On Friday near noon I leave work and start heading north on the motorcycle towards Monterey (or Salinas actually). Though people have told me "more fun" routes to take, I take Interstate 5 north, allow myself to have some fun on the twisty and undulating CA 198, and then make the last strecth to Salinas via US 101. I'm not used to riding this long, so I get to the hotel at a reasonable hour and just relax. The next couple of days will be long ones.
On Saturday I'm up early, out the door by 7 am, and still hit traffic on the way to Laguna Seca. There are many, many motorcycles on this day to watch practice and qualifying for the US MotoGP. This is the first motorcycle grand prix that the US has held since 1995 when the grand prix class was still two stroke engines. When I get to the track and park I start wandering around and run into a co-worker and his riding partners. We hang out for a while until I split over to the corkscrew for watching the first MotoGP practice. I'm lamenting the lack of castor oil that I smelled at the Czech Republic because the Czech Republic had the 125 and 250 classes of two stroke engine bikes that use castor oil (and gasoline, of course). But I get the sweet and exhilarating smell of burning castor oil because a support race uses two stroke engines. I stand down near the track, as close as possible, and breathe as deeply as possible to get my fix for the weekend. This "breathe deep as possible" routine takes place everytime that this class is on the track. There is nothing as ecstatic as the smell of burning castor oil!
The Saturday practice and qualifying go well as local USA favorite Nicky Hayden gets the pole in pursuit of his first ever MotoGP win. Almost unarguably the greatest rider to ever ride a motorcycle, Valentino Rossi, gets the second qualifying position during this, his first time at the track. I hang out for the start of the (boring) superbike race to let the crowd die down and it works as I face very little traffic on the way out. I stop and take some pictures of abandoned Fort Ord barracks before being yelled at and told to get out because this is private property. I've already got my pictures, so I don't debate the fact that this is, indeed, public property. I spend the rest of the evening relaxing because I am tired. Is it the sun, the walking, the excitement, or something else?
On Sunday I'm out the door 15 minutes earlier. But everyone else is out their doors an hour earlier. There are motorcycles and motorcycles and motorcycles everywhere. The announced crowd on Sunday, 69,000, is the largest ever held by this facility. The race sees USA rider Nicky Hayden win his first MotoGP in dominating style. It looks like the championship leader, Valentino Rossi, plays safe for third as his two closest championship pursuers are farther down the field and it is his first time at the event. I again stay for a bit of the last support race before walking back to my motorcycle and riding back to the hotel.
On Monday I'm up early and out the door of the hotel quickly. I fly
down the same route (more or less) that I took north. The CA 198 is again a lot of fun
with many twists and turns and up and down and no traffic and no police officers. By
the time that I get home I am really tired and sore. This old body was not made
for long trips on a racing motorcycle. The solutions are:
1) Take more long trips to get my body more used to them.
2) Go faster during the trips so that they don't last as long.
3) Get a second motorcycle that is more appropriate for long trips.
These are the only options that I can think of.
When I get home I relax and pay bills for a little while, then I decide that I need to keep moving around. So I do the laundry, do some grocery shopping, wash the motorcycle (It was filthy from the dust in the parking lots!), water the roses, and get out for a long walk. When I do the grocery shopping I note that of the 8 items, only one (nonfat milk) is something that I typically buy. Hmmm. And I spend the rest of the evening retuning missed phone calls throughout the weekend and procrastinating regarding calling the doctor for an appointment. And downloading from the camera and uploading to the Internet from the weekend.