Happy New Year, blog readers! I know I’m a little late with this blog entry, but I’ve spent most of the past two weeks in my car. Over 1,500 miles clocked by on my little Cobra’s odometer, and I have a new appreciation for flying. Maybe I can convince Doug to give me flying lessons. Probably won’t be able to convince him to let me borrow the plane, but hey, a girl can dream!

On Saturday before Christmas, Doug hosted Boy Scout Troop 73 and Girl Scout Troop 740 from Lincolnton here at the shop. He took them on a tour of the show room, showed them the warehouse, the t-shirt printing area and even took them through the race shop. We gave them a few goodies before they headed out to get ready from Christmas, and hopefully we were able to help a few more kiddos turn into drag racing fans.

Like the other members of the Snap-on team, I got to spend time with my family and friends over the holidays. On New Years Eve, I headed to Nashville (a good chunk of those 1,500 miles) to watch the Music City Bowl, where my UK Wildcats defeated the Florida State Seminoles. Yes, you read correctly, UK beat Florida State. The game took place at the home of the Tennessee Titans, what I like to think of as one of the coolest named football fields in America, LP Field.

On Wednesday, everyone came back to work, looking well rested and a few pounds heavier (wait…that might have been just me). Two of the guys, Mike and Beaker, took their CDL tests this week. Despite some ragging from the other guys, we now have two more road gator-hatin’, big rig-handlin’, five overdrivin’ Snap-on guys.

Speaking of the big rigs, it’s time for them to have a makeover. With a whole new theme coming for next season, the first step in the makeover is removing the wraps and getting trailers down to “bare bones.” Watching the process is pretty interesting, mostly because it involves fire. I didn’t ask about the entire process (something about work getting in the way of my chat time), but it seemed to me like they heat it up and then simply pull it off. I’m not saying it’s easy, but for some reason it just fascinates me that in a matter of hours the red trailers I was used to seeing are gone and these strange looking ones now sit in the race shop! I can’t wait to see what they will look like when they are done, and I promise to share a sneak peek with you if at all possible.

This day is coming to close, and I’ve got a few more things to tend to before I put another 30 miles on the Cobra. We’ll have more for you soon!

Until then, be good,

LP