Thanksgiving came and went very fast. For the last few years we have had the holidays at our house. This year was the typical and somewhat traditional feast and group of family and friends. We had thought that the weather was going to be nice enough to have dinner outside, but the day prior, the weather turned, so we dined inside. We had a few surprise visitors during the last few weeks. Gary’s friend Tony found a new racecar to buy on the Internet.

Our friend Tom happened to be up north on a hunting trip, and picked up the car to deliver it to Tony. He stopped by our house on his way down to Southern California. It is a beautiful racecar. Tony and Gary have been plotting to get Tony a new car, ever since the E.T. Finals in Las Vegas this year. They’ve both alternated between drag racing cars and bikes throughout their lives, and for the most part, grew up together. So it’s pretty cool, now that Tony has a car, that they both have tickets for “Pinks” next year. It will be shot at Infinion Raceway, I know it’s a long shot that either will get picked due to the number of cars that will be there, but it’ll be fun to watch them try.

Gary has his calendar and race dates all planned for next year. (Of course, around all the NHRA POWERade dates)

Back to our visitors: Dee Dee, Bill, Jeremy and Kristen stopped by on their way home from Idaho. Creative as kids are, Kristen had us entertained for awhile as she realized how much static electricity you can create in the dry Nevada air. She ran around the house in socks and then touched each of us to shock us. It actually created quite a spark. Here is a picture of her hair … I’m telling you: Creative.



Everyone left either Sunday or Monday and Gary left on Tuesday. We are getting some work done to the race trailer and he had to transport it from Indianapolis to Minnesota. He made it there and back just in time to miss the big storm that rolled through there. He’s happy now that we have a month off so he can focus on the shop. No, the inside is not done yet. Jessie Fenton came by and he is going to help us with the glass wall for our back yard, and with Gary’s shop. The landscaping is still not done, but I do have the plans. I had a landscape architect come by and he provided me with some great ideas. I just have to schedule it now.

I have been busy at GE, my real job, since the banquet. Funny, many of you have asked if my peers here at GE are into my racing. It’s really feast or famine. Many have no clue as to what I do when I am not here, while others are avid followers and NHRA POWERade fanatics. To that statement, I had about 10 people here at work tell me they saw me on TV in an evening gown. I asked if they had ever seen me race on TV and they would shake their heads, or comment yes on the local news. I had to laugh; the many times the NHRA is on TV, and they catch the one time a year that it’s not actual racing. Go figure.

We also heard some great news from our GEICO family member Kirk, the AVP who is responsible for GEICO Motorcycle gracing the side of our Suzuki for the last fouryears. We received an announcement for the arrival of their new and first, baby boy, Payton. Congratulations, Mom and Dad.

We’ll now it’s time to get busy packing for our annual trip to Mexico, which is perfect timing as we just received our first significant snow storm of the season. It always makes tropical vacations that much better when you leave the cold and snow.