Monday Morning Coffee

By Billy Rainford

I’m going to have to start this MMC off on what is about the saddest thing we ever experience in life – the death of a parent. I know it’s the natural order of things and almost all of us go through the process, but it doesn’t really make it any easier to deal with. The loss is huge and it hurts you to your core.

My mom passed away peacefully at the hospital in Kamloops, BC with my sister at her side. She battled dementia and all that goes along with that for the past 10 years and the last 6 in Kamloops.

Although she was small in stature, you would have been wise not to underestimate her strength were you to cross a member of her family; she was small but fierce and would likely fight to the death if she had to.

I’ve been talking to friends about her since she passed and it was really nice to reminisce about some of the things they remember about her in their lives.

It’s amazing that she worked for the bank for almost 50 years and didn’t take a single sick day. Not one. They basically had to push her out the door to retire. She was in charge of Securities and Investments and her clients were like her second family.

I did a lot of competitive sports throughout her life and she maybe missed 2 or 3 events in total. She and my dad were as supportive as you could get. I thank them both for that support. They even went to a mountain bike/trail run biathlon in Michigan that my friends and I didn’t manage to make it to the starting line! And then we drove straight to Grand Bend to play beach volleyball and didn’t even talk to them until I got home for Sunday dinner! It was way before cell phones.

In our sport, parents are like this. They are the ones who we always count on and they never ask for anything in return. I just wish I could have appreciated it all more when they were actually doing it. Man, I’d really like to thank them both for everything they did for me.

I will sprinkle a few of her ashes alongside my dad at the big tree on the Fanshawe Lake MTB loop. My friends and I always give a little nod and a smile and maybe even say a few words as we roll by, even when I’m not with them. I guess that’s about all you can really hope for when you’re gone.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who took the time to say a few kind words on my Facebook post about my mom’s passing. It really means a lot.

I’m now on my way down to Loretta Lynn Ranch for, officially, The Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship, presented by AMSOIL. We’ve got probably our strongest contingent of riders through the class range this year, so I felt I really had to be there.

I’ve been a couple times and, although it’s really great to be there watching and documenting all the top amateur riders, it’s usually just too damn hot to enjoy. And if it’s not 100 F and humid, it’s 105 F and raining! Tennessee in August is no joke.

However, I’ll be doing the same as I did at the ECAN where I’ll shoot short videos and post them up to let everyone know how our Canadians are doing throughout the week.

After looking at the entry lists, I’m going to be pretty busy!

Of course, as soon as we’re don down south, it’ll be time to come home and then head to Walton Raceway for the TransCan. I’m interested to see how it’s different under the leadership of Kyle Keast and his crew. He’s seen how it’s been done for many years, so he should have a pretty good idea of what he wants to continue with and what he’d like to add or change.

Good luck to everyone who is racing one or both of these amazing events.

Has anyone watched the movie Hail Mary? Emily and I enjoyed it until the very last 5 seconds. They really could have done without the Jar Jar Binks/Ewok ending! It was perfectly fine right up until there. They even already had their ending. Ugh.

I was looking through a huge pile of old photos of my mom and dad for the obituary when I found a little nest egg of old moto photos.

I posted one a while back showing the apple tree double jump at Hully Gully. It was a 1982 photo of Kirk Schell jumping it. Then I found this one from the following year of #196 Chris Lemmon jumping it from a better angle that shows just how sketchy it really was.

You had to be pretty much perfect with your timing or you would either case the pointy landing or flat land. Either way, someone was losing a Ferguson! No, wait, that’s if someone crashes in the WMX class…

We didn’t know any better back then on how to make safe jumps. It was a scary time, folks, believe me. I escaped injury on it but saw way more than my share of crashes and breaks.

I used to race there sometimes 3 days a week! We raced House League Thursday and Saturday evenings (I still don’t know how we managed to pack all the classes in before dark) and then the competitive CMA on Sunday if it was there. I had a lot of time to perfect the landing.

I’m sure a few of you reading this here right now are feeling some PTSD from this damn jump. Sorry about that. Anyone have a good story? Post it in the Facebook comments.

Google maps sent me over the new Gordie Howe Bridge that you may have seen in the news lately…

Of course, the line I got in to pay the toll on the Canadian side didn’t move because the machine wasn’t reading debit or credit cards. We had to actually back out of the lane and go to a different one.

The bridge itself was nice and there was no traffic. I wonder what the suspension cables are going to be like in the winter months? I know they had some issues out west when things got icy.

And again, I chose the wrong line on the American side. They actually closed the lane I was in and everyone had to try and merge over to the next one. It took me about 35-40 minutes to get through and then it spit me out a little bit farther to the outskirts of Detroit than what the Ambassador Bridge does.

It’s sunny and just about perfect right now, as far as temperature goes – 24C, low humidity, and very gentle breeze. I know better than to expect this when I get to The Ranch.

If you saw our post on the Canadians heading to Loretta’s and you see that I’ve missed someone, please let me know in the Facebook or Instagram comments so I’m sure not to miss them this week.

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday Monday. Have a great week and I’ll see everyone back at home at Walton Raceway.

And now back to watching the dotted line go by for a few more hours…