I’m very sorry for the long delay, but when “crastinating” becomes an Olympic event, I will be the gold medal winner. I once was merely a sportsmancrastinator, but I now am a fully vested pro-crastinator! (That was a lot of lead-in for one bad joke). Though I now sit in the RV in the campground in front of zMax Dragway in Charlotte (that’s a lot of “in’s” for one sentence), I think I’ll catch you all up in three parts. Part one will begin at my house and take us to the beginning of the Indy event, so here goes:

Everyone knows that LA traffic is legendary (not for good reasons) and that the worst of it is Monday morning and Friday afternoon. Just to show how unaffected I can be by sound judgment (did you know that “judgement” would also be an acceptable spelling?), we hit the road at 5:06 p.m. Friday for our 2,100-mile journey. Truth be told, I had just flown back from our test session in Indy on Thursday, so it wasn’t completely out of laziness that our start was delayed. Having the luxury of four or five days to get to Indy also meant that we would not have to beat ourselves up, driving all day to get there in time. In fact, our idea was to make as fun a trip as possible out of this, and I believe we did all right. The tough part is trying to figure out what is worth seeing (keeping in mind we have a 2-year-old) and scheduling our driving accordingly.

We covered well over 1,000 miles in the first two days, and Amarillo, Texas, is where we officially put our tourist caps on (okay, that really was an improper use of “officially,” but bear with me). Jason really loves his “Discovery” museums, and this one was no different. Besides the great memories that we are capturing on the camera and in our minds, I think these excursions are so enlightening for the little guy, and he just soaks up the knowledge.

Pretty soon I am going to need to tally up all of the State Capitols that we have visited. I’ll need to go back in my past blogs and start a list. Jenna and I already made the mistake of stopping for the second time in Cheyenne, and that place hadn’t changed one bit since we saw it the year before! I know I’m right around the 25 mark, and Jenna has been to all with me except Topeka, Atlanta, and D.C. Since we both were positive we hadn’t been to the State House in Missouri, Jefferson City became our next destination. Cross one more off of the list (whoever has “the list”)!

After scouring the map for something else to do while passing through Illinois, Jenna came across “the Lincoln house,” and that sounded fine to me. A bit out of the way, and a couple of roads that weren’t totally “motorhome friendly,” it still was a nice tangent for us. After all, getting to see the log cabin where Abe Lincoln lived is truly a piece of history, so count me in! However, it turns out that this is where Thomas Lincoln (Abe’s dad) lived AFTER Abe had struck out (not to be confused with 3 strikes in baseball… I mean that Abe left home to start his adult life) on his own. Hmmm… still, to see an authentic log cabin where Abe’s parents, at least his real father (and his stepmother), once lived and Abe visited would be a great slice of Americana. Oops, turns out this is a re-creation of that cabin, from around 1891 — well after Abe died — but it really still is worth going out to see the great job the park service has done with it.

The next day we pulled into the DSR shop parking lot and set up camp for the next couple of days. Unless you use campgrounds frequently, one concern with travelling in an RV is budgeting your water consumption. With Indy being longer than any other race, we waited a couple of days before Barry and Chris (my NHRA buds) parked us in the oval track infield. Running out of water, or overflowing the grey storage tank (not to even mention the “black” tank) won’t endear you to your camping neighbors, and I like a long, hot shower to get all the clutch dust off of me!

Try to keep this group's attention for more than 10 minutes!

I felt like Santa with an entourage.

Shelly and her husband. I own the kid and drive the car.

At the Riley's hospital. Tell me this wouldn't change your outlook on the day!

At the DSR open house. Friendly crowd, but it could be that they just like having their picture taken!

My first “appearance” of the Indy week was at a local Boy’s and Girl’s Club on behalf of a group called Racer’s Who Care. I have gone to several schools, hospitals, and clubs to spread their positive messages about life, choices, and keeping enough fresh water in your RV (kidding on that last one). Jenna and Jason tagged along for this one, and Jason thought the whole group was there for him to play with. All the little girls wanted to hold him when I was done talking, but none of the big girls would hold me! There were kids aged 5 to 15 in this group, which made it tough. I typically tailor my speech to the age of the audience. The younger ones want to know what it’s like to be on fire, how many times I have crashed, what my gloves and helmet look like, and how much fresh water my motorhome carries. For the older teens, we can talk more about choices in life, peer pressure, and the holding tank capacity on Cory Mac’s bus. Whenever I address a group that encompasses multiple age ranges I just have to “wing it” and try to keep them interested.

That night NHRA hosted a big Fan Fest and autograph session at Champp’s (That’s how they spell it) closer to downtown Indy. We had a Valvoline show car on display (as well as an Army dragster), and many Pro drivers were on hand. This may have been one of those events where the number of drivers came close to outpacing the fan count! Perhaps they shouldn’t have opened the bar so early.

Thursday morning I was given a gift from my friend Cory Mac. His fiancée, Debi Dixon, is a nurse who performs house calls for some patients, and one in particular needed a little boost. Cory asked if I would accompany him to visit Caroline Symmes, who, at age 4, has undergone more than most adults could fathom. After a relapse from her previous treatments, she was given a bone marrow transplant several months ago, and she still is far from out of the woods. Please check out Cory’s blog from 9/4 to see this beautiful little girl who was allowed outside (having to wear a mask to filter potential life-threatening germs) for the first time in quite awhile when we showed up. Her brother and sister — one and two years younger than Caroline — really love her, and I doubt they understand the gravity of her situation. Her mother and grandmother were there during our visit, and it’s so tough (as a parent myself) to see what these folks are enduring. Please check out Cory’s blog. He and I wore those bracelets all weekend long in support of Caroline. Thank God they’re fireproof!

Thursday evening we did our yearly DSR Riley Children’s hospital visit. Ron, Tony, and Matt Hagan took the Pulmonary/Surgical wing, and Cory, Matt Smith, and I took the cancer wing. We visited patients 11 months to 19 years old, talking with family members, parents, and friends during our stay. One of the rules of visiting these patients is that each visitor must sanitize their hands after every room. My hands never have been so smooth, supple, and sanitary, though I must confess that twice I hit the soap dispenser instead of the dry sanitizer. Cory busted my chops the entire time, but I got even when I got to tune his car for the second round race with Bernstein (I’m kidding, Todd Okuhara won’t let me anywhere near the Fram car. In case you don’t get the joke, Cory had a big fire that pass).

Friday was hectic but not because of the number of runs. Indy and Pomona are the only races where we get only one run on Friday, which feels very odd when you are used to the pace of two. That morning I got up early (for me) to participate in the Army/YES program and speak to area high school students. From there I headed over to our shop for the DSR open house. Not only was our place packed, but we did some great stuff for the Riley hospital. Our car show and live auction raised nearly $20,000 for research and development… very cool! In addition to Tony’s Top Fuel helmet, we auctioned “honorary crewmember” passes for each team. The winners were able to ride with us in the tow vehicles, get a tour of the pits, and spend time hanging out between runs. DSR does so much great stuff for so many places, and it’s beyond rewarding to be able to work for such a company.

From the open house it was straight back to the track to attend to PRO meeting. They keep us up to speed on the latest goings-on in the NHRA world, like this new bonus points system for qualifying and the national record reactivation that will begin with the Charlotte race. From there it was back to the pits to warm up our Mail Terminal Services/Valvoline hot rod for a run at an Indy trophy… which didn’t quite pan out for us.

At least the motorhome water didn’t run dry!

Stay tuned.