Sunday. No run this morning. The plan was to get to the track early to beat the crowds, sign up for the Yamaha Niken demo ride and have breakfast on Ducati Island. On the ride in, we noticed that there was no crowds. huh.
In anticipation of demo ride we had peaked the bikes and walked down the hill in all of our riding gear. The sign-up sheet was Already full – all day. As we were standing there in our disappointment, the lady with the roster turned to me and said, “and we don’t allow passenger rides on demos”. Before I could tell her that it was ok, because I was going to let him ride on his own bike, DW was immediately on it and told her that her comment was insulting. She commented that she hasn’t seen my helmet. I proceeded to ponder her comment as we headed back to the bikes to drop our gear off. After a bit asked DW, “that was a dumb thing to say. even if they did allow passenger rides, I would still need to have a helmet”.
There was no breakfast line on Ducati island. No crowds and no breakfast. The Super Bike races are considerably different that Moto GP. Since we weren’t starving, having just drank our coffee, we waited to get something to eat. When we finally got something to eat…
it was the super yummy deep fried artichokes that we had wanted to get while at The Lighthouse. We went in search of gifts for Gsons. DW picked out two sweatshirts, one with the iconic tree with a race car and the other had the tree and a motorcycle. During our walking about we were each given trucker hats as swag from Honda vendor. These will also work gangbusters for the Gsons!
To watch the races, we hiked up the hill to the famous corkscrew turn. The riders cresting the hill, a tight turn in each direction, all while going down a hill that is as tall as a 5 story building, never ceases to amaze and thrill me! Between races there was time to sit down and indulge in something cool.
We walked around most of the day, until it was race time. At some point in this day I sent Gsons a couple of videos of racers racing. Gson’s question was, “Is Tapah-D riding the bike in the front?” There was no question in their minds that that Tapha-D was super cool enough to actually be racing!
Like the night before, we would be going to dinner before heading back to the hotel. The Whole Enchilada , in Moss Landing, was a place that we had been before. It was on the list of places that we “needed” to eat at on this trip. In the past, it has been well worth the wait in line to get in. This time there was no line! As expected, the food was wonderful. During the dinner, the owner takes time to talk to each table in the dining room. Every time we have eaten here, he has done the same thing. I can’t recommend this place enough.
Needed to do laundry. Stopped at laundry mat to get five dollars in quarters but they had no change machine. Went next door to the gas station. Got back to hotel and someone else had laundry in washer. Decided to sit in hot tub and wait our turn. Went to office for an additional towel, they were out of bath towels so he gave me trip hand towels. About this time DW can’t into office and asked me if i had room key. I didn’t, because he had one, had being the operational word here. While setting his towel and stuff down, the hotel key card slipped between the boards of the deck, never too be seen again. We got two more keys made. After the hot tub, I checked laundry room again. The had snuck in when I was distracted and put in a second load, with their first load in the dryer. Only one of each. After returning to the room it was decided we earned a whiskey and Coke. DW, being a calendar man, went to obtain to cans from the vending machine. Despite being able to clearly see Coke cans in the machine, it declared it was empty. After putting in paper dollars, and not received the desired beverages, the machine returned yet more quarters. I took the quarters and headed back to the lobby to see if they could open the machine and have me the cans of soda. Nope. Vending machine is operated by a third party. He suggested that I go to the hotel next door because they also had a vending machine. This was becoming an adventure. Upon finding the vending machine at the neighboring hotel, I was delighted to see that it was fully stocked. I attempted several times to insert the dollars, but I couldn’t make it work. This can be considered part for the course between me and technology , no matter how some, so I headed to the lobby of this house to inquire about the machine. As soon as I used the words, “vending machine” the lobby lady barked out, “the machine is broken”. I checked the laundry room on my way back. The washer was empty! I RAN back to the room and we both snapped into laundry action. After which we walked To Walmart (because what would a vacation be without a stop at Walmart or Target?) To obtain the soda we are now determined to have. By the time we returned, it was time to put the clothes in the dryer. Inserted the eight quarters, pushed them in and… It got stuck. It didn’t start the dryer, it didn’t pop back out after taking the quarters. Large frustrated sigh before heading back to the lobby. “Hi. It’s me again.” I told him the long sad story. He grabbed a hammer, a screw driver, came to the laundry room and fixed it! In the end we achieved clean and dry clothes to last us until the end of the trip. What an odd evening.
Daily Stats:
miles run: 0
Steps: 12,633
miles ridden: 50.6
seat time: 1 hour 6 minutes
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