Kansas City Cross Nationals Tour, The Jesus Lizard Leg

The Jesus Lizard Leg?

Cause the song Goliath by the Jesus Lizard was the first song that fiendPod_II played as I started the drive up to Greensburg then on to KC.

And I was not driving Clifford, who we are having a tough time bringing back from its' "not spewing anti-freeze" condition. Big poopie pants there.
Poor Clifford.
Poor us, cause we were really looking forward to having all his bigness out there, and I had gotten this swell awning for him-

This was actually from the week before when we tried to go to Rockburn, MD in Clifford but only got to the Cooper's Rock Exit on 68 (an exit that has seen me turn around more than once), but were able to limp home.

Where was I? (still getting over my blasted post Cross Season sickness you know...)

Oh yes, Jesus Lizard.
So after waiting around for part of the day on Wednesday hoping to get Clifford up and running, I was finally on the way up to get Jay-bo and then start heading on 70 W for the rest of two days. Yuck.

Lucky for us, our trip was a real fun-filled extravaganza!
By night fall somewhere between Wheeling, WV and St. Louis, MO we passed this revealing truck tarp. Sure did make for some exciting moments as I was determined to get a nice clear shot of the message-

And let me tell you, it wasn't that easy. We have a few more shoots and one of them is super clear and great but you don't get the feeling that the shot was taken while going 70mph on 70 W.
Ahh, 70 W. Almost as great as 70 E...

So the next great thing that happened was that I got an early X-mas present from my folks and Betsy. A new pair of Lake Winter Boots!
Won't go into details here, but I had been really having a tough time w/ my feet this season and I finally had to go up to the attic and bring out some relics to fit my now enlarged and hard to accommodate feet-

That's right, front and center are a pair of Time MTB shoes from 1997, size 43. All the rest of the shoes are 42's and just not fitting my feet well right now.
Weird.
Good thing I kept all those old shoes...

Sickness makes my mind wander.
So Dan from SpeedGoat ordered them, and Jeremy (from SpeedGoat) handed them off to Jay that very day that we took off.
I was bound and determined to use them if necessary, so I wore them almost the whole drive out-

They are some swank looking space boots aren't they?
Look great w/ jeans too.

I heart The Jesus Lizard.

But we didn't really listen to much music. Mostly Jay-bo tells stories, recounts past races and scenarios, or we get rambling about some movie or TV show, then we use the power of our Samsung I500 fones and look up answers on that there interweb thingy.
Did you know that Gabe Kaplan, from Welcome Back Kotter became a pro poker player and now does commentary for Poker matches? That thread started w/ Sylvester Stallone I believe.

But occasionally we do eat. Not that often, mostly we stop for gas and coffee and no fried pies this trip. That first day we finally stopped at a Waffle House, cause we heart Waffle House, somewhere in IL or MO. It's all pretty fuzzy still and The Jesus Lizard *is* playing in the background (Betsy has left the building).

So it was a recently remodeled Waffle House, and although the look of the place wasn't that much different from the ones we frequent in PA, MD, and VA, they had one thing that really set them apart-

Look at that gem!
A Waffle House logo right there in the middle! A first for our little troupe!

And to top it off, but available only if you pay attention, is the # of the store-

But it wasn't on Greenbag Road.

Betsy's back so I gotta turn off The Jesus Lizard, cause David Yow "sounds like a kidnap victim trying to howl through the duct tape over his mouth."

That night we made it past St. Louis. Over the mighty (and dark) Mississippi. Did not see the Arch as we were above it, and then got totally lost trying to find the stupid Days Inn in St. Charles. After 30 minutes and really giving up, we stumbled across it.
It was a nice place. Had wifi, had Family Guy (Jay-bo's favorite), had beds, and the X-mas tree in the lobby. It was all very touching.
It was also really great that we had to leave pretty early so we could get to whatever hotel we were staying in, drop off the step-child and go pick up Betsy at the aeroport.

Somewhere in the middle of MO, I talked to Betsy, a little before she was to take off from Pittsburgh. The sky was pretty nice, no ice or snow, and it had been that way pretty much the whole way (somewhere it rained some, but it wasn't too bad).
After I got off the fone w/ her though, we started see lots of Utility trucks, in droves, and then evidence of ice storms, broken and bent tops of trees all over the place.
And finally ice covering the tops of the trees, though the roads were and were going to stay clear for the rest of the drive-

Not a very good shot, but you get the idea.
Soon there was more though-

And soon after that, the mother land, Nostalgia Ville USA, a destination that would have to wait 'til the return leg-


And as would be expected, we couldn't find our hotel at first. Perpetua (our british speaking GPS driving guide) lead us to a yet uncompleted hotel, covered in ice too. So we called and found that we were very near, so life was good again.
More evidence of an ice storm that we fortunately missed. Sure was pretty though-

That's the Kansas City Speedway in the background!

And finally Jay-bo was able to get away and check in to our home for the next few days-


One more shot of the pretty ice before heading up to pick up the sweet Betsy-


The kids were pretty happy that Jay-bo was gone and that we were soon going to be seeing Betsy, Jack, and Abe-

Pretty crammed in we were, but all together. Just not much room to spare.

So we checked in, chatted w/ some of the staff about the absence of cookies, the past ice storm, got some hot cocoa, bounced on the bed, gave the remote to Jay-bo, and went off to the airport, hoping that it was the right one...

It was, got there a little before the "no checked luggage" Betsy, and we were once again reunited!
Then hustled back down to the hotel cause we had to figure out how to get to the venue and ride for a little, cause...

OUR RACES WERE THE VERY NEXT DAY!!!

Jay-bo charted our course, which involved going through and around the Speedway, which seemed only slightly sketchy cause it involved going over barriers and such, but it turned out to be a decent route and we also got to see another attraction!
Joy.

Once we got to the venue, it was quickly decided by me that we was not going to even step foot out on to the course, as it was very mucky, wet, and still cold. The course was going to be changing and I really didn't feel like spending time cleaning bikes after driving, not eating much, and driving more.
There was probably beer to drink elsewhere too.

We did see some familiar faces and one was our friend Kerry, who also had driven out.
But she did it solo and did it from the Boston area!
She made our drive seems like a small jaunt, what a trooper she is-


Sure was a pretty scene as we rode past the Speedway, and no, we didn't get hassled, bugged or nothing by the security folks there-


We even had enough energy and time to get together with the DCCoD (we being the DCCoWV).
Here Jay-bo and Laurie Webber share a carafe of wine as the rest of us guzzle beer and then the rest of the wine that they couldn't finish. Amateurs-


And that was pretty much it for the first leg.
Text book really. No fuss, no muss, and didn't seem like most of us were too wasted-