Right back on this blog thing... either I have serious case of motivation, or it’s just mild gas, but either way I’m wearing out the keyboard lately. Get in, buckle up, and let’s hit the gas and see where this adventure takes us.

From Memphis we continued northwest (at least that’s the way it looked on my map). Speaking of maps, we had pulled over at a rest stop in Bristol, Virginia, to have lunch (which is around 3:45 p.m. if you’re a Beckman), and I decided to kill some time looking at the map while Jason finished eating. I noticed that Christiansburg was directly on our route (81 for those of you keeping track), so I called up Matt Hagan to see if he was home (I guess that by now you’ve figured out that he hails from Christiansburg). He was, and two hours later so were we. This was the first time I’ve got to meet wife Rachelle (Matt’s... I call mine “Jenna”), and their kids Colby and Penny are beautiful. We also got to spend some time with his folks, David and Judy, whose house is on the same tract of land. I wish we had arrived earlier and were able to see their farm, but dark is dark, and I’m guessing they don’t have headlights on their cows. I’m glad we took the time, as often we just don’t get to spend quality time with our teammates and their families. Apparently my visit has brought Matt some amazingly good fortune on the racetrack, too. (I like to take credit for things that I had nothing to do with!)

Once we departed, here’s where some planning, ambition, stick-to-it-ivness, and lots of diesel helped get the job done. Since we knew that being in the New England area ain’t happenin’ often for us and we still had yet to see six capitols in that area, we got down and dirty. Jenna, the Queen of Research (that’s an honorary title that I bestowed upon her), got to it with the maps, GPS, AAA Trip Guides, and her internet on the cell phone. She found out that New York and Vermont both had Saturday hours at their capitols, so we headed for Albany.

Eleven AM by most people’s standards is an early lunch. By ours, it’s breakfast. However, we were at the Albany State House early to take part in the first tour of the day (that was the earliest that anyone was allowed in on Saturdays). After navigating through an ambiguous and misleading detour to get into the building, we thought for sure we had missed our tour! Yep, nearly 20 minutes trying to figure out why a sign with an arrow pointing to the right really meant that you had to cross the street and walk ¼ mile away from the building to gain underground access. Fortunately we encountered two very nice security guards, and we were in! (I’ll tell you about the body cavity search, mace and handcuffs later).

With the website for the Vermont Capitol, Montpelier, stating that they were open until 4:30, we thought we were in great shape getting away from New York by 1 p.m. With only 131 miles between the State Houses, what could go wrong? Well, there are ZERO “highways” in that region, meaning we were on two lane road for a good portion of the time. Hills, turns, towns, plus two accidents, and we found ourselves pulling up to the curb at 4:15... just in time! Well, apparently no one has bothered to update the website, and no one was home! Nope, we got a nice walk-around tour of the exterior, and that was plenty disappointing (not the exterior, it was beautiful; Just the part about hauling ass all the way there for nothing). Cross Vermont off my list! Yes... Idaho, Nevada, and Vermont have not had their Capitol interiors graced with my presence, but I was there, and I’m counting them!

Stay with me on this: Saturday, and two capitols have fallen so far. Obviously none were open on Sunday, so in order not to waste an entire day we thought Boston would be a great way to spend the seventh day sightseeing. And how! Boston may be my new favorite city, as this place is just dripping with history. We spent all day Sunday and half the day Monday just seeing the sights and soaking up some amazing stats, facts, and scenes. If you haven’t been there, it’s a “must see,” but I’ll give you some advice you’ll thank me for later: DO NOT DRIVE! It’s confusing, there’s no parking, and I’ve seen video games with less excitement than navigating around Boston in a vehicle. Take one of the trolley tours. Not only do they get you around in a hurry, but you can get on and off as many times as you like, with cars running every 15 minutes. We really liked our third tour guide/driver and the way he explained things.

As I mentioned, we stuck around Monday so that we could tour the Capitol, and we saw a couple of the sights that we hadn’t a chance to get to on Sunday. After that, we packed up and headed back north, right up to Concord, New Hampshire. We had actually driven right past it on Saturday to get to Boston, and it turned out to be a great decision. During our self-guided tour of Concord (Not to be confused with Concord, Mass., where the Revolutionary War began {I know, technically it’s Lexington, but I won’t tell your history teacher}), one of their Representatives chatted with us for several minutes, which was cool. New Hampshire has 400 Representatives for 1.3 million citizens, or 1 per each 3,500. Compare that to California, where the ratio is 420,000 to 1! And still they tax us into oblivion, but that’s another story.

To be honest, I really don’t remember much about the details of this trip, and I’m just going off my camera and the dates on all the photos to fill in the blanks. So, it appears that once we hung out in Hampshire, it was time to boogie on over to Rhode Island. I do remember that it was kind of rainy, and we had a tough time finding parking. We did manage to get our tour in before 5 p.m., so cross another off the list.

For those of you running the tally: 4 days... 5 Capitols!

I didn’t know what else to do for an encore, other than add another capitol in on the next day. And that’s just what we did, bagging Hartford, Connecticut on Wednesday... make that 6 State Houses in 5 days.

When we purchased our RV from Robert Hight, it had 47,000 miles on it. Ever since, we have been traversing the country. We reached the 100,000 mark while still back in New England, and I have the photo to prove it. I really was hoping that confetti would drop from the ceiling, or that the horn would automatically sound some celebratory note. Heck, I would have settled for that whole “Asian massage” thing, but none of that happened.

Reading was a tough weekend. After having the fire in Dallas and losing in the second round, we really needed to get back on top. Hagan, Tommy DeLago, and that entire DieHard team had a phenomenal three days and wracked up a tremendous amount of points. What was tough for us was that, aside from Hagan, every potential championship car lost early, opening the door wide open for us. Unfortunately, we smoked the tires nearly instantly in the second round against Jim Head, and that was it for us. We now find ourselves in a difficult position: in order to have a shot at the championship, not only do we need to be nearly perfect in the last two races, but we’ll have to depend on the DieHard team struggling. I don’t like to root against my teammates and friends, but we truly want that Full Throttle trophy at the end of the year.

Cindy flew in for the Reading event, and Sunday we headed over to Wilmington, Delaware, to visit her parents. We also hung out with Jenna’s uncle Mark, his wife Sue, and their six children. Jenna hadn’t seen him in 25 years (Mark is the youngest brother of Jenna’s father Bill, was 5 when Jenna was born, and is younger than me... ouch!). The four of us went into Philly for part of a day and took a horse-drawn carriage ride throughout the historic parts. Except for having a tendency to spit while he spoke, our tour guide was very informative. Since Mark and I sat in the back seat, it was very enjoyable. Unfortunately, Jenna and Sue had soaked heads by the end of the trip.

Thursday we headed for Maryland, where my dad grew up. I was the guest at the Cumberland car show for Toys for Tots. We raffled off one of my diecasts, some shirts, and lots of used engine and clutch parts to raise money for the kids. They even let me pick the “Fast Jack’s choice,” which I awarded to a husband and wife with his-and-hers 1970 and 1973 Challengers.

We left Cumberland Monday afternoon, and had a fairly tough decision to make. We’d have liked to stop back by the shop in Indy, and we really wanted to get home for a couple of days before Vegas, but there was a higher calling. Yes, we needed to be in Montana. You see, Hartford, Conn. represented my 47th, and Jenna’s 46th Capitol, and all I have left are Florida, Alaska, and Montana. So, we took a slight gamble that the weather would hold that far north, and we legged it. We averaged over 700 miles per day, got in our State House tour, and still had time to pick me up a new phone before hopping on the I-15 for the 900-mile trip to Vegas. I really wanted to pick up one of those official purses for Jenna: you know, the “Helena Handbag”, but I guess they were all out (that’s so funny, for those of you who enjoy ridiculous jokes).

Two days later we were sitting in the RV, inside the Vegas Blue Beacon, watching the workers scrub 4,000 miles worth of bugs off the front end. From there, it was over to the NASCAR track to drop the RV, then unload the PT, groceries, laundry, wife and kid, and get back on the road for lovely Norco.

Once home, I reacquainted myself with the lawnmower, garbage cans, and surf board. In fact, after my first surf session in 3 months, I was able to utilize the trash cans for something I hadn’t anticipated: my new surfboard! Yes, $480 worth of garbage... or shall I say two pieces, each costing $240. Either way, it was a major bummer. Sure, the first hour was ridiculously fun, but that’s not at all how I wanted to regain my “sea legs”. Rich and I did the most appropriate thing: we went over to his buddy’s surf shop and bought me another board. Though still sore from my first adventure (not the broken board, just using muscles that had long forgotten how to paddle), I hit the beach again today (Tuesday), milking the waves for all I could to make up for lost time.

Once I wrap this up, fill in my absentee ballot, and shower, I’m back in the PT to head right back to Vegas. I have an incredibly busy schedule this week/weekend, and I have to pick up my Wally!

Stay tuned.