Pikes Peak hill climb or why I love those crazy...

The Boy and I have been 3 or 4 times now. The first time I heard of it, it had all the hallmarks of a great-goddamn time.
Men barreling wildly up the side of a hill in highly modified cars, whilst we, the spectators cling to the side of a cliff watching their insanity? YES!
Oh wait, they have crazy fuckers in side cars and on motorcycles running 3 or 4 at a time ...so potentially somebody could elbow another off the side of a cliff (in the spirit of competition, right?) I'm there.
Ok, you do have to show up at like 7 am...the only thing I have arrived on stage for fun at that hour willingly ...um...nookie?
(look you can wake me at any time in a 24 hour cycle, and if I am getting some? I will not yelp a bit. but any other reason to wake me up aside from the house being on fire is unacceptable . I assure you, in the past, I have been pissed off for being awakened to witness an earthquake. Been there done that. I'm from Los Angeles. Unless you have something in excess of the Northridge quake? leave me be.)
anyway.
you go up the hill, find a spot to cling to the side of a cliff and then.....
wait...
and then you trade rumors about what kind of psychotic might be driving maniacally your way...
then you wait...
then some guy with a walkie talkie screams at you to "get off the road!"
then you wait some more.
then?
you hear a faint Buzz-Roar.
a Buzz -Roar is the kind of sound where, right now it's just a Buzz....but you know that when that thing gets close ? it's going to be a fucking roar.
so the sound gets close and you see a helicopter sort of dashing in and out among the peaks and then it's on you.
the Buzz-Roar is now more Roar than Buzz and it's just around the corner....
and then it flies insanely into view. A 400 hp Saab with no interior and a crazy Swede behind the wheel, sliding sideways on gravel and a 3,000 foot drop to his right. And on his left? YOU.
Watching his crazy ass with your 4 year old son.
He slides by at 103 mph and you and your 4 year old son (who, most likely, is crazier than that Swede because if given half the chance will gladly sit on top of your fridge in the nude and eat chips) throw your hands madly in the air and yell something like "YEEEEAAAH!!!" while the crazy swede slides by.
then you wait.
you see the way this is shaping up, right?
crazy fucker in a Big Rig sliding sideways, you screaming "yeeeeaaah" etc.
crazy fucker in a mustang...blah blah blah....
but....
here's where we got hooked.
I think it was "crazy-fucker-in-a-day-glow-orange-propane-powered-Shelby-Cobra"
he came around the corner "wide"
"wide" is the condition where the driver has taken a corner wider than everyone else and therefore that driver is now trodding upon the debris that the other drivers have pushed to the outside. In practical terms this driver is now throwing dirt and rocks.
So the yell goes out...
"WIDE!!"
I grab Hopper like I'm Bruce Willis and the building is about to blow ... and I am running from the calamity.
We get to within a few feet of safety and a dirt clod hits me in the head.
On the scene reports claim that it was the size of a cantaloupe.
Using the "algorithm of exaggeration" I determine that it was most likely 'grapefruit' sized. (which is still a "real-fuckin'-big" piece of dirt to get hit in the head with)
I stagger and sort of toss Hopper
the huddled masses run to me and praise me for the density of my cranium and tell me the size of the piece of dirt I disintegrated with my skull ( cantaloupe is the consensus. Grapefruit is most likely the reality. I'm just saying)
so, that rocked.
then later Hopper had to use the restroom. I encouraged him to whizz upon a tree....but as much as he would have loved to do that, he told me he had another...agenda...
so as we are dashing across the road to the "porta" I skitter on the gravel and I do a sort of break dance move and in mid stride I have to slap a hand on the ground but still we keep on running because who wants to be the guy who died because he got hit by 2 crazy fuckers on a sidecar careening up "the hill"?
and here is what's cool ...my little "running like mad holding the boy's hand , oh shit I almost fell but then didn't"
got the biggest applause of the day!
In my heart I'm sure I looked like Neo doing some bad-ass-slow-mo move.
My head tells me I looked more like the local weather man slipping on some ice on Action News 5.
so, i love you crazy fuckers that race up the side of the hill. One day I'd like to join your ranks.
And I love you crazy fuckers that love the crazy fuckers.
we have a weekend planned!