Carolina Adventure World

My last post was about buying dirt bikes. So, naturally, this post is about riding the dirt bikes. Mike just couldn't wait until the weekend, so he went by himself to ride on Friday. He went to Carolina Adventure World in SC. We'd never been there before. He left me a funny (to me anyway) message on my phone Friday while I was at work. He said, "Well, I rode for about 20 minutes. Then got my bike stuck in the mud, couldn't get it out. Had to walk for probably 1 mile before I found someone on a 4-wheeler. He pulled me out. Then my bike wouldn't start. He pulled me (riding the bike) behind the 4-wheeler. Then we crashed...that hurt!!." Side note: I just saw a new E-Trade baby commercial...those are brilliant!!

Anyway, that wasn't such a successful outing. But it has been 6 years since we last rode. So, we both rode down on Sunday to give it a shot. All I can say is, I didn't kill myself. It wasn't for a lack of trying though. My bike and I did not get off to a good start. It was idling too high (reeving too high). That didn't do me any favors. Then, I forgot that I shouldn't use the clutch on the downhills because I don't get any engine brake. Long story short, I was going too fast downhill. I had a run-in with a tree. The tree won. I hit the handle bars pretty hard, but did learn that the chest protector is a valuable piece of safety equipment. I knocked the wind out of myself and my ribs hurt like hell. After Mike decided I was going to live, he had a jolly ole time mocking me. It wasn't so funny though when he couldn't get his bike running again. We had to leave his bike on the trail, take mine across a creek to get back to the road to the parking lot, and ride two-up back to the car.

After lunch, we went back to retrieve his bike. Luckily it started. He finally remembered the trick to keeping his running and we decided to give it another shot. I have to admit, going back out on the trail was not on the top of my list of things to do. However, Mike fixed the idling issue, I remembered not to use the clutch in the downhill, and finally (and most importantly), I went very, very slow!!!! There was more dropping of the bike, but that was much better than a sudden stop by way of a tree!! The trail was very very muddy and rutted out. It wasn't my favorite course. I made it harder on myself by going so slow. I had to really muscle the bike around a lot. Next time, yes, I'll risk life and limb again, I'll be more confident.

Today, my neck is really sore, my ribs are in pretty much constant pain, and my left thumb is sore and bruised. My ribs kinda feel like you have a swimmers cramp all the time. What could be more fun huh?? Take a look at the bikes after it was all said and done...

Oh yeah, but first, a good picture of Foggy I found on my camera.