Frank Tuesday

We all gathered, as usual at 75th St Brewery, but one that crappy band showed up it was obvious that it was time to leave. I know that it takes alot to get up on stage and play for strangers. I know because I've done it. I may have sucked, but never that bad. They took good Dave Mathews song and made them suck. They took boring Dave Mathews songs and made them worse. They took other peoples songs and made it sound like a shitty version of Dave Mathews doing crappy covers. I'm sure that he played some Coldplay and Jack Johnson, but it all sounded the same. Chord, chord, chord, strum, strum, strum. Let's mix it up a little next time.

So off we rode, it wasn't quite time to race, so we stopped in at another bar. We drank, we ate other peoples food, we left. Finally, it was time to race, though not the chariots. No, some of us decided to race cars away from stoplights. Nothing better than some rich kid getting beat of the line by a drunk cyclist. At last we pulled into the park, and there awaiting us were the chariots. Nate and Richie were first up, and Nate started pulling down the hill on a flyer going way too fast. I knew that this would be painful. They got to the first turn and sure enough, Richie can't keep the chariot on the pavement. He slides off the outside of the turn into the grass and next thing you know he's doing a belly flop onto the grass. He must have been 4 feet in the air. If you listened closely, you could hear the thud as he landed. If that weren't bad enough, the chariot was cartwheeling through the air, and landed smack in the middle of his back. To Richie's credit, he got right back up and he and Nate finished the lap. The time sucked, but most everyone elses did too.

We continued there for a while, but I may have overestimated the drunkards ability to the control the chariots. We had people going into trees, rolling through the grass, and on a couple of occasions coming dangerously close to headers with trashcans. It was, however, time to move on to the main event. While the previous had one chariot at a time on a tight circuit, this one was old fashioned side by side racing.

Four laps on a parking lot oval, four chariots side by side. There was plenty of room, but the whole shot would be a big advantage. If you could get in front by the first turn, you could avoid the inevitable carnage behind. Sure enough, race after race, the fight for the whole shot turned bloody. If you haven't guessed by now, the chariots were nothing more than modified shopping carts. We tore the baskets off and put on some seats. One person riding the cart being pulled by one person on a bike. Four laps is a lot, and to spice things up, we made the horse and the chariot switch places each lap. My brother and I took victory in the first race, but we had the immense advantage of practice. We knew exactly what the carts could do, and how hard we could push. It's amazing how fast you can actually go through the turns. Anyway, we took the lead into the second turn and slowly pulled away. No contest. The second race saw a great battle all the way to the end, but it was the third that made the evening news.

At the start, going into the first turn, all four chariots were still side by side. Someone hit a tree, someone lost thier rope and only one made it through cleanly. The race was far from over at that point. The team in second was almost half a lap behind, but was much better on the transitions. Each lap, they took more and more time back, and in the last turn made a bold move around the outside to take the victory by no more than a couple of feet. It was a hard fought and well deserved victory. Then the police showed up...