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Silver Bullet is one of only a few Websites worldwide that receives 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.
Check out - HOPPER`S WEBSITE:
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Hello from Ramona,
Well we\'re back in the states for one week. I\'ll fill you in on the past week and a half traveling back from Czech to here.
Suzuki had their test but decided to only test one day so Tuesday we got to go back to Austria. Most of the MotoGP grid were out there testing as well, and only Kawasaki tested on the second day. The weather wasn\'t the greatest, the news said Czech was getting their summer rain and it sure looked like it.
We drove back to Austria, and yes we did stop at the border this time, so no small tickets. About a half hour before we got back to our place, an accident happened on the motorway right infront of us about 12 cars ahead. We saw from a distance people had their hazards on so we put ours on and noticed brake lights were on. When we stopped I ran over to the scene to see what happened, and an old man rolled his car right in the middle of the motorway. There was a lot of people who got out of their car, pulled him out of the car and tried cleaning the debris from the road. I guess this guy was transporting wood, cause\' there was wood everywhere. It took about 10 minutes before the police came and sorted the scene out, so luckily we didn\'t wait too long. The guy ended up being taken to the hospital but I don\'t think there was any severe damage done to his body.
Then for the next 2 days, we just trained and hung out. One of John\'s mechanics from last year lives in Salzburg so they went for a 7 hour ride around the town and in and out of Germany. Then we all ate at this place called Maredo which was kind of like Sizzler in the centre of town. There were loads of tourists there, Salzburg is definitely one of the prettiest cities I\'ve yet to see.
On the Friday, we packed our stuff and drove to the hotel for the night. We had a really early flight the next day so we organized a hotel in the centre. We had the big Red Bull event going on and there was no point in driving back to the village we lived in. We checked in and got ready for the big event. This was huge, there were camera\'s everywhere! It was a big deal and there were all sorts of people there. From the Prince of Monaco to Austria\'s most famous porn star. There was a red carpet moment and police escorting going on. We didn\'t realze so many people were going. On the day before, John and I went to the mall and bought some nice clothes. I got a 10 Euro dress that looked like a 300 Euro dress, (bargain shopper) John got a nice outfit and we got all dressed up for the occasion. I don\'t think I\'ve ever so many people wearing the craziests outfits, it was definitely a dress to impress party. We were definitely out of that category.
The Red Bull party had 2 good shows. One show was watching 4 musicians play their instrument to the sound of helicopters and electronics, while watching them fly over Salzburg. The other one was bad ass. I\'ve never been to an airshow, but after this show, I\'d love to see one. There were old vintage planes done up in Red Bull design, Hercules C-130\'s, BlackHawk Helicopters, Draken jets, Lamborghini\'s, ect....There was a show called Taurus Rubens which told a Greek story using all these planes, and actors, dancers, and action. It\'s hard to described but my favorite part is when 3 dancers danced on top of a stage behind a tractor trailer to some wicked music and 17 Blackhawk Helicopters lined up insync with eachother in a formation and then on que turned to the crowd stood infront of thousands of people. It looked like an invasion. Then when the music was over, they all lined up in 2 rows and took off. Then you never saw them. It was incredible, definitely worth it. We left at about 9pm and went back to the hotel, dropped off our car at Suzuki and walked back to the hotel. Then we left Saturday morning at 6:25 to Frankfurt and onto LAX. We got into San Diego about 4:45 and the weather was warm. Our car was parked in parking and we headed to Ramona. We stopped at a SuperMoto race in El Cajon for a bit and then onto Ramona. I was a bit jet lagged so I went to bed at about 7:30. Sunday, I did what us ladies always do, cleaned the house. Mopped, sweeped, grocery shop, and laundry. Definitely a catch up day
Now we are home for a week, until Portugal. Portugal is nice country, but apparently they are suffering from wildfires cause\' of the heat wave going on. I hope things get well before the race.
Got an email today from a guy who complained about John\'s column in RRW awhile back regarding a bicyclist in Spain and the E-brake. Apparently the story didn\'t come out right and some people think we harrass bicyclists, not true. To set the record straight for those people, we NEVER pulled the E-brake by the cyclists and scared him. We did pull the E-brake but this was before the cyclists, after the scooter. We did honk the horn at the cyclist because he was hogging the road. We are not that shallow to scare the living day lights out of bicyclists, John\'s a cyclist so he has consideration. C\'mon guys, how stupid do you think we are, remember we are still 20!!!! But, we aren\'t that immature, common sense. I just wanted to clear that up. We\'re no different to other riders, we just tell people about our adventures.
Alright, well until the CHAT on Saturday, August 31, 8 am (PST) 5m (CET). Log onto Hopper`s Website address [At the beginning of ths article] and scroll down to Chat. Hope we met a few people from NZ on there.
Bye for now.
Des.
