The little engine that could!
Well, since leaving Missouri (some people called it “Misery” due to all of the mud!) where we had Rd. 6 of the GNCC, we have had a fairly hectic yet uneventful two weeks, at least for our standard. On our way to Ohio for the next race we stopped off in St. Louis for a few days, and got to do the tour of the Gateway Arch, you know the big arch structure that symbolizes “the gateway to the west” for all of the early explorers. I really enjoy going to places like this because I’m so intrigued in learning about the interesting features of things like this, i.e. 1. the arch is not made out of concrete, as I thought it was, but is actually made out of stainless steel, 2. it is almost 700 feet tall, 3. you ride on an elevator inside the arch to the top, that was designed with rollercoaster technology and, 4. it is actually a National Park. It was a rainy day (unusual for the Mid-west at this time of year… yeah right!) so we didn’t get to see a great deal out of the observation windows, but it was somewhat windy so the whole thing was swaying pretty good.
Then it was back to Evansville, Indiana for a couple of days to ride with GK and Nate Dog at this awesome sand pit. It was one of the best scag tracks we’ve been to, especially seeing as we couldn’t ride anywhere else in the Mid-west at that time due to the saturating rain they had been getting in the previous weeks. Following another full day of driving we were in Ohio on Saturday night for Rd. 4 of the OMA Nationals, and amazingly the track was dry. Surely the rain would finally stay away that night so as we could have a dry race. It didn’t!
Click here to see how the Ohio slime treated me.
Seeing as my next race, Rd. 7of the GNCC near Athens, was only an hour north of the OMA race, for once we had a short drive between races. We decided to go and stay just outside Columbus, Ohio at the Buckeye Lake campground for the week, and it basically rained all week. Go figure! With all of this rain coming down, it was getting to the stage where we were starting to get into a depressed mood about life. Mud races, average results, continual clean-up, $30 at the carwash each time, it was all beginning to take its toll. We needed some sunshine badly.
 Wednesday, I was fortunate enough to meet up with the guys from the Zanesville Trial Riders for a couple hours. They took me for an eventful and drenching ride on one of their 9 mile single-track courses. We rode for just over an hour. In that time, it rained 2 inches and hailed for a good 20 minutes (check out the sky in the background)! Now that's a memorable ride! Thanks to Kory Young and all the guys from the ZTR!
Not surprisingly, it continued raining off and on for the remainder of the week. Thursday night after dinner we went over to this little ice cream parlor in Hebron for some killer sweets and then swung past the nearby National Trail Raceway where they were conducting a round of the NHRA Drag car Nationals. We drove right up to the main gate and got stopped by the security guard. “What, is this a big concert? Who’s playing, Motley Crue?” The guard just gave me a dumbfounded look as I gave the van some gas and kept on driving right past him. The Drag Nationals are a serious game.
There must have been something like 40 semi’s there for all of the teams. It was huge, and amazing. We spent 5 minutes driving the pits, in and out all of the semi’s, and then bailed out back to our motorhome for some sleep.
Friday morning I made a quick trip over to Cycra plastics to see Ken and the guys to see what new products they had in the works and to grab some more product for my race bike. We didn’t bother rushing to the track because it was just a sloppy mess there, so we stopped off at some kind of Antique plaza for the girls to get some free time and me to catch up on writing some emails and magazine stories.
Once again, Saturday at the track was a full day of working on my 3 KTM’s, getting everything back in order again, and then that evening we went over to the reception for Amber Russell’s wedding, which turned out to be a pretty fun time.
Finally on Sunday the sun came out, appropriately, but the damage was already done to the track from the previous week’s rain.
So how did the mud treat me this time? Click here to find out.
Straight after the race we had to start making miles because we had 6 days to make it all the way across the country to Oregon for my next race, the Funky Chicken National Hare Scramble. By 2am on Monday morning we had made it to Illinois and stopped for a few hours sleep, and then it was back on the road because we had to make it to Kansas City to drop my oldies off at the airport so as they could catch their flight back to Oz. Then it was more driving. It’s a long way across Kansas, 422 miles to be precise. Once we got into Colorado, we ran into two nasty thunder storms, and then eventually we got to Denver at 2 am for my next scheduled stop of 4 hours sleep. What sucks about all of this is that it looks like it’s going to be another mudder this weekend in Oregon. That’s 6 in a row now!
Link of the Week!
Carrie has a saying that when you do good things, good things will come to you in your time of need. The people who started this website are definitely putting this theory to work, and we hope that you can all help.
RiderDown.org is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing assistance, financial and otherwise, to off-road riders and their families who have been injured doing what they love. Now, I don't know about you, but I have yet to meet anyone who participates in the sport, and has also managed to stay injury free. Maybe that's why it is so difficult to find medical insurance if you ride motorcycles? Seriously, though, whether you ride for fun, or professionally as I do, a serious injury can put a major and unexpected stress on you and your loved ones. So, be smart and compassionate-visit this website and do what you can to contribute to your fellow riders. If you saw them laying on the side of the track, you'd stop to help (I hope); and you'd hope they'd do the same for you if you needed it. This is the ruling principle of the RiderDown Foundation.
Please, take a minute to visit this site (http://www.riderdown.org/), and find out how you can get involved, or get assistance if you need it!
Thanks to Bruce Vermeulen, President of the RiderDown Foundation, for bring the site to my attention, and giving us the opportunity to be involved in such a fantastic (and necessary) cause.
Product Highlight
For 2006 I have rejoined forces with my old sponsor from years ago, Progrip. There is no better goggle on the market than Progrip. It’s as simple as that. The 3400 goggle is just unreal. The anti-fog lense will never fog up on you, which is a God-send, and the added feature of “light sensitivity” eliminates glare in bright light and reduces shadows in shaded areas. The real bonus for me is that in the last few years of not using Progrip I’ve been having so much problem with sweat smearing on the inside of my lense, making it blurry and difficult to see. That problem is now non-existent with Progrip goggles. If you ever do need to clean the inside of your Progrip goggles, make sure you are extremely careful not to damage the anti-fog film. I’ve found it best to wipe very lightly with a really soft cloth. And of course Progrip comes with all of the additional goggle extras such as roll-offs, tear-off, etc.
My Favorite Snap...
This photo courtesy of eatmydirt.com.au!
Now this is no way to treat your bike!
Things To Look Forward To...
The Idaho 2 day ISDE Qualifier!
This is supposed to be the most awesome race because of the great conditions and scenery in Idaho-not to mention that it fits in perfectly with our western travels to the Funky Chicken, Crater Lake National Park, and Glacier National Park. Unfortunately, I had to make a decision on this one: put the race off for another year, or miss the infamous OMA Nationals Moose Run. Well, at this point in my career, there may not be a lot of "next years" so we'll see you in IDAHO!!! |