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.