We are finally home! Now we’re trying to get caught up from the end of the season and being gone to Germany, France, and the UK.

The Germany trip to see the troops was great again this year. We visited the hospital with the wounded troops plus the troops that you don’t hear about behind the scenes. Melanie got to go with me this year and that made it extra special. I had told her so much about our visit last year and this year she got to see it firsthand. Probably the most special moment for me on the trip was while we where visiting the hospital we met a soldier who had been wounded in Iraq. He was in obvious pain while we where talking but just us visiting him it gave him a moment to take his mind off of things. As we were about to leave, he told us that he was glad we stopped by. He said he was having a rough day and that our visit had lifted his spirits. That’s what our trip was all about: Letting the men and women of the armed forces know that we appreciate the sacrifices they are doing for everyone here in the states. I can’t thank GM Racing, Fred Simmonds and the USO for letting us be a part of this trip. By the way, the USO is a not-for-profit organization that is funded entirely from donations. They don’t get any funding from the government and do a great job of supporting our troops. I made a donation to them this year and they could always use more. If you could see what they do for the troops I’m sure you would help too.

Melanie and I had decided to stay after our visit with the troops to do a little sightseeing of our own. We figured that we are all the way over here, so we might as well take advantage of it. We rode back to Frankfurt with everyone and said goodbye at the airport. From there, we took a train to a little town called Wurzburg, Germany. We got off the train and got a rental car. I told Melanie I wanted to drive on the Autobahn at least once in my life. It had been a childhood dream of mine to get on the Autobahn and drive wide open. The past two years of riding in the shuttle bus on the Autobahn wasn’t quite what I had in mind when I was a kid. The rental car we got wasn’t what I had in mind either, but it worked. On the floor it would only go about 150 kilometers. I passed a few people, but got passed a lot more. My Skoal Racing Funny Car would have been fun for 1,320 feet or so.

We made a few stops along the way at some really cool old medieval towns on our way to southern Germany to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle. We had a great stay in a little hotel that night and toured the castle the next morning. We had to get on the road because we where to catch our train to Paris in Auzburg, Germany which was 90 minutes up the road. We made it Auzburg okay, but finding the rental car drop off there was a bit of a challenge. The maps weren’t very good and the street signs where not marked well, plus needless to say they are all in German. We finally found it, but after our train had already departed from Auzburg. We where lucky enough to catch a night train to Paris, but had to wait six hours for the next one to leave. We wasted time walking around town and eating.

Our trip on the train was neat. We got a sleeper car and tried to rest up on the way. I didn’t sleep too well but at least got some shut eye. We got into Paris at 7 a.m. the next morning. We showered and rested up a little before we headed out on the town. We decided to take an open-air bus ride around Paris to see everything and that way we could tell what we wanted to come back to. We spent that day and the entire next day jumping on and off the bus taking pictures of all the cool buildings in Paris. What a neat place. Everything in Paris is really old. I have to say that the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame were my two favorites. With only two days there we didn’t spend a lot of time at any one place, but what else are you going to do but take pictures and say you saw it.

Sunday morning we got up early – not to miss our train this time – and caught the train to London. We took the high-speed Euro Rail train that goes through the Chunnel on our way to London. For a racer this was a cool train. It goes 185 mph. It only took three hours to get to London. We decided to do the same thing in London as we did in Paris. Catch the train and see everything. The weather in Paris and London wasn’t exactly warm and the wind was blowing pretty stiff the whole time we where there but we just grinned-and-bared it.

London was my favorite place because I could communicate with them better. We toured Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and all the other cool places in London. London has old buildings mixed in with new ones, unlike Paris where everything is old. We definitely got our exercise on this trip as my feet where killing me.

We caught the train to Gatwick airport Tuesday morning and flew home 2 p.m. We finally got back in Indy at 8:30 Tuesday night. That is 1:30 a.m. Wednesday in London. I took almost 500 pictures on our trip so I uploaded them to Walgreen’s Wednesday and picked them up on my way to the shop to check in.

The guys have been really busy while we where gone. They’ve got two cars ready to go already and our third should be done soon. Our team is more prepared this year than I have ever seen. With the way we where running at the end of this season and the improvements we’ve made for next year I’m excited.

We’ve got some more news from the Johnson household so I will blog that in the next day or so. I know I’ve been a little slow with the updates lately but with things slowing down for a week or so before the holidays I’ll try and keep you updated a little better. Until then stay warm and happy shopping!