I sold the trip to Track Worlds on the proximity to
the Mouse Kingdom (Le Royaume de Souris to you, Brian).
It's spring break so the rest of my family is
available to travel. Note, if you refer to the Mouse
Kingdom to a travel agent they know exactly what you
are talking about. You might have to explain Le
Royaume de Souris though.
So Thursday, while I'm grooving on the Men's Points
race, they are making the pilgrimmage. This is a big
deal since my kid is old enough now that a lot of her
friends have been there, or to the alternate Royaume
de Souris in Florida.
My wife wants a day to herself to go see stuff that
would bore the kid silly so yesterday the two of us
spent the day in Carson. The kid notices the
sponsorship banner for Les Arches d'Or, and I feel
better about going there for a fine dining experience.
Didn't take any pictures of the food though. They
don't serve mayo with the frites.
We watch the keirin. Even at 10 she picks up on the
element of speed and danger. We watch the Women's
Points, which goes down to the final sprint. We
talk about rules and strategy during the Women's
200s and spring heats. What the lines mean, when you
can or can't leave the sprint lane.
I'm a little worried about the Kilo. Hell, even
grownups can have trouble sitting through a Kilo
session. But there is suspense at the end.
We are sitting at the rail, and she points out that
if you are touching the rail you can feel when
riders pass. Yet another reason to like wood tracks.
I'll bet none of you guys picked up on that.
As we're on the way back to our hotel after the
racing I ask if this was better than the Mouse
Kingdom, thinking this is a rhetorical question.
But she thinks about it for a while and then says
"I don't know". "What do you mean you don't know"
I blurt out, surprised.
"Well, they're both pretty cool", she says. "It was
really exciting."
If the velodrome had a roller coaster, Tracks Worlds
would have won cleanly.
Bob Schwartz
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