We are not bad people’:Third day of Daytona Bike Week 2022 roars on
“When you think you’ve seen everything at Bike Week, I get goats,” said a New Hampshire man who identified himself only as Norm.
Norm held one baby goat by a leash and posed for pictures.
Bodine and Kurczeski, a biker couple from Bensalem, Pennsylvania, have been coming to Daytona Bike Week for 30 years. They own a small farm and the baby goats, Sweetheart and Sparky, are their pets. Since the kid goats are bottle-fed, the couple drove with them all the way from Bucks County to Daytona Beach so as not to miss Bike Week.
“We had to bring them because they have to be bottle-fed three times a day,” Kurczeski said. “We have friends watching the rest of the farm, but we brought them with us.”
Don’t forget about the food
As the kid goats brought smiles and laughter to visitors and spectators, down the street, others, like Nancy Miller from Lafayette, Indiana, owner of Porky’s BBQ, were busy gearing up for the rest of Sunday.
As the loud, colorful, music-blaring motorcycles started crowding Main Street around 1:30 p.m., Miller was preparing to make her final day’s sales, hoping they would make up for Saturday when an all-day rain dampened Bike Week activities.
As the delicious aroma of ribs, pork chops, turkey legs, chicken, pulled pork, brisket and fried goodies filled the air, Miller said her food “tastes good, too.”
Recently:Riders: Rain won’t dampen Daytona Bike Week 2022’s closing weekend
Miller said she was happy with how Bike Week 2022 turned out for her.
“The first weekend was great,” Miller said. “It was great until the rain hit (Saturday), but it was still a good day.”
Miller said she has been coming to Daytona for Bike Week since 1991 and believes her business did well because it has a large following of bikers.
And why do bikers crowd her food stall?
“We sell 2-inch-thick pork chops, which is the most popular thing for bikers,” Miller said. “I have not seen the final numbers yet and if we hadn’t had the rain, it probably would have been the best year yet.”
A 20-year tradition
And, on the last day of Bike Week 2022, some bikers also rode into town and hit the Main Street corridor on Daytona’s beachside for last-minute deals and shopping.
Brian Carter, of Brevard County, has been coming to Daytona for 20 years. On Sunday he pulled into a parking spot on Main Street on his 2022 white Harley-Davidson Street Glide. He bought the motorcycle two weeks ago and was showing it off.
“The love of riding,” Carter said when asked what has drawn him to Daytona Bike Week for 20 years. “I like seeing the bikes, I like hanging out, I like seeing all the clothes, I like seeing all the new stuff that’s coming out.”
Veteran bike riders, Daytona residents Tim and Cheryl Dorr, who live four blocks from the heart of Bike Week revelry, said they stayed home this year and came out on Sunday with their pet pugs, Major and Maxine.
“After about a half dozen times, basically it’s the same old, same old,” Tim Dorr said.
But whether they were people-watching, petting two baby goats or gobbling up a giant pork chop, Bike Week 2022 was fun, said bikers, vendors and visitors interviewed by The News-Journal.
As bikers rolled out of Daytona Beach on Sunday, the last day of the event, the visitors on loud machines left some happy people behind.
Johnny “Rock and Ride” Sanchez, who has a store selling what he calls the Grateful Davidson Lifestyle memorabilia, said Bike Week was good for him.
“Record-breaking,” he said.