Bristol was a fun weekend for us except for the racing. My family attended for the weekend and we got to spend some good time together. My nephew Gage is two and is starting to get a good vocabulary. He is also starting to get a good taste of drag racing. He likes the burnouts the best so far. Melanie and I spent our evenings hanging out with the family and enjoying Gage’s outlook on the day. I took him for a ride on my dad’s golf cart Thursday night. We went for a tour of the pits and I also took him to the top end and starting line of the track. He proceeded to tell everyone that we went “Way down there” all weekend. Melanie is really good at teaching him new words and expanding his vocabulary. We had our motorhomes parked together and my sister Wendy and husband Mike brought his swimming pool for him to hang out in the hot weather. He and Melanie even had a squirt gun fight Sunday. Unfortunately we both lost in the first round so he didn’t get to see his aunt and uncle do very well in Bristol.

Also while we where racing in Bristol one of my crew members, Jimmy Wingo, was absent. Jimmy had his wedding scheduled for that weekend and when Bristol got rescheduled that put a crimp on his wedding. We didn’t think his wife would understand if he was in Bristol while he was supposed to be getting married so we had to get by without him for the weekend. Congrats to the Wingos and hopefully after we get a break in racing they can enjoy a weekend together celebrating their marriage.

We drove late Sunday night home from Bristol so we could spend an extra day at home before heading out on the road for three weeks during the Western Swing. We got a lot done on Monday and Tuesday. We have already been traveling for three weeks and we are not planning on coming home for the three week western swing so we had to get everything in order. We decided to get on the road early for Denver. It was all you can eat sushi night at the Tegry Bistro Tuesday so we met Chad and Michelle and Larry and Ali Dixon for dinner Tuesday evening. After dinner we went back to the shop, loaded the car and hit the road towards Denver. We hit a WalMart just west of K.C. and spent about three or four hours sleeping, then back on the road. We got into Denver Wednesday afternoon, but they weren’t parking motorhomes yet so we went to Melanie’s mom’s to spend the night. Our neighbors, Kevin and Gretchen and Joe and Shaun, had flown into Denver Wednesday so we met up with them and took the train to downtown Denver for dinner. We aren’t home very much right now so it was good to spend some time with the neighbors even if it was in Denver instead of Indiana.

We got back to business on Thursday with Melanie and I doing interviews and I had an appearance Thursday night. My appearance was at a different type of location than I have ever done before, but worked out well. It was at the world’s largest liquor store. It was bigger than the Home Depot next door and the traffic through it was good. I met a lot of people who said they where coming to the race that weekend. Afterwards we met up again with the neighbors for dinner at one of Melanie’s and Kevin’s favorite childhood restaurants, Casa Bonita. I guess when you are a kid the place is a lot more fun. Madison and Blake seem to enjoy it a lot more than the adults did.

Melanie had a great qualifying effort in Denver ending in a No. 1 spot. I was happy for her to have that kind of success in her hometown and with all the family and friends there watching. The last session of qualifying in Funny Car was one of the wildest I’ve seen in some time. We started the session in 10th and when we made our run we had been bumped to 18th already. Fortunately I was able to pedal the car when it shook and get us back in the show. Sunday’s results weren’t good for either of us though. Melanie smoked the tires and I had an engine failure early in our run. Denver can be really tough on the tuners getting the fuel systems right on the mountain and we struggled with problems all weekend. I’ve got to hand it to my guys for all their hard work they have put in lately and especially with all the broken parts I brought back to the pits for them to repair last weekend. We’ve got a really good team and hopefully we can get over the hump because we are close to breaking out with a string of good performances. We need to with only four races left in the first stage of the Countdown to the Championship. I still believe we will be okay.

After the race we stayed in Denver. We took the motorhome to Melanie’s mom’s house and are going to leave it there while we fly to Seattle and Sonoma. We’ve spent the week hanging out with Barb and catching up with her family and friends. It has been almost like a mini vacation in the middle of this six-week stretch. We’ve goofed off all week and had dinners with family and friends all week. Melanie and her niece Paige spent Wednesday at Water World while I stayed back with the dogs. Melanie was up all night Tuesday with Rottie. She had got sick and was throwing up all night. She wasn’t much better Wednesday so I took her to the vet Wednesday. The pups are staying with Grandma this week while we go to Seattle so she is in good hands and hopefully doesn’t have to make another vet visit while we are gone.

We are now on our way to Seattle. I love to fly on Frontier Airlines because I can watch TV and it makes the time go by faster. I just got done watching an old Seattle race on ESPN Classic to get myself into the race mode. There are even a few racers on the plane with us. Phil Shuler is just a few rows ahead of us. I told him that they did a great job last weekend except in the first round where they took us out. We are getting ready to land so I should wrap it up before they tell me to shut off my computer. We are going to spend the rest of the day getting ready for this weekend and hopefully warding off the rain that is in the forecast. It looks like it could be one of those long weekends.

There is the announcement. So long for now.