[Ducati] Hill House Party

[Steve Abramson]

I wanted to tell everyone I met at the party how cool it was to put faces to some of the names on the list that I knew only by posted conversation. I probably met more people from the list than I got names for, but for George and Peter, thanks for what was clearly a huge effort to put this together. $10 certainly didn't make up for the food, beer, and cheer that I consumed. Courtney and Kevin, great to meet you as well. Coming by was definitely a high point of the trip. I also enjoyed meeting you, Vicki, on Ducati Island. I am still digesting the weekend as a whole, regarding racing, heat, trouble with organization with the lines for the shuttle buses. I want to post something about the Hot, Nasty, and Dusty topic, but haven't formulated my thoughts yet. There are surely some things I need to do differently next year to make this a better trip. Even if I never make it back, the trip was worthwhile by a freak opportunity on Thursday afternoon. Myself and me other 5 companions were let over the fence at the corkscrew by a track event employee and walked the hill leading up to and down the corkscrew. As we stood on the spectator side of the corkscrew, about 1:00 pm, a 2 stroke scooter came over the top of the corkscrew with none other than Pedrosa riding in street clothes. He was by before any of us had a chance to take a picture. Before we could be too disappointed, however, another scooter came over the top with Chris Vermuelen riding. Cameras were ready this time, and as I stood on the edge of the track pavement over the next 90 minutes, we took pic after pic of multiple for-fun sighting laps of Rossi, Hopkins, Capirossi, and half a dozen other riders. Some non-Motogp people did laps also. We kept wondering why, as different track personnel drove by, why we didn't get kicked off. One guy in a Laguna pickup even said "Thanks" to us as he drove by. Maybe he thought we had speedy-dry in our souvenir bags. I will try and set up a location where I can post the pictures for all to see. Needless to say, a memory of a lifetime.

Steve