Archives: 2010 September


Colorado – Motocross of Nations

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Motocross of Nations is an annual motocross race that has been happing since 1947. It’s a bit different then most motocross or supercross races because it’s a team event. Three rider teams from 30 countries compete to see which country has the best riders.

The race is actually three races (motos) where two riders from each country race in each moto. The combines finishes of all three riders in the three motos is used to determine the overall winning country.

Every year the race takes place in a different country, so it’s fairly rare that it takes place here in the US.

Saturday was the qualifying races. Only the top 20 teams qualify for the main races on Sunday.

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Team USA's Rayn Dungey races with Steve Ramon from Belgium in one of the qualifying races.

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Team USA's Trey Canard

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Teams USA's Andrew Short

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Andrew Short

Sunday was the main races.

Moto 1

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Jonathan Barragan from Spain gets the holeshot on the start of moto 1 with Ryan Dungey in second.

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Rayn Dungey was able to take the lead and win moto 1

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Trey Canard

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Trey Canard had crashed at the start and had to work his way through the pack. He ended up 12th in Moto 1

Moto 2

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Andrew Short in the lead, battles with Ken Roczen from Germany early in moto 2. Unfortunately Short crashed hard and got back up in 25th place. He was able to work his work back up to finish 13th for the moto.

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Andrew Short

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Trey Canard got another bad start on moto 2, but this time he was able to move up to 7th by the end of the race.

Moto 3: Team USA’s bad finishes in moto 2 meant that Team USA was in second place overall behind Team Germany going into the last moto.

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Andrew Short gets the holeshot on the start of moto 3 with Rayn Dungey in 2nd, followed by Brett Metcalfe from Australia in 3rd.

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Andrew Short

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Andrew Short and Ryan Dungey running in 1st and 2nd.

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Ryan Dungey

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Sequence of Ryan Dungey hitting one of the big uphill jumps.

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Even though Andrew Short was in the lead, Ryan Dungey was riding just a little bit faster but holding back so not to pass his teammate. Around lap 4 Short waved for Ryan to go ahead and pass him.

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Ryan Dungey

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Andrew Short

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Andrew Short

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Ryan Dungey does his imitation of the space shuttle blasting off over the huge table top.

Team USA’s 1-2 finish in moto 3 means that they win the overall. The top five countries end up being USA, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Italy.


Colorado – Motocross of Nations – The Fans

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The racing at the Motocross of Nations was amazing, but one of the things that also made the race more interesting were the fans. The Motocross of Nations is an international event so there were fans from all over the world, many who like to support their country by dressing up in their countries colors. Since the race was taking place in the USA, the majority of the people were from here and some came up with interesting ways to show of the Red, White and Blue.

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There were two Captain Americas running around. I kept waiting for them to get into a fight to prove who the the real Captian America.

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Lots of people were ringing cow bells or blowing horns. This guy modded up a super horn using a compressed air tank.

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Not really a fan, but I thought that guy was pretty interesting. He's one of the professional photographer shooting the race. He's mounted his iPhone to the end of his camera lens so that he can take photos and shoot video at the same time.

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This guy went for a really old school look.

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I'm not sure which country he was cheering for, but I dig the rear sprocket mounted in his helmet.

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California – LA County Fair – Food

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County and State Fairs are known for livestock, farm equipment, carnival games, rides and booths selling ShamWows. They are also known for lots of booths selling interesting and sometimes strange foods.

I’ve survived eating raw horse and fugu in Japan, stinky tofu and a thousand-year-old egg in Taiwan, poutine in Canada. So now it’s time to try some of America’s strange fair foods.

Deep Fried Twinkie, Food, Los Angeles, Fair, LA County Fair

I'm a believer that deep frying anything can make it taste better. And many of the food booths at the LA county fair seem to believe that also. Deep Fried Twinkie covered in chocolate syrup. Actually pretty good.

Chocolate Covered Bacon, Food, Los Angeles, Fair, LA County Fair

Chocolate Covered Bacon?

Chocolate Covered Bacon, Food, Los Angeles, Fair, LA County Fair

Yup, it really is chocolate covered bacon. Not as bad as it sounds, it has a strange salty, meaty taste under the initial chocolate taste. The salty chocolate taste is a bit like chocolate covered pretzels, but then you get the bacon taste that comes on strong as you chew. My biggest negative was that the chocolate used was dark chocolate and I'm a much bigger fan of milk chocolate.

Deep fried White Castle Hamburger, Food, Los Angeles, Fair, LA County Fair

The main course, a deep fried White Castle Hamburger.

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The White Castle is battered and deep fried, which gives it a crispy outside over the standard mushy White Castle. Not something I would want to eat everyday, but not too bad.


California – I’m back in LA

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I’m back in Los Angeles after spending a little over a month in Japan. Japan was an amazing time, but it’s nice to be home.

Panorama of downtown Los Angeles, Downtown, Twilight, Skyline, Cityscape, City, Buildings

Panorama of downtown Los Angeles


Japan – Soy Sause Flavored Kit Kat

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One interesting thing about Japan are it’s Kit Kat candy bars. Everyone has probably eaten a Kit Kat and knows that they are creme filled wafers, covered in an layer of milk chocolate. But In Japan, Kit Kats come in a huge variety of flavors, everything for the regular chocolate to a crazy Wasabi flavor, some really good and some truly awful. What’s interesting is that different seasons and different regions of Japan have different flavors of Kit Kats that people collect as souvenirs of that region.

Once I saw that there were so many flavors of Kit Kats, I started watching out for new flavors to try whenever I was traveling.

Kit Kat, Candy Bar, Japan, Tokyo

Soy Sause Flavored Kit Kat

Soy sauce flavored Kit Kats sounds pretty strange and possibly awful, but they were actually pretty good. They had a sweet and salty flavor, kind of like chocolate covered pretzels.

Click here to see all of the different flavors of Kit Kats that I tried


Japan – Yubari Melon Flavored Kit Kat

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A Yubari Melon is a Cantaloupe like melon that is grown in the town of Yubari in Hokkaido Japan. The crazy thing about the Yubari Melon is how much they sell for. Just one melon sells for $100 -$200 (yes, really), with two melons selling at auction in 2008 for $26,000 (yes, Japan is strange sometimes).

I’ve never had a Yubari Melon, so I can’t say if the price is worth it. But I’ve had Yubari Melon flavored Kit Kats.

The Kit Kats were interesting, they were milk chocolate and looked like a regular kit kat, but there was a faint cantaloupe smell to them. The taste was pretty much what you would expect if you crossed a cantaloupe with a Kit Kat. Unfortunately it’s a combo that doesn’t really work all that great together. The Cantaloupe flavor was not real strong, but it was noticeable.

Yubari Melon Flavored Kit Kat, Kit Kat, Candy Bar, Japan, Tokyo

Yubari Melon Flavored Kit Kat

Click here to see all of the different flavors of Kit Kats that I tried


Japan – Big Fans

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I was walking through Shinjuku Station when I saw a group of ladies stopping to take photos of a new Hitachi ad. I’m not sure who the guy on the ad is, but he was sure popular. I watched for a couple of minutes and in that time 15 – 20 ladies stopped to take his photo.

Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, Train Station, Billboard, Ad, Hitachi, Fans, Groupies

Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, Train Station, Billboard, Ad, Hitachi, Fans, Groupies Click to read the rest of this post


Japan – Hamburger Steak

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Hamburger steak for lunch.

Japan, Tokyo, Hamburger Steak, Food, Lunch, Dinner, Restaurant


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