Fayetteville Under Siege, or as it's commonly called...Bikes Blues & BBQ

Many thanks to Possum for submitting these pictures from Bikes Blues & BBQ, right before he Got The Hell Out Of Here. I probably would have left town too, if I wasn't obligated to be here this weekend. The plan is to stay as far away from the fray as possible, though. Fayetteville has more than it's fair share of astonishingly stupid drivers and traffic is a pain in the ass around here on a good day; add over 300,000 bikers and we are talking scenes from a NIGHTMARE. A 10 minute drive from Downtown to South Fayetteville morphs into a 35 minute battle to suppress violent road rage. Not to mention the constant roar of bikes from one end of town to the other, which I can hear through my open window now. I'm not even ANYWHERE NEAR ground zero, either.

In years past, I have looked forward to BB&BBQ as an excuse to go out with the girls at night and an outing with my son to see the bikes during the day. But, this year the traffic and the quest for parking just seems like too much of an obstacle. My boy wasn't even interested in going.

God, I'm sounding like all those Fayetteville snobs, endlessly whining about all the things that "Keep Fayetteville Funky". Au contraire, I'm all for it! I love that Fayetteville is such a shiny happy town that you can mix thousands of bikers and countless drunk locals in a confined area and it's still called child-friendly(at least during the daylight hours). There are very few problems given the magnitude of the event; it's one of the largest bike rallies in the country! I do realize how lucky I am, despite the inconvenience to my routine once a year.

I'm just going to opt out this year, that's how I'm feeling now anyways. If for some reason I do find myself down there...I'll be sure to have my camera.