I delayed writing the blog due to our scheduled Tuesday trip to GEICO. I wanted to write about that, but something more interesting came up.

We didn’t do as well as we anticipated in Reading this year. We lost in the second round. Sticking to the plan, we decided to stay and test on Monday. I didn’t expect many other teams to be there because Dallas is this upcoming weekend and all the teams had to get on the road. Tom Bradford, one of the newest additions to arrive on a Buell, tested, as well as the Force team and the Hartman team. I didn’t watch much of the testing because I was working; however, I know Tom had a good consistent test session. He pulled out about 4:30 p.m. Monday, and he was very happy. As for us, we swapped motors and made three laps. We learned what we wanted to, plus ...

We ended up pulling out of the racetrack around 7 p.m., bound for Fredericksburg, Va., where we were scheduled to meet the employees of one of GEICO’s main offices. I will begin by telling you the lesson we learned as we headed down the road: “Always look for yourself.”

Doug and Debbie decided to take a shortcut to Virginia. Now remember, they have a 40-foot motor coach with a car attached, and we were following in a 53-foot transporter. The first sign that we were potentially in trouble is when Doug made a left off the highway (where no other transporters would think of going) and motioned for us to follow. Gary and I did the typical glance toward each other and shrugged our shoulders.

Off we went down a winding, narrow road. We had only scraped the bottom of the transporter once when we all saw the beltway ahead. Unfortunately, there was no entrance from the road we were on. We made a couple of turns, and the road suddenly became like a roller coaster -- not so good in a low-profile 53-foot race rig. I dialed Debbie’s cell and got no answer. As we continued on, little children and couples sitting on their porches were pointing laughing and staring, in awe, as the big semi made turns on streets that, rightfully, no SUV could go down.

We stopped traffic a couple of times and even found ourselves in a parade route of a small town. (I really don’t know what the parade was for, but many watchers received an up-close-and-personal view of the GEICO Motorcycle team.) I wanted to roll down the window, wave, and toss GEICO merchandise to the parade-goers.

I was finally able to reach Debbie on the cell phone, and her greeting was, “I know, I know, I don’t want to talk about it now. We are almost there. Tell Gary to stay calm, and I am SOOOO sorry.”

Three miles down the road, and we were on the correct highway and back on track to Virginia.

I keep thinking that we will be the talk of some of the small-town bingo nights for a long time to come. I don’t have pictures of it, but hopefully you can get an idea based on the story.

We made it to GEICO at midnight and stayed up chatting about the scenic route we took. That’s where we found out that Doug was given directions and felt they were reliable.

So, lesson learned. Always, always, always check the maps for yourself. Talk to you soon.