Happy dog pic to make you smile: It’s to offset this one being a long post.
Sable luvs Riley, she is so happy when she gets to see him.
I didn’t take any pictures at the MWVTA, so I stole a couple of Curtis’. The turn out for San Ysidro was pretty good. They needed that. It’s small club, with a lot of long time members aging out.
I honestly thought this one was going to be a piece of cake… but no. I came close to breaking my toe twice.
I rode up on the “B” line for Saturday. I had a fantastic time riding with Porter and Kammy. I asked to be moved into their group, so I could act as a buffer. We didn’t want to have Porter run her off. 😊 I also wanted to have him help me with some of the sections. He didn’t actually have too much to tell me while I was riding. I thought that was great! My score wasn’t too bad either. The worst part of the weekend for me was other section that I thought was super easy, that tripped me up and put me on my face. I think I came really close to breaking my arm too. It’s been almost 3 week now and it still hurts, about 2 inches above my wrist, it’s a part of the arm that doesn’t bend. I had it stuck under the handle bar at a very awkward angle.
As usual the BBQ Sat eve was entertaining, with Lance doing his stand-up routine… oh wait, that was actually the yearly meeting and awards. Which I didn’t get, since I missed the October event last year. Konrad, did a great job grilling everything. Ron brought a bottle of champagne, Mal had a great time drinking it. No one else wanted any.
I tried to ride the B line again on Sunday, but they were just harder, than I wanted that day. I struggled with the first 3 and “fived” both so I moved to the C line after that. Way more fun! I did try to make the lines a bit harder so I could get some practice in. For the NMTA event, I was pretty sure I was going to try the AMA line for that one. Again, it’s just one class up from where I’ve been riding.
Really what isn’t there to love about a NM sunset?
I wasn’t able to make it up to the Webb’s for the Sunday practice between the events. So I did some turns in the driveway. This way I can make sure I’m on my neighbor’s good sides. LOL. They haven’t complained about it or call the cops on me yet.
I think that practice is actually helping me. Go figure. Turns are still my weak spot. I’m getting much better at the ups/starting to get the wheelies under control. Well, most of the time, I struggled with the ups this past weekend, but on the other hand there were some large ups well large for me. I’m pretty please with myself for making it up the one that was HUGE on Saturday. It took 3 tries. The first time, I don’t think I really made it to the top. I’m told they voted, the consensus is that I did. I think the bike did, but I was half way up with the bike on me. You know it was spectacular when everyone comes running over asking if you are ok…. I have some really spectacular bruises on my right side from it. I’m sure they aren’t all from that crash, but most of them are. The second try, I did make it up, but it wasn’t pretty. I just about lost control of the bike. The third time! I cleaned the section!!!!! I was and am still very pleased about that. So was Matt, he’s a great minder. At least for me. I get him and his wife gets Lance. Lol.
Sunday was much harder. The trials master who is currently on my shyt list, thought they were all easy sections. Matt had me and another Lance to get through all the sections. I was happy to have him along. He was a bit slower and it gave me time to rest between rides. I really don’t like it when they tell us to be done earlier than usual. We finished the first two loops together and on the third, I split off to try and make sure that I finished the rest of the sections. I caught her on the loop, she did apologize, but I didn’t have time to stop and talk with her. Thankfully, the next few sections they were paying attention to who had finished and knew that I hadn’t finished yet, so they waited for me. There was another up on Sunday that was HUGE for me, this one also had a super tight turn after it. I was close to pulling it off on the third loop, but I smashed my fingers on a tree while going up the rock. I took 2 points just getting stopped so I could have a moment to check if I broke one of them. It hurt that bad.
That and even after talking to her about the cutoff time and getting it extended to the usual time. She had the scorers pull two of the sections before I got tot them. Later in the day she caused another rider in the afternoon to crash hard. Then she blamed Riley for another riders going out of bounds. Which again is BS. I’m still not happy with her. I think it’s going to take me a bit to get over it. Not to mention the section that Mal and I scored on Sun was a shyt show. I only gave out 5 cleans. That’s just wrong. There were also more DNFs then I’ve ever seen. Since the riders, didn’t want to chance getting hurt riding his sections. What made me mad about this section was that sections should be ridden in according to the rule book. This guy is the first one to yell at other TMs for not riding a line. It was clear that wasn’t a single tire track in the section.
Looking back at the NMTA event, I think I actually might be ready for the AMA class. I was able to ride all of it, it wasn’t pretty, but it was do able. Lance also told me later after the awards when a number of us were just hanging out, that he watched me ride a bunch of stuff this weekend, and he agrees I belong in AMA. There are just a few things like turns and fine control for the ups that I need to focus on. Then I might be competitive in the class. Chuck told me the next day that Nov to AMA is one of the hardest steps to make. He also told me he was never brave enough to get such high scores… At least he was trying to be kind about it. LOL. I’m having a good time getting all those 3s and 5s. The occasional clean though is encouraging.