Off go the Pro Riders

The Starting Line for MM

When you give a Kid a Flip Video Camera…and tell him to have fun!

Last Lap, Goooo MM!

The day for me, kicked off at 4:45AM.  Yes, that’s AM…as in morning, a very early morning.  Have I mentioned I hate waking up in the morning?  I’m sure I have.  There is nothing good that ever comes of waking up when it’s still dark outside.  Pops just said that MM must really be something if I was going to drag myself out of bed at that hour.  Yes Pops, MM is something.  It’s hard to believe we have as many things in common as we do.

I did pick us up Orange Hi-C on the way there.  I LOVE Orange Hi-C from Micky D’s, which is just one of the many things I have in common with MM.  I’ve been drinking it since I was a kid and no that I’m pushing 26, I’m not going to stop now.  I wound up beating MM to Choctaw….by a long shot.  You see, he told me to be there at 6, so I was there by 6.  Problem is – he wasn’t.  Turns out his alarm didn’t go off and it took me calling him to get him on the road.  What he would do without me, I’m not too sure.

I met some of his family at the track and I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I’d be.  Since this was MM’s turf I let him take the lead.  Racing is an entirely different world compared to what I did growing up.  I mean, I did soccer, the swim team, I danced and even golfed.  I did grow up riding 4wheelers or Quads as their known as in the motorcycle realm.  I’m familiar with 2 strokes and yadda yadda yadda other things that are associated with motorcycles, which didn’t surprise MM.

Although, I now have a number to pick out for when I race.  It has to start with a 3 and then I get to pick the following 2 numbers.  That’s the womens numbers, which is what I’ll be racing when I do take up racing in a few years.  I’m open to any and all ideas, I’m thinking 320, but you never know.  I may decide to switch it up later on down the road.  I sure got a kick out of seeing all the different bikes and understanding what they all were.

Since MM got injured Saturday, I played the nice girl he’s dating and wrapped his chest with an ace bandage.  His cousin was joking if MM would even race since he had cracked one of his ribs and MM said I drug her (me) all the way out here, I have to race.  Awwww, he’s super sweet.  We got his bike to the starting line, filled it up with gas, I kissed him for good luck and then his cousins wife & I along with their kids all went to the top of the hill to see the boys off.  It was definitely an exciting time.  I don’t think I had ever been that excited about seeing someone race.

The first line are the Pro riders.  There are always comments about a rider named Joiner.  From what I’ve been told he’s always lapping people and I was able to see it first hand.  He can really race too.  Maybe I’ll dream big and give him a run for his money some day?

Stilll just hanging out at the starting line.  They were waiting on the flag to drop.

Another class getting ready to head off onto the track.

The 700′s.  They all mean something I’m just not sure what.  MM is the next class so you can imagine my anticipation waiting to see him take off.

Doesn’t this make you want to get out on the track?  I know I certainly do!   Hopefully this’ll be something to accomplish in the future.

Forgive me for shrinking down the picture, but it was too big to  fit across.  Just click on it.  Far left is 818, which is MM.  He was busy talking to the other riders.

All set.  Now it’s race time and prepare the lungs to whoop & hollar and cheer my guy on.

What did I tell ya?  Talking away.  He was paying attention though cause he really took off when they dropped the flag.

Here come a whole slew of riders, but none of them were MM.  The lap around the track took around 25 minutes, which gave MM’s cousins wife & I plenty of time to chat.  Their kiddos even shot a few videos of the riders going by.

I took pictures of random riders, just to see if I could and if they’d turn out any good.  It was definitely much different than Saturday – that’s for sure.

Here HE comes!!!  If you’ll watch the video you can hear all of us whooping & hollaring for him.  He did a great job finishing.  Him & his cousin took 6th and 7th out of the race.  They both did extremely well, I thought.

Last lap.  MM did amazing.  Well at least I thought he did.  He came in 7/18 despite having lost his helmet cam along the track and then going back to retrieve it and his cracked rib.  I was very proud of him for finishing the race.

After seeing this one I want to go to all of them.  So, depending upon school and studying and tests and what not.  That’s the plan.  Good thing they only race until June.  Gruber is in a few weeks, which means we’ll be camping out for that one.  I’m out of school, so I’ll be able to go and not have to worry about studying.  I honestly can’t wait.

Saturday after the MLH fundraiser, I talked MM into letting me tag along to see him practice.  I was trying to get a “feel” for what Sunday would be like.  Since neither one of us planned on me tagging along, we stopped at good ole’ Wally World so I could get some flip flops and food.  I thought I’d have to go barefoot because there was no way I was going to wear 4″ heels to the track – which just so happened to be out in a pasture.  It was kind of funny when I went to get my cheap-o flip flops, I was going to get black because they don’t show dirt – MM had other thoughts.  I actually got bright pink ones, they suit me.

The race for this particular weekend was at Guthrie for a charity event.  I had no idea what to expect, so I was amazed at what I saw when I got to the track.  Never in my life had I seen so many motorcycles in one place.  It seriously made my stomach flip flop in excitement.  I can’t wait to start riding….can’t….can’t…can’t.  I decided to change into my MLH Bowling shirt instead of my dress, which made things easier, when it came time to get on his bike.  Man oh Man do I love MM’s bike….more so being on the back of it.

Yes mom, I wore a helmet and MM is experienced he didn’t even go that fast.  Nothing to worry about!  I got dropped off out in the open area of the track so I could watch the other riders too.  I saw MM go by once and WOW.  Talk about having a huge smile on my face.  It was amazing to get to see him ride without all the other riders by him.  After his one lap he came back to where he dropped me off and we talked about the track.  I’ve got a lot to learn! A few other riders came by and then MM took off again.  This time I was completely unaware of what was going to happen….

Technically there should be a rider in this photograph, but I didn’t get him.  Ooooops.  Now comes figuring out my fps (frames per second) feature and aperature.  Sure is nice having a fancy smancy point & shoot camera.  I’m sure it’ll take me awhile getting used to shooting an actual moving target with my P&S, maybe one day I’ll move up to the Canon DSLR that I want.  If MM sticks around, this would be a reason to invest in one.

Another riderless shot.  I hope ya’ll like looking at the track, because it looks like this is as good as it’s going to get.  Now, if you believed that I don’t know what to tell you.  I just kept clicking until I figured out the rhythm the riders were coming by in.  I got a few shots of other riders, just not MM.  He only went by once, I didn’t get another opportunity after that.  Read on and you’ll find out why.

This is what I want to be doing in a few years.  I’ll be 27ish by then, good grief that’s old.  I can’t wait to get on a bike now.  Seeing what happens on the track just made that desire that much stronger.  Hopefully when I do get good enough I can talk Mom & Pops into coming out and seeing me race.  Ahhhh, on second thought that might be a bad idea.  Can’t do anything too extreme to cause more gray hairs on their heads.

Starting to get better at taking photos of moving objects.  I was entirely too proud of myself for doing this.  I just wish MM would’ve went by again, but he didn’t.

Revving the engine.  Ummmm, yes!  I was starting to wish I had gotten a bike years ago, when I first started my savings account.  Being 9, I didn’t get an allowance for doing any of the farm chores, instead I just saved my birthday and christmas money for years and years.  It wasn’t until I was a Freshman in college that I had enough for a bike and by then I didn’t have a need for a bike.  Afterall, where can I store a dirt bike while I’m living in the dorms?

….I had called mom to say “Hi” and ask her if she knew what I was doing.  She just said she heard a lot of noise in the background – I told her I was at the track.  I’m not too sure what she thought about that, but she didn’t say much about it.  About the time we hung up with each other, MM came back.  He didn’t go by on the track, he came from behind where I was at and with more mud on him than when he left.  Turns out MM had a bad wreck.  Between snapping a bolt and cracking a rib, it turned out to be a major crash.

Thankfully MM picked me back up and took me back to the truck.  Not that I would’ve minded walking back – it was super sweet of him to do that.  Poor MM.  He loaded up his bike and I loaded his stuff in the cab and we left for where we had left my car.  I know he felt awful, he just never showed it.  I told him he had to go home and fix his bike so I could see him race the next morning – which is exactly what he did…

I think this is really the first time I’ve actually been nervous/excited/scared to do something in my life.  That’s probably not the best statement, there have been times I’ve been scared to do something, but barged on through and accomplished whatever scared me to death.  The Ropes Course at Camp Cavett….the very first time………Jumping off a Bridge when I was a kid…..Water Skiing….and of course all the other Evil Knievel things I did growing up.  I just might be the cause of a few gray hairs on my parents heads, but I do still have 2 other siblings so it wouldn’t be fair to take all the blame for the gray.

Come Sunday I’m going to be watching MM race in a OCCRA dirt bike race.  It should be interesting.  I love new experiences and trying new things and definitely stepping outside of my comfort zone.  I’m excited about getting to see everyone race, but you never know – in a few years that could very easily be me out there.  Yes, Mom’s I’ll pack my sunscreen.  I did find out the plan might be to put me on a bike while I’m at the race.  I’m sure I’ll make a complete idiot of myself, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

I grew up on 4wheelers as a kid, so it can’t be that much more different, can it?  I just won’t mention to MM all of the wrecks or siblings I ran over as a child while on those 4wheelers.  Actually, I already have.  He busted out laughing.  Looking back now, I guess it is sort of funny.  I did run into the house, a barbed wire fence, over my Baby Bro when I was around 8 or 9 (don’t worry, I didn’t run over his head – which is exactly what I said to my parents & the only thing Paps remembers and still laughs about from that incident), ran over Roomie’s leg – not her body just her leg and I’m sure there are countless other times I did something on the farm, but repressed the memories of it ever happening.

I’ll be sure to get photos of everything going on at the race, after all – Mom & Pops met at a Turkey Calling Hunt (at least that’s what they say) thanks to one of Pops’ Buddies & Mom’s Cousin.  They got married 8 months later and no, I wasn’t the reason for that either.  I didn’t come along til’ at least 2 years after that.  My point is, my family has met in some strange places.  Gramps & Grams :: working on the WWII at Boeing (I think that’s right), Paps & Nanny :: I’m going to have to get the details, but I think in town, then they’d just sneak around to see each other – Did I mention my Great-Grandpa was a Baptist Preacher?  Yep.  Can’t imagine what Papaw & Nanny did when they were young.  There have also been the bar stories, college stories and everything under the sun.

After I have completely gotten off subject :: I can’t wait for Sunday.

Two posts in one day :: this must be some type of Okie record.  I had a few minutes to spare besides my frantic cleaning that’s going on.  MM is headed over this evening.  I’m stoked.  I actually finished putting out mulch, potted my azalea from Gramps’ Funeral and put it outside to bask in the sun for the summer and in no time changed clothes and applied a fresh coat of makeup.  It was definitely a site to see.  Roomie just said “he needs to come over more often, you work so much faster”.  We’ll just have to see about that one, Roomie.  There are still a few things that I need to take care of before he comes over.  For the most part though, it’s mostly all taken care of.  No idea what the two of us are going to get into, but we’ll just have to play this evening by ear.

Stay tuned.