Lake Whitney, Texas

We arrived Monday evening at Lake Whitney, Texas. This place holds one of the big six amateur motocross races in the USA. The top amateur riders from all over the USA come to this event.

We got here late because we wanted to see the Johnson Space Center in Houston on the way. When we got to the Lake Whitney park, it was wet and we had to wait for the officials to see if the RV hook up was available (that we had paid for). It had rained excessively that day that the officials had trouble getting RVs into the park to their hook ups. After two hours they escorted us to the hook up but then we had to drive around and through a paddock so that we could back in the most easy way. Chris nearly took out two port-a-loos trying to drive around a corner. Because it was dark it is difficult to gauge where that thing (ie. the fifth wheeler) is on the back of the pick up truck. So at around 10pm we were hooked up (electricity and fresh water - not wastewater). It was wet. A big thank you to Mark Sheffield (Manager for Cycle County in Texas) who was patient and took the time to guide us into our RV spot.

Tuesday morning was practice. We decided not to do the practice as it was a mud bath. The officials cancelled the rest of the day anyway. The kids did school work. Chris got to take a look around. There must be around 2,000 riders at this event. There are massive trucks, all the manufacturers and their rigs, sponsors, vendors etc. We needed to buy Josiah a new pair of MX boots and paid USD 100 for Alpinestar 4S. Also got Joel some new 2008 Thor Phase gear (shirt, pants and gloves) for USD 103. This is considerably cheaper than in NZ - it would be three times the amount for this gear in NZ (after converting into NZD). We got this gear from Baxley’s Motorcycle Parts vendor fifth wheeler (it is 48 feet long!).

On Wednesday Josiah rode his first race in the modified 65cc class. There is some serious money spent on these bikes. Josiah is riding a stock bike, but even without the modifications the kids still go fast. Josiah did not ride on Thursday but was first up on Friday morning in the 65cc stock class. We had to wait at least an hour though for the fog to lift! That's right, fog in Texas. Josiah did OK but did not get the best of starts.

It was hot on Thursday even though it was foggy in the morning. The temperature in Fort Worth was 87 F on Thursday (Lake Whitney is just over an hour from Ft Worth) and the next door neighbour reckoned it was about that temperature here at Lake Whitney (that's 30 degrees celsius). So we had both air conditioners on Thursday evening in the RV!

Josiah described the track has having big jumps & big ruts. There are three rhythm sections at the start, in the middle at just before the finish line. The biggest jump is going into the forest. It is a long tabletop. The dirt is slippery when wet but on a dry day it is dusty (it is like clay but a bit more loamy). The guy on the loud speaker here at the bike race is always yelling when there is a battle on in a race. Josiah liked the track as it was fast and open and would like to race there again. The thing Josiah didn’t like at Lake Whitney was having to do schoolwork.

Try this website for Thursday’s video coverage of racing at Lake Whitney: http://www.racerxfilms.com/20080314_whitthurs/20080314_whitthurs.html. It includes the MX Lites A class. You will see some of these kids graduate to the professional racing environment (that Ben Townley competes in) within the next year.

This is what Sarah said about the week: “It was not that exciting. I did do a lot of relaxing. I met a new friend called Jennifer who was parked next to our RV. We painted nails and brushed our hair. Jennifer’s brother, Kenny junior, drove us around in the buggy (golf cart) in the evenings after dark. We went on a tree swing and kind of broke it.”

One of the best things about the week at Lake Whitney would have to be our neighbours, the Hempens (Kenny senior, Tracey, Kenny junior, Jennifer, Josiah and Luke). They travelled from Iowa, about 800 miles north of Lake Whitney. They are a great christian family who were very hospitable. We got to try thick meat patties from Iowa and they tried our NZ marmite and vegemite on toast - Kenny junior liked it and said it tasted like burnt cheese. Tracey looked like she was going to hurl after tasting the marmite. We were glad to help them early in the week as their son Josiah had a bike accident and had to be taken to the hospital. Because they have a coach and trailer it was easier for us to take them in our pick up truck. Turns out Josiah fractured his collarbone. He was not well. Kenny and Tracey have invited us to come up in August as there is a big motorcross race on in Minnesota (Milville) so we will see if it can work out.

So, on Sunday afternoon we left Lake Whitney and drove to a RV park just out of Fort Worth. We got cleaned up (and cleaned out) which was great. On Monday we bought food supplies and gas and headed for Decatur, just north of Fort Worth.