Atlanta Supercross
Atlanta, Georgia - February 29, 2020
Sunday - Coming off a great night at AT&T Stadium qualifying for the triple crown and finishing 20th, we decided to celebrate by settling into a local KOA campground. Our thought process was to cut down on some drive time and rest while being able to visit our friend and longest running sponsor Mike Orpen. He is battling cancer and it meant a lot to all of us to be able to see him at his home in McKinney, Texas.
Monday- We wanted to also take the opportunity to pause and smell the roses by taking a ride south to Magnolia in Waco, Texas. Brooke is deeply inspired by Chip and Joanna Gains so it was a gift from me to spend Monday to visit. It’s incredible, the empire they have built so quickly, and they have amazing food there! We went to Magnolia table and made sure to stop by the bakery before leaving town and we were in heaven with the delicious food.
Tuesday- Brooke had some catching up to do at work and I did bike work, prepping for Friday press. With the following two travel days, the race bike needs to be ready to go for Friday press. This week we got into the afternoon press session. Most of the time it’s early morning but every now and then we get the premier time which is 1:00 PM! I was planning to take a ride to Compound 77, about an hour and a half north and ride but decided the pros didn’t outweigh the cons of doing so in this particular case.
Wednesday – Brooke worked in the morning and I loaded everything up. We went to turn the key and … nothing was there. The truck batteries have died in less than three days sitting. It has been almost four years to the day since we last changed them so I wasn’t super surprised when it happened. I unhooked the van, batteries, and went to the auto parts store for new ones. By the time I got back and we were ready to finally leave, we were one hour and fifty minutes late from usual checkout. Brooke called the front desk and notified them right away when we learned about the dead batteries. I didn’t know until we were pulling out when she mentioned we had to pay a $10 late fee. I stopped by the office and thought maybe since it was an emergency (we didn’t stay late because we wanted too) and there wasn’t any other rv’s around or waiting for our spot that they would waive the charge. No that’s not how they do it. The $10 isn’t a big deal to me but it is the principle of charging someone more when it’s out of there control. Nothing like a little jab when someone trips and falls. I wouldn’t do business like that but that’s just me. Good thing we weren’t another ten minutes later, because the late fee doubles at 2:00 PM.. Life is all about timing sometimes!
We spent the rest of the day driving and stopped at the last Texas Best truck stop which has amazing barbeque! All was really good until we had to find a place to park. Usually we stay at Walmart parking lots but the Walmart’s that are RV friendly (allow overnight parking) are becoming further and fewer in-between. Walmart’s are our first choice when staying overnight. Our second option is a truck stop which is tough with the new digital logging for commercial vehicles. They always seem to be full now and we can’t backup when towing the van so a pull through spot is what we need to find. The one parking lot we entered had such a steep exit that we scrapped the rear of the rig causing the left rear panel to become loose. I had to stop and take it off so it didn’t get damaged any further. It took us about two hours to find a parking spot and when we finally did, it required a lot of skill and some luck to fit into the space at the truck stop. I probably wouldn’t have tried to pull in the spot as I circled the first time thinking about it. Desperate times called for some desperate measure and I went for it being I have a pregnant wife on board who needs some rest. I get cranky when tired too. We probably came within inches of the one truck but made it happen! Off to bed! The third option if a Walmart and truck stop aren’t in play in a traditional rest area. You have to be careful of these as it could be dangerous with not a lot of people around. You want to be close to people, lights, noises, cameras, other businesses, etc.
Thursday- When traveling I try to get going around 4 or 4:30am to get a few hours in while Brooke and Mya can still lay down and hopefully get some more rest. This way it helps to shorten up their perception of the drive. Mya isn’t so fond of the rig moving down the road anymore. She doesn’t get comfortable and is constantly wanting to go on the bed but only if Brooke lays with her. She’ll whine to go back there and bark after a few minutes of being by herself. All is going much smoother as we continue heading east. Brooke had an important meeting around lunch time that was best if she wasn’t driving down the road with the noise and distraction so we pulled into a nice rest area. I used the time to wash the rig so it didn’t have to be done when we arrived around 5ish. We arrived to the staging lot in Atlanta just in time to have dinner at IKEA and grocery shop for the weekend.
Friday- Feld wasn’t able to acquire the convention space until Thursday at midnight so that’s when they began parking. Our parking time was 3:30 am. It’s always nice parking inside as we have power and there is little to no outside threat. The surrounding Atlanta streets aren’t the safest. Later that day we setup everything except for the canopy cover. I had press and was interviewed by Jim Holley with Supercross live.
Race-Day – Atlanta is about 14 hours from where I grew up in central Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania but I always see a lot of familiar faces at this round which is cool. I think it’s the time of year where diehard riders travel south for a tune up before the season up north takes off. Atlanta and Daytona are two of the same for amateur northerners to come watch a race a get riding in themselves. The race day didn’t go super well as I struggled to find a good feeling on the track. I finished 13th in my heat and 16th in the LCQ. I was disappointed with myself but made a few mistakes and wasn’t firing on all cylinders like I needed to be in order to get into the main event that night. The next day we headed straight south to Florida and focused our attention on our next shot in Daytona.
Thanks for tuning in!
-Ronnie
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The following photos were taken by Rob Koy of @robkoyphoto.
Check out our Atlanta Supercross vlog video below!
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Jim Holley of Supercross Live interviewed Ronnie about life and racing.
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