So, my first blog of the New Year! Christmas was quiet this year as my mom and dad went down to Southern California to spend the holidays with my sister. Her house, as I mentioned in my last blog, was beautifully decorated. I added a couple of pictures for you. Gary and I had a quiet time at Gary’s moms on Christmas Eve, and then by ourselves on Christmas Day. We spent the morning on the phone calling everyone, and then the evening by the fire. It was very nice to just sit around; we don’t get to do that very often.
New Year’s well, that was a different story; we saw the sun come up on New Years Day. Lake Tahoe and Reno put on a great party. Fireworks, bands, dancing in the streets, they have it all. They offer a variety of free ride services all night long to help keep the streets safe, and more appealing. They have a replica of the New York apple dropping in the town of Sparks, just outside of Reno, and, of course, all the casinos were battling for the best and longest fireworks show of the year. Not sure who won but it was a great party. At least, that is what we heard on the radio as we drove over to Sacramento to race. Oh, wait, you didn’t think that we.. All night… no, we were asleep by 10:00 p.m. to get up at 4:00 a.m. to leave for Sacramento Raceway so we could properly usher in 2008, at a racetrack. It was a beautiful sunrise on New Year's Day as we loaded up Gary’s car and took the three-hour drive over the Sierra Nevadas. Talk about perfect racing weather, it was sunny and cool. You know for us, it’s not about the all night party, ‘It’s all about the racing’. We decided a long time ago if we had an option, we’d go racing, besides, what a great way to kick off the year.
Talk about great, as Gary would say "mineshaft" weather conditions was what New Year's Day brought us at Sacramento. The big question was could the cooler track hold all the power that below sea level data was showing. There were about 300 cars and bikes there on the New Year's Day race and they could barely contain their anxiousness to get on the track to see what their vehicles could do. Then we had a shift in concern as the track announced that they were going to take the normal quarter-mile clocks down to eighth-mile today. The track was too cool and slippery on the top end so to be safe we are running eighth-mile. So Gary, who doesn’t get the opportunity to race very often, was slightly discouraged that he couldn’t see what his new carburetor changes would bring him on the top end, but would do any tuning he could for the low end. But, that was short-lived, as we only had one pass before eliminations. Yup, one pass, and we didn’t know it until they called for eliminations. We’ll we didn’t have a good first round, so we ended up "loading in the daylight," something that a racer never wants to do.
The rest of team, on the Florida coast, well, they did have a New Years party. They had good food, good friends and some great fun to bring in the New Year. Then, New Years Day….. They slept. Not all day! Debbie did find time to create this beautiful birdbath made out of all those old clutches the Funny Car crews throw out! Check it out!
Happy 2008 to everyone! Oh Yeah! We were hit with our first snow so I added some pictures for you of our white blanket around our house!