I think it’s no small coincidence that departure locations in airports are called “terminals.” You can literally spend a large portion of your life “between flights,” and my life lately has been no exception. I’m not complaining, as I have the greatest job on the planet, but check out my schedule for this past week:

Wednesday I was up at 3:30 a.m. (I sent my blog in at 1:15 that morning, so you do the math on sleep) to catch my flight. I parked my truck at the local Fly-Away terminal, hopped on the 4:15 shuttle bus, and we pulled into lovely LAX (I believe the “lax” doesn’t so much refer to “re-lax” as much as, “lax-ative,” but that’s another story) just before 5 a.m. At 6, I was in the air, crossing one airport “terminal” off my journey’s list. Next stop… Denver, for a short layover (I’m guessing the “lay” isn’t so much as in, “you can LAY down” as the “over” is as in, “I’m OVER security screenings and delays”) before continuing on to Kansas City. Day one, and already I’m at three in the terminal count. Meeting me in KC was Halie Schmidt of the NHRA, and my newest buddy. She and I did the media tour of the surrounding area, hitting several TV, newspaper, and radio outlets. It really was quite fun, I just wish I had slept enough to enjoy it. Halie had done her homework and made the trip as efficient as possible; even taking me to Starbucks to ensure I would be awake for the camera segments. The radio show host, Keith Washburn, was a student of mine at the Hawley School, so we really hit it off and had fun. Fifteen minutes can fly by when amongst friends (and high on caffeine).

At the conclusion of our NHRA promotional trip, Halie dropped me off at the airport Holiday Inn. This is the first time in as long as I can remember that I was without transportation, as it wasn’t justifiable to book a rental car for an extra day. You see, my Airport Familiarization Tour 2009 was just getting into high gear; up at 4:30 Thursday, it was on another shuttle back to KC, on to a layover in St. Louis (I think the “Saint” part refers less to a holy person than to the phrase, “This ’saint your final destination.” Wait a second… what kind of twisted sense of humor did the person have that came up with, “terminal” and “final destination” with reference to travel?). Another flight took me into Louisville (which is pronounced, “Lou-E-Ville,, which now has me real confused about the pronunciation of St. Louis), and now I was only an 82-mile rental car trip (in pouring rain) away from my terminal… I mean, final destination. I was visiting Lexington, Kentucky to participate in a special event at Valvoline headquarters. This was the day in which their new Engine Guarantee program was unveiled. Yep, that was my big secret in the last blog, and now it’s out of the bag. Take five minutes and log on to Valvoline.com to check out the cool details of this awesome program.

Wait… wait… wait.

Okay, are you back? Being my first visit to the head office, I really didn’t know what to expect or how well I would be received. We had our new paint scheme on display with the show car chassis (we will debut that body this weekend in Chicago), and I was slated to sign autographs for the employees. I must say that it was such a pleasant experience, all the folks were as polite as can be (and very excited about being partnered with an NHRA Funny Car), and it made all the travels well worth the effort. Sam Mitchell, the president of Valvoline, is something else. He and I were hanging out and chatting by the car for about 10 minutes, and he seemed a very unpretentious, friendly employee. It wasn’t until later that I was informed he was the president! It’s so rewarding to be affiliated with Valvoline, as well as MTS, Gates, Matco, and the other “family” of sponsors at DSR.

Once through in Lexington, it was time to make the reciprocal trip (still 82 miles, but no rain this time) back to Leewie-ville to hop on another airplane. By now many of the TSA employees were on a first-name basis with me, but I still had to take off my shoes before passing through the metal detector! Up in the air again, this time I was treated to a stopover in Chicago. My final leg (why do they use that part of the anatomy, why not “arm,” “ear,” or “foot”?) back into KC was delayed, so once I got into my rental car it was pushing 11:30 p.m., and my day was far from over. A mere 32 miles later I arrived at the MTS terminal for my annual visit. After spending about an hour with the employees, it was time to head out to Topeka and check into my hotel. I’m not sure if my Magellan (which is Latin for, “To have high-tech help in getting lost”) lied to me, but it took me 112 miles (which is French for, “way too far at 1 a.m.”) to find my room. By 3:15, it was certainly well beyond even my normal sleep schedule.

I had no idea that Topeka had renamed their Capitol "Yang-Ming," but I guess the Chinese influence is even felt in the Heartland.

Here are all of the California State Representatives who have voted for fiscal responsibility in the past decade! Okay, that was a cheap-shot. This really is the latest meeting of my fan club.

Thank goodness Friday qualifying was an afternoon and evening deal, as I could sleep in (like I do every other day). Being as that I went to bed hungry, Denny’s was calling my name in the morning (okay, at 11 a.m.). After downing my Grand Slam, I still found myself with nearly an hour to kill, and I knew there was a state Capitol just calling my name. Since I already once had cheated on Jenna (seeing a Capitol without her), doing it a second time was so much less guilt-ridden. Anyway, I’ll let her see the pictures to allay my remorse.

The race went pretty well for the Mail Terminal Services/Valvoline team. We qualified sixth, one of our better showings this year, and we think we discovered how to stay in the top half from now on. Rodger Comstock told the crew that drinks were on him if we were eighth or better at the end of time trials, so we just turned the “Margarita control valve,” “Beer flow meter,” and “Rum management system” 2 clicks each… piece of cake!

To say it was warm would belittle the term… it was 90 degrees plus and one tricky track for the crews. We won a close race with the Kalitta/DHL team and Jeff Arend in the first round, and took a big win over Tony Pedregon in the second. In the semi’s, against red-hot teammate Capps, our car broke an air line fitting about 180 feet into the run. This loss of pressure simulated me lifting off of the air switch under the throttle and put the car into “pedal mode.” (Suppose you had to lift off of the throttle due to shake or spin on a run, chances are it would overpower the track when you floored it again. “Pedal mode” takes a bunch of timing out of the car, knocking the horsepower way down to maximize the chance of regaining traction). In our case, we weren’t spinning, but the malfunction took away lots of needed power, and I had to watch the NAPA car drive away. Still, a semifinal in the first race on this car (this is last year’s chassis with new tubing from the motor plate forward, also known as being “front-halved”) is very encouraging to us all. We still sit in fifth place, only three rounds from second. However, we are far from secure, as there are plenty of tough cars behind us, including two of the Force team. Who would have thought that Neff wouldn’t be in the top 10 at this point, or that Robert Hight would be sitting 12th without any season wins? It’s been an odd year for the floppers, and Capps and McCulloch have been awesome. Still, a good weekend for our team and a good way to start off a three-in-a-row series. In fact, with six races in the next seven weeks, this is really the time to build momentum. A slump at this point in the season could eliminate a team from Countdown contention. We currently have 13 round-wins, more than twice what we had this time last year, but we need to add a couple of race wins and minimize first-round losses if we are to challenge for the championship. Johnny, John, Chris, Chris, Joe, Joe (okay, there’s only one Joe, I was just in a rhythm), Mark, Brian, Phil, and Troy are doing everything in their power to give me a winning hot rod, and I want to reward them all (along with our fab. shop crew, hospitality gang, and support staff) with the #1 on our car next year.

As fortune would have it, I actually was on a non-stop for the flight home, so I only got to see the inside of two airports: Kansas City and LAX. All told, my adventure took me 11 times through the inside of an airport, which is about 10 more than I needed, but going home to see Jenna and Jason is always at the top of my list.

Hey, in the back, that's the world's oldest 8th grader raising his hand so politely before answering a question.

Scott Sachs, Carrie Burns, Stephen Jensen...has it really been 29 years?

Back home, I haven’t even gotten a chance to watch the race yet on TiVo, as bathroom duties (work, that is, not bodily functions) and charity work have kept me occupied. Yesterday I went back to school, but only for two periods (hell, that was about as often as I actually used to attend). Doug Wah is a teacher at Frost Middle School in Granada Hills, and we met at the NHRA charity softball game last November. I went to Frost in eighth and ninth grades, and we’ve been trying to find a time when I could come in and talk with his students. We will try to put another visit together in the fall semester, as I enjoyed my time with these teenagers. It seemed a bit surreal looking around a campus I hadn’t set foot on in 28 years… could it really have been that long ago? On my way out, I found photos on the wall of honor roll classes dating back to when Moses attended Frost. The 1980 fall class sparked many memories for me, and I had to snap a quick photo of the center portion. I see people in there that I had known as a 9-year-old, some that I have not seen in 29 years and many whose paths I hope one day cross mine again. A nice reward for taking a few hours from my day!

That afternoon I headed out to North Hollywood (confusing at it may be, Hollywood, North Hollywood, and West Hollywood are all alive and well, but no one has heard from South or East Hollywood… very strange) to do an appearance on “the Speed Scene” internet radio show. Scott and Diana Hudson, along with Bruce Barker, host this hardcore sportsman show, and my second trip was just as enjoyable as the first. They even put the new John Force book in front of my spot, but I didn’t have much chance to read it before we went on the air.

Okay, the plan tonight is to try and watch the Topeka race, finish packing, get more than 3 hours of sleep, and get on the road by 4:15 a.m. for another fun-filled, action-packed set of airport visitations. Next stop: Chi-town (Hey, aren’t those the lyrics to a Boz Skaggs song?).

Stay tuned.