Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

We now had to move on. We were heading south to the Monterey area. We made an executive decision not to drive the MoHo across the Golden Gate bridge and through the tangle of streets in San Francisco and on down through Silicon Valley. Since our campsite was almost right beside the Richmond bridge into Oakland, and the east bay area, we decided to swing down that side of the bay in the hopes that it might be an easier route. I guess my only concern with this latest plan was that the MoHo might end up going a lot slower than the flow of traffic on the 8, 10, & 12 lane highways we would be taking. But I figured as long as I stayed to the far right lane, it should not cause too much of a slow down for the others. What was I thinking?!?! For the first 50 miles (80 kms) nobody was faster than me! Of course, that is really more a statement on the depressingly low average speed of the freeways in the bay area rather than the high performance capabilities of the MoHo. So we ended up blending in with the general traffic flow most of the way to San Jose (and yes, we do know the way there in case you were wondering). Once the traffic finally started to speed up, we just did our best to stay out of everyone else’s way as we continued on to our final campground destination of Laguna Seca. Now, for those of you reading who are familiar with car racing, this location may ring a bell as there is a race track situated in this general area which goes by the same name. What I did not realize until we arrived is that we would not only be camping in the same general area as this race track but, rather, we would be camping AT this race track There is a very steep hill you need to climb to get up to the camping area and as we crested the final hill to reach our actual campsite, a commanding view of almost the entire facility unfolded in front of us! Not long after we parked and set up the MoHo, we were watching Formula Fords ripping around the closest corner to us then powering on up the hill and under the bridge. Very cool! I started wondering if maybe this wouldn’t be so cool after all considering the noise but thankfully we were able to take solace in the knowledge that they only have cars on the track between 9:00am and 5:00pm. And the fact that we could even get a sight at this campground meant that there definitely were no races going on while we were there. The people we were watching circling the track were students at the Skip Barber Racing School or, as I like to call them, rich, lucky, dirtbags. (Me jealous??? Nooooo.) We found out later that we were welcome to go down to the paddock area and take a look around and chat with the Skip Barber Racing School people, so we put that on our agenda for tomorrow. Then we grabbed dinner and decided to catch a movie before bed. The movie, or perhaps a better description would be documentary, we watched, called Endurance, about a British expedition to cross Antarctica in 1915 was quite intense. Now there were some people who lacked fear almost as much as they possessed courage. Quite a fantastic story and certainly makes you think. Check it out if you get a chance.

Today’s word:

solace \SOL-is\, noun:
1. Comfort in time of grief; alleviation of grief or anxiety.
2. That which relieves in distress; that which cheers or consoles; a source of relief.
3. To comfort or cheer in grief or affliction; to console.
4. To allay; to soothe; as, "to solace grief."