Back in May, my family came up to visit for Mother's Day, and to watch my brother TJS race in the WERA Endurance Series event at the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet. This would be the second time I've seen him race (the first time would have been for the 2004 WERA Cycle Jam at VIR -- see the archives for a description of that event). This was also the first time that my family has seen my condo.

TJS and Sara met Shel and I (and our friends EW and SCW) at Cafe Cubano, one of our local joints in Oak Park. They make some tasty mojitos, and we tasted more than enough to know. This evening was the first time that either EW or SCW had met one of my siblings, and I think they were surprised at how similar we could be. Surprised and frightened.

Mom, Dad, and EWS didn't get in until the wee hours. There was some lame story about not being able to find the car rental place, but I considered it the gentlemanly thing to do to not inquire too closely. It was also funnier from a distance, I imagine, as those closest to the actual event were likely not amused in the slightest.

So Mom and Dad were staying down the road at the Write Inn, where breakfast can be missed without, er, being missed. They spent a little time in the arts district the next morning toodling around a number of boutiques, and arrived at our place with a housewarming gift: a serving trivet with a piece of inset art glass! Very cool.

TJS and Sara headed to the track first thing, to get some practice in before the Endurance event at 1:00. TJS reinforced the need for us to be there by 11 or 12, which EWS promptly dismissed as ridiculous. Apparently we were to serve as the pit crew for TJS and team, as the usual guys passed on driving from Atlanta to Joliet for the sake of a 4-hour race. I was pretty jazzed about it, actually. That meant we could be close to action!

Assuming we ever managed to get there. Joliet is about 60 miles from my house, and we'd never been there.

Eventually, after many false starts, we all managed to get going to head down to the track.

Did I mention that it was $20 per person to get in? Like last time, TJS assured all comers that he would get us passes into the paddock so that we wouldn't have to pay. That translated essentially as "I have this colored bracelet on my arm, which you will take to Kinko's and replicate on a color copier 10 times. You will then fake your way into the paddock, and no one will be the wiser." And, like last time, we just ended up paying the dang fee.

TJS was racing on a team of three riders, each of whom takes a shift riding a single bike for a total of four hours of racing (this includes any red flags and such). The winner of the race is who has accrued the most distance covered in the time allotted. They have electronic transponders on each bike that provide lap timing/counting, and the results for each team are updated every minutes. So, in our pit area, we had a laptop hooked into the system, and could watch our team's progress, place, fastest lap time, and most recent laptime get updated in real time. Pretty cool!

Todd's team ended up coming in 2nd in their class, which is great. In fact, that's really like coming in first in class, because the first-place team is the only factory-sponsored racing team in the WERA Endurance series. So our guys did awesome.

That night, we came back to our place, where TJS, his ladyfriend Sara, and EWS were all staying. My folks were a couple of blocks away at an inn. We went over to Giordano's and had some deep dish pizza and more than a few pitchers of beer. After a long day in the sun, everybody was beat, so we stumbled back home and crashed.

TJS had to be at the track in Joliet at 8 AM the next morning, and he and Sara were gone before we rose. EWS, Shel, and my folks all decided to eat at HUE (Hilary's Urban Eatery) in Wicker Park for Mother's Day, as it is right across the street from the Chopin Theatre, where Grace Chicago meets for Sunday services. We had a nice meal out back on the patio -- it was warm and sunny.

After church, we headed back to Oak Park, where we finished our time at Petersen's Ice Cream -- that's the joint that uses the recipe they've used since 1927 or so: 18% butterfat and all. From there, it was sayonara to all. A nice weekend!