Today we had just three objectives: go to the track to check the route for the weekend, pick up our parade lap tickets and do laundry. We had breakfast around 8:30. Our hotel, the Fairfield Inn, has a really good free breakfast. We got out the door around 9:45.
We picked a route to the track that avoided the toll roads. The route was pretty straight forward and only took about 25 minutes. When we arrived at the track we were not entirely sure where we needed to pick up the tickets. The track map was not so helpful. We made an assumption that the front entrance of the grandstands would be the place to start. We saw a door to the main office, but the only folks around were busy setting up booths and had no idea where the ticket office might be. After wandering around the grand stand area for 30 minutes and getting frustrated, Michele left a voicemail with the sales guy that she spoke with last week to buy the parade lap tickets. He called her back after about 5 minutes and said the ticket booth is open between parking lots B and D. We hopped back on the bike, rode over to lot D and found the ticket booth. We got our parking passes and confirmed the correct lot where we would be parking for the weekend, which is lot D, upgraded with our parade lap ticket. As a side note, while wandering around, Michele peeked inside the track and could not believe how steep turn one is! On TV it looks much flatter.
With tickets in hand, we made our way over to the laundromat called the Washateria just a few miles from our hotel. It had good reviews for being clean and a newer facility. On the way, we stopped at a Subway and got lunch since we would be awhile at the laundromat. Michele went inside to order and a man in line asked about our Goldwing. He said he has a “hot rod yellow” Goldwing. He went in the showroom, got one look at it and signed the papers on the spot.
Off to the laundromat. Michele forgot to bring a roll of quarters on this trip so she quickly learned how heavy $20 in quarters is. There were plenty of available machines of various load sizes and we filled up two. We went back outside and Rob suggested we move the bike since we were downwind from a guy smoking in his SUV. He moved the bike upwind at the other end of the parking lot row. We set up our camping table and tried out our new lightweight REI chairs (comfy!). Rob noticed that there was shade at the side of the building. We moved everything once again since we had another 30 mins left on the dryers. Here’s our fancy setup at the side of the convenience store!
Today Michele wanted to visit Lake Travis recommended by Ange and Dan, but we just didn’t have enough time. We will keep it on the list for the next trip.
With all that done, it was after 2pm, so we just relaxed back at the hotel and watched movies on TV until dinner. We walked over to Double Dave’s for pizza. Their garden salad was really good also. Texas is in the 5% range for covid infection rates so that is a big improvement over the past month. We are surprised that more people wear masks in Texas than they did in either Alabama or Louisiana. After dinner, Rob watched pre-race interviews by the MotoGP racers on TV.
We have a busy three days ahead at the track with practice sessions, qualifying, our parade lap on Saturday, and the races on Sunday. MotoGP has three classes of racing, and there are support races this weekend with MotoAmerica and North American Talent Cup races, so the schedule is packed all day long. We usually walk around the track, visit vendor booths, and take pictures from different track sections. There will be more pictures tomorrow.
