Level & Quiet: Another Boondocking Surprise

When Ed picks a spot for a night of boondocking, he looks for level pavement and listens for noise. He’ll drive in circles around a parking lot just to find a flat place. He’ll pull away from areas where there’s a roar of traffic or hum of industrial air conditioners. This particular evening he parked along a split rail fence away from New York Route 17B in the expansive, level lot of the Monticello Gaming & Raceway. It was a perfect spot for the night. Across the from the fence, we could see a vacant lot with some mounds of dirt randomly piled and dirt roads cut through the grassy areas. We had level and quite… until about 6 PM.

I had gone outside to take an early evening walk and visit on the cell phone with my friend Val. But our call got cut short, the noise from the lot nearly deafened me.

“Did you just give me the raspberries?” she laughed.

“WHAT?” I shouted.

“Raspberries? Did you just give me the raspberries?” Val repeated thinking I randomly started to make weird noises into the phone.

“No, no, no. It’s motorcycles.” I shouted over the noise. “Later girlfriend.” I flipped the phone shut.

Five guys clad in motorcycle race gear opened the throttles on their dirt bikes. Kawasaki and Yamaha bikes sprayed dirt from the rear tires as the riders each put a right leg down and leaned the bike into the curves. They wound it out on the straight-a-way and kept the revs ups approaching the dirt mounds. That’s when the show began. Riders took turns flying over the dirt mounds like stuntman. They were airborne and I was mouth-opened stunned.

We had parked next to a dirt bike race course where the club riders were practicing for an upcoming competition. I didn’t mind. The riders stopped racing when it got dark and I had a show like I never expected.

June 3, 2008

Be sure to get permission from Security at the Monticello before parking your RV here for the night.