I am not as think as you drunk I am.......

Well, last weekend was our big racing finale` weekend! After driving the camper around in circles and circles trying to find a somewhat level spot in the track parking lot, we were finally able to set up camp. We were, rather Dean was, about to make dinner, so he started the generator so we would have electric for the a/c and the can opener in order to open the greenie beanies we were going have with our grilled London Broil. Yum-O. (Yes, I'm a Rachel Ray fan, but I was saying yum-o way before anyone had heard of her.) Well, for some unknown reason, the generator is not generating--electricity--that is. So, we forgo our dinner and figure Plan B willbe to get a burger in the track while watching practice. Wrong. Concession stand's not open for practice. Plan C. When we've had enough of practice, we'll go back to the camper and call up to the bar up the street and order hoagies. Wrong again. We waited too long and there kitchen was closed. So, Plan D. Ride into town and go to King's! So, that was where we had dinner.

Friday, we got up and went to breakfast. When we got back, Dean(and I) took the bell housing off the generator to see if we could see a problem. The only thing we saw was grease on the copper that the magnets spin against in order to produce the electricity. So, I got a paper towel, dampened part of it, added a wee little bit of dish soap, and started removing the grease. Dean goes one better and uses a little gasoline. Now that the copper is all shiny again, we reassemble the bell housing and start 'er up. I plug in my hair dryer and turn it on and oila`! Electricity!

It wasn't long after that our other friends started showing up. So much for that nap I was planning on sneakin' in. So, we hung out most of the afternoon and my adreline was a little higher than usual because the Gunslingers were going to be there that night. I got the Gorilla juice made and put it in the cooler. Then Dean and the other guys started preparing the ribs and things for dinner. We ate, got it all cleaned up and put away and into the races we went! Great Racing. The girls that are girlfriends/wives of some the guys in the band came into the track to find me! That was so cool! They sat with us for a good while asking questions about the racing and me explaining. It was great! Our friend Billy won his feature by starting 9th and just passing cars. It was the best race I've ever seen him run! This us all of us in Victory Lane! Billy is in the blue drivers' suit, his dad is to the right witht he checkered flag, then me and Dean and alot of our other friends!

Then we left the track, I went to camp, got the Gorilla juice and jell-o shots and went to see the band! I started drinking and was having a great time. It's about the only time I drink, soI really tied one on! Dancing, and talkin' with the girls, showed them our camper and let them use our bathroom. The drummer's wife tried to use the port a potty and got deathly sick! Literally puking! Poor girl. So, the band finished up and I sat with the girls on the tailgate of Randy's (the drummer) truck and drank and talked. They left and I went back to camp and hung out. Everyone was having a good time and eating and drinking and just hangin' out at the fire.

Here's the band playin'. The hand at the left of the righthand picture is mine. Also notice the jello shots sittin on the stage by the bass player's feet.

Then there was this girl who's name I thought was Sally but in reality was Cathy. She and her boyfriend said that there was driver down at another camp I wanted to meat, so we went down there. We hung and talked and drank. So, I wondered back up to our camp and every one was gone to bed! I thought it was about 3 am or so. I found out later...........It was 6 a.m.!

Saturday, we got up at 9 and went to breakfast around 10 or so. Buffet at Janoski's country restaurant! YUM. We went across the street to the market and gift shop to see if our friend Deb was working, but no, she wasn't there yet. So, it was back to camp for us! When we got back, more people had awakened and started milling around camp. Those that live closeby, like Lori, went home and took a shower and was now back. So much for a nap. So, till we hung out and did this and did that, it was time to make dinner again. Top sirloin Roast in the smoker all day! Yum. It was really good. I got my share out of the middle where is was perfectly rare. Wonderful. Linguini salad, potato salad, and I can't even remember what we had!

Clean up again and get ready to go racin'! It was a boring race. Not match passing or anything. The winner Josh Richards, took the lead and never looked back. No one ever challenged for the lead. For most of the race he had a straightaway lead. Josh is also known as Kid Rocket. His father owns Rocket Chassis, which is a very popular make of chassis for dirt late model drivers.

Josh and the Trophy! And a $10,000 payday!

This is a favorite of ours. Chub Frank's car. They call him Chubzilla. This is the paint scheme he debuted at the World 100. Very cool looking. Dig the red eyes for "headlights".

We left the track and partied back at camp. I was only able to hang until 2 am or so. Then it was bedtime for me. I was able to fall asleep fairly quickly and that was good. The campers seemed to be pretty calm and quiet for once. WE got up at 8 Sunday, and Dean ran to Mickey d's and got me coffee and a cinnamon melt. That was good. Then we packed up, broke camp and back home.

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Fast forward to Thursday. Left work, came home for dinner, then took the dogs over to Aunt Lisa's so she could puppy sit while we went to Deep Creek for our annual bowling outing. No bowling involed, just the people we bowl with all go and party and stuff for the weekend.

Half of a day of work on Friday and off we went! The house we stay in is awesome! The kitchen has two fridges, two dishwashers and two sinks. It would have to to be able to hold all the stuff for 20 some people!

Front entrance from driveway.

The living room from inside the entrance shown above.

Back of the house as seen from the dock. Our room is on the bottom right. Nice sand volley ball court too.

The view from our room!

The view from the gameroom loft.

Playin' pool in the loft.

The kitchen.

The dining room.

And the indoor pool. There's also a sauna in this room.

We didn't really do much of anything except eat and drink alot. Went out to dinner at the big bear tavern friday nite. And back to the house to start the drinkin'. Saturday, we just hung out, went and played mini golf (Dean kicked my butt) and then played games at the house, had lunch, more games, and my friend Mark took me for a ride on his Harley. I felt very safe-he is an excellent driver! It was awesome to be able to see the lake on a bike. No window or doors to abstruct the view. Yes, I know you can see through the windows, but those damn uprights get in the way! Then back to the house for dinner. Burgers, dogs, rigatoni, 2 kinds of potatoes, meatballs, stuffed banana peppers, a casserole, potato salad, mac salad, desserts. Whew. I'm full just thinkin' about it. But, I must have over eaten, (ya think?) cause I couldn't move and went to bed at 10:30. The bad part is is that our room is beneath the dining room and that seems to be where most people sit and you can hear every footstep, the sliding glass door open and close, the chairs and benches sliding in and out as people get up and back to the table. Won't choose that room next year! This morning, got up, got dressed and packed and went and had coffe and a bagel. Dean showered and packed the remainder of the stuff and got most of it to the truck. Said goodbye to all and then it was off to pick up the dogs and get home! So, after a really long ride, a really long rain delayed Nascar race, a sucky Steeler game, here I am blogging my adventures, so to speak. So, I am going to have a bowl of cereal, and go to bed. I have to to take Dean to work in the morning as he has to be there at 4 a.m. Yes, 4. That wasn't a typo. The busses don't run that early, so I am taking him. It is too expensive to park in town. He would be paying what overtime he might make to park and there's no sense doing that!

So, I hope you enjoyed the story and the pictures. Good night, all!

A note to my nephew..........

In my last post, I gave a day by day account of our vacation at Eldora Speedway. Dave wanted to know (as per his comment) how did I not go stir crazy? Well, first of all, I find camping very relaxing, unlike him. You lived in your camper for a period of time. Did you go stir crazy? Yeah, you probably did. But, I take novels to read and lose myself in those. It's really where I do most of my reading, and I love to read! Dean cooks the meals, so my job is dishes. The dogs need to be walked several times a day, unlike at home where I can just tie them to there leads and let them in the back yard when they need to go potty. Keeping the camper tidy and clean is time consuming. My husband isn't particular about what or how much stuff he puts on the counter tops and table, which in the camper, is limited space to begin with! When you clutter it up, the whole camper looks messy, so I spend alot of time tidying and cleaning, which is a chore at a dirt track! The gates to the track are open during the day, so we walk in there and neb (Pittsburgh word for being nosey) around. And I like to sit and watch all the people and neb at what kind of camper they have and what do they pull it with, or just sit and talk to folks that are our "neighbors" and find out where they're from and stuff about their racing experiences. Tommy (with the white hair) and Kevin stopped by our campsite to visit, shoot the breeze and share some food.

It's really nice to not have to go to work, or answer phones or watch tv or email people and stuff. Although, I do miss my access to my online banking. Writing all that you spend down on paper like back in the day sucks. Too much cypherin'. So, no, I don't go stir crazy. I just enjoy the experience!
Here's Dean just enjoying himself while relaxing on the "patio".

Oh, and Dave? The peelin' thing. You had gotten a bad sunburn (back when you still had hair and you were still single.) I think you were livin' in VA then. Nick and I lived in Pap's basement as per our usual, were up till all hours gabbing and I peeled the skin off of your sunburned legs. Which was a feat considering how hairy they are!

Gas: $207; 10 hour boat rental: $180; Race tickets: $114; Being There: PRICELESS

Day 1 - Saturday, 9-1

Well, as your read in the post PRIOR to our leaving, we had planned on leaving at 7 am. Actually left the house at 7:15 am, which isn't bad, considering Dean didn't get up, or at least I woke him up at 6:30. After a quick stop to put air in the camper's tires (a 15 minute job), we were finally on the road at 7:30. We met my friend Leslie, who now lives in Blacklick, OH, which is east of Columbus, for Brunch at Cracker Barrell near her house at about 10:30. So, we really made good time. after a great visit with her and a wonderful meal, we were back on the road at 11:45. We got to the racetrack about 1:30 pm or so. We set up camp and just had sandwiches for dinner since we were still sort of full from brunch. Here's Dean Putting something away inside the camper.

Day 2 - Sunday, 9-2

For the most part, we just hung out most of the day and I read my book while Dean watched DVD's or whatever. After a terrific steak dinner by the one and only Chef Dino, we went to the ALMS (American Late Model Series) race that night.
Sorry, but no pics of the races that night. I couldn't get the camera to work right. I think the batteries aren't holding their charge like they should.

Day 3 - Monday- Labor Day

Well, the place we go, Eldora Speedway, is in a very small midwest town called New Weston. Nothing but farms as far as you can see. On Sundays and Holidays, they shut it down, just like the old days. 2 restaurants and the gas station were the only things open these 2 days. The grocery store was open on Labor Day. Till 1 pm. We needed ice for the cooler, so, I told Dean I would go get some. I get to the store, but since it's after 1, it's closed. What do I do now? So, I go up the road to the next town and and find the Marathon station open and am able to purchase 3 bags of ice. Whew! Now our food will be safe! (Our fridge in the camper doesn't work). We had the all American hamburgers for dinner and just hung out in the camper. Way too hot to be outside. And the bugs! Good Lord. Since there are 2 ponds on the racetrack property, the mosquitos were atrocious!

Day 4- Tuesday, 9-4

We had reserved a pontoon boat to dink around on on Tuesday. There is a wonderful lake North of the racetrack called The Grand Lake at St. Mary's. Here's some pics from there....
Dean driving the boat

These are seagulls that followed the boat all over the lake hoping we would feed them. They got bread and some potato chips! They really seemed to like that!

Me and Bitsy driving the boat. Yeah, we took the dogs. At first, they didn't know what to make of it, but after a while, they just hung out or looked at the water. At one point I thought Bailey was going to jump off the back to get at those gulls!

This is a light house on the north shore of the lake. There are 3 more - 1 on each bank- east, west and south.

This is Bailey. Just hangin' out on the couch (of the boat) like he's at home or something.

And since we fed the gulls, we had to feed the swans.

I got a pretty bad sunburn on the boat. I had put sunscreen on myself everywhere I could reach, but we got going and trying to stow stuff out of the way on the boat, and get the dogs calmed down and I was going to have Dean put some on my back when we got out a bit, and I guess we just started having too much fun and I forgot all about it until it was too late! So, it was a little uncomfortable for a few days, then the blisters broke and it got itchy. really itchy. Dean's not a peeler, so he wouldn't peel off the skin to relieve my itchiness. Said it grosses him out. Where's Dave when I need him?

Days 5 & 6 - Wednesday and Thursday, 9-5 & 6

Didn't do much. Went into a little town called Ansonia(Ann-sewn-ya) to a little place called The Whistle Stop for breakfast both mornings. Great Biscuits and gravy! It is right next to the railroad tracks and used to be a train station. A little one, mind you, but still. Now it is a restaurant/bar. Closed on Sundays. Across the street is a gas and grocery. Up the block, a barber shop about as big as postage stamp. Across the street-a beauty parlor. No Fantastic Sams or Great Clips for them! Then we went to the post office to mail my neice's birthday card so she would get it in time. A stop at the store for supplies and back to camp and inside to escape the heat. We have never used the a/c in the camper so much! Thank goodness we have it! I don't know how those people camp in tents or pop ups with no a/c! I like my Holiday Inn on wheels! The fridge and the furnace don't work, but I have running water including toilet and shower, a/c, a microwave, a stereo with CD player and a television. No cable or satellite dish, so Dean watches DVD's. Hey, it's roughin' it, right? And I don't know if we brought skeeters back from the lake, or they just found ways to get in the camper at the track, but I have 34 bites that itch like mad. I used all my after bite stuff and am still scratchin' like crazy.

Lot and lots of campers have now moved into what was pretty much empty all week to packed!

There's always a party at the racetrack bar on Thursday nights before the big race weekends. (yes, it's inside the track behind the grandstands on the front stretch) Here's the gang at the party.

Day 7- Friday, 9-7

We went down to the entrance to the track and got on an old schoolbus and rode to St, Henry's Night Club for the breakfast buffet. $6 all you can eat. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, french toast, home fries, coffe, o j, and chocolate milk. Yum. The bus is owned by the nightclub. It has been turned into a party bus, It has tables that are situated between a set of front facing and back facing seats. I think the club rents them out for bachelor or whatever kind of parties. But on the big race weekends, they come to the track and pick you up, take you for breakfast and bring you back again. Nice.

Friday night was qualifying for 203 Late Model Cars. After a rain delay of 2 hours, they got underway at 8:30 pm and ended at 1:30 am. Then there were 3 non-qualifier races. That's the races for those cars that didn't have a fast enough time to qualify for the B-mains or the feature.

Dean and I didn't stay for the races. We were tired and we could listen to them on the radio in the camper. It works the same way as later year drive in movies did. remember how you could take the speaker off the pole when you parked in the row, hang it on your partially up window and that's how you heard the movie. Then they did away with that and used a low watt transmitter that sends the signal out and with in a certain radius of that, you can hear the movie, or in our case, the race announcer.Here's a sample of a car qualifying. Our driver, Scott (Bloomer) Bloomquist.

After you take your qualifying run, you must hit the scales to be weighed. Car and driver cannot weigh less than 2800 lbs. If you have ever watched a Nascar race, you know they talk about cars going through "tech". these guys do as well, but that is done upon their arrival at the track and registration of the car to enter the race. I love the way Bloomer's graphics illuminate under the lights at night.

Day 8 - Saturday, 9-8

On this morning, we opted to go back to the Whistle stop. The biscuits and gravy are hands down better than St. Henry's nightclub. Then we went and looked at some of the history of these little towns we go through. There's an Annie Oakley museum! I never realized that that was the part of the country Annie Oakley was from! And on one stretch of road, is an old delapidated house that must have been something in it's day. Beautiful 2 story red brick with white wood trim. It looks like it should be one of the houses in my Christmas village. But now, it has now windows, the exterior walls are cracked and the inside is just like ruins. It's a shame. I am sure that the people who once lived there had money. Then we went back to camp and I read and Dean watched movies and napped, and talked to our camping neighbors from Peoria, IL. we had brauts for dinner and cleaned up and just as we are going to go to the track, it starts raining. This is 5:45 pm. It didn't quit raining until 8 am the next morning, so, needless to say, they didn't race Saturday night.

Day 9 - Sunday, 9-9

Well, Dean wanted to leave without seeing if the weather was going to get better and they would race. The announcement came over the radio that the weather was supposed to clear and they would race at 1 pm! I wanted to stay. So, Dean said tht if they race at one, they'd be done by six and we could pull out to go home then if we got everything packed up and stowed before we went into the races. So we did! But, Like I said before, this a small town and everything is closed (almost) on Sunday. So we couldn't find a place to have breakfast unless we went all the way back up by the lake to the Mickey D's. Not happenin'. So we went into the little town of Greenville, which is a city compared to the other small towns. We found a maid rite sandwich shop known for their loose meat sandwiches. I had 2 egg salad and Dean had the loose meat.

Then it was time to get back so we could get things put away and go racing. The skies were actully showing some blue spots between the clouds! So racing we went!

As at all sporting events, they open with the National Anthem. This guy rode his horse around the track while it was sung. It looks pretty cool in person.

These are the guys we see every year that have the seats in front of us. They are from Sioux City, Iowa.

This is a lady that sits in front of us too. I thought her manicure was really cool! The big race is named the World 100, and that's what it says on her nails along with cars, the globe and her checkered flags.

There were 6 B mains. The first B main run has the lower qualifying timed drivers. Which means the last B main run has the faster drivers. The top 3 finishers of each race transfer to the World 100 aka the feature. This is a bad wreck in one of the B mains. See the car upside down off the right corner panel of the white truck?

Driver introductions. The cars are lined up on the front stretch by starting order. Here's my driver, Scott Bloomquist, in the outside front row start position.



Then they do a 4 wide parade lap and wave to the fans after the introductions.

And here's them back to 2 wide to take the green flag!

And the winner, Jimmy Owens, in victory lane!


The races were over at 5:30. So, we headed back to camp, buttoned everything up tight, waited out the traffic and headed for home. It was about 7 pm when we pulled out of the track. Stopped for fuel once, then about 10:30 pm, we stopped at a TA for dinner and fuel, let the dogs go potty and feed them. Jerry used to work at the TA in Prescott before he went to Iraq. They all must look the same inside. But, for some reason, I like his better. I think cause southerners are more friendly or something. Back on the road at 11:20 and we got home at 2 am Monday morning. I had packed all the toiletries in the track bag, so we grabbed it and our pillows and went in the house. Home at last! I unpacked the toilettries and went to bed. I had to be at work at 8:30 in the morning! Boy was that tough!

So, there you have it. The reader's digest version of our trip along with some pictures. Hope you enjoyed my story and I didn't bore ya too much. Now it's Friday again, and I am going to bed and sleepin' in! Love to those to which that applies. Good night to everyone else. Goodnight, Johnboy.

Hello Boys! I'm Ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-ack!!!

Well, we are home again, home again jiggity jig. I just wanted you all to know that we are back safe and sound. We had a good time and I got some neat pics. I will post the day by day complete with pics at a later time. I just don't have the energy to do it at this posting. I have had to do some creative work for my boss who co chairs Rally for the Cure for the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, I finally sorted through all the emails I got while we were away, and changed the time zone as per my nephew's instructions because I didn't know why the time that it showed I was posting was so far off from my actual time! Duh. It was set on Cayman or some weird thing! So, now I'm on Eastern time and it shoud be right. We'll see.............

But, I am tired. I don't think I have recovered from the trip home. We didn't get in till 2 am Monday morning and I had to be at work at 8:30! You'll see why when I get that day by day post done!