June 20, 1868: Governor General Lord Monck signs a proclamation that requests all Her Majesty’s subjects across Canada to celebrate July 1.
1879: A federal law makes July 1 a statutory holiday as the “anniversary of Confederation,” which is later called “Dominion Day.”
October 27, 1982: July 1, “Dominion Day” officially becomes Canada Day.
I’m not a big fireworks guy. I never have been. The only think I waited for on “Fireworks Day” as we called it when I was a kid was when my dad would bring out the “burning schoolhouse” to end the show. That was the one I always looked forward to. No, it didn’t shoot a tail of fire high into the air and it didn’t sneak skyward before exploding with a big bang. All it did was slowly burn a schoolhouse to the ground and I loved it.
Apparently, I wasn’t a big fan of school when I was a kid, which is weird because I would end up doing 5 years of university when I got older. I’ve never bought fireworks and I’ve never been one to pay to go watch them somewhere. It always amazes me when I drive around the USA at how many shops there are selling them year round.
I used to have to go watch the Symphony of Fire when I lived at Kits Beach in Vancouver because it was the only way my dog, Rupert, wouldn’t freak out. He was OK as long as he could see what it was that was making all the noise. And I used to go out into False Creek in a friend’s sailboat to watch the show, but that was always more about just hanging out with people and having a few drinks on a boat than it was to see which country was going to put on the best fireworks display put to music.
Anyway, if you’re heading to a fireworks show tonight, just remember, if you didn’t pay, don’t look up!
Ryder McNabb at Southwick
#107 Ryder McNabb | Brown Dog Wilson photo
Canadian AEO Powersports KTM rider #107 Ryder McNabb was back in action over the weekend, this time in the sand at Southwick. Ryder used to ride for the Honda Canada GDR Fox Racing team so he knows a little something about riding sand.
As often happens at Southwick, riders who get to ride the track early get to put in the fastest times before the track gets rough. So it wasn’t all that surprising when #404 Tom Guyon from France put in the quickest 250 qualifying time out of the B Group.
Ryder managed to go 28th fastest and headed to the line near the outside of the gate in moto 1. He got tangled with another rider and ended up having no rear brake for most of the moto. He still pushed hard for a hard-earned 16th place.
He was 3rd bike in from the inside for moto 2. Sure, that sounds good except for the fact that if you watch the replay of the start you’ll see that the inside gates point riders into the woods! They need to swerve to the left before making the right-hand corner in T1.
Ryder locked bars with his teammate #473 Lux Turner and got sideways, dropping him to the back of the pack as the field headed out for lap 1.
He’s scored with 34th at the end of the first lap, so he had his work cut out for him!
He would push to the end and cross the line in 19th place for 17th overall. That’s a good result on a bad day for Ryder.
We had Jordan Wilsey from RussOgraphy on site for DMX on Saturday with video credentials. Here’s some of the stuff he’s been able to create so far:
This #65 Henry Miller miscue certainly got some attention:
We grabbed Ryder for a podcast interview on Sunday and you’ll be amazed to hear that he did all that hard charging on Saturday under some pretty serious conditions. He went to the hospital at the end of the day!
His situation is easily treatable and should see him back to 100% in a matter of days, so he’s confident he’ll be ready to go this coming week at RedBud.
Our Canadian Triple Crown Series was on its 2nd weekend off. We head to Gopher Dunes for Round 4 this coming weekend. There’s a chance I’m going to try to run the double and do RedBud Saturday and then Gopher Dunes Sunday. Assuming Ryder is good to go for this week in Michigan, I think that’s what I’ll do.
Of course, I avoided Emily’s cold for the past 10 days, but it looks like my luck has run out. If it doesn’t get much worse, I’ll hop in the DMX Van and go for the double, but I can’t guarantee it at this time. I don’t like missing the Parts Canada Amateur Open on Saturday, but I need to get to a race and see Ryder race AMA in person.
The weather is perfect here in London, so we’ve got a few things planned to close out this weekend. Thanks for reading. We’ve got a lot of riders in the area, so I’ll do my best to find where they’re riding and get some content this week.
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