Midnight, April 15, 2008 is looming ahead

OK, everybody’s favorite experience of each year is only hours away!

That’s right, today is tax deadline day. We all have until midnight tonight to get our Federal and state income tax returns completed, filed and postmarked to our good friend, Uncle Sam.

Here’s another confession, right here, right now on redbullindianapolisgp.com; I am a procrastinator! Just ask Paul Kelly, the Web administrator. The deadline for today’s Experience blog is 4 p.m., and it’s already 3:30 p.m., and I’m still writing!

Actually, not too bad of a procrastinator, though. I spent the past cold, rainy Sunday grinding through and filing my tax returns, only because the weather was too bad to ride. Remember, I already confessed that I am a “fair weather” rider a couple weeks ago, so the foul Sunday weather was to my benefit for once.

Well, today, April 15, 2008 is a bright, sunny, +50-degree day, and guess what I’m going to do later after work? Yup, that’s right: I’m suiting up and getting a bit of saddle time on one of the motorcycles after work.

Since it’s a Tuesday, the local chapter of the Honda Sport Touring Association (HSTA) meets at a local barbecue establishment for some good food and tall tales. It’s not Earl Hayden’s favorite, the Moonlite Bar-B-Q, the Best Barbecue in Kentucky, but the scenery along the Monon Trail in Broad Ripple is much better than Parrish Avenue in Owensboro, Ky.

I think after contributing some of my tall tales with the HSTA folks, I’m going to ride over to the main post office in downtown Indianapolis and watch in amusement as all the frantic procrastinators lined up to get their tax returns postmarked before midnight tonight.

Maybe I’ll see some of you there tonight!

Thank goodness this past Sunday was a cold, rainy day so now I can have some fun today; a bright, sunny, +50-degree day, just ripe for a ride around town this afternoon.

See you all next week on redbullindianapolisgp.com .
Greg

When only the best will do …

A Kentucky tradition since 1963, the Moonlite Bar-B-Q in Owensboro, Ky., has been voted the Best Barbecue in Kentucky by Kentucky Monthly and Kentucky Living readers. Now ask anybody from Kansas City or Dallas or maybe Memphis, and they will all solidly refute that claim, boldly claiming their local barbecue to be the finest in all the land!

Where am I going with all of this? Another fine Kentucky tradition is Earl’s Racing Team in Owensboro, Ky. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit the home of Earl’s Racing Team with Mel Harder from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Hayden’s had graciously agreed to loan a very special motorcycle to the IMS to exhibit in their booth at the Dealer News Powersports Expo in Indianapolis.

On a brisk but sunny Sunday morning, Mel and I drove down to the “OWB” to meet up with Earl Hayden at the family compound. Nestled in the back of garage complex was a Hayden racing fan’s NIRVANA of racing memorabilia! Proudly sitting next to a collection of Nicky, Tommy and Roger Lee championship motorcycles, leathers, helmets and trophies was the 2006 Honda RC211V motorcycle that carried Nicky over the finish line at the Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana in Valencia, Spain, in November 2006, winning the 2006 MotoGP World Championship.

Earl Hayden is one proud father, and we spent the better part of an hour talking about all his kids’ accomplishments and touring the Earl’s Racing Team compound before loading up Nicky’s 2006 MotoGP championship motorcycle in the trailer for the trip back to Indianapolis.

Now back to the Moonlite Bar-B-Q. If you’re ever in the “OWB” and have the chance to ask Earl Hayden where a good place is for lunch, you better be ready to experience the Best Barbecue in Kentucky, if not the best in the land! And, oh by the way, it is just across the street from the Hayden family compound, ready to serve an outstanding gastronomic experience in the finest Kentucky tradition.

See you all next week on redbullindianapolisgp.com.

Greg