Valkyries in the Valley

[Big IV]

This past weekend was Thunder in the Valley 2009, the 12th annual PA motorcycle rally in Johnstown PA.  Johnstown is memorable for such things as the Johnstown Flood, which is actually three floods, but nobody I've talked to yet pluralizes it.  
http://www.visitjohnstownpa.com/thunderinthevalley
One of many rallies and rides around PA (http://www.lets-ride.com/event/pennsylvania.htm) Thunder in the Valley attracts around 200,000 bikers each year. That number this year included VRCC's Dino (and his wife Sandy) and Me and my wife.

Dino planned to go Th-Sat and so he did.

We had initially planned to tag along Friday mid afternoon and all day Saturday. Friday afternoon found me hip deep in a paper that I was not making enough progress on (woes of college life) so I had to bail in favor of my homework.

Johnstown is about 30 miles give or take from Indiana PA (home of Jimmy Stewart, Dino, and temporarily me).

We met Saturday morning at Dino's about 10:00. His son in law came along for the ride and another couple. So we wheeled up and took four bikes and the five of us out of town to hwy 56 to Johnstown PA. That 30 mile ride was scenic and nice.

We stopped just short of Johnstown, already on roads covered in motorcycles at a Sheets gas  station in the shade to wait on Eric on is full dressed HD and his daughter. Eric wanted to take part in the parade because his daughter never had. Heck I never had either and the line up was practically across the street so we all headed over to the parade.  We arrived at the line up parkinglot (which was nearly full) about 10 minutes before they promptly left. The parking lot was so full that we didn't have a chance to use that 10 minutes to meander bike seeing to the front of the parade to see what was leading us. Later Nicola read in a pamphlet the brochure was led by the Budwieser horses, it's  a shame we didn't get to see that.

We did get to see the Jaigermister biker, pulling a Jaigermister barstool/shot dispenser which left its mid pack position to head to the front of the parade too.


We were in the back. So it took a while for us to roll after the parade started moving.

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Sandy and Dino said the turn out to watch the bike parade was awesome.

They were right.
The bikes in the parade were cool. But riding through town looking at the streets lined with bikes and the crowd packing from the street to the buildings on the side walk, hanging out of windows, and on top of parking decks...
you can tell Johnstown likes its bike rally.

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During the parade route (which came in from the outskirts of town by the convention center, hung a left at the ball field, and went straight through downtown) Dino got my attention and pointed to the yellow sign.
It too me a minute to realize he wasn't pointing to Brett Micheals lead singer of Poison, but instead at the Run to the Lake billboard in general.
He's picked this out for the next event that we need to hit up at Eerie. Hopefully Bob E can join us for that one.
But that's a ride and story for a future time, back to the day at hand.

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We circled around a while trying to find a parking spot. Parking spots were hard to come by, especially trying to park three bikes at a time (Eric on the HD and James the son in law split off during the parade). Every spare inch of parking was taken by bikes.
We finally found a spot and walked to lunch.

Johnstown closes off most of the town for either parking or fun. It has three main areas downtown. One by the train station (called The Station) one in a park( called Central Park) and then the other one along the parade route (the Biker Mall). We grabbed some sandwiches and brats from the food vendors (conveniently circled together in the Biker Mall).  We found a curb to sit on to eat, play phone tag with a few folks, and enjoy the bikes riding by.

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So after downtown and lunch we hopped on the bikes and went out along 956 to a fire department. It was a memorial ride for a fallen fireman/biker. The money raised is being put toward a new training center to be named after the young man.
It was a give what  you feel ride.  So we made our donations, lined up. And then took off. Somebody said it was a 100 mile ride. My odometer clocked closer to 90, but who is counting.

A little four lane, then off into the two lane curvy roads.
Nice ride to another fire department for hotdogs, drinks, bathroom break, then back to the first place for a dinner.
The route back took us up Hwy 30 (old Lincoln Highway):




and past some more great scenery.
Thunder in the Valley at Jonstown is nestled in the Alleghany mountains and makes for some great riding.

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And for dinner? Half chickens, hotdogs, and hamburgers (included with the donation for the ride)
and gobs

Gobs are an interesting regional desert (pictured above).
Gobs are also an interesting dinner game. They had these gobs wrapped up inside of a box, you stuck your hand in and drew out your gob. Most gobs were just gobs. Some, like the one my wife pulled out, were marked for cash prizes.

She says she never wins anything.
This is about the second time in her life she's won a prize. She won a blinker buddy a few Inzanes ago, and now she had a prize winning gob.

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Around back behind the fire department was live music, more vendors, kid friendly activities, and and the Copenhagen display.

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A few things to note about the Thunder in the Valley rally.
This is an old steel town without the steel anymore. Besides the tourists that come to their flood museums they seem to exist around the festivals and rallies. So this town commits to the rally and likes the rally.

Besides the mostly family friendly events they also had an ABATE camp-in/lock-in a few miles away in another park.
200,000 of your closest friends having fun.
Multiple music stages.
Vendors.
Food.
Stunt bike shows. OCC bikes here and there. Famous people. Ms Thunder competition.
This is a fun event.
Now that Myrtle Beach is pushing out its bike rally it is not hard to imagine that this could be (as claimed) the 4th largest rally in the country. It is deffinately in the top 10.
I had more fun here in one day than I have had in Myrtle in entire weekends. So, if you've never been to Thunder in the Valley, you should plan to be there next year in June.
I'm bettin' I will!
Thanks to Dino and Sandy for playing tour guides

and all the folks we hung out with

[Big IV]

[Bob E.]

I really wish I could have made it.  I could use the break!

[PAVALKER]

Great Pics... thanks for posting. Wish I could have been there.   Regret I had to miss this one... I was (still am) down here in Little Rock AR for the W/E, due to a wedding and GF's family visit.  Taking a big bird back home this afternoon.  

[Dino]

Thanks for the report IV,great job. Was nice to have you and Nicola along for the day. Was glad to see her win the $50- gob. ,