I was worried that I would not wake up before 7 am, as I did not have an alarm clock with me .... well I did, but didn't realize it.  (I get up by 5 am every morning without an alarm clock.)  So today was no different.  Then again Dave is on a different time schedule as well, so there was no chance of oversleeping.

I got up and took a walk around outside, only to find a lot more people had arrived in the night at this "Staging" area, but...............they were parked all over, with no respect for who was there before them!  Obviously SCRAMP were not around through the night to organize.  Another strike against SCRAMP!  There were now about 100 RV's in front of us!  We were pissed and so were many others.

Still, think positive, there are another 150 plus behind us. :)

I forgot to mention that last night SCRAMP people came around asking for tickets and putting a wristband on those who were awake, that had "Camping" printed on it.  This was their (SCRAMP) wonderful idea of telling them who arrived before others.  Which does not work when people are already asleep....like Dave....I couldn't wake him so he didn't have one.

I figured it would be about 7:30 am before they got around to moving us into line.  Which turned out to be about right.  No amount of complaining about being there before half the people in line made any difference............Wrong!  It did make a difference.....we were made to wait while 3 other RV's that arrived after us were ushered in front of us.  That will teach me to keep my mouth shut..........NOT! :)

We drive around the dirt road and come across some volunteers (for SCRAMP) asking for tickets and wristbands, causing havoc.  At least Dave managed to get a wristband.

Slow crawl around the dirt road and onto blacktop, to the base of the camping area at turns 9, 10 and 11.  Security ask what camping we have........."Um! I don't remember, it is on the ticket stuck on the window so you can read it, where I was told to put it!" (I'm in a really good mood, I haven't had my coffee yet.)  They read the ticket and tell me to drive up to the left and park in any spot without a number.

By the time we get to the top of "Corkscrew View" there is no more room, with the exception of this rather large area behind the Porta-poti's.

We get the $500,000 Motorhome behind us to back up a little, so I can back the trailer down beside him and pull up behind the Porta-poti's.  We get the trailer situated and someone pulls their camper bus across in front of us.  I explain that I need room to unhook the truck so we can get in and out and go to town.  The Old man explains to me that he has his van pretty level and does not want to move it because his refrigerator won't work otherwise.  But he would be happy to move it further forward when we want to leave, then he would move it back.

Once we had the truck unhooked and the trailer level, I decided I could get around the front of the guys van and then park next to the trailer. We decided, that as most people had RV's they would not be using the Bogs much so there should be no problem with smell.  As it turns out we were right.

The view from the back of the trailer is to the Corkscrew. This picture is taken with a Nikon 5700 without much zoom, if I remember correctly.  We are real happy with the location.

We are all set and ready to go for coffee!  I'm feeling much better now.  And I think Dave is quite happy about our location.

Ah well!  Time for exercise, the walk to the paddock and Coffee and then around the MotoGP pits. :)

We head off down the hill towards the Corkscrew, up the path and across the bridge.  I have to get a shot of the empty Corkscrew. :)  Then continue on down the hill to the Paddock area.  I'm liking this much better, have you noticed how much downhill walking there is. :)

We stroll through the Paddock over to the Food court, and thankfully my favorite Brazilian food store is in the same place as last year.  Time for COFFEE and a breakfast sandwich.

I'm feeling much better now.

We decide it is time for the traditional walk around the MotoGP pits, front and back.  Unfortunately, no one was being allowed into the MotoGP section unless you were part of the team or had the proper VIP credentials.  We are a little miffed about this.  We try to get around to the front of the pits, where security tell us they are still setting up the garages and points out the partitions and other boxes of stuff to be moved into them.

We walk around through the AMA paddock to the turn 11 end of the pits, where one of the Repsol mechanics is washing wheels and another team were washing other parts, all having fun with each other.  So we joined in the chatter and asking questions.

The Repsol mechanic worked on Dani Pedrosa's team and his job was to take care of all Dani's wheels and tires.  He was from England.  He explained than the equipment had arrived a day late, so now they only have 1 day to get everything unpacked, cleaned up, and built with some kind of setting similar to last year to start.  None of the mechanics were too happy about it.

That explained why no "paddock pass" holders were allowed in as they were still moving parts in and around the pits, which would have been hampered by all these people like me and Dave trying to get our noses in everything for some nice detail shots.

We go for a walk around the AMA paddock, take some pictures and chat to some of the mechanics.

After a wonder around the Infield store tents, we decided we should go back to the pits and see if we can get in now.

We are walking down the back side of the MotoGP office section of the pits, when I see Colin Edwards come out of a gate, in a bit of a hurry.  I say, "Colin, time for a quick picture?"  He stops and turns, with a smile and thumbs up pose.  I lift the camera to take the shot and realize it's not turned on.  I pull the Camera down and say to Colin, "It would help to have the camera turned on."  He laughed and stood there in the same pose only with a big grin remaining from the laughter as he waits for the camera to power up.  He was very good about it, as I believe the video cameramen in the background were waiting for him to do some kind of interview.

We arrive at the Pits only to find we still cannot get in.  Everyone is running around all over the place.  We are bummed, so decide we should just go back to the RV, have a drink and something to eat.

We have this great view over the Carmel valley where we can see the fog rolling in.  There are a bunch of people riding around the track on scooters and even a couple of people jogging around it!

I decide I should get the Nikon D70 out and play with it some more, to get it set up and make better use of it to get better pictures this year.  I set it up on the Tri-pod and point it at the Corkscrew. I have a 70 to 300mm lens on it with a doubler, so full zoom is about 600mm.

Looking through the camera I realize these are the riders going around the track on scooters, while I'm clicking off a few shots.

The only one I really recognized at this distance was Colin Edwards, as he was still wearing the cloths from the earlier picture.  He is on his Yamaha, with his wife on the back and daughter in front.  I click a quick shot of them.  That was the last of them.  Then here comes Colin back up the hill the wrong way, turns around facing me and stops.  I decide to wave my arm frantically while looking through the camera.........the result........Colin waves back and I click the camera.  It's a shame it's not in focus.  But you are not going to get too many chances of a candid shot like that.  So I'm real happy. :)

We put everything back in the trailer and head into Del Ray Oaks again for dinner at...........you guessed it! ............ the Happy Dragon.  If you ever go there you will understand why I like to go there, not just for the food. :)  We ignore the NEW exit signs and go out of the main entrance, where we found out the Police were not letting anyone turn left.  Made sense to me.  We wanted to go right anyway. :)

After a Tsingtao and dinner we head back.  Get the TV working, sit back and have a Bass and relax for a while before going to bed.  All-in-all not a bad day, but we knew we were never going to get to the front side (Hot side) of the pits this weekend.  That SUCKS!

 Friday continues......