If you are a biker on Memorial Day weekend on the East Coast, you are most likely going to head on over to Washington DC to partake in the Fire Up Thundr Out Rally. And that’s where Pudge & I were headed this year as well. Until we got talking to some shops out of the Maryland area, and realized that they were going to a new show about 20 minutes outside of DC - Thunder Run. Hmmm, two bike shows within an hour’s distance of each other? Nothing good can come out of this!

So we checked out their website, and headed over to the new show, the one that claims that they are the “Official” show of the weekend. Whatever, I don’t care about the politics that much - I just wanted a cool show. And we got it!

Located right off of I-95, Thunder Run was held in a community picnic area, Bull Run Regional Park. And this wasn’t the little picnic area that your grandparents go to, they were set up with an awesome stage, parking for thousands, and a great spot to have a bike show.

Arriving first thing in the morning, we got access to the vendors before they opened the gates to the general public and headed on over to Savage Cycles booth to shoot their new Jack Daniels project bike. The bike was awesome, and we got a ton of people coming over to check out what we were doing, which created a bunch of interest in Savage.

With that done, we headed off to check out the other great vendors that we had breezed by on the way in. We talked to about three builders at set up shoots with them when the sky suddenly darkened, and the friendly “we’re protecting you from the hot sun” clouds that had been hanging out all morning turned into “we’re gonna soak your asses” clouds. Pudge & I split up - him to cover the rest of the show, just in case, and me to head back and shoot a feature.

I had just finished up my shoot of the Gypsy Chopper, when the skies literally opened up. I had been shooting in the field behind Savage’s trailer - you know, a tractor trailer with their awning come off of the back side - when the first big gust of wind took it down. I took shelter under a pleasant vendor’s tent, which I was helping to held down, until the downpour passed. I thanked my savior and headed off to find Pudge, who swears that he wasn’t, but I still feel that he was hiding out in the truck during the storm.

We finished checking out the show, which had bands rocking out in the pavilionstage, grabbed a bite to eat from the vendors, and ended up leaving with three more features, and a few lined up for the future. Some of the shops that were present included Gypsy Choppers, PB Choppers, the Ice Cream Man from Hell, Kendall Johnson, and Denvers Choppers. It was definitely a great quality show, that is sure to be talked about in the years to come as a good kickoff to summer show!