Saturday morning I went to the dentist, who told me my molar was cracked, and he could probably fix it in a two weeks (but it turned out he can't do it until the end of May) and then I returned home so Paul and I could go to Carnegie to watch the Hillclimbs! Which were, like, totally awesome!
The whole experience can be summed up thusly:
but, specifically:
-$15 per person just to watch is steep. Way too steep. I guess that's why we don't go every year. It takes an off year for me to forget how ripped-off I felt the previous year.
-it was sunny. And hot.
-There is a fence to keep the specatator area separate from the starting line area. I don't know why, becuase by the end of the day it was apparent that it wasn't to keep people out. Of course the racers were there with their machines and the guys putting gas (and other things) in, etc. But also a bunch of random children, a bunch of hoochies, some guys who were drinking beer, and, in the end, a pregnant lady?!? All at the start line.
-It was pretty funny listening to some teenage hottie-type (I mean she was average hot, not, like omigod hot) lecturing her boyfriend (who was racing) on "where the hell have you been?! I've been looking for you all day! I looked (here) and (THERE!) and I couldn't find you at all!" Seriously pissed off. He just looked at her with no answer, cuz, ummm, he was racing. Which, I imagine, is exactly where he said he would be?
-The open class champion is named Dusty Beer. There is a whole team called "Beer Racing." You can see "Beer Racing" on the rear fender of this bike:
And if you look closely, on the front of this bike:
The Beer Clan seems to be large, but at this pit, you can see that two of them are pitting together: Jonn and Don:
-I don't think I've ever seen someone who's own dog had no respect for him before. But I can't blame the dog.
-It was announced that a rattlesnake had been found at the start line, which they flung over into the tall grass on the other side of the wire fence. (It was a sizeable snake-- I saw it fly) At which point, a self-professed "rattlesnake hunter" jumped over the fence to, I guess, hunt it? In the tall grass where it had been flung. Wearing shorts and sandals. Genius! It turned out to be gopher snake or something. Which is a good thing, because apparently, if you get injured at this thing, you end up in the back of the "EXTREME SPORTS Medical" Ambulance, where, I assume, they administer Red Bull and blast Limp Bizkit while trying to remember which way to the hospital.
-Sitting in the spectator area, you get hit with a ton of dirt clods. These bikes put out a LOT of horsepower. I mean, when you consider that these people are taking, like FJ1100 and GSXR1000 motors and powering up a VERY steep hill, in the dirt, just WFO. It's pretty insane. I would be afraid to do this in a level, paved place. I suspect there may be an inverse function of brains to skill in this sport.
-the kids are the cutest.
-This guy has a bitchin' custom tank:
These photos do not do the hill justice at all. The hill is really, really really steep. And tall. These people are insane.
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