The weekend starts Friday morning at 1:30a in a Jacuzzi in Louisville, KY. An hour later I’m on the road to Indianapolis to hop on a plane to Chicago’s O’Hare then another short stint on a plane to Toronto with an arrival time of 9:35a. Steve Munro picked me up at the terminal and we headed to the Radisson where he was staying to handle the business at hand; the transfer of loudbike e-store from Steve to myself.

After a tech session pertaining to online systems operations for the store we headed out to meet with our main distributer, EuroCorsa. I must say I was like a kid in a candy store with all of the great products lining the shelves. I appreciate being able to meet one of our distributers in person to get an idea of their personality and demeanor. Plus it is always nice to put a face with a name since I will be on the phone with them every day or two. We spent a fair amount of time hanging out with them and chatting, but we still had business of our own to attend to plus Steve was simultaneously dealing with his new business! So back to the hotel for more training.

The plan was to eat dinner with Mark of EuroCorsa and Robert of Ducati Toronto, but Robert was swamped trying to get his bike together for the SunTrust MOTO-ST 8 hour endurance event at Daytona October 20-21 so we canceled and made plans to meet up the next day at the store. It worked out fine as Steve was completely beat and quite frankly so was I. Steve took me to the Sheraton downtown where I was staying and I checked in then headed down Young Street to see what that part of Toronto had to offer. I got some dinner at a restaurant where I couldn’t read the sign or the menu - I think I ended up eating lamb though. After aimlessly wondering around a little into the night I decided to get some sleep as we were heading to Ducati Toronto at 10a.

Ducati Toronto is also a Lamborghini dealer so that is always exciting. I would think that is a great environment to work in, I mean you’ve got Ducatis everywhere to begin with then you throw a bunch of Lamborghinis in the same room and you have pure inspiration. The showroom wasn’t even the best part! The service area hosted a collection of new and more elderly Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and an immaculate Maybach. There was even a very rare Lamborghini LM002 there that was quite amazing. I was also excited to see the 250 racer that Robert is trading to my friend Ed, of Commonwealth Ducati in Louisville, for a 926 that he has. After talking racing, bikes, and cars for a while we asked if we could steal Robert’s computer for a bit to conclude our business. Steve and I finished our dealings and shortly headed out of the dealership. Many thanks to Robert for his hospitality during our stay. He has a great dealership going there and he has only been at it for about a year. I’m excited to see where he goes with it as he is obviously very knowledgeable and capable I’d say the sky’s the limit.

Steve dropped me off downtown and he headed back to Ottawa. I spent the rest of the day walking around and exploring Toronto, taking in the sights and the people. The only downside I saw to Toronto was the traffic, but that can be expected in any major city. I found myself back at the hotel around 10:00p and in the Jacuzzi relaxing to prepare for the trip home. After that I went back to my room and watched television and read until my alarm went off at 3:15a at which time I took a shower, check out, then hopped in a limo to the airport. Fast-forward to 12:15p when I arrived to my home in Bloomington with fifteen minutes to spare before coverage of the GP event at Estoril began on Speedvision.

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