Twist-Throttle.com

Brandy & I have begun a little side business, called B&B Reflections. B&B Reflections is in the business of creating DVD Video Slideshows, Montages & Video Albums of your Pictures & Images. Quite likely, you have seen at least one of our previous video slideshows. The side business began from the enjoyment that we have had creating the previous movies, plus the numerous suggestions of the business from people who have seen our movies. All ready, Brandy has a couple of jobs lined up for us to work on in the near future.

The name as you can probably guess stands for Brandy & Bill Reflections. The two B’s being our initials, and the Reflections being a play on the reflection of the two B’s, and of course people reflecting on the story of their loved ones through the video slideshow.

So at this point, the business is just on the ground floor and in the process of being built up. But absolutely, we are open for business & ready to take on projects for anybody & any occasion. I have an initial web site up for our business, but it still needs much work at this time. The web site address is www.bbreflections.com

So spread the work & keep an open ear for anybody that might enjoy a slideshow for occasions such as; anniversaries, birth days, graduations, reunions and etc.

Bill

So yes… it’s up in the air if I will be able to enter my August 27th race as planned. Motor problems with my bike & Brandy & I have agreed to start a “budget”. Does this spell doom for my racing in 2006? Time will tell.

Over the last ride or two, my bike has been running pretty crappy… with it getting progressively worse. Upon further inspection, it was determined that my head gasket was leaking coolant into the cylinder. To verify that it was only the gasket & not a warped head, I had Max Power RPMs inspect the cylinder & cylinder head. Fortunately they brought good news that the head was straight, plus they verified that the head had been shaved a little bit… which is where my high compression-ratio is coming from & requiring me to run a 50/50 mix of race gas & pump gas. So I bought a new head gasket from them, one that is for my specific 2mm over-bore. So in the end, I came out pretty good… no warped head, it only cost me $25 & now I know how the motor has been modified from the previous owner. Now I just need to get my motor back together again & I should be back riding again and hopefully with some nice performance & motor rideability improvements!!

About the “budget” thing… Brandy & I have agreed to begin a planned budget, to start focusing on paying off our credit debts, finishing the little projects in our home that are not finished… and then hopefully next summer, we’ll pursue buying a newer home. So yea, hell yea! A newer, larger & everything else home would rock!! But it is going to take a definite mentality change on our part. Cutting back, way back on the amount of going out to eat, we already removed the credit cards from our wallets, contacting banks about moving the credit around to better interest rates & etc. I don’t know if we’ll be able to pull it off though…

So yes, me actually entering an official race/s this year… it might or might not happen at this point. I’m not even a memeber of the AMA any more… I would have to join the AMA, District, pay gate fees for me & Brandy… fuel, food, liquids, spare parts, possible lodging & everything else that is needed for a racing wekeend. But of course I’ll still be riding with buddies… absolutely is that a great time… but I do have desire inside of me to enter at least one race again this year… I’ve been away from the races since June of 2004. Time will tell how it all pans out…

Quite possibly the most satisfying experience I’ve had on a dirt bike… that was last weekends trip to WI’s Clark County’s Knobby Ridge Motorcycle Trail. A group of us took a weekend up north to get away & trail ride our dirt bikes.

But let me start back at the beginning.

Friday night was all about getting my bike & gear ready and everything packed because I was heading out at 7:30am Saturday. Things could have gone more smoothly though. I felt rushed to get everything done; from making sandwiches to bring, loading everything up & getting all my gear & bike dialed in. When I was still working on my bike, I went to start it up with just casual shoes & wearing shorts, I slipped off of the kick starter & the starter arm slapped me in the leg. It hurt quite a bit & instantly I had a big lump on my lower leg… which turned black & blue right away as well. As I’m limping around on it, I figure that if I can still walk on it, it must not be broke… that I’d be fine. But I did hope that the swelling would go down for tomorrow, because the lump was right where the lower portion of my knee brace will be cinched around my leg… that didn’t sound too comfortable. I sure hoped that this wasn’t an indication of how the weekend was going to go either.

So I get up to my alarm Saturday morning, my leg is definitely achy… but thankfully the swelling has gone down substantially, things are looking up! Anxious with excitement for the weekend ahead, I chow down some cereal at home & head out the door right on schedule. The plan was to meet at 8:00am with many of the guys at a truck stop just up the Interstate. I’m the first one there, but everybody shows up pretty much on time… we’re on the road around 8:15am and headed up to Black River Falls, WI. With the weather forecast a hot one of 98 degrees & sunny, I had been drinking a lot of water since Friday morning to keep hydrated during the ride. Needless to say, halfway through the 2-hour drive, I had to piss & I knew there was no way that I was going to make it the full trip without a stop. Fortunately some of the others needed to do the same, so
that was good because I didn’t want to be the single person holding everybody up. Why I’m bringing this wayside stop up is that coincidently, I ran into an ex co-worker at the wayside. I haven’t seen her in over a year… what are the chances of that, she was traveling up north & stopped at the same wayside, within this 10 minute window of time that we were there… kind of crazy! So we gabbed for a short bit, but I cut it short because I didn’t want to hold it any longer & I was plenty anxious to get back on the road.

But anyways… we arrive at Black River Falls; where to ride the county trails, you need to purchase a yearly registration. We were expecting it to be $12, but it had been bumped up to $20… without an option to buy a single-day pass. Not a big deal, but 2 of the guys with us had brought along their 2 sons each, so this meant that each Dad had to pay $60 for them all to ride… seems a little steep for one day. You see, the plan was for us to ride the trails at Black River Falls on Saturday & then the county trails at Neillsville, WI on Sunday; which will be another $6 per rider for a day pass. But back to Black River Falls. The previously couple weeks of weather had generally been dry & hot, so unfortunately we were anticipating a lot of dust that would give poor visibility and we also found out that there was a ban on camp fires (we were camping out that
night). To our surprise, the trails were in very good condition! There was hardly any dust, some occasional
puddles from one storm that came through the day before and the soft sand of Black river actually was a little tacky. The heat though… that was another story. It really drained on all of us… 99 degrees of thick, hot air mixed with humidity & total sunshine. We definitely were taking breaks during our ride to drink some water & to take our helmets off for a bit of a breather.

I think that I need to back up just for a moment… this was my first real ride on my bike this year. I bought this bike at the beginning of the winter last year. Previous to this weekend, I had ridden it 3 times for short rides, also in temperatures more in the 80’s instead of pretty much 100 degrees. I thought that I had my bike dialed in for the trip. I actually took a little extra time, I thought, in making sure I came prepared for the weekend trip. Well it turns out that my bike requires a higher octane gas then I had bought the night before. Buying the bike used, I assumed the motor was basically stock, but with a pipe on it. Over the winter, putting a new top-end in the bike revealed that the bike is bored 2mm over, which computers out to be a 265cc instead of the original 250cc. A friend had inspected the head & he said that there was no porting done to it… which was good news since I don’t need a peaky top-end orientated “moto” race motor. Well it does appear that the compression has been jacked up some… During this longer ride & with the heat that we were riding in… my bike all of a sudden wasn’t running very good any more. It was pinging, had detonation & not wanting to idle… and this was only progressively getting worse each mile as we did our first loop of the trail. Through the help of John & Heath, it was determined that I needed to get some higher octane fuel in it before I could really keep going. So John made a couple of phone calls & got me dialed-in to go pick up some VP Race Fuel from a dealer that was about a 30 minute drive away. What I ended up buying was a 5-gallon can of VP Racing C12 race fuel at 108 octane… 5 gallons for $50! It sure does smell nice though. Upon returning to the riding area and putting the new gas in my bike… it was running good again. Problem solved! So the next thing was to see if mixing it 50/50 between the Race Fuel & the pump gas, if it would still run well… which it did… good news for me, I can get more riding time out of my $50 race gas. In the near future, we’ll do a compression test on it & figure out what combination of pump gas & race gas I need to have the bike run strong. Another option for me is the figure out if the head has been shaved or if the cylinder was shaved to increase the compression… and possibly either replace the head if that’s what been modified or put in a second head gasket or something of that nature… and then be able to run just pump gas in the bike by lowering the compression ratio. While I was away to go buy the gas, the gang went out for a second loop. So now that my bike is running better, I went out again with a smaller group. My bike still wasn’t jetted perfect yet… it still wanted to stall some & it started hard, requiring a few kicks. Also, I still wasn’t riding very good… I was tight on the bike, feeling “rusty” and definitely not feeling my rhythm on the trail. But it
was still good to be out trail riding with the guys. Thoughts of whether if I should actually enter the race at the end of August popped into my head though… I really was riding slowly… sure not the pace of what the B class will be doing at the race. I wasn’t very comfortable on the bike.

After we finished riding for the day, we discussed our plan of going over to Neillsville that night or just stay at Black River Falls to camp & then head over to Neillsville on Sunday morning. Matt & Jeff decided to stay at Black river Falls with their sons and ride the trails at Black River again on Sunday. So the rest of us packed up & headed out to Neillsville. After hitting a gas station along the way for more fuel for our bikes & bodies, we arrived at the trail head of the Knobby Ridge trail. Upon arriving at the trails, Pete; one of Moose Racing’s A class racers, was already there with his camper trailer all set up. This was the first
time that I had met Pete, I heard that he was a good rider. After we all got acquainted, we set up camp & then jumped in Heath’s truck & drove over to a near by creek. It was pretty funny… after a full day of riding, we felt pretty dirty, so most of us jumped into the creek to bath & just cool off in the heat. We must of looked like some hill billies washing our hair & pits in the creek… there was a family swimming at the little beach right next to us. Then it was back to the camp site to cook up some food, do some BS’n, have a drink or two… then off to bed around midnight.

Saturday morning I woke to cooler temps & partly cloudy skies. We began by starting to tear down the tents, unloading the bikes & filling up on water. A couple more guys met us at the trail head for the days ride. As all this was happening, the clouds continued to roll in… but the weather was noticeably cooler & less humid then Saturday. John took a couple of the new guys out for a casual warm-up ride while the rest of us casually packed things up & finished getting our gear on. By the time the group was ready to head out for the 20′ish mile loop, rain was looking more & more inevitable; but we welcomed it to keep us cool & the dust down. Actually, John came back from his casual ride with reports that the trails were in great shape, no dust, a few puddles & the soil was tacky.

So it was time for all of us to head out for the big ride of the day, I had anticipation of tighter trails then what Black River had to offer. Based off of my performance the day before, I felt a little uncertain on how the ride would go for me… with the more technical terrain, but my bike was running better & I expected myself to progress & get smoother/faster as the day went on.

Well the trails at Neillsville were awesome! There was more elevation changes then Black River, more tree roots and it seemed to me that there was more of a “flow” to the trails. Even the woods themselves were more attractive then Black River and the trails were a little longer (or was that just the tighter more technical trail slowing our pace down). Don’t get me wrong, I’d go back to Black River for sure, the more riding areas & various areas to ride the better… but for me, the Knobby Ridge Trail at Neillsville is my new favorite location to ride, anywhere!

In my previous post I mentioned that I expected our pace to be about 25 mph… well that was a little optimistic… I’d say my pace on Sunday was about 15 - 20mph. My bike has a 5-speed gearbox, but on these trails I was in 2ng gear most of the time… with some of the tighter areas I’d drop down into first gear… and only rarely did I even use 3rd gear. 2nd gear is my new friend… with plenty of clutch work in the corners. I learned a lot riding on Sunday, I kept telling myself to look further ahead down the trail. I am guilty of looking too close in front of me… like only 15 feet ahead, but when I looked much further ahead, I
was able to react to things in the trail much better, to be able to expect what’s coming ahead & not just react to it. Another thing that I was making a point to improve on was the use of my rear brake. I’ve developed the bad habit of relying on my front brake to much & the rear brake has actually become an after-thought for me. So all day, I kept making a conscious effort to reverse that… to use the rear brake every time & to intentionally not use the front nearly as much. Wow, what a difference in the control. I was gaining control of the bike & confidence quickly now… I was able to get the bike turned much better in the corners, more control in the technical situations & ready for the next obstacle as well. The other thing that I was learning over the weekend was the differences between my old bike (KDX trail bike) to my new bike (KX motocross bike). How lazy the KDX allowed me to be. What I mean is that the KDX lets you lug the motor down real low in the RPM range & it will just tractor up out of it with throttle only. But my new bike, with its moto characteristics is a little different. It requires a little more work, finesse, skill & energy. Even though the motor is much stronger then my KDX could ever think of being, it is not nearly as happy in the
basement of the RPM range. With the KX, coming into the corner I learnt to be more aggressive; pulling in the clutch, blipping the throttle to keep the RPM’s up, working the clutch out of the corner while feeding on the throttle. I spent the entire day with my two fingers never off of the clutch lever. But this rewards you with… well I’m not so sure yet. It is more work, but I was riding more aggressively then I used to on my KDX. I enjoy riding that way, we definitely weren’t out there to look at the birds… so yes, riding the bike was very rewarding & my pace picked up quite a bit… but the KDX is easier to ride & better for a more relaxed trail ride.

My bike was running much better as well, but besides the higher octane gas, part of the equation was that I was on the gas more then I was on Saturday. With me riding looser & more aggressively, I was riding the bike closer to how it was meant to be ridden, unlike on Saturday. This spring, I had kind of set a casual goal for myself, that I want to improve my riding to the point where I can stay with my buddy Brandon. But at this point, he always keeps slowly walking away until he’s out of site… sometimes though, this is happening far from slowly. Even though I personally was feeling good with my riding, both Brandon & Craig kept disappearing on me… I could not keep up their pace, they were riding good. Guys like John & Heath, I have no expectations to ever reach their speeds, but I accept that. One thing that became very clear to me was that after every one of our breaks, it would take me 3 minutes or so to find my rhythm again… when we’d head out after a break, I would be bounding off of everything, riding slow & tight & pretty much sucking. This actually made me think that I’d be better off not taking any more breaks & to just finish the loop in one shot. Even though we did kind of have an established order of guys, John & Heath first & etc, we would still leave as a group & in a short time naturally divide into separate groups by our speed… During this 3 minutes of “out of rhythm” for me, the guys ahead of me like Brandon & Craig, they would just be motoring away as I floundered off of things along the trail. This kind of made it difficult to pace myself with them when they are already out of site, to
chase them, encouraging me to ride better.

At one point during the day, we were on the easier loop that is more open & faster. I was behind Pete (regional A class racer) he was riding a slow pace for him, just having fun going through this mile or so of loose bermed 2nd gear corners… you could move through this area pretty good & really feel the flow as it switched back & forth. I had such a rush following him. I was feeling such a rhythm or groove. For me, I was flowing so well & riding awesome. I was barely keeping up with him, but maintaining the 3 bike gap he had on me. For me, I was railing the corners, totally found “my grove”. I had this unbelievable feeling of rhythm, making forward progress instead of backwards, feeling loose on the bike, letting the bike move around underneath me… being one with the bike instead of fighting it or even fearing the bike like I have experienced when I was racing the OMA series a couple of years ago. Man, writing this has me pumped to go riding again right now!!

Near the end of the big loop, I started to get tired, my shoulders had that hot burning sensation & I was starting to make more mistakes… I told myself to not back off like usual, to still kept pushing… I was chasing Nicolas who was just ahead of me. I felt very satisfied when we got back to the trucks… I didn’t “puss out” & back off, I didn’t leave thinking about how I could of pushed harder or done more… very satisfied, unlike all of my racing experiences I’ve had. Even though I was in the slower group, which I wish I wasn’t… inside I felt satisfied with my riding & I’m focusing on knowing that, not on how my speed compared to the others.

Surveillance of my bike afterwards wasn’t too bad at all… my radiator was bent back a little but I had no problem straightening it & a hand guard pivoted was up… but no major damage, no big crashes… I bounced off some trees, had a few awkward tip-over�??s & slow-speed crashes of course… but nothing bad at all.

This day was so satisfying… the feeling of knowing that for me, I was riding good, my pace was way faster then Saturday’s… even though I was still in the slower pack of guys in our group, Sunday gave me more confidence that I’ll be ready for my race next month. This day riding probably was the most satisfying I’ve had on a dirt bike over any in my life.

Every time that I go back up north & get out of southern WI, it makes me dream of moving back up north again… the hills, trees, further away from IL, much more accessible to trails for riding, possibly cheaper land & cost of living in areas, it feels like home, it would be closer to the bi-weekly transfer of Brandy’s boys… WI pride, I have it!!!

Waking up on Monday, back to reality. Giving my body the surveillance, I find myself sore, with a swollen & bruised right ankle (giving me a “cankle”, not exactly sure why), my lower right leg is all black n blue as well as this mysterious blistering on my right calf to top it all off. Damn I can’t wait to get back on the bike again!!

Well all that wishful thinking for no rain must of done the trick… because we did get in 2 hours of riding this morning. Brandy, Marty, Colton & myself went out for the first “break-in” ride of the year… I say break-in because not only did I need to break-in my new motor rebuild… but the boys or I haven’t been on a bike in about 1 & 1/2 years.

We all had a good time… the boys rode really well… better then they had the year & a half ago… but I think that comes with their age increase. They had better control of their bike this time… allowing them to have more fun as well. This day ended up being more for the guys then for Brandy. She did ride her minibike some… but she also took time out to shoot some photos… plus she helped out her boys getting their gear on & giving them a refresher on the controls of their bike… things like that & gabbing with whichever one who is not riding at that time.

After a little while of that, Brandy did take my bike out for a spin… I chased her on her little minibike… which I actually had a blast on! I was letting that thing scream pretty good & trying to rail the corners… but then I eventually blew out the tube in the rear tire. When it happened.. I was on the gas pretty good going up this long uphill… & all of a sudden the back end swaps out on me…. first shooting to the left, then back to the right… I almost went down. Pretty funny I thought… but not I need to put a new tube in the bike… I’m not real good at changing tires or tubes… but oh’ well.

So anyways… I could definitely tell that I’m not ready to enter any races yet! My KX250 has a lot more power then my KDX200 ever did, plus I’m not physically ready yet & I’m way “rusty” with my riding. But that’s cool… this year is all about just having fun & keeping it low-key. I’ll get to a couple races sometime this summer.

But it’s all good… good times, good times.

So it’s Friday night & I just finished getting all 3 bikes & 4 sets of riding gear ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow’s plan is that the whole family is going out for our first ride of the year… I need to break in my bike from the fresh rebuild, plus get the boys re-acquainted with riding… I never did get them out once last year…

But, the weather forecast for tomorrow is a 40% chance of rain all day! So that sucks… we’re hoping for no rain of course. I am surprised how pumped the boys are about getting out on their bike.. the XR50. It was funny, tonight Colton kept asking me what time we where going in the morning, so we could beat the rain…. he asked about getting up @ 6:00am or 7:00am. I can’t remember the last time he’s been motivated to get up. Marty also has been showing motivation about riding again… so that’s awesome.

I know that I am not a very fast mechanic… but taking care of 3 bikes is kind of a pain. But granted, what I’m doing right now is more elaborate because I’m getting the bikes out of their winter hibernation & ready for the first ride.

I’m about to go chill on the couch for a bit & watch some TV… we’re hoping for dry weather tomorrow…

Over the last few days, I’ve been kind of searching for a direction to go with my site. Obviously not much new has even been posted over the last couple of months. I have various ideas to do things with it, various ways for it to look or to present my content. With pretty much all of it I wish that I was better & more skilled… for example, I wish that I was better with creating images, graphics & original concepts. Also, I need to start creating or coding my own apps so I can start to learn Ruby on Rails… I’ve been kind of just messing around with updating Typo & now setting up a Subversion Repository on my server… but it’s time that I start coding! But I also want to change up the way that my site is designed, laid out & all that… but I need to learn to focus on one thing at a time…

Otherwise… I’ve been slowing working on my bike for the upcoming riding season. Currently I have the bike completely tore down. The motor is out of the frame waiting to install the new top-end, as well as a new clutch basket & clutch plates. Also, I have the swingarm out of the bare frame & the whole front end of the bike off in pieces as well. So pretty much the bike has disappeared… there are just pieces of it scattered in the garage & the basement. So I’m just slowly getting in there & cleaning all of the dirt & grime off of every piece, re-greasing the bearings & repairing/replacing parts as needed to bring it back to 100% mechanically solid. Later this spring I’ll start to consider replacing some of the plastic or buying new graphics for it… the cosmetic stuff can wait. So my plans for this coming summer… of course I’m totally pumped to be riding again. Realistically, I see myself entering about 4 or 5 races this year… pretty casual. Things such as money, commitment, time, desire and money & time again see me racing about 1 race a month average. I really do hope to do some more trail riding this year then I have as well as riding in a few more locations then I have over the last couple of years (well I didn’t ride at all last year). Down here in southern WI, there sure isn’t much for actual “trail systems” like I had back up in the northern half of WI. I miss that… I need to make sure I get off my ass this summer & drive up north some to go riding, instead of just talking about it. With Brandy not having her bike anymore & Marty & Colton only having one bike, I will need to figure something out that’s fair for me alone to get away on some weekends with my buddies.

Otherwise… it’s been 2 weeks now that Brandy & I have been doing The Wisconsin Governors Challenge. My last post talked about this�?� it’s an 8 week program where we need to spend at least 30 minutes per day exercising… doing this for at least 5 a week. Depending on the type of exercise & the length of time doing it, we receive points that accumulate for a total per week. At the beginning of the program through the YMCA, they measured our body fat & then will measure it again when we finish. We have also improved our diets as well… Brandy typically doesn’t eat too bad… but I eat pretty crappy food always. So instead of McDonalds & Taco Bell for every lunch, I now buy food from the grocery store & prepare (microwave) it at home every day except for Fridays… my dept at works goes out for Mexican every Friday… man do I always look forward to that. But anyways… yep, I’m motivated to not be a fat-ass any more… to feel confident when I take off my shirt this summer… instead of my usual case of dicki’do.

Lets see… what else… Oh, here’s another thing that’s been on my mind a little as of lately. Man, I really love living in WI! One of the things that set it off was when I saw the video footage of the f’n New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin!! He’s going off in a speech talking about making New Orleans chocolate! How the Black people need to unite & rebuild New Orleans to be chocolate. I just can’t believe how a mayor can openly give a racist speech like that. What happened over this last century with this little thing being thrown around called Civil Rights? Then there are all of the terrorist threats & fears, land use battles in California… Man I love WI! Of course nowhere is perfect, but I feel fairly secluded from all the crap that’s on the news… granted I still don�??t watch the news much or follow politics much either. I tend to just put myself in a little bubble & life seems less stressful that way.

Well I guess I’m run about dry at the moment & I don’t have a reserve on this tank… so that’s it for now. Hope to see you “on the gas” out in the woods up here in WI… possibly the best place on Earth?? OK, that might be a bit much…

The energy drink giant, Red Bull, is holding a major event November 12, 2005 in Bulcher, Texas. It is an “invitation only” motorcycle offroad event like no other. The race begins in the day, but ends in darkness. Each of the 4 laps are elimination laps… only the top half of each lap continue onto the next lap… with one final rider left named Last Man Standing at the end of this race that will take many hours to finish. My good friend (and Best Man in my wedding) John, was invited to enter this race. I wish that I was going with him to help him out, so of course I’m rooting him on & anxious to hear his stories from the event. Much more info & pictures can be found at the Red Bull Last Man Standing site.

Good luck John & go get ‘em!! I wish I could be there to help you out & cheer you on…

Well its 9 days & counting now until my wedding day. Yep, a little nervous when I stop & think about it… but nothing overwhelming though. We’re still getting things dialed in for the wedding, such as making all the finally little things, paying for things & just arranging the details. Brandy has been stressing out by watching the weather forecast 10 day out… I keep telling her the weather is nothing that we can control, so don’t even think about it… but she’s worried. Like they can forecast the weather 10 days away…

I had my Bachelor Party last weekend. What a blast it was! My Best Man John, planned a great party… everybody had a great time. The day started out by meeting at my place @ 10:00 am… we then went & ate at Applebees around 11:00.
From there we went golfing. For the most part, all of us are not very good at golf. I took last, but that’s fine… I’ve only golfed 4 or 5 times in my life. I had a good time at the golf course, but my shoulder kept popping out on most of my drives… so that caused it to be a little achy.
So after our 9 holes of golf, we then headed out to Sugar River Raceway for some go-kart racing! I believe that this was the highlight of the party for everybody… it was awesome! So we’re not talking about the governed amusement park go-karts here… these are 9HP 4-stroke full on Karts. The racing consisted of about 15 minutes of practice, then we had 3 separate, 10 lap races. The track is about a half mile long & our lap times where about 42-43 seconds. It was cool, they posted lap times after each race… I could see that I was 1 second a lap off the pace of the fastest guys in our group… that being a little frustrating, but still such a blast that it was quickly forgotten. All of us were surprised with the physicalness of the karts. I know that a couple of us admitted to still being sore a couple of days later. The coolest parts of the karting are the; corner speeds, g-forces, sliding the kart in the corners & coming into the corners 2 & 3 wide… it was pretty intense! We estimate that on the straightaway we where doing about 40 mph… the karts are supposedly able to do at least 50, but the track didn’t have a long enough straightaway. I bet we where quite the site… since we all had shorts on, we had to wear these little black jump suits… ‘er I mean racing suits… and we also brought our moto helmets, goggles & gloves. I think our personal helmets that we brought sure looked cooler then the solid color full face street bike helmets that they issue out. In the end of the night, the final race winner takes all. After a major spin & collision by most of us on the first lap… things got sorted out & the winner was John, Heath in 2nd, Me taking 3rd, Brandon in 4th & Tim in 5th. I was lucky to get third because Brandon actually consistently had faster lap times then me. Top three did receive medals… which I’m pretty stoked about having my medal as a souvenir!!
By this time, it’s about 8:30, we’re dripping in sweat, hungry & bench racing with the best of them. So we head back to my place again to clean up & change clothes. Next we head over to Hooters for some food, drink & intellectual conversation with our Hooters girl She was hot, but she didn’t seem on the sharpest tool in the shed… but a “tool” none the less.
Next we head out to a strip club… it’s a bachelor party after all!! I had not been to this one before… it was pretty cool. They had 3 or 4 stages. Of course I had a few lap dances, which where nice! Well one kind of sucked… the 2 chicks actually stopped in the middle for about 20-30 seconds to bitch about some money & somebody working the front door! But I avoided the whole bachelor up on stage with all of the dancers jumping up & down on me thing… I was a little nervous about that one… from other bachelor party’s I witnessed… the guy usually gets his chest bashed in with a few girls bouncing on him, his shirt ripped open (buttons or not) & his underwear ripped out of his pants… needless to say, I didn’t wear my favorite pair that night.
So now for the last couple of hours before “bar-time”, we headed downtown Janesville to Main Street… where there is a strip of about 4 bars. We had a few drinks there & closed them… then went back to my place to talk shit a little more & I finally crashed about 3:30 I believe. Man was I wore out after that full day! I’m old…
I want to again thank every body that made it to my party, helped pitched in money to pay my way & to share the good times with me!

Otherwise… right now it’s all about the wedding… I’m looking forward to the honeymoon in Vegas!!! We’re leaving Monday right after the wedding. We’ll be gone Monday - Friday. I’ve never been to Vegas, Brandy has twice. Once for work & once with her family… so this trip with just her & I will be a different vibe then her previous trips there. Everybody asks if we’re going to gamble a bunch… but we only will a little. We are not big gamblers… only a couple of times I have walked out of a casino ahead. We want to go to some of the “shows” see the sites, walk the strip, go into the big hotels & browse, check out some Vegas strip clubs & etc. I also want to take 1 day & get out of town… I want to see what the land is like out in the desert & that area… plus I want to go on the “Dam Tour” of the Hoover Dam. Lately we’ve been watching this TV show called Inked… it’’s on A&E. It’’s a reality show about this tattoo shop in the Palm Casino Resort. Freestyle Motocross rider Carey Hart is part owner of it. Oh yea, the shop is called Hart & Huntington Tattoo Company. We want to go there & check it out after watching it on TV… hopefully we’ll spot the same people we’ve been seeing on the show, as well as Carey in particular.

Hobbies… they have been suffering as of lately. So after we get back from the honeymoon, I hope to start spending a little time with them again. Obviously this site has so much more that I can do with it. But besides that, I’ve been kind of itching to get a skateboard. I used to skate as a kid all the time. Then it was just on the street near my house… but now I know of a couple of skate parks not too far from me. Brandy’s youngest son Colton has been showing interest in skateboards some too. So either this fall or by next spring, I might be buying myself a board & giving it a try again. Also, a few of you know, I bought an electric guitar about a year ago. I took lessons for about 2 months back then… but I pretty much gave it up for a number of months. Well this last few days, I started picking that up again. Man, I really can’t do anything with it at this point… but I’m also itching to learn how to play that thing. But getting to the point where I can play something that I enjoy on the radio… that seems like it is soo far away, that it’s not even approachable. But I hope to stick to it a little more this time. So yea, I guess it’s obvious I enjoy having my own hobbies… maybe more then Brandy would like… but that’s just me Oh yea, we’ve also been talking that we NEED to start going back to the gym after our honeymoon! We’ve pretty much have totally quit exercising in these last 2 months… well you could even say this last year…

Well that’s about all I have for now… Looking forward to many more Good Times to come!!

Bill

What a night! Brandy & I drove down to Sycamore, Illinois for the Spectator Racing night at the speedway. The night mainly involves the “Regular Joe’’s” who buy an old beater of a car & race that on the dirt oval… contrary to the more specially built race cars like the Late Models. Brandy’s brother Tim & some other family members (Jen, Dan, Rick & Jason) have been doing this racing for a little while now. So since Brandy wanted to get in on the fun, Tim let Brandy borrow his car & enter a couple races in the womens class… called Powder Puff. Understandably, she was a little nervous with never entering a motorized race before & never driven this car before & or any car on a race track before. Tim’s race car is a full-size station wagon with a 5.0 liter V8 in it.

Brandy’s night started out with test driving the car around the pits to get a feel for the car. Then her & Tim went out on the track to do a couple of laps during what they call “packing the track”, to get rid a little of the mud on the track. Then next up was “time trials” where Brandy had her first time on the track at speed. She was given one lap to put in her best lap time to qualify for grid position at the start of her Heat race. With no experience for her to gauge on corner speed or technique… her time didn’t seem to be real fast. But when they posted everybody’s starting position, she was the 3rd fastest one in her Heat, putting her on the inside of the 2nd row of two cars! So when the time for her first race to come up, the butterflies where setting in pretty good for Brandy. OK… for the race, the cars get started with a rolling start & Brandy sort of starts to drop back a little from 3rd to almost 5th during the first lap. The 4th place car is putting some pressure on her now & 1st & 2nd are slightly pulling away… I don’t know if she was more nervous or I was watching her. But over the next couple of laps, that 4th place car actually started to fall back as Brandy slowly pulled away from her & was actually pulling in the battle between 1st & 2nd. I was impressed with how smooth Brandy looked. I know so much more about bikes then cars… so I’m not going to try & talk like I know what’s up. But with Brandy not having any experience for her to gauge against, I had expected her to be sliding the ass-end around more & particularly pushing the front-end in the corners… all the while running more in the back of the pack. So as the last couple of laps go down, Brandy is running smooth & close (like about 8 - 10 feet) on the rear end of the two battleing for 1st, with 4th back like 5 car lengths. coming into the final corner, in my mind I’m thinking holy crap, she’s going to get 3rd in her first race!!. Again coming into the last corner of the race, the 2nd place car pushes up inside of the leader trying for the win, they are bumping… and all of a sudden they take each other out!!! So in my mind again as I’m watching Brandy, as this all is happening… it plays out like this. They’re spinning, they’re tasking each other out…Brandy, get around them… will she make it past them… I think she’s going to hit them, it’s tight… they’re close. She’s getting around them… she’s getting around them. She got by them! Holy shit! She just won the race… she just won the race!!. I almost couldn’t believe it, she won her first time out ever in a race! Of course I’m totally excited for her. So then I run back to the pits to congratulate her & hoping to catch a few photo’s of her getting out of the car & all the excitement. But little did I know, with be being a newbie to this as well, she was actually being guided into the middle of the track so she can get out of her car, receive her huge trophy, wave the flag & jump up & down in front of the whole grandstand. What a moment for Brandy… I think especially because her personality is the type that normally doesn’t stand out in the crowd, doesn’t draw attention to herself & always puts everybody else before herself. This was her moment to shine, Brandy’s time for recognition.

OK, it was only the first Heat race… she was now qualified for the Powder Puff Feature race. This likely will have tougher competition. Brandy said that she was actually more nervous at the start of her 2nd race… now she sort of had some pressure to perform after her Heat race win. From her Heat 1 race win, she was on the front row, but on the outside this time. Again, she’s under some pressure from the other ladies around her. Halfway around the first lap, I believe she’s running 2nd with 3rd place getting underneath her rear quarter panel (do station wagons have quarter panels?)… and 3rd place gives her a nudge, causing her back-end to swing out & Brandy starts to spin. So unfortunately she goes from 2nd to last place just like that with all of the cars still bunched up from it being the first lap. I was recording some video of the race, so I couldn’t see it real great… but I know I was worried that she was going to get slammed by one of the cars that were all on the gas behind her. Fortunately, they all missed her & she got herself going again… but a straightaway behind the last place car. I didn’t know if she was all flustered, but I fond out later she was pretty much just pissed! That makes me laugh now. OK, so back to the race… she’s on the gas & looking smooth again. Slowly she’s gaining on the other ladies. Pretty soon she’s picked off a few of them… next thing I know, she’s mid pack & putting pressure on the car ahead of her. Oh yea… there were about 10 cars in the race & I believe it was a 10 lap race. Well in the end, she got herself all the way back up to 4th place, from being spun out & in last! It seems she was still pretty proud of herself & her performance. Of course she feels another win would of been sweet, but she’s not greedy & totally is pumped for her Heat race win, her overall speed out there & that she didn’t back down & went for it! I too am very proud of her & pumped for her excitement that she had at the races.
Brandy’’s family members did not have as strong of a night as she did. Unfortunately they all had some car problems in various ways that held them back. But needless to say, I think we all had a fun night & Brandy definitely gained a new chapter in her life.

I hope to have images up shortly & a video or two from the races in a couple of days. So check back on Monday or Tuesday for the video…