Motocross-cation

This summer Bill and I opted to not take the fam on a regular vacation. We had planned on Colorado instead of the North Shore of Minnesota, but changed our minds altogether about vacation and decided to instead just to stay home and get some things done and try to do a few smaller outings. Then my sudden trip to Seattle and a couple of other things sort of shot even those small plans out. It's ok. (Ok- it's not ok. I'd like to say we're flexible, but we're not. But we're learning to say yes to the thing before us. And that makes it ok in the long run. God wants our 'yes'. Have I blogged about that before?)
Alright, back to the main subject of today's post...

We had decided, however, that we were going to get out of Dodge and head up north to Millville, MN, site of the Spring Creek Motocross races. We packed our bags, piled in the m-van and set our course for north. After arriving in Rochester, dumping our stuff in a hotel, we set off to find a place for supper. 
*App Alert* Urbanspoon 
Urbanspoon can help you find any kind of restaurant you want based on your location. So being in Rochester, I searched the top restaurants and decided that we should munch and crunch at Newt's. It's a burger place, located on the top floor, sort of a hole in the wall place in downtown Rochester. Atmosphere is totally laid back, fresh popcorn at your table, etc. They've got a nice selection of not your average burgers and I noticed some other diners' appetizers that I would totally have loved to try. The kids got burgers, plain. Two like cheese and one doesn't, but he likes ketchup whereas the other two don't. Two like pickles, but not on their burgers, just on the side. One kid, besides the cheese, doesn't like any condiments whatsoever, ever. Anywho... that's what they ordered, and I have no idea what Bill got. But I got the Fried Onion Blue Burger. Big, yummy and filled my tummy. Hey, look, I took a picture of it!

After a splash in the pool for the kids and a few miles on ye ol' treadmill for Mom, it was time to hit the hay.

Woke up bright and early and looked over to see our #1 race fan sleeping a-this way.

We loaded up the family bus again and drove about an hour north to Millville. I will just confess right now that when I found out that a race was going to be so close by, I got a little excited and told Bill we should go. When our friend, Joe, said he was going, that sort of sealed the deal. I wanted to go to this race!! (What's become of me, people?!)

We pay for our tickets, and start walking towards the race track, looking for Joe. I didn't really think to take pictures of the whole track because of just taking it all in and keeping track of the kiddos and whatnot. So here's one of the first pics I did take. The entrance is on the other side of where we were standing and obviously lower, so we climb quite a bit to get to this vantage point. The starting gate is in the upper left corner (a white sign that says Parts), then it winds around a corner to the right, through the next dirt path, which then goes through sand whoops and corners to the left and flies up though the lower right blue Parts sign and then beyond. Here's the latest track diagram I could find if you really want to know. 

Joe found us up there and pretty soon the riders started their qualifying laps. WooHoo!! It wasn't even the main event races and it was exciting!

And they flew over that jump!! Sorry about that last one being fuzzy, but I wanted to show you the sequence. Um, they were high! Also, while we're here, notice that both of #5's hands are on the handle bars. That isn't always the case. This and another spot on the course are perfect places for reaching up with one hand and ripping off a tear-off from their goggles. They never landed one handed, but they were often in the air one handed. 

We wove our way around more of the track and kept climbing even higher until we reached this spot. 

I know!! You can't even see the bottom of the jump. The track you see beyond is not where they go immediately. Oh no! This one they come tearing up and around the corner you see to the left (still looking at the pic above) then jump and land at near the middle bottom (the hill is longer than you think) before digging into the next right hand turn.

So the whole day was filled with this. And guess what? I get it. I get the whole rush, excitement, crazy high, fast paced racing thing. As the first riders sped past us, a wave of exhaust, heat, sound and adrenaline swept over me and I got it. I know why these boys and girls do this- it is wicked awesome! I've watched the X Game highlights this summer and I get it as well. For some, the rush is football or basketball or soccer. But for some, it is two wheels and a motor. Or two wheels and no motor. Or 4 wheels under a small board. It happens to be 2 wheels and a motor for my boys and I love it.

I did ask Ben at the end of the day if he wanted to do motocross, which is different than the harescrambles he does now. I could see his internal struggle. After a day of watching live racing, it's hard to not want to do that. He wanted to say yes. But he also knew I wanted him to say no. He did give me a quiet little yes and I told him I thought so. :)

Next time, though, we will definitely bring our canopy. Ben looks miserable here, but he had a blast seeing his favorite rider- #5 Ryan Dungey. 

We also saw Audrey's favorite- #70 Ken Roczen

And #10 is Justin Brayton from Ft. Dodge, IA!!

Joe and Bill got to spend some time talking shop.

How 'bout this for our Christmas card?

After a long, hot but really exciting and fun day it was all over. We said our good-byes to Joe (and Jacqui, in case Joe didn't tell you, we send our love to you and the girls) and headed home. But not before we grabbed a bite to eat back in Rochester at Chipotle. On our way back to the restrooms, we happened to notice a curly haired dude who looked a lot like a racer we've seen before. After some sort of awkward moments, we said hello to Blake Wharton- #956. No pen or paper to get an autograph, but we did snag a picture of him with the boys, which is better anyway. He was super nice to us and now we're fans. 

What a way to end our day!