G'day mates!

Sorry I haven’t been able to update too much on my AMAZING trip to Australia….but typical down under, no internet at the hotel. Here’s a quick synopsis on what I have been up to this past week:

The week started off really relaxed at a small apartment building directly on the beach. It was awesome to literally be on top of the sand, but the only place left for that time was The President, which didn’t have A/C and definitely accentuated the humidity of Queensland, Australia. So needless to say, I was really happy when we moved into our new hotel that also overlooks the ocean, all of downtown, Australia’s only river, and the biggest building in Australia: Q1. We got to watch the fireworks off the top of the Q1 right from our balcony on New Years and it was just really pretty. (There was lots of firework shows going on that we could see).

The beginning of the week wasn’t looking too awesome on the weather situation. There was bits of sunshine, then there would be pouring down rain, all the while tons of humidity. But by Tuesday it was really nice, so nice in fact, that me and Jess, (Jared Graves’ girlfriend..they’re staying with us) got COMPLETELY FRIED on the beach in the hour and a half we spent there. It was crazy. I don’t usually burn and much less in an hour and a half’s time frame. I guess Oz rays must be a little stronger. It’s now Friday though, and we definitely are looking “Australian gold”. =] However, I hope I never forget to put sun screen on again, because that was honestly one of the most painful things EVER…probably worse than crashing over a 30ft jump going 35mph haha. Sad but true.

We tried riding within those first few days and the tracks just weren’t holding the rain well and were all pretty soft. Even practice Wednesday night was pretty bad at the Nerang track. Fortunately it cleared up though and the tracks dry out quickly so practice yesterday at Nerang went well and was shaping up for a much better racing atmosphere this weekend. The track is actually pretty cool with some decent sized doubles down the first straight. I strongly dislike the starting gate however…it’s extremely flat and I have already fallen over in it once. It will probably happen a few more times before the weekend is over. (So much for being elite now haha).

Racing starts this afternoon; it kicks off with time trials. I am a little nervous for those, I don’t know why but they seem to get to me. I have never been at a non-Supercross race that has time trials so we’ll see how it works out. I had to stop by Wade Bootes house today with Sam (which by the way was beautiful…Right on the canal leading to both the river and the ocean) and cut my seat pole down. It kept hitting me in the butt during practice so hopefully it feels better today.

Wish me luck and I will try to keep you up to date on the weekend the best I can. Basically that means as often as I can get down to this mcdonalds for free wifi. =]

~alise