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Silver Bullet is one of only a few Websites worldwide that receive Desiree Crossman`s newsy behind the MotoGP scene column (not always PC) reporting on #21 John (Hopper) Hopkin`s MotoGP exploits and her own as they travel the globe.
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The Cathedral Track:
We\'re here in Assen, Holland.
We left from Lloret on Sunday to drive thru France. We got on the motorway at about 10am and headed north. I texted Jake who is the son of the couple who drives our motorhome, and asked where he was at to see if maybe we\'d either catch up to them or pass them. He texted back saying their position and then had the nerve to say, \"you\'ll never catch us!\" So the whole time we were driving on the motorway, we were texting back and forth, giving positions of locations, talking abunch of trash. Anyway, I told him he\'d better get his money out cause\' we\'re going to get them. They left on Saturday to reach Lyon and we left on Sunday. They were about 4 hours ahead of us, we had some ground to make up.
I was texting him to see which ways to go to get to Holland faster, so Jake was also our guide, along with his trash talking. We drove thru some really nice cities that we\'ve never seen before like Lyon, Nancy, Metz, and Lleige in Belgium. Lyon has a river in the middle of the city so there were people wakeboarding and jetskiing in the middle of the city. Nancy is a nice city as well, old buildings.
We got a text saying they stopped at the first gas station in Luxembourg and said they were going to take a break, he\'d text when they\'d get back on the road. Originally we were thinking about staying in Belgium at WCM\'s crew chief\'s house outside of Brussels for a night. But I turned to John and said, Jake\'s talking alot of shit, now I\'m eager to beat him.\" John responds with, \"Yeah so am I.\" We were slowly making ground on them cause\' we were cruising at 100mph and they can only go 60mph. I know it\'s not a fair race, but he opened his big mouth.
It took us about 8 hours to get thru France, and arrive at the Luxembourg border. It took us about 20-25 minutes to go thru Luxembourg, and start heading towards Lleige which is a city in Belguim. Jake then had the balls to tell us that he\'d won and we\'d have to try again another time! Alright, it\'s war!!!! John and I thought we\'d find a gas station on the motorway towards Lliege but there wasn\'t one in sight. We were starting to panic cause\' the Vitara sucks up gas and we had yet to see a sign saying gas. John was getting abit worried cause\' by now we gained alot of ground on them but our fuel was getting really low. With some luck on our side and taking a shot, we pulled off the motorway into a small 4 way stop with a few cafes. Then I spotted two old fashion pumps and we drove over. The girl comes out and started speaking French. I went on to say Parlay vous Onglais, Habla Espanol, Sprechen Deutsch.........She spoke broken English. Anyway we filled up and hauled ass out of there trying to make up ground we lost.
After Lliege which is also a very nice city, it was only 20 minutes to the Dutch border, and Jake said they were only driving one more hour before stopping for the night. So of course, when you\'re in a hurry it seems like traffic just suddenly appears. after crossing the Dutch border, we drove and John said to not tell Jake where we are at. So we looked as far as we could on the motorway for 15 mintues, and then I said, \"Hold on I see something!\" Sure enough, we got so excited and were like \"*&^% yeah!! Haha!\" Then I texted Jake and said, \" Don\'t tell us it can\'t be done....\" We drove by the first motorhome, then second, and on the third, all the sudden we see this white ass hanging out of the window. It was hilarious. We beat them by 150m, cause\' the next rest stop they were stopping for the night, so we beat them to it. That was the highlight of the drive. We ate dinner with them and then headed to EindHoven for the night. By this time it was 10pm.
The next day, we drove up to one of the Suzuki mechanic\'s house in Holland called Giessen. Holland is very small, it doesn\'t take long to get from A to B. It\'s so flat, that everyone has bikes and there are bike paths everywhere. It\'s uncommon to not have a bike. Anyway, so we went to his shop which he started for bikes. It\'s pretty cool, so anyone in Holland, if you need your bike tuned, go to him.
We then drove to Assen to meet up with Doug. Once we got there, we went into the town got a room at this old run down hotel in the centre and ate some Italian. Now we\'re here at the track hanging out and sorting the motorhome out. This race starts Saturday instead of Sunday so naturally everything is getting ready early. I like this race, it\'s one of the biggest races in the series. I don\'t think it gets as much hype as Jerez or Mugello, which it should. It\'s one of the oldest races and tracks around and the crowds are fantastic. The only thing that\'s iffy is the weather, it changes every hour. But for the most part, Holland is small so you can see the whole country in a couple of days. It\'s definitely a cool country, not just Amsterdam.
Until the racing starts........................
Bye
Des
