For starters, there were over ten bands playing all day and evening with Blue Oyster Cult and Foghat headlining Friday and Saturday night. For those of you youngsters who are saying to yourself, “Fogwhat?” and “Blue Oyster Who?” they are bands from when music didn’t suck. True to form, it was so loud that even the Harley-Davidsons couldn’t compete.

          There was also the Kustom Kulture Artisan Show featuring the Biker Pros bike show with prize money of over $23,000 and a place in the World Championship. The Kustom Kulture Artisan Show highlights artists such as Makoto Endo who painted on canvas all weekend and featured craftsman and builders in a hands-on Grease & Gears Garage presentation.

          Also on hand was Dave and Jody Perewitz bringing to Cherokee their custom paint show open to all makes with some pretty nice hand-painted trophies as prizes. And then there was the American Motor Drome Company’s Wall of Death which was free all weekend which I thought was a real bonus for attendees.

          You may have noticed the photos of all the custom-painted helmets that I included in the gallery. The top five helmets at select custom bike shows will be featured at the conclusion of the promotional tour in competition at the B2B industry show at AIMExpo. Simpson Helmets provided (20) M30 helmets to be painted by artists from across the country with the final selected winning artist receiving a design contract with Simpson as well as cash and a trip.

           I can’t say enough about this new/old rally. Cherokee will definitely be on my to-do list next year. Oh yea, I forgot to mention all the great motorcycle riding in the Smokies and, yes, the Blue Ridge Parkway as well as infamous The Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap and way too many twisties to mention everywhere in the area.

     For more info on this rally and its components you can go to: http://www.blueridgerun.com/index.html and http://custombikeshows.com.