West family circus!: Jackpot or bust..... mostly bust!

On Saturday July 10th Kyle participated in his second ever desert race. This time he got all prepared, bought a chest protector, knee guards, elbow guards, the whole nine yards! He even changed his front sprocket so his bike's top speed would be faster. He did all of this to race a measly 48 miles of 102, but I will get to that! The weekend started out like any other... me procrastinating packing to the last possible second. In this case Thursday afternoon after we were already supposed to be on the road! Not only did I wait to pack until Thursday morning ish, but Kyle had a million errands he still had to run as well. So 3pm (not 11am) we were finally on the road. We arrive in Jackpot fairly unscathed, minus a couple cranky kids that were ready to get out of the moto-home! Oh yeah, let's not forget that we left the quad's battery at home in the garage, flushing any chance of getting to pre run the course as a family down the toilet. :-(

Friday morning seemed to start off alright, but as Kyle was getting ready to go pre run the course a gust of wind kicks up and rips the awning off of the coach (I have lots of pet names for the motor home!). So Kyle quickly climbed up and got that fairly squared away, and he was off... to run the course at 25 mph! Ha, ya right. So there I am napping peacefully, in the blistering heat, when I hear, "excuse me?". Here is Redd with his 8 inch tall mo hawk, wondering if I can help him take the front tire off of my bike(hello, do I know you mo hawk dude?), because my husband as a flat out on the course. Okay no big deal, 10 minutes and Red is off to rescue my hubbs! Well 3 minutes later there I am resting my eyes and here comes Kyle, "Hey did Redd take the tire?" Umm hello do you see my tireless bike on the trailer? Well anyway, crisis averted Red hadn't left yet, so Kyle was off to rescue his damn self! (He was pre running with a couple of people that had cars, in case you're confused!) Oh and where are my kids? Causing chaos over with the neighbor kids! I could here them the entire time! Anyway back on track! I don't know how much longer later, but here comes Kyle on his bike, with a flat tire! no cars in sight. Apparently he switched over the tire and flatted my tire 100 ft later. Awesome babe, just awesome! He rode back on the highway with the flat tire, through town. Once again, awesome! So there we are, in the middle of nowhere with two flat motorcycle tires, and no tubes to fix them! What to do, what to do? Call for back up, I call Jesse (he is driving out to race as well) and see if there is somewhere on his drive through the middle of nowhere that might actually sell tubes. Then call my mom and ask her to do the same. Luck is on our side and they both pick up tubes! Jesse shows up a little after five, and they need to fix the tire(the car brought the other tire back), pre run more then the first mile of the course, before dark, and be to the racers meeting at 6:30! Good luck boys! Then it decides to poor! Well off they were any way. Well 7:30 rolls around and they're back! How was racers meeting? Well they didn't go because Kyle decided to crash. He hit a silt bed (Google it, if you don't know!), his bike stopped, he didn't, so over the handle bars he went! Landing right on his head and knees (so grateful for safety equipment!) at 45 mph, not 25! You're shocked, I know! So I get him cleaned up, he decides to get drunk, then finally we get everything ready for the race at crack thirty the next morning.

Saturday morning 5 am the alarms begin to go off, yes alarms up camping, who would do such a thing!? After only 6 hours of sleep. I did mention the drinking the pain away, right?! We are up and ready for the day! I make breakfast, the guys get geared up, and we head over to the starting line. Fast forward past some standing around freezing my butt off, and at 6:20 Kyle leads the bikes out of the gates. Fast forward more of me standing around freezing my butt off and at 6:30 Jesse leaves the gates. More fast forwarding through me doing nothing real exciting while I wait for them to pit! 7:25 Kyle pulls in and I throw some sunscreen on him, he tries to eat a granola bar, gasses up and is off. 7:40 Jesse pits, doesn't let me help at all. Granted I was not actually expecting him for 5-10 more minutes so I wasn't exactly ready but still! He gasses up and goes! Approximately 10 minutes later I over hear someone's radio that they have a bike down. Can't hear where or the number, but know instantly that I will not see Kyle pit again this race. So sitting around, knowing he's not going to show up but still hoping, and at 8:45 here comes Jes. Who has absolutely no information for me, other then Kyle was up and about and waved him on, and wouldn't let him stop. Again, doesn't let me help, throws in his own gas and goes! About 10 after 9 I decide to throw some shorts on and wonder over to find out when approximately I will see my hubby again! Well, he has not been reported! So they call to the check points to get his last times through to find out roughly where he's at and tell me that they will have course sweepers cleaning the course. I run back to camp and literally have to drag my kids out of bed so we can go watch Jesse finish at 9:45! WooHoo Jesse! We're standing around waiting for the trucks to start, and my kids decide they need drinks and they all have to pee, fantastic! So off I send them... hey it's a long walk! Well then I see Ethan picking on Brynn so I end up wondering over there anyway. Apparently Ethan woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and got to stay in timeout while the rest of us watched the trucks start. Finally the trucks start, which the kids thought was pretty cool, maybe not cool enough to wake up for, but they were less cranky after that! After the last truck goes, we head back to camp and who is walking towards us, my lovely husband, who is indeed in one piece! Plus he got to see the trucks start from somewhere just outside of camp, so not a total loss. The chain guide on the swing arm broke off, wrapped around the sprocket, and piled everything into the case. (Yeah sorry for all the car lingo, basically the chain that spins the wheel, and one of it's brackets, detached and crashed into the outside of the motor!) This is the second time he has done this! So his bike is currently in the shop getting a custom, hopefully sturdier, bracket made! Plus it cracked the motor case, so that is getting welded as well. So awesome!

I decide to take a nap, Kyle watches some of the cars come through pits and about 2:30 in the afternoon we say bye to Jackpot, Nevada! We stop in Twin Falls, to see the falls, very pretty BTW, and we head home. Stop in a little town at the border, that doesn't sell lotto tickets, WTF?, pay $3.60 a gallon, and head to Maddox for dinner! Unbelievably there is more bad crap that happened, but I can't remember right now. I'm sure there was a shorter version of this story, but oh well! Congrats if you made it trough the whole thing! Maybe I'll have Kyle feel in the blanks for me, after all I have been awake all night