AM at COTA

MotoGP here I come!

Friday Journey There

After months of anticipating my first MotoGP race as well as meeting friends in person for the first time, I couldn't wait to take off!

I left later than anticipated, but rolled out at 5:30 am, Friday morning, after a traditional QT stop and photo.

Here I am ready to begin the 550 mile trip to Circuit of the Americas!

Well, not so fast. That wasn't long. Heading south I had a show of magnificent lightning. Thought this will be a fun rodeo and I pulled over to gear up.

Oh well, I thought. At least it's in the 60s and not gonna be freezing rain. Oh was I wrong!

The two-hour show consisted of temps in 40s, huge and thick cloud-to-ground lightning strikes right above my head with cracks of thunder at the same time that hurt my ears, torrential rainfall ponding on the highway, hail and wicked winds...like riding into L.A. wicked.

The clouds and storm cells were moving northeast...and fast across the sky... but the freezing wind was pounding me from east to west. I've never experienced such a crazy storm for so long. And the direction I was traveling put me right in that temperature clash and in the red radar zones the entire way to Oklahoma City...not the green as it appears here when I could finally take a screenshot:

The city's highway I-35 had water pooling in many spots. The Michelins cut through the water like nothing...never felt a slip at all...love those tires!

But cagers were panic braking when approaching the water pools. I was always traveling at a safe distance so I could usually slowly brake despite their panic; however, there was one incident when I had to really slam on them and goodness did I ever get a surprise...

Think polar plunge on your tenders...
My coochie was flooded with freezing water running under me bum and specials. Brrrrrrr...
Avoid braking hard in freezing rain...

Here I am off moto and drenched!

Despite the crazy storm, I was having fun riding through it. Cagers were the ones scared prolly thinking I'd crash by the way the wind was knocking me around. I love the challenge of storms. But could have gone without the cold rain cooch deluge.

And these gloves lie:

I was sopping wet and dripping everywhere! My fingers were freezing and cold. Sucked putting them back on wet. But managed to get them on knowing I'd be drying out super fast!

The rest of the ride was gorgeous, dry, and turned out to be burning up! Southern Oklahoma and Northern Texas are just beautiful!


Never be mad about a temporary weather situation...

this can parallel with life...

because it won't last forever and you will be thrown into the opposite eventually.

In my case, cold wetness in morning and dry burning in the afternoon. You cannot appreciate one experience without knowing what the opposite experience is like! And boy are all experiences important!

After sitting in a 2 mile traffic jam for an hour, I was famished but friggin happy I was almost to COTA!!

I arrived shortly after 4 to have a looksee at the track!! The thing I noticed first was the noise and smell of racing fuel. All of my senses had been alive all day so this, my prize from riding all day, just put me in sense overload!

Someone must have gotten word I was coming...

I was expecting my free filter.
Oh wells.

To top off the day, I met imotopilot for the first time in person!! Such a delight after being friends on here and in social media for so long!! So amazing to see him, listen to him, and talk in person...he is a wonderful, kind person and is another reason for me to be thankful for this forum!! He bought me a Coke in a souvenir cup and we relaxed a while. Track was closing soon so we parted ways for the night.

I ended the day with a protein style In-N-Out burger to accommodate my allergies and somewhat girlish figure. I daydreamt of Lints and me and our time over this past Christmas when I tried this place for the first time in California.

After having my fill, I turned to the campgrounds to get rested for first day at the track!


Saturday At The Track

Since I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep between 7 am Thursday until I laid down Friday night (40 hours awake), I slept in Friday a bit, waited around to go to breakfast with friends, then headed to the track.

It was just as amazing as the night before. The 250s were running (my favorite sound at the track), qualifying races were happening, and there was people watching galore to be had as well. Little kids were even having a go at motos in Ducati Island. Sooo adorable!!

I embarked on tower climbing to watch qualifying, listened to sweet music of all things moto, and had fun watching speed, laying in grass daydreaming of motos and racing and travel and friends
...the day was so delightful!




Met up with showmerider from our forum and it was so awesome to meet him in person!! He is amazing just like imotopilot and he only lives a few hours away! Gosh, I love this forum that brings so many amazing peole together!! We watched the races, roamed the test ride area, and attended HONDA team interviews...those were super fun!! Then we parted ways with plans to meet up the next day.



My only regret was none of us peeps got pics together! We were all so enthralled at getting pics of motos, racers, the track, and the interviews that it didn't cross my mind. Next time...

I couldn't get enough of walking around and looking at everything! But it was eventually time to go...until tomorrow...

I hadn't eaten or had anything to drink all day at the track...didnt even buy merch, so I was starving. Starving for Texas BBQ!

So to Salt Lick I go...and oh did it suit my craving!! This place has such a rich history of how it got started which I thought was super neat.




And the trees around this place and in the area are amazing!! Live Oak?

Eating here also left me pining to attend some baseball...with this place being right next to Dell Diamond, as well as baseball decor. A ride to major league baseball game is in the works...


With a full belly, eating way more in one sitting that I had all week, I headed back to camp but could not fall asleep.

I forced myself to go to bed after midnight since I knew I wanted to be up by 5:45 am to load up gear and get to track by gate opening time: 7:45 am

Big Sunday Race Day

Success!! It was imperative to beat traffic and be on time so I could bustdown the gates and make it to test ride area. I was able to sign up for Slingshot ride at 9:00 and HONDA 500F and 500X at 9:30 and 10:30.

While I was roaming test ride area the day before, I met Russ and Becky who worked the HONDA test rides. They both talked and worked with me a long time to set up the rides I would do. Russ is retired military and has done many rides including Alaska and Becky is my soul doppleganger! Two new friends met with amazing stories and experiences to share!!

I was super excited to see them this morning...

But first I flirted with the Slingshot. The machine was so super fun!! I essentially felt like a big kid in a GoKart!


Super fast, pulls insanely at just over 2k rpm, so freaking fun to drive a manual, and super super fast to speed. BUT...dont go over 60 on bumpy rural road...that thing bounced all over from side to side and up and down. I wasn't scared and trusted the machine to handle it. But hit something like that unexpectedly when going 80mph, I wouldn't trust the thing.

Maybe that's why we had to wear helmets? Would I buy one? No. Would I have fun in one every day if I could? Yes, it would be my daily driver. A nice graduation gift this would make for a wild rose...

Well, after the Slingshot fun that didn't last long enough, I made my way over to see Russ and Becky again at HONDA.

I also made two new friends, Gene and Jeff who have a friend with a VFR that is a member here (he didn't know his friend's handle...so John with a 2007 VFR 800...if you are reading this, I'm who Gene was talking about!) We had fun the rest of the morning chatting and riding!

I rode the 500F first. Super fun little moto with enough get up and go to make me happy! No windscreen and actually seemed a bit too small. It reminded me of my 250RR.

Russ and Becky bet that I would love the 500X more...especially for the kind of riding I want to do. They were spot on! Bigger moto, but still light weight enough for me, windscreen, amazing mile per from range, and just my color and style!

New price tag of $6,500 but since the model hasn't changed for two years, Russ said I could get an older one that is sitting in a warehouse for a steal. Now this is a more realistic graduation gift and one I'd get a ton more use out of...pretty pretty please, friends?? <3 <3

After all that fun test riding, it was time for the races!! I wandered and watched and chatted with strangers, marveled at hearing so many different languages everywhere I turned, got stuck in the middle of a huge swarm of bees flying into me and others and watched them swarm electric box. So much happening!!

I decided to get some nourishment since I had not eaten yet all day and to finally (ughhh) stand in line to buy merch. So I got a bag of chips, a soda, a water, a sweet shirt and key tag.

Before chips, I had snuck up with stealth at the K&N tent.

Was gonna play the spin game after having to sign up for their social media (how cheeky). I just wanted to win some merch to defile later. But my phone service was lacking so I couldn't "like" or "follow" anything so I got kicked out of line. No free merch.

But I did share my info with K&N reps and let them know I've yet to hear anything from them about last summer's deal. I was kind to them...not these reps' fault...but inside I was thinking of how glorious it would be to have a filter fail and spew oil all over their purdy white tent just like it did in muh purdy white moto. Ha!

Anyhoo, I left the K&N fantasies and had fun finding imotopilot and talking with him more, meeting his friends, making new friends, watching races with them, meeting up with showmerider again to witness the Marquez win together with my new friend, Tom, and then climbing to the top row of seats to watch the final race of the day with showmerider...so wonderful to have more time to talk with him too! These guys are amazing folks!! <3 <3

Well, the races were over but I now had the feels and sounds and freaking amazing sights of all those motos taking off from the starting line together...nothing better in terms of racing that I've ever experienced in my life!!!!!

Well, except being close to a top fueler firing up, blowing nitro up my nose, and taking off down the drag strip leaving me to showered with rubber flakes feom their tires! <3 <3

But for motos, these races were it!!

Sadly, but satisfied, I headed out of the gates with showmerider to collect our gear and head home.

Unfortunately someone who was not very nice to me that weekend was hanging out at the gear check waiting for me to show up. He was not happy and was not being nice to me. I asked him repeatedly to leave me alone. Bystanders were watching ready to assist as well as showmerider. He finally left, I gave showmerider a big squeeze before he had to go and I sat down to gear up.

Witnesses and COTA workers came to see if I was okay and if I needed anything. I'm not religious, but I appreciate prayer from all religions. A couple prayed over me and peace came to me, much like when an Ojibwa man blessed me in the name of his father's eagle spirit when I was in a freezing cold rain Saskatchewan last summer. I felt much better after that and drank some cold water that was offered.

One of the workers, Jim, rode with me out the back way of the track. We stopped for gas and he took care of topping off my tank so he could help me get out of town. He escorted me about 25 miles before he turned back.

Angels are everywhere.
There is truly more good out there than bad. I'll never be scared to get out and adventure... because I have learned and witnessed this fact in action so many times in my travels...

Well, by now it was around 6:30 pm. I was so hungry after only having chips, soda, and water all day. So I stopped at another Texas fast-food must: Whataburger!!

I used that time to eat protein style meal, make some phone calls, and met two more friends: Nick and Jeffrey. Jeffrey had been at MotoGP and goes every year. He had met Nick for dinner. We started talking and since I needed to go to The Tarjay across the parking lot to get a new bag for the ride home, we all went there. This was great since I needed to kill time until about 9 pm. And these two were just hilarious! They brought me some much needed laffs!!

I found a cute backpack that I could use for the night and didn't realize it made noise and had lights until I was packing it up. Super fun!

Jeffrey and Nick stayed with me until I got everything sorted, we said our goodbyes, then I headed north for the long way home. See, more goods.

I figured riding with a backpack on all the way home would suck...and it did. But I was successful most of the time in putting it out of my mind. I stopped to fuel up at the most interesting place that was muh food heaven...beef sticks and jerky galore!! And all kinds!! What they say about Texas being big....truth! And those Buckies...holy 500 gas pumps!!


The ride home was thankfully uneventful except I was very tired and very very cold. I bought a huge jacket (hi-vis men's 2XL...only size there) for $24 at a Shell station where I took a catnap.

That was a smart purchase. I already chilling in the 40 degree temps at high high highway speeds (no heated gear as I wasn't anticipating an all nighter). I could tell hypothermia was creeping again like during my run home from California after this last New Year's. That extra layer made the last part of the ride bearable. Maybe I bring the thing for R3 raffle.

And I have to hand it to moto...a right workhorse if I've ever seen one. Putting up with my drops, multi-hour runs, adverse weather. Through it all, moto is the one constant I have...even when he is misbehaving. I love my moto...a huge extension of me...and I feel even more connected to this machine with every epic journey we survive together. <3 <3

Kansas greeted me with sunrise and stars and crescent moon and planet all in one go.

I stopped for a photo then rolled into my place at 6:30 am. Awesome!! Just in time for shower and leave to get to work. That shower was sure painful since I was so cold, especially my feet. But I tolerated it and made it to work on time.

After teaching kids all day, I was starting to fade. I met a friend for soda that Monday night after work and felt the fatigue kick in hard. Started making dumb mistakes like driving home in the dark with only my my parking lights on. I didn't wanna blast my friend and other diners with my headlight beams. So as he was getting on his moto. I just turned on parking lights. And I just kept driving. Didn't notice until I parked at home and wondered where the bright lights on the fence were coming from. :/ It waa definitely time for bed.

I settled in, took merch pics, intended to message peeps and call a friend, but laid down under the warmth of electric blankie and BOOM...I was out.

I did dream of Slingshot on a track in the Canadian Rockies to the sky and my heart was full. I'm sure giggled in my sleep with that dream.

The weekend was Amazing!
Riding, friends, racing, the unexpecteds. I hope you all get to experience an amazing moto race some day. If nothing else, I hope you get to experience the good and the bad that time on your moto will bring you: weather, people, events, etc. And I hope nothing is too bad that you can't come out of it better.

Experience and Feel Life! <3 <3

Until next time...

 

What would you do if I told you I did... :/

Come next year if they have it! Sooo super fun!

 

Who was slacking?! WHOOOOO!

Those were all the rage here in Kansas in the 80s. Wonder when it became a Kansas thing...

Big Red is actually my favorite soda when I don't mind the sugar.
Banana Moon Pie FTW!...but alas, I cannot partake.

 

Thank you

Do it...you won't regret it...ever!!

 

I can still smell the racing fuel and hear the sounds! <3
Me is me and I don't know how else to be.
Grumpy old man come hang with me for a weekend and I'll share myself...let my personality rub off on you a bit.

 

The Whataburger was tasty...greasy, but great flavorings on the burger...the fries reminded me of McDonald's.

In-N-Out was much tastier and seemed more fresh...the fries tasted like they were just cut from the tater and less greasy.

Of course at both places I had no buns, so this is my opinion based on no buns.

Besides, I got to daydream of my time in Cali at the In-N-Out. So overall...that's the best!

 

Thank you!

Yes, soooo super amazing to meet you and spend time together!
I am definitely planning for next year...so let's talk and make it work!

Is there anything from this weekend you can still smell, hear, or feel?
I'm still basking in the fresh memories!!