Ben Marshall, our team marketing guru, decided to get married last weekend in Las Vegas. Now Jenny and Ben had been planning this for a while, so it wasn’t a surprise to us. They decided to get married at the Red Rock Casino and Resort, and a better choice they couldn’t have made. My wife, Windy, and I drove up on Friday, while we left our little daughter Jenna, with Windy’s parents… Whoohoo — an adult weekend in Vegas!
The Red Rock Resort is spectacular and was easily one of the nicest places I have ever stayed at. We ended up having dinner with Jim “O” and his wife, Tammy, and their daughter, Ashley, at T-Bones Steakhouse at the resort. Of course, the food was great, but the cool part was that pro tennis stars Andre Agassi, Steffi Graff, and their kids sat at the booth next to us. We didn’t go over and bug them, but it was still kind of neat. My wife and I ended up playing her favorite quarter slot machine, Wheel of Fortune. We played it over three days, and she won the 1,000-coin payout a couple of times while we hit the 500 payout a few times each. Can't remember the last time we left with more money than we came with!
The wedding on Saturday night went great and a good time was had by all. We had all kinds of “Kalitta celebrity sightings” there as well. Besides the world-famous interview giver Jim “O” and his family, there were Glen and Bob, the Technicoat cowboys; “DHL” Ray Donahue; Rick Fischer, a.k.a. Raul the Doctor of Fuel; and the bride’s father, Dan Hayes, from Hawaiian Structures, a.k.a. the great guy that hooked Windy and I up with their beautiful condo in Oahu last year.
Sunday came too soon, and it was time to drive back to sunny California. We stopped by and saw my brother, Rich, and his wife as well as his great kids, Damon and Holly. We ended up going to the Claim Jumper for lunch. Let’s just say that we were all full for the ride home. Speaking of the ride home, what was a three-hour ride there turned into a five-hour ride home, complete with a few of the biggest sandstorms I’ve ever seen. The front of my black GTO didn’t appreciate it too much.
Oh well, just getting ready to cut the grass, go to the gym, and then hop on a plane at 2 this afternoon to go to Houston. We have our DHL display to do tomorrow, and then we are going to the track to get set up. I have a great feeling going into this weekend, so maybe we can turn it into a win. I was reading Bob Frey’s column, and it was 20 years ago at this race that Scott won his only Funny Car Wally. Maybe, we can win him another one.
Jeff