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"ROAD TRIPS" by THE OLD SQUID |
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"Road Trips" by The Old Squid
Laguna Seca
In the Seattle area lately, we've had a lot of the "victim of police brutality" stories in the news. I believe that the police, while not perfect, have been showing admirable restraint in many situations starting way back with the WTO debacle. Most recently an officer lost his life trying to subdue a naked, crazy man with chemical spray. The perp had just been released after having served time for resisting arrest and assaulting an officer! As happens in many cases, the non-lethal weapon didn't work. The dirty truth is that pepper sprays work on sober people but may only enrage some drunks and drug users. Even Tasers are not 100% effective. I was thinking of the search for non-lethal devices as I sat in the hot tub Thursday night at Monterey and I had a great idea. An "electronic back tweaker"! When fired at you, a tuned electrical burst causes all the muscles in your lower back to spasm. You can't move and it would take a few days for the effects to wear off. At the same time, you won't die. You'd just wish you could. The more I thought about it (and the more beer I had :-) the better the idea seemed. Of course the idea of the lawsuits from Johnny Cochran and the sermons from the Rev. Al Sharpton quickly made me realize that this idea wouldn't go anywhere. Too brutal. By Friday morning, my back was starting to loosen up some and it was time to go to the races. Nat was having a ball lane splitting every chance he could so we zipped up to the track, going between cars at every intersection. In California, it's legal to ride up the middle of a pack of cars or to drive on the far side of a lane to pass a car as long as you donšt cross a solid line. It looks more dangerous than it actually is and makes traffic jams on the freeway a non-event. Lane splitting was new to Nat. I'd told him on the way down to Petaluma the day before that I was going to have to do this to get to the shop on time if we encountered heavy traffic. I wrote down careful directions to the shop in case we separated. I should have saved my pencil. After a few miles of lane splitting though a jam in the Santa Rosa area, I looked in my mirror and there he was! Even with his helmet on I could tell he was grinning from ear to ear. Hmmm.... mountain roads are scary but riding the dots between cars and trucks on the freeway is fun? Go figure. OS tip #7: "Lane Sharing" is legal in California and Nevada. Start lobbying your state legislator to make it legal in all states. Every motorcycle between the lanes is a free space for another car! It's like building road space for free. When we got to the track, it was warm and the 600cc bikes were practicing when we arrived. Nat went his own way and I wandered the vendors. Things were kinda laid back and slow until a deep pulsating, rumble electrified the air over the track. Someone had let the Super Bikes out to play! An air of urgency and excitement spread as the crowd moved to the fences and gaps between the vendor tents to see the big bikes practice. What a sight! What a sound! The twins throb and the fours snarl as they rip the air on the straights at over 170 mph. Along with this all enveloping sound are the smells of the paddock area. Food and suntan oil of course but also the odd chemical odor of race fuel. The tires cooked by high speed runs mix with the smell of new rubber being put on for the next session. I was grinning from the moment the big bikes fired up and felt like a country hound at city fire hydrant with all of these sensory delights. Interestingly, just sitting and watching the races isn't what I wanted to do. You actually get a better view on TV and I know I'll see the races as reruns on Speed Channel later in the fall. Mostly what I want to do is soak up the feel of the crowd and the track. Being in the infield and looking at exotic gear in a tent while the bikes roar by 100' behind me is an experience that TV canšt give. I glimpse parts of races as I browse and talk to people, eat Texas BBQ sandwiches, and cook in the sun. The only races I sit through and watch from the stands, start to finish, are the Super Bikes on Sunday. There's way more than just races to see though. On Friday night, it's dinner in Monterey sponsored by Honda of Milpitas and a chance to meet some of my on-line CBR List friends. On Saturday night, its Cannery Row and a chance to mingle with the biggest number of sport bikes assembled anywhere on this continent. In the Northwest, most events are Harley events and I always am out of place on my sport bike. At this gathering there were fewer than a couple dozen Harleys out of 15,000 sport bikes. Way more people this year than last too. I left the motel around 6:30 with a young woman on a Ducati M900 following. She was staying at our motel and didn't know how to get to the downtown area. I told her to follow me we'd park down by the Rice Paddy at Bubba Gump's and check out the posers. She followed the XX down but there was no parking on the Row! I finally used the pay lot while she squeezed in after the last car left a parking spot on the Row. Last year I found lots of room at the ends of the Row but this time, even the side streets were parked up. This surprised me as I had seen hardly any bikes coming down to Monterey. In 2001, the closer I got to Laguna, the more bikes clogged the road. Even in Northern California they had swarmed like multi-colored insects invading the state. Even Monterey seemed to be quieter in 02 compared to 01... except this one night. Where did they all come from? I saw only a handful going home too. Maybe it's another mystery wrapped up with that wormhole vortex. (My internet friends later informed me that Southern California was emptied of motorcycles as they all had gone to the races. That was why I hadn't seen as many on the trip down and why they only were present on the one day.) Sunday was a success for me as the racer I root for, American Colin Edwards, the "Texas Tornado", finally won a race. He's my guy though I was ready to join the ABB club (Anybody But Bayliss). I don't dislike the Australian, Bayliss but he's won so many races this year that it's a bit boring. Nat was rooting for #41, Noryuki Haga and afterwards stalking him for pictures and autographs. Sunday he waited after the final race and caught up with him at the paddock. As Nat was standing next to Haga-san to have his picture taken, he turned and lifting his arm, caught Noryuki right in the jaw with his elbow! Haga was startled and at first pissed but quickly saw that it wasn't intentional as Nat apologized. The watching crowd gasped when it happened and afterwards, Haga was seen rubbing his jaw. I told Nat that he shouldn't have apologized but instead he should have shouted "That's for Pearl Harbor! " and than run like hell. Of course he would have had to watch out for heavily tattooed Japanese guys in dark cars all the way home:-) "Fortunately" for Nat, friends were there to see and report it all to my buddies and I. It's two months later and we still haven't let him live it down. After all, what are friends and family for? |
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