Cold beer, free parking (for bikes): A night at Myrtle Beach’s fall motorcycle pilgrimage

Johnny Neal is spending this weekend 219 miles from his front door, but was at home the entire time.

“I’m going to be 80 in four years, and I’ll still be riding,” Neal, of Winston-Salem, N.C., said during the closing weekend of Myrtle Beach Fall Week, enjoying a hot dog and an“ American by birth, biker by choice” patch sewn onto his leather hat.

For the uninitiated, the annual pilgrimage of roughly 30,000 bikers onto the Grand Strand can be daunting, but if they spend an evening among the hand-rolled cigars, fishnet stockings and smell of exhaust, another vibe altogether might emerge.

“I love it here. To relax, to get together. We love being here. And there isn’t just six of us when we’re on the road. It’s a family,” Jerry Hughes, 65, of Burlington, N.C., said outside of Suck, Bang, Blow as “Rebel Son” played to a crowd of several hundred.

On the border of Georgetown and Horry counties Oct. 6, streams of bikers from at least 10 states rolled into some of the region’s most iconic biker-themed hot spots for live music, bar hopping and — in deep red South Carolina —lots of Donald Trump swag.

Unlike its spring counterpart that sees large gatherings in North Myrtle Beach, much of this year’s fall rally was clustered around the southern end of the strand.

But that made no difference to “Johnny B. Good” of New Orleans, who’s spent the better part of 49 years living out of a tent and traveling to bike rallies nationwide.

“I don’t even get off my bike for gas. I put the card in, open the tank and sit there,” he said. The open road, he admits, is better than therapy - at least for him.

At The Beaver Bar on the Georgetown side of Murrells Inlet, music blasted out of customized sound systems, vying with Motley Crue’s “Dr. Feelgood” blaring from large speakers.

Everything from cheese steaks to customized tomahawks was for sale.

Hughes said he wasn’t interested in going home with anything more than another round of memories from the rally he’s been riding into since 1998.

“Coming to Bike Week, it’s just special,” he said. “And it’s like my mama always said, ‘the guys that own their own Harleys, own their own businesses.’’”

This story was originally published October 7, 2023 at 5:00 AM.