Well, here is my summary of our day at Eddieville as promised. Unfortunately, my wife did not prove to be a very good videographer - I'll take another look, though, there may be something to salvage. Anyway, as I said before the weekend my friend's friend won a day at Eddieville - http://www.overthebarsgang.com/eddieville.html - for 30 riders. I was the only ATV that was invited. The group was racers of all ages, and me. They were a great bunch of people.

We had the alarm set for 2:30 a.m., but I was up at 1:30. We left the house at 4:00 a.m. and hit the track parking lot at 9:15. It was a monsoon all the way from Eugene up until about The Dalles in the Gorge. Then, it was just barely spitting. This entire group of people was meeting at this track anticipating that it was going to be about 35 degrees and raining hard. It was cold, but not too bad, and we barely had any rain, just enough mist to keep the dust down every once in awhile. Even had blue sky and sun at a few different points during the day. We were all absolutely amazed.

Ok, now for the details you all want to hear. This was a very fun track. A few guys I was talking with were surprised to see a YFZ there because this is mostly a motorcycle MX track. It has a 1.5 mile MX track tucked inside a 6.5 mile Euro GP style track. The GP didn't open for us until noon, so we played hard on the MX in the morning. It was a lot of fun and just full of everything. Nestled on the side of a rolling grassy hill, it has flat at the bottom, but then goes up and around the hill, also. There was a great double ski jump on the back of the MX that I was loving - straight with lots of room for speed to launch and land, then drops down into a hairpin that shoots back up the hill and sweeps around then comes back down and then up another hill over a nice gap and then hooks sharp to send you up a steep hill built over a 10 foot diameter pipe then back down to the biggest launch on the MX (kept kicking my back end up until my last 2 runs when I hit it fast enough and launched just like the bikes clear to the bottom). The roller section was a bit hard on me, but by the end of the day I had a much better handle on it. Some very fun table tops and lots of options with many of the jumps - wide sweep bank to single or hairpin to big gap is just one of the options.

At noon the GP opened. I was already feeling like my guts had been in a paint shaking machine, but my arms and legs felt like they were holding up OK. I decided that my friend was having too much fun racing his buddies on the MX, so if I was going to have to hit the GP, it would be on my own. Well, better do it while I can still hold on. So I headed out onto the GP track. Now this was a blast. It had all of the stuff the MX did and more, just spaced out more than the MX. Also, was chewed up like being out in the woods - very challenging. It was like a long rustic version of the MX, but with these huge ugly drops down into a ravine. They were called things like Gravity Cavity, Elevator Drop, etc. Fly down into the bottom and then just shoot up the other side - lots of fun. This track swept way back into the rolling hills and you couldn't even see the parking lot and other track from the far side. I would be getting some great speed and then a table top would appear - whooaaaa!!! Too much fun. I was shaking when I got back to the parking lot - decided to take it easy for awhile and watch the pro's. There were at least 5 pros there and they were riding hard.

Finally, I decided to take my last run - 2 laps on the MX. These were by far my best of the day. I was hitting everything just right and launched the biggest drop all the way to where the bikes were landing. I guess my body knew this was it and I had better make the best of it. Got back to the suburban with an ear to ear smile.

I hurt, but I can move which is more than I thought I would be able to do by the end of that day.

Now, I'm addicted and can't wait to hit a track again.

 

Sounds like you had a large time[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] A trip to Eddyville around here wouldn't be much fun...It's the state prison[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

 

That's wild because that's what made me hit on this thread. My parents took me there in the early sixties and that image is still burned into my mind. I don't know if it has changed but that place looked like a castle, fortress and someone being 7 or 8 was really quite amazing. I remember I got a leather belt that a prisoner had made.

Times have sure changed because I don't think to many people visit prisons for pleasure unless there is someone in there that they know.

Chet

 

I got a pal thats a turnkey (jailor) at the county jail here...so I here a few stories about that place ... like the inmate that told my pal he was going home...my pal said where LaGrange? ( another KY state prison ) the inmate said naah thats boys camp I'm going to Eddyville. Must be a pretty tough place.