Wild Boar GNCC 2021

This week we are off to our first GNCC of 2021! ❤️🏁

Wild Boar - Palatka, Florida

Wild Boar is round 2 of the GNCC (Grand National Cross Country), we skipped round 1 due to the weather. 😒Yes, we have enjoyed winter and all the snow/sleigh riding ... BUT we are so ready to be on our way to Florida for some sunshine!

It is Monday, we are heading out on Thursday; race day is Saturday! The trailer has been cleaned and packed since Saturday- 1 week prior. Both quads (Race and stock Bike) are going this time, Florida and Georgia races are back to back weekends! That is too many miles not to have a back up plan. E-Bikes, bicycles, stroller, chairs, canopy, toy bag, cooler, race gear, muck boots, race fuel, tool box, spare bike parts, electric pressure washer, David’s special wash/shine supplies, who knows what else really! You see why we started packing 6 days before we are planning to leave!?

The clothes/food/snack bag is packed! BUT we need to do some baking.. Hayden requested Lemon Zucchini Bread for race day! I dunno if you’ve ever had this but YUM!! we got the recipe from my cousin Lynsey! So I ask her for a link to share the recipe with y‘all.. her answer was: well I had a zucchini bread recipe that I added the lemon to..and the glaze came from another recipe! Well that turned out amazing! ..we are going to Florida so the addition of some citrus sounded like the perfect thing to me!

🍋Lemon Zucchini Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/3 teaspoon Baking Soda

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 cups shredded Zucchini

1 whole lemon zest

Juice from 1 lemon

Drizzle: 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice, 1 tablespoon milk

Recipe makes 2 loaves bread

I dunno that there’s a right or wrong way here but here‘s how I put it together: First I shred the Zucchini on a towel that I can use to squeeze out extra liquid. In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar (I use pure cane sugar). Pour in the vegetable oil and eggs. Add the zest of the whole lemon. Stir until combined then stir in the shredded Zucchini after squeezing our extra liquid. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes remove loaves from pans onto parchment paper to cool. Once cooled whisk together 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon milk to drizzle over both loaves.

There are a few substitutions I’ve used, as to make it gluten free for myself or just because I was experimenting:

- substitute all purpose flour with 2 1/2 cups gluten free all purpose flour and 1/2 cup almond flour (or 3 cups GF all purpose)

- substitute vegetable oil with coconut oil

-substitute milk with coconut or almond milk

Since it is only Monday, I’ll slice the loaves of bread, separate slices with parchment paper, wrap in press and seal, wrap in foil, place inside a gallon ziplock freezer bag, and store in the freezer until it’s time to leave on Thursday!

We are all prepped and almost ready to roll out on Thursday afternoon!

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Thursday is here! Let’s go GNCC RACING! 🏁

Thursday morning, I’m going to lay out my pre-made refrigerated pizza dough, add some provolone, mozerella cheese, and turkey pepperoni. Bake it and let it cool so it’ll be ready to eat for lunch at the track on Friday.

It is 2:30pm, we are loaded and ready to roll out! We are planning to get to Georgia tonight.. about 9 hours of driving!

The ride is going great.. boys have been sleeping and watching movies.. Lynlee has been sleeping and playing! I really can not believe how good she is doing for being 8 months old! This is really nice. We are about 1.5 hours out from the hotel we booked for tonight.. we need gas one more time (This is only our second stop).

It is now 10:45pm and we stop at a Pilot somewhere in South Carolina south of Columbia. David is filling up with gas, checking out the trailer, making sure everything is staying in place. I am feeding Lynlee then it’s time to all head in for restroom break. I’m walking around the front of the vehicle when David has this scared face, he looks at me and ask where the keys are!!? I am looking at him like !??! You had them? He‘s patting down his pockets and says, “I wouldn’t of laid them down in the trailer??” 😱 Note the trailer is already locked up and the key to unlock it is on the vehicle keys. The Burb is push button start so we decide to see if it starts.. umm NOPE it doesn’t .. so the keys were definitely out of the vehicle. After looking around we think the only place they could be is inside the trailer. David says we need bolt cutters to cut off the lock or pay for a locksmith. I looked across the parking lot and see another truck/trailer! David went to see if by chance they had bolt cutters or something to help get into the trailer. They did not have any bolt cutters..so we ask an employee in Pilot if they had bolt cutters, and yay they do!! So David thinks we are good.. until the bolt cutters break apart trying to cut the lock! 🤦🏼‍♀ Of coarse we are at an exit with no other stores around. Hayden is trying to help as well.. he is in the car digging around.. he comes out with one of my bobby pins. He thinks he can try to pick the lock. We let him try 😉.. hey you never know!

The guy and his son with the trailer pulls over beside us to see if we were able to get in.. (They are on their way to bike week) In the meantime I have been googling lock smiths calling 4 different places that say 24/7 service.. with no answers.. he sees what has happened so he gets back into his trailer and comes out with a receiver hitch and crow-bar!! David, Jimmy (the guy with the trailer.. we now know his name) and his son break the cover off of the lock, then use the crow-bar to hold the lock and beat it apart with the receiver hitch! Yay! We are so thankful they were able to help us.. what great people to take their time late at night to help us! I was pretty sure we were going to be sleeping in the Burb at the gas pumps! We ask them what we could do to repay them, laid cash down in their truck.. they gave it back and wouldn’t accept anything.

There are good people out there!

An hour later we are back on the road for our final 1.5 hours for today.. well it is technically Friday now. We make it to our hotel, shower, eat, and get to bed around 2:30 am. Yes we had to eat again at this point.. good thing I made a Pepperoni Roll! We’ll get some rest and finish up a 3 hour drive to the track in the morning.

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FRIDAY MORNING! It is 9am we are rested, had some hotel breakfast.. and ready to get back on the road! First we stop at Walmart beside our hotel to get a new lock for the trailer door, and gas...we aren’t stopping again!

The sun is shining and it is 75 degrees! 12:30pm we arrive at the Wild Boar at Hog Waller Mud Bog & ATV. Our friends from Pro-graphX have us a spot to park our trailer. This is Hayden’s first GNCC youth race so most important today is to check out the track! David and Hayden get on their bicycles to bike around the track. Luke is picking up sticks and pine cones to build a fire. Lynlee and I are hanging out under the canopy.

About an hour and a half later David and Hayden return.. Hayden is excited it looks like a really fun track! There‘s sand berms, water holes.. he says it looks like a jungle!

We hang out at the track for the afternoon, Luke practices riding his stacyc bike around, with the weather at home he has not had a chance to ride it.

Lynlee has been having a blast scooting all over the ground, getting handfuls of grass and sand.

Hayden practices some dead engine starts, last year he had live engine start. Then he takes his bike through inspection so it is ready for morning! David fills the bike with fuel and oils the chain. It is now 6:00pm, our pepperoni Roll and Lemon Zucchini bread has worn off.. we are all starving! We packed the trailer back up for the night.

On the way back to the hotel we stop at Woody‘s BBQ in Palatka for dinner. I would say the food was good but honestly I was starving and I can not really taste since having Covid in January!

Now back to the Holiday Inn Express to rest up for race day!!

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Saturday.. Finally, we’ve made it to RACE DAY!! 🏁

6:30AM RISE & SHINE!! ☀️

7:30AM Heading to the track..or as Luke says “we are ready to roll out!” Just a 16 minute drive this morning. Its only 63 degrees, overcast with some sprinkles here and there.. this is perfect race weather! A little before 8am we roll into the track.. we like to have some time to just chill and get ready.. fill the camel pack, practice a few more take offs, get geared up. I feed Lynlee and let her play so she’ll be ready for a nap in the carrier during the race, pack snacks, Gatorade’s, and water in a back pack for Luke.

8:50am Hayden is off to start on his bike! Race starts at 9:30am! David and Luke are bicycling to the start. I have Lynlee in my Ergo baby carrier wrap with my backpack of goodies .. loaded down walking to the start! It is quite a jaunt at this race.. took me about 15 minutes to walk it, but it is Florida so it’s all flat 😅.

Hayden is on the line .. 7th row back. David stays at the line with Hayden. Pro Rider Adam McGill came through fist pumping the kids before the start! Goodluck!

Luke, Lynlee, and I are hanging out at turn 1 waiting to video! And I’m a little sick nervous at this point but I’ll be fine once they get through the take off 😓 Or maybe not until the end of this one...

They play the National Anthem, say a prayer to keep all kids safe, let them have fun, give thanks and then...Teeennnn seconds!! ‼️

He killed it at the start ... darn it! but it’s ok he is nervous to!! I’m just glad there is no collisions at the start! 😅 He is determined so I’m sure he’ll make up some time. Looks like there’s 13 bikes in his class.. he’s around 9-10th place around turn 1. They do a few turns and off into the woods he’s in 7th!! Yay!! Once they are into the woods, Luke, Lynlee, and I start walking the woodline between the start and finish so we will see him a few times while working our way to the finish. David is on the E-bike flying all around the track to make sure he’s still going! David and I pass each other here and there!?

Here he comes!! Yay lap 1 down and he’s doing great riding in 4th only 14 seconds behind 3rd!!

Ok I can calm down a little! He still looks pretty clean .. the track must be pretty good!

We continue walking towards the finish.. here he comes again .. 2 laps down on lap 3! Wooaa what happened that lap!? I almost missed him because I look for that bright helmet!! My husband says those water holes have turned into swamp mess!!

After watching the GoPro video we see that Hayden gets stuck in a mud hole for a few mins putting him behind a good 2 mins or more..Hayden says “it took 5 guys to get me out it was like sinking sand!“ So thats where all the mud came from after lap 2!

Hayden has thrown his goggles off somewhere along the track.. mom hates that!! We put tear offs on there for a reason.. I dunno if he used them all or not.. !? Now I’m hoping he doesn’t get sand swamp flung into his eyes 😩

Phone service especially to use live scoring is not good at quite a few tracks.. GNCC live is not loading and text between me and David are not going through...so I have no idea what place Hayden is in until I get to the finish to see scoring. Josh and Heidi are at home watching the live updating she kept me updated!!

He is running 6th ..bikes are stuck everywhere. Then Hayden says he ran his front tire up onto the quad in front of him when it became stuck in a mud pit.. both boys had to get off their bikes to pull them apart and go again...this is a tough race with all the ruts and mud pits!

Watching lap 3 on the GoPro- Hayden gets to a wide open field and he stops!!?? We ask what is going on here?? He says I could not go no more without water.. I had mucus stuck in my throat and my camel pack was covered in mud.. so I stopped to clean it off and get a drink.. until I saw another blue sticker go by then I gassed it again! 🤷🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️😂.. ok so there’s another minute he lost.. but I guess it would of been worse if he didn’t get water. We will have to fix this issue before the next race!!

Luke, Lynlee, and I make it to the finish line.. Hayden comes through from lap 3 and gets the white flag..1 more lap. He‘s riding 6th place!

16 minutes and some seconds later (which seemed way longer but was 2 mins shorter than previous laps!) Yay, he’s coming through the last mud hole into the finish! I snap a finish line pic.. then head on over to see what he has to say!!

He finished 5th out 13 bikes!! We are super excited..top 5 at his first youth National race!! Awesome!! Overall he finished 44th out of 101 quads!!

This is after we wiped mud off of his face with wipes and water! I didn’t get a pic before he was too worried about getting the mud out of his eyes and getting a drink-so were we.

We have some awesome GoPro footage I want to share with everyone to go with our stories! Once we get all the technical parts figured out I will add them to this blog and future race blogs!

Yes, I know the plaque is upside down.. no I didn’t pay attention that it was when I took it... and once I realized it .. I wasn’t asking for another.. they already think I’m picture crazy sometimes.. so upside down it is!

We are all starving now! Time for lunch.. we planned on eating at the track today.. who would of known a pizza place is the only option here.. so more pizza it is.. good thing we like pizza!? 🤦🏼‍♀️

After lunch David and Hayden head up to watch the pros race at 2:00pm! Hayden and some other kids standing by the start got high fives from Walker Fowler, Adam McGill and a few others! Sorry we missed the pic of Fowler.

PRO START

After a 2 hours of racing..The Podium:

🥇 Walker Fowler

🥈 Hunter Hart

🥉 Cole Richardson

I like to go watch the pro races to, but with Lynlee being little I’ve stayed at the trailer/camper since she has been born. This year I need to get her some ear muffs and we will be good to go again! Luke had some friends to play with and Lynlee had been taking a nap so I thought it would be best to let her play.. We hung out with some race friends!

After the pro race we decided it was time to pack up and head back to the hotel for some rest.. We’ve been crazy busy all week getting ready for this trip so we just need some rest to enjoy the rest of our week away!! Back to the Holiday Inn Express we go to door dash some Chili’s for dinner!! The boys are so excited we don’t have to go in somewhere to eat.. and David & I are excited that we don’t have to eat drive thru!! Win Win!!

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Sunday at 2:20am we get called out of bed by the hotel front desk! Our trailer has been broken into and the police are here to investigate. We need to go see if anything was stolen 😫😳! There were multiple trucks/trailers with bikes that were broken into. Thankfully, they did not get away with anything out of our trailer!! However, they did have both of Hayden’s quads unstrapped and other things moved around inside. They had cut the lock off the door with bolt cutters that they left behind in the bed of another truck. We had backed the trailer up to a tree and both quads were sideways in the front of the trailer... so it would have taken some time to get them out. Folks this happened in a parking lot full of lights right in front of the hotel! Scary!

Neither of us could sleep after that event .. we are so thankful that someone saw them and called the police when they did! Thankfully there was no violence.

8:00am I’m ready to get out of here.. ok I’ve been ready since 2:30am. We load up and onto our next adventure..after another stop now at Lowe’s for all new trailer locks. #1 rounded- can’t get bolt cutters into them, #2 locks only using the key so we can’t lock them in the trailer! Ok lessons learned.. let’s hope there’s no more lock trouble this trip!!

We’ve also been cleaning/scrubbing up bikes, gear, and all for the next RACE DAY! 😎 Stay tuned for an upcoming race report on The General to see if Hayden can reach his new goal - remain top 5 for the season and see some podium finishes! 2020 The General was his first GNCC podium in the MXC2 finishing in 3rd place!

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!