Laughlin River Run 2009

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Day 7-8

The 2009 - 27th Annual River Run is definitely showing signs of the economic times. 2008 was my first year, and i was amazed at the sheer volume of bikes in each of the hotel parking areas, the traffic and rumble of the bikes all day long up and down the strip.

In 2009 this was not the case. Things were considerably slower on the Thursday and although picked up Friday night, it's got a long way to go if it's to be compared to 2008. The vendor count was also noticeably smaller with a number of the hotels having considerably smaller vendor areas. I talked to a number of the vendors and they all echoed that this years numbers were down considerably going into the weekend, although optimistic, conceded that things were going to be slower then in the past.

Perhaps the tell tale sign at a bike gathering where 70%+ of the bikes are Harleys, was in fact the absence of Harley Davidson. One of the vendors commented that at Bike Week in Daytona which runs over two weekends, Harley Davidson only showed up for the second half of the show. Harley are running on tough times with many questioning their future. Time will tell.

We're heading out first thing tomorrow morning, so this is the end of my trip blog. Next updates will be for planned weekend trips through the summer months closer to home. Stay tuned.


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