I know it has been awhile since I have written a blog when I start getting e-mails from you all asking when I am going to write another entry. Yes, you shamed me into getting on the ball. I’ve been busy, sick, and mostly lazy about writing one, but here goes.

For my birthday Melanie got me the perfect gift that I have wanted for some time. She got me a helicopter. Okay, so it is a remote control helicopter, but it is still my own helicopter. Snake is a big fan of Aytron Senna. He and I watched a video about him and he was into flying remote-control planes and helicopters. He said it helped his hand and eye control and the helicopter was a real challenge. Since then I have always wanted to get one. Problem is I just couldn’t get myself to go and buy one. Thankfully Melanie was paying attention to me talking about it and I got one for my birthday.

It didn’t take me long to get it out of the box and go to flying. I was just getting the hang of it after four or five flights. The sixth flight wasn’t so lucky. I was flying it in the living room (yeah, I know, it’s like when you’re a kid and mom says don’t play ball in the house) when I went the wrong way with the throttle and hit the ceiling. Needless to say it didn’t survive too well and I spent the rest of the day on the internet ordering spare parts for it. Since then I have become a pretty good helicopter mechanic. I’ve really enjoyed it so far and when I become better I would like to get a gas-powered one and test my skills out in the wild blue yonder. Until then I will continue to practice and will probably do most of my flying at the shop where the ceiling is a little higher.

After the Vegas race we stayed Monday so Melanie could do some testing. That was weird since it was the first time I didn’t test and she did. We elected to go home and get our chassis updated with some of the new safety features. I can tell you honestly that I don’t like to watch and not participate. I was bored to death, but like a good husband I didn’t complain. I went up in the tower and watched everyone make their runs. Man, can you see a lot of things from that view.

We flew home Monday night and there must have been someone on the plane who was pretty sick. They shared it, and I spent most of the rest of the week in bed. I hadn’t been sick for a couple of years and I think I made up for lost time. Luckily by Friday I was feeling a little better. Not perfect, but good enough to go to the shop for awhile. I got fitted to new seatbelts. Jimmy Pinkley and Bill Simpson came to the shop to help us build some new belts that really get me tight in the car. It is almost scary how much tighter I am in the car now.

Melanie and Michelle flew to Florida on Friday for a girls weekend. Melanie got a two-night stay at a resort in Florida last year at the ESPYs so she wanted to use it before it expired. My buddy Jeff from Iowacame to visit me and we had a guys weekend while the girls where out of town. Since I moved away from Iowa we haven’t got to hang out much so it was great to see him. We didn’t do a whole lot, but it was good just to catch up.

It’s now secret that our season hasn’t gone as well as we would like, but our team doesn’t know the word quit. We made some changes to our car and wanted to run it before Atlanta this weekend. So on Monday we rolled out to ORP and did some testing. Kind of convenient to have our shop only three or four miles from the track. We made four runs without tire shake and were able to shut it off at half-track. Our problems are early in the run so no need to take it to the lights. We wanted to try some more things so we decided to test again on Tuesday. Tuesday didn’t go as well as the track wasn’t quite as good and we couldn’t get past 60 feet. I still think we learned enough Monday that Atlanta will be better for our team.

Melanie is doing PR for NHRA in Spartanburg, S.C., on Wednesday so we had to leave after I was done testing on Tuesday. We drove to the east side of Knoxville, Tenn., Tuesday night before calling it quits. We got up this morning and drove on to Spartanburg. Melanie and I met Jay Wells, her PR guy, at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Spartanburg and they took off to do PR. Me and the dogs continued onto Commerce. I’ve stopped just before the track to top off the motorhome with fuel and I am now sitting in line at the truck wash. Unfortunately I have been sitting in line for an hour and a half and I am still several rigs back from getting in to get washed. The line is full of race rigs and motorhomes plus a few regular big rigs. I’m passing my boredom and thought it would be a good time to write a blog. I’ll be at the track shortly and me and the dogs will wait for Melanie to get there later this evening. Then she is off to Atlanta in the morning for more PR and I am going to spend the day getting molded to a new seat in my car.

Atlanta hasn’t always been the kindest track to me over the years, but I am determined to make it the best race for us this season to date. Let’s hope I’m right and we can get back to winning ways.