As fate, karma, luck or kismet would have it…pick your poison…I was once again on the road again for the trip to St. Louis. Unlike my journey to Atlanta with T-Roy and the new blower in the Toyota Sequoia see “Southbound and Down” blog entry), this time I travelled with native Aussie and all-around funny guy Dave “Dingo” Griffiths, cylinder head specialist on the Mac Tools dragster, and George Pierce, Kalitta Motorsports parts cleaner and general jack of all trades, in the race shop’s new Toyota Tundra, loaded with cylinder heads in its bed for the race in Madison. Actually, George didn’t join us until we stopped to pick him up in Bellevue, Mich., and that’s where the trip got off the tracks (really bad pun).

You see, George was an engineer in his past life. Yep, that kind of engineer with slide rules, calculators and more smarts than one person should have, but then he became the other kind of engineer…yep, that one…a train engineer. For thirty years, George rode the rails blowing that really cool whistle across the U.S. and Canada. When Dingo and I arrived at his house, we took a quick tour of his shop, where George also has an auto engine business, and we were about to load back up in the truck when George said, “You guys wanna see my train?” Now, I thought, maybe, he had an old caboose or something to that effect tucked away somewhere on the property, but that was not the case. We made our way into the house and down into the basement and that’s when my and Dingo’s eyes got as big as half-dollars! It was a train, several of them. No, not real trains, although that would have been way cool to see in a basement, but scale electric trains and a labyrinth of track and lights and switches and miniature plastic people and tiny plastic buildings and…well, you understand what I’m saying. The whole set up is incredible. I played with a train set when I was a kid, but nothing even close to this rig. I’m pretty sure it would take me a month just to figure out how to power the thing up! Then, George gets out the remote control to show us a few lines in action…a remote control!...for a train set! There were lights flashing, switches switching, and all kinds of track tricks going on. It was easy to see George enjoys his hobby and enjoyed explaining all the “wow” factors of it to me and Dingo. The trains even had that really cool whistle I mentioned earlier…smaller, but still really cool. A sign hanging near the control center (yes, there’s a control center) says it best…”Once and engineer, always an engineer”. Thanks for the show, George!

Taking another fork in the road or railroad, well, this time in the skies…Connie’s Kalitta Air welcomed the newest member to their fleet recently – a 747-400. It’s the first 400 series plane that the air cargo company based at Willow Run Airport in Yspsarkana (see “Southbound and Down” blog entry again) has ever had and the entire company has been a buzz about its arrival. The 400 series version of the freight-toting behemoths is much more fuel efficient than its predecessors, so when Connie and the folks at KA got a chance to get one, they did. In fact, they got two! But, the first one made its way into the fleet last week. That’s cool in and of itself, but what happened after it got there was a one of the most heart-warming things that the seemingly gruff “Bounty Hunter” could have done. He dedicated his new plane to the memory of his brother and the late father of Mac Tools dragster ace Doug Kalitta, Doug Kalitta, Sr. A photo of the occasion was taken and sent to Doug via E-mail. The reply from Doug to his Uncle says this part of the story best…
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Connie,

This is about as cool as it gets!

Thanks, this means more to me than words can describe.

Doug k
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R.I.P., Senior. We sure do miss you.

Todd has left the building