hillclimb story

[Dan Simoes <dans@ans.net>]

To our resident Audi widows:  I hope you find some comfort in this
story and can give your mate some reassurance that he's not all that
crazy after all.

I'm back in once piece and have been avoiding writing this so
I don't have to recall all the pain :)

I left Elmsford around 8:30PM on Friday, and headed out on my
K75s motorcycle with Mt Washington as my destination.  Despite
speeds on I91 of 100-115mph, it still took me 7 hours to get there,
partly due to the wrong turns I took, and partly due to the bad
NH roads (sorry guys) one of which succeeded in knocking my 
10-hour old Solo 5 radar detector off the bike and into the
bleak NH roadside.  After collecting most all the pieces (the ones
I could see anyway) I arrived in Berlin NH at close to 4 AM.

I checked into my room, slept for all of an hour of so (on and off)
until Bob Damato came to get me at 5:30ish.  We headed out to
meet the others at the base of the auto road and had some
overpriced grub, then headed down to the starting line.

Once we heard that spectators were not allowed on the course, we
quickly took up Glen's suggestion to volunteer as corner workers.
After some basic training, off we went up, up, up Mt Washington.
I got stationed at corner 26, which is about 2/3 or the way up.
One bonus - I got to ride my K up there, and passed Damato on the
way up sporting (as he put it) "the biggest s***-eating grin I've
seen on you" (then again Bob, we've only met twice...)  Scary
but fun.

As the cars came by, it was cold, damn cold, but I braved the elements
with my assigned radio operator and really only had to jump to action
once, when a car flipped just above us, so we had to whip out the
red flag.  Rest of the time I took pictures and shivered.

Cars were pretty neat - Sprongl's S2 and the Cosworth were about the
only consistently competitive cars, based purely on a visual guess.
There was a souped up truck too, which smelled of Castrol 20w50 
evey time he went by :)

After the last cars went up and down, it was time to regroup, but
I figured since I was 2/3 up, why not go all the way and earn the
"this bike climbed mt. washington" sticker :).  So I did. 
Boy is it high up there.  After some quick photos, I rode back 
down and looked for the others.

We cavorted with the Audi folks (local dealer and regional factory
rep), grabbed some quick grub, met up with Chris Semple and Scott,
and chitchatted for a bit.  By then it was 2PM and time for me to
leave, after a group photo with everyone around Sprongl's S2
(BTW, sporting a secret aerodynamic device pioneered by Peter).

Got on the bike, rode down the road, and...it started raining.
And raining.  And raining.  Mind you, mine was not the riding gear
of real motorcyclists.  No, I had jeans, Doc Martens and a leather
jacket with me, which of course got soaked very quickly.

Mile after mile, I plodded along, stopping at a ski shop summer sale
to buy some nylon rain paints, coffee every couple of hundred miles, 
etc.  Hypothermia was my biggest concern as it was pretty cold out
there.  I should have just crashed somewhere and waited until the
next day to return home, but my sister was graduating from high
school and I didn't want to miss it.

Somewhere in southern NH I stopped and had a brainstorm.  I went into
the john and dried myself off somewhat with the hand drier (oh, the
looks!), emptied my boots, wrung out my socks, and felt a bit better.
Then I stopped in the liquor store next door for a quart of malt.
Just kidding, I got some plastic bags to cover my boots.
I did try calling Andrew Duane just for the heck of it, but no
answer.  Sorry Andrew, you had your chance.  I'm not coming back
to THAT &%^%@% state again... :)

I started getting reall cramped and tired around Hartford somewhere,
and had to stop like every 40 miles.  Fortunately, the rain ended 
somewhere just before there, so I was able to pick up some speed.

I eventally limped (almost literally) home at 11PM, with cramped
legs, wrists and a burning, pinching shoulder muscle that still
bugs me today.  The dye from my leather jacket and gloves soaked
all over, through my sweatshirt, even onto the "Farfrompuken" Tshirt
I had hoped to amuse fellow qlisters with (it was too cold for that).

Was it fun?  Yes.  With the proper gear, I would have been OK.
Getting some sleep would have helped too :).  If I ever do it again,
I'll probably drive though.

It was nice meeting everyone.  Next time let's meet around here
though, OK? 

| Dan |
-- 
Dan Simoes			          dans@ans.net
ANS 				http://coimbra.ans.net/dans.html
100 Clearbrook Road  			(914) 789-5378 (voice)
Elmsford, NY 10523			(914) 789-5310 (fax)