That Wednesday evening, I had a flight booked back to the UK because I was flying to America on Friday afternoon. I could have flown back on Thursday, but really didn't see that there was any chance to get a test on the bike, so I didn't want to hang around. Also, the flights back were over £200 and the funds are running dry! It was a bit
of a shame not to have a blast on the bike but, hopefully, I'll get my chance one day.
On Thursday, I went in to central London to get a bit of early Christmas shopping done. I did pretty good for my standards, as I usually just put it off time after time and end up sprinting around town on Christmas Eve!
I had to get it done really though as, on Friday, I flew from Gatwick into Orlando, which was about a nine-hour flight. It was cool though, as I had about half the plane to myself so I couldn't complain! It took me ages to get from the airport in Orlando to my hotel, which was right next to the track at
Daytona - about 70 miles away. I waited four hours for a bus to Daytona and then the trip to my hotel took about another three hours. I was knackered, but at least I had given myself plenty of time to recover as I didn't have to get on the bike until Monday.
On Saturday, I went for a run in the morning and then did a bit of exploring of the road which runs alongside the circuit. I went into most of the shops just to kill some time. On Sunday my team, Celtic Racing, arrived after a long drive down from New York and we got set up in the circuit. I met up with Ben Spies, who told me he'd take me for a lap around the circuit and give me a couple of pointers, which was handy.
