It's not unusual for huge crowds to travel to Westmoreland County in the last week of July to see their helmeted heroes going head to head.

But most years, everyone's buzzing about the opening of Steelers training camp at St. Vincent College in Latrobe. This year, however, the big draw will be the National Bikers Roundup at the Westmoreland County Fairgrounds, which is expected to bring in 15,000 to 20,000 people.

It'll be a hotel owner's dream -- and a traffic cop's nightmare -- when the two popular events fall on the same weekend, July 30 through Aug. 3. For those of you who haven't booked your rooms yet, be warned: It looks like every hotel bed in the Greensburg-Latrobe area has been booked for more than two months.

"This year, we're kind of hurting because we can't accommodate the Steelers fans as much as we have in the past," said Sharon DeMichela, front desk manager at the Wingate by Wyndham in Latrobe, the closest hotel to St. Vincent College, about a mile away.

Every July, DeMichela said, the Wingate's 80 rooms are booked by Steelers fans hoping to get the first look at the players they will be rooting for in the coming season. Fans come from New York, Maryland, Ohio and elsewhere, building their vacations around the Steelers training camp.

This year, when fans call, it's all she can do to find them a room somewhere else.

"Everybody's full out this way," said Douglas Booher, whose family has run the 90-room Mountain View Inn in Greensburg since 1940. "You'd be hard-pressed to find anything anywhere out here with that motorcycle group. I wish I had a hundred more rooms. I could fill them."

Steelers training camp at Saint Vincent College has been a rite of passion for hard-core fans since the glory days of the 1970s. Booher said that while many Pittsburghers make it a day trip, his inn has accommodated fans from as far away as Texas.

"We get a lot of families," he said. "But it's mostly guys."

The first open practice in this season's training camp is July 28, two days before the bikers roar through town.

Michelle Long, Westmoreland County Fairgrounds secretary, said the National Bikers Roundup started as an annual event 31 years ago in Kansas City. It's held in a different part of the country each year, except for its 10-year anniversaries, when it returns to Kansas City.

Thousands of bikers and their families take part in the event, which includes children's amusements, food vendors, displays, concerts and live entertainment, stunt shows and even a fashion show hosted by Harley-Davidson, the roundup's major sponsor. Attendees paying $20 for admission also will be able to see the latest-model bikes and accessories.

"This is the first time it's ever been in Pennsylvania, and we're glad to have it," Long said.

Jonathan "Buck" Williams, chairman of the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Round Up Committee, said his group proposed Westmoreland County for the site of this year's event after a drive through the region.

"I checked it out and it's a nice area up there," he said.

And it looks like it'll be a crowded area. At least while the roundup and the training camp overlap.

Booher said he's encouraging callers to shift their training camp visits to the team's second week of workouts.

"I don't know what's going to happen with gas prices the way they are, if people will still want to just drive back and forth or not," he said. "But it's still a cheap getaway vacation from Pittsburgh, and there's a lot to do out here."

Quick facts

When: July 27-Aug. 18.

Where: Saint Vincent College, Latrobe.

Open practices: 2:55 p.m., but subject to change without notice.

First exhibition: vs. Eagles, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 8.