If you haven’t attended the Tennessee Knockout Enduro, put it on your MUST DO list. This event has always been a great spectator event, but the changes that are being made yearly are creating an even more satisfying spectator experience. This past TKO Enduro was my fourth time in attendance, though sadly my first time not riding with the other Amateurs. As always though, my adventures during the TKO weekend are always fun filled craziness. I thought you all might enjoy a different look at what some people do to pull off a kamikaze weekend covering this event.
This “media guy” works a full time job in North Texas. My Friday started off hugging the wife and kiddos goodbye, knowing I wouldn’t see them until Monday morning. Fun meetings and deadlines always make a departure to the airport stressful. Luckily I got there just fine. Air travel these days just seems jacked though, and I got a full frontal attack of airline dumb f%^kery.
Arriving on time, I was quickly treated with a flight delayed message. Only 30 minutes though, we can make this work. As we should of been boarding, still no plane, delayed another 30 minutes. An hour after we should’ve been leaving, we’re boarding the plane. We make our way across the tarmac and seem to be in line for take off, but then we hit a stand still. After 15 minutes of sitting and waiting, we hear from the Captain that we have to return to the terminal because the navigation system isn’t coming on. We sit on the plane for a good 20 minutes before they tell us we will need to deplane. An hour and two beers later, we’re boarding the flight again for a potential take off, everyone is holding their breath. Sometime after 10pm, we are airborne and headed toward Chattanooga.
For some reason, Chattanooga, TN is in an Eastern Time Zone, so we arrived at 1:30am EST. I had called Hertz during one of my late night beers in DFW to let them know our plane was delayed and I’m hoping someone will be there waiting. They assured me someone would be. Well, as par for the course on this trip, no one was there and the lights were off. There was one rental car place open, National ,and they had a Ford Mustang. I said yes because I wanted to get my butt to the Trials Training Center. Side-Note, Melody was the one working the counter and she was awesome. She was a much needed bright light at the almost end to a long day!
FYI, I’m not a car guy. I drive a Sprinter and had a truck before that. Knowing that this was made for high speeds though, I wanted to see how it handled. 100 mph in that Mustang felt like 55 mph. The ride was so smooth and strangely comforting. I knew I needed to back it down before this Mustang became a news segment.
I arrived at the Trials Training Center at 2am CST (MAGIC!). I didn’t know what cabin Mark and the other Texans were in, so I was certainly the creepy guy looking at what was on the different front porches to see if anything looked familiar. I’d like to say they had hung up a huge Texas flag for maximum Texas ego inflation, but they did not. Their bikes were next to the cabin, a lame ending to the cabin story, but there you go.
And so my journey covering the 2017 Tennessee Knockout Enduro had begun. The weekend was a quick and dirty time in the hot & VERY humid woods of Tennessee. Cody Webb was challenged by another group of amazing hard enduro racers, only to prove he still owns the trails at the TTC. I’ll be working hard today and tomorrow to bring you all a glorious Photo Epic here on RideX365. So turn on your alerts for any postings from RideX365 so you can be the first to experience the journey.
Thank you to everyone who said hi, to those wearing Seat Time shirts and to those who tossed me a cold beer. I truly love being at these events with all you amazing offroad fans.
P.S. I got home safely with very little air travel mishaps. It was a welcome feeling to know I wasn’t going to be going straight to work from the airport because of another delayed flight.
