REVVED UP: Emerald Grande ‘booked' for October HOG rally (VIDEO)

Bruce Fuller says he is looking forward to riding his bike on the Emerald Coast and sticking his toes in the sand when he and some of his closest friends converge on Destin for the 2010 HOG Rally.

“This area definitely has everything we are looking for when we select a location for the rally,” said Fuller, rally coordinator for the Florida State HOG Rally Committee. “Between the beauty of Destin and Fort Walton Beach, the white sand and the emerald green waters, you couldn’t ask for much more.”

Riders from as far away as Montana, Nebraska and Scotland will pack their saddle bags and dust off their helmets for the annual three-day, family-friendly motorcycle riding event to be held between Destin and Fort Walton Beach. The state of Florida has held HOG Rallies for the past 18 years.

Fuller, who lives in central Florida, said he is looking forward to the Oct. 20-23 event and the opportunity for not only riders from his HOG group, but from other groups around the country to see “the different things our members are going to be able to see and do.” He said he was especially looking forward to riding the area’s scenic highways.

While they have been planning the rally for more than a year, Fuller said this year’s event would not have been possible without help from the Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council and the Emerald Grande. Although riders typically don’t have to worry about lodging, since it is readily available at rally sites, or places to eat, their biggest concern is finding a site that can support all of the riders and their bikes.

“It’s a rare opportunity to find a place like this,” Fuller said of the Emerald Grande. “They have been terrific, and really bent over backward for us.”

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Legendary CEO Peter Bos told The Log Thursday that his team has been working hard to bring the HOG Rally to Destin. The impact it will have on the community will be tremendous, Bos says.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Bos said. “It means we are going to have extra exposure to this area, and be bringing in a bunch of people who have never been to this area, or may not have come.”

The Emerald Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau travel industry sales director Sherry Rushing and travel industry sales manager Sarah Leahy traveled to the 2009 HOG Rally in St. Augustine to pitch the idea of bringing the rally to the Emerald Coast.

To see the video the tourism boosters used to pitch the area, click here.

“When they came to us, we were ecstatic that they wanted to come to our area in a time when we could really use it,” Leahy said. “This is a really, really good opportunity for us to bring a big event to our area.”

Both Leahy and Rushing are hoping the riders “fall in love” with the area and bring their families back year after year. Rushing said there is an opportunity for the HOG Rally to come back in 2014.

“We just have such a beautiful area for them to ride in, and that is their main objective” Rushing said. “They will have the opportunity to focus on the beauty and get back to nature.”

The rally, which comes a little more than two weeks after the annual Thunder Beach rally in Panama City, will have an incredible economic impact on Destin. Riders coming in on their motorcycles will have to purchase almost everything they need while in town.

“As a group, we understand that this area has taken a hit in tourism, and we hope that we can do something to help,” Fuller said of the BP oil spill impact.

While the number of registrations hadn’t been finalized by Tuesday, Fuller said he had 30 riders register just on Thursday. He said that registrations were very heavy in August.

Legendary’s marketing director Jaime Hall told The Log that she wasn’t sure of the exact number of rooms booked for the event, but she said the Emerald Grande has been “booked for quite a while.”

“I would say we are expecting close to 6,000 people,” she said.

For more information on the HOG rally, visit www.flstatehogrally.com.

“We are a very family-oriented motorcycle organization,” Fuller said. “Our mission is just to ride and have fun — that is what HOG is all about.”

To see the schedule of events, click here