Hardly rode over the weekend

It's getting to be a bad trend. Here it is, well into June, and I haven't done any LONG miles since last year (long miles being bike rides over 50 miles in length).

This past weekend, for example, included a day at the stock car races (and tailgating near the speedway before race time). Jenn's father takes her and her two brothers to the Nationwide Series Meijer 300 at Sparta as a family get-together thing, and I was invited.

It was fun, I suppose. I've not quite caught the bug for the game "Corn Hole," although I tossed a few bags of seed corn at the boards that day. We socialized over a beer or two, or tea, or sodas, depending on the person. We wandered up to the main gate at the track, and the vendor area spread out in front of that. There were a couple booths offering samples of tobacco products, one selling what I presume to be a male-enlargement product (of what I also presume to be spurious value with a bikini model in a cute suit that, even if were not engaged/involved, I probably wouldn't find interesting on a date), various "collectible" trinkets (like anyone is going to buy these things ten years from now? How much for a 1980 Cabbage Patch Doll?).

It was fun to see a big-league race again. The last race of this caliber for me was the Southern 500 at Darlington S.C. on Labor Day weekend of 1978. I don't remember tons of what happened at that race, but I think that somewhere in my various stashes of keepsakes I have a spark plug I picked up in the pit area after the race. "Those were the days," to borrow the title from All in the Family.

While it was fun to see a super-speedway race, when it comes to auto racing, I'm still a short-track guy. Watching cars travel a mile and a half per lap is tough to do--that is a LOT of territory to watch. On the other hand, short tracks present their own challenges--often the track management does not seem as big on safety at smaller tracks, for example.

Before I even learned to ride a bike, I loved cars. By the time I was eight, my father realized the value in taking me to the speedway not far from where we lived at the time for father/son stuff. I knew who the drivers were, and had favorites. I vividly remember one car rolling over in a crash there, and seeing the guy with another similar car the following week. He apparently lived around the corner from us, as the wrecked racer was in front of a house near our subdivision for a couple days later that week (for what it's worth, the cars were 1958 or '59 Chrysler products, probably Plymouths).

When I was a kid, my heroes were race car drivers. Race car drivers wore seat belts. When I was eight or nine, we as a family got a newer car for Mom, to replace the 1956 Chevrolet she had been driving. That car had shoulder belts, relatively new to mainstream cars. There was a tag on the belt that included something along the lines of, "Do NOT use if wearer is less than 4'8" tall."

I couldn't WAIT to grow that last two inches!

I fully realize that there is some sort of double-standard in my fondness for auto racing. I don't get to indulge myself in the enjoyment of watching good short-track racing often, though, as I have so many other interests these days.

Anyway...

Yesterday was time for an early celebration of Jenn's birthday. Her birthday is later this week, but she will be out of town, working on a crew supporting Team Type 2 on Race Across America.

After the celebrations, I had to attend a Club officers' meeting, so I at least rode the few blocks to that from the house. Once that was done, I could then get geared up for another exciting week at the job with no glory.

Hey, at least I rode to work today.