Camp Coker Bullet GNCC 2021
- Kristy Bettinger
- Apr 10, 2021
- 10 min read
Updated: Nov 16, 2021
Here we are ready for round 4 of the 2021 GNCC - Camp Coker Bullet in Society Hill, South Carolina! 🏁
We are all ready to be southbound again as the temps in SC are looking pretty awesome for the weekend.. 80s! 😎
A little bike maintenance after Georgia race... some new bushings in the swing arm .. with only 1 weekend between races David got the bike back together just in time to load it up again!
Thursday - Hayden and Luke got another school day in .. the camper is loaded and ready to go once they get home! We are all excited for our first camping trip of 2021 with MoJo! AND to be camping at the track with all of our race friends! ❤
3:45pm We are on the road again...
It starts raining as soon as we start backing up the camper to head out! Of coarse that’s how it usually works! Rain is torcher to David & Josh... They squeeze in cleaning everything up after work.. and you’ll never know it a mile down the road. 😩🤦🏼♀️ It really does stink when you work hard taking care of campers/vehicles for it to get dirty before you get to the track!
We are on the road for a 7 hour drive + stopping for fuel/dinner. We will drive to the track tonight!
This ride is not going as smooth... the boys are whining there’s nothing to do!.. the hotspot ran out of gigs until tomorrow 🤷🏼♀️it still works but extremely slow for Hayden‘s games/Netflix... sorry boys.. maybe we should all take a nap!? ..NO..let’s just complain about something we can’t fix! ... an hour later still whining.. nope still can’t fix it.. seriously Hayden! I knew they were too quiet the last trip.. now they’re going to make up for it! It is life when you travel.. the reality is, no trip is ever perfect! However, we learn from our mistakes, deal with the complaining, and thank God we make it there and back safely! Hoping the boys are learning how to deal with the things life throws at ya during the good and the not so good.
We make it to Charleston, WV... the traffic is stopped.. all 4 lanes 😩.. oh no that is never good! 20 mins later we are moving.. ok that wasn’t too bad! Another 10-15 min hold up at the first toll.. I’m guessing due to the traffic being backed up earlier. I think the boys are still whining at this point because this ride is going slow and we are never going to get there!? Mom & Dad say.. “take a nap the ride will go faster!!“ 🤷🏼♀️😂
We get into the mountains in Virginia.. it’s dark and the rain is pouring.. so now David and I are thinking this is the slowest drive ever!! No the boys haven’t taken a nap.. at this point they are just nagging each other over and over again! 😩
Hey BOYS look!!... There’s Walker Fowler Racing! Beeep Beeep!! 🏁 Hey ya’ll need a few more passengers!?
Finally, about 5-6 hours into the drive the boys decide to crash .. let them sleep 💤!!
12:45AM Friday - We pull into the track to line up in a field to be staged for entry in the morning! The Shafer’s are 2 campers in front of us, yay we will be able to find our camping spot together in the morning! Level up, put the slides out, and crawl into bed! Goodnight! 🌙
9am Friday morning .. the line starts moving! Yay! Camp Coker is one of our favorite camping in the GNCC! Such a beautiful well kept property.
We get right into the site we were hoping to get! Pretty level so a quick set up AND then it starts to rain...
Hayden, Logan, Conner and some other boys take off to the ponds to fish 🎣.
David is in his truck with his laptop working. (And has been since 7am minus the few mins it took us to get through the gates)
Luke, Lynlee, and I are hangin in the camper .. cooking up some breakfast we are starving!
I brought all my goodies for a cast iron breakfast skillet on the grill today.. but the rain is preventing the grill cooking. 😒soo cooking inside on the stove top it is! I’ll share more about our breakfast skillets when we can do some outside cookin’!
On Monday the boys had ask me to make some Banana Muffins for our trip! We baked them up ahead of time and put them in the freezer! We kept them in the camper freezer for the ride.. wrap in a paper towel, a few seconds in the Microwave, and they tasted freshly baked. 😋 Keep them frozen to keep fresh longer or you can let them thaw on the counter in a sealed container.. if your like us they’ll be gone the same day!!
I found this recipe on Pinterest a while back and they became a favorite! Click the link below for the original blog with recipe:
My personalization of the recipe:
I did make these gluten free by using 1 1/4 cup gluten free all-purpose flour & 1/4 cup almond flour in place of the 1 1/2 of all-purpose flour.
Banana muffins are always best if you can use very ripe bananas! Like the all brown ones my husband gets in trouble for throwing out!
I just use a fork to mash the bananas and I like leaving a few small chunks.
MAKES: 10-11 regular muffins Ingredients
3 large ripe bananas, about 1 cup mashed
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
optional: 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips - today we used red, white, and blue vanilla flavored chips for race colors 🏁 and Luke picked out Easter Bunny wrappers.
Mash the bananas in a blender, mixing bowl or with potato masher.
In a mixing bowl combine the mashed bananas, vegetable oil, sugar, egg and vanilla extract. Stir to combine with a spatula.
Add in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, stir together with a spatula.
If adding chocolate chips, mix them in now.
Cover the bowl with a towel and allow the batter to rest for 15 minutes. During this time, preheat the oven to 425ºF.
Line a muffin pan with muffin liners. Fill the liners to the top with batter.
Bake for 7 minutes at 425ºF, then keeping the muffins in the oven turn the temperature down to 375ºF and bake for 12-14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
It rained most of the morning and early afternoon but thankfully it cleared out in time for the David and the boys to go bike the youth track.
Luke was helping Josh.. he’s always wanting to help Josh when he is working on something..maybe he’ll make a good mechanic for these racing boys someday!
The sun is shining, and it is warming up so Heidi, Lynlee, and I decided to go out for a walk while the boys were all busy. We made a nice loop around to the start and back.. I’m not good at measuring distance but I would guess we are camping 1/2 mile from the start, but I could be way off 🤣🤷🏼♀️!
Santa brought us a family gift this year.. an off the ground wood burning fire pit for races! Luke might of put that bug in Santa’s ear! David & Josh went out this morning to buy some firewood since we hadn‘t had time to cut any at home yet. Luke was on it.. spotting out dry sticks everywhere.. he wanted to go over to the island of the pond to gather up small sticks!
We built a nice fire, cooked hot dogs and s’mores.. then added some color to the fire!
9:30pm It is time for showers & bed! We all try to get to bed early tonight to get our rest for race day! We can start at 9:30pm but it’ll be 10:30pm before the boys are laid down and likely 11 before they get to sleep. It is a process.. they are never ready for bed! 💤
Saturday Race Day!!🏁
7:00AM Rise & Shine☀️
A little Mango Body Armor and Banana Muffin first thing so it can settle before race time!
8:30AM Hayden is off to the start...
A few minutes later David is biking his way to the start while Luke and Lynlee are cruising in the stroller.. I’m just trying to speed walk to get there in plenty time while other cruise by me on their bikes...
Ok so we made it to the start and that ended up being the easy part! I want up on this hill at turn 1 so I can see... so here we go kiddos.. HOLD ON! Across the sandy rutted wet field we go!
Well that shower I got this morning was pretty worthless! .. but we made it, and we have a great view of the first few turns! Josh & Liz meet me to watch the start and video for me! Teeeennnn seconds! The green flag is out...
Yay!! Look at that start.. I’m impressed with this many bikes taking off! Looks like all the practice starts in the field at home last weekend payed off!
They don’t come back through the start so we head back the road towards the finish.. checking for him a few spots between. We didn‘t see him until a few mins before the finish to start into lap 2.. He checked in 8th place for lap 1! That was a 13 minute 6 second lap.. I can chill a little now I know when to expect to see him again.
I’m super excited if he can hold a top 10 here with 24 bikes in his class and 132 bikes on the track!
..... lap 2 check in is 9th! Still holding that top 10 🙌🏼... onto lap 3... he’s getting faster on his lap times. checks back in at 8th place...
lap 4 his fastest lap yet at 12 mins 3 seconds and checked in 5th place! Over a minute faster than lap 1.. he’s rippin’! Now let’s hope he can hold onto this last lap.. the lap that something always seems to get him...
Lap 5, white flag is out.. and ..last lap got him again..!
The video shows a few bikes stuck on the track... looks like Hayden is trying to get around when he ends up spun around .. stuck crossways in a rut! 😩Hayden‘s report is he ask a guy for help and he says “I‘m not helping you”..
Anyway.. you can see Hayden trying to push/pull his bike as another guy jumps in to help him ..THANK YOU!! and he is off again..!
Then he comes up onto lap traffic.. tried to find a way around and... he’s stuck again on a tree.. (David says it’s a twig😂 Hayden says he didn’t have enough speed to run it over 😜) he has to back up.. and takes off again... umm here comes another bike ... and another! whoops going Backwards on the track! Turn around.... and hammer down to the finish.!.!.!
Meanwhile... We are all at the finish expecting that he should be finished .. and ..we don’t see him coming.. I get a little anxious or maybe a lot anxious! Heidi says he’ll be coming his last lap was the fastest so he might be another minute... (we always try to think the best and keep each other calm!) .. and a few more minutes go by..
16 minutes 9 seconds later... here he comes ! Ok .. 😅 he finished!!
Finishing 6th out of 24 bikes and 53rd out of 132!! Super proud especially after all that time he spent stuck on the last lap!
Soon as he pulls off the track we are headed over to see what had happened. Besides his last lap mishaps .. watching his video we find out during lap 3 he was trying to get around a girl..and a tree she ran over flung back at Hayden hitting against his goggles.. leaving a mark across the bridge of his nose! but would of been way worse without googles! (Hopefully he’ll remember that when he thinks about throwing them off) .. It didn’t stop him by any means, but he said he had to tell himself ”it doesn’t hurt that bad just keep going!”
Hayden‘s favorite part of the track was the muddy field.. slidin‘ through the mud and turns! 😎
Hayden is in a hurry to get back to the camper.. !? ...
After race cool off... couldn’t wait to jump in the pond!!
THROWBACK TO 2020 CAMP COKER ~ Hayden & Logan making the local news with their jumps..
They enjoyed some time swimming and riding bikes for the afternoon.. 2pm is the Pro—ATV race.
David and Hayden took off to watch the pros..Hayden has been wanting to get a picture with Fowler after his race.. so during the last lap he flies by the camper on his bike.. yelling to me, “I’m going to go to the finish to see Fowler!” But I’m not sure he will ask.. Hayden is usually shy when it comes to talking to anyone he doesn’t know.
Yay! He waited until he could ask and was able to get his picture! ... And David says that Hayden did ask on his own! I’m surprised and excited that he had the courage to do it!
6:00pm we are off to the Stacyc race for Luke’s first racing adventure!! 🏁
Luke hasn’t been a real big race fan to be honest .. he‘s been a trooper tagging along with us for Hayden.. and then the end of 2020 race season he tells us he wants a Stacy bike...BUT he’s not going to race it! We didn’t want to make him try it so we just let it be.. friends encouraged him to try it because he was doing so well riding it.. I just want him to find a sport that he enjoys to have something to work towards some goals and we can cheer him on.. besides making a fire! 😂
He has been riding it a few weeks now, and he is doing really well! He ask if he could race it this weekend! Of coarse we want him to try it if he’s ready for it! He’s all excited but much more serious about it as you can see in his picture 😂..So we aren’t sure what to expect...
They line them up, say a prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance for the little ones! And they get the green flag.. teeennn seconds!
He was awesome.. cruising right along with them! Only bif’d it once over the handle bars going downhill.. he usually uses his brakes, but he was going for it!!
They only race a few laps.. maybe 3-4 laps and you can see them on the entire track.
They all get medals for participating!
Luke had a lot of fans cheering him on..all of us, the Shafer’s, and a few other race friends! Everyone was anxious to see what he thought of it...yea it was fun .. “Hey mom come over here, bring the stroller!” .. yea I‘m sure you guessed it! He wanted me to bring the stroller to pick up some logs good for a fire! He had scoped them out while walking the track! 🤣😂🤣..he tells me he needs it for his surprise for Conner’s birthday. 💕 he wants to build him a fire this evening.
Luke built Conner a fire .. we all enjoyed it for a little while then early bedtime again as tomorrow will be busy with early morning races!
Sunday is the clean up, load up.. drive home! Everyone is exhausted .. we are in for a nice quiet ride home! 💤
Another round of 2021 GNCC racing is here and gone... home bound we are until next time!
Disclaimer: My full throttle blogs are for entertainment purposes only. These are my families stories to share for fun, and our opinions only. I am not giving professional advise or recommendations. Thank you for reading!
Comments