The Norwalk experience was a fun one. Melanie and I got to Norwalk Tuesday night. We parked in the field waiting to get in and then looked up a vet in Norwalk. Rottie had got an eye infection so we took her in to get looked at. It was really neat that the vet knew who Rottie was. She races at Norwalk and had seen the puppies on ESPN a few weeks ago. She gave Rottie some eye drops and she is doing fine now. My back was still hurting from Englishtown so I asked the track people if there was a chiropractor they knew and got into him on Wednesday afternoon. It took him three tries but he got me snapped back into place. We finally got parked Wednesday afternoon and then went to downtown Norwalk for a while. They had a street celebration party so we walked around looking at the town. After that we drove around the area and up into Sandusky to check things out.

On Thursday we got some stuff done in the morning and then that afternoon we headed to Cedar Park to ride the coasters. I’m not a big fan of roller coasters so we met up with some of my guys so Melanie would have someone to ride with. She rode the Top Thrill Dragster ride with some of the guys from ESPN when we got there. I would have ridden it if it didn’t go so high up in the air. I ended up riding four or five roller coasters, mostly the ones that didn’t get to high in elevation. I did ride the corkscrew one that goes upside down several times. That was pretty big for me. We ended up closing the park down with my guys and Melanie riding the Top Thrill Dragster ride one more time.

The race weekend went okay. We qualified well, but first round didn’t go so well. We hurt a piston and it caused the car to have tire shake. I pedaled it, but Cruz made a good run and we were done early on Sunday. Melanie didn’t fare well either. It makes for a long day on Sunday when we both go out first round and have to spend the rest of the day watching. On Monday Melanie’s team stayed to test so I left her the Mini Cooper to drive home and loaded up the dogs with me in the motorhome and headed to Monaco’s service center in Wakarusa, Ind. We had a couple of little things I wanted to get fixed on the coach and this was about our only time we will be close or have time to. As soon as I got there about 12:30 they jumped right on it and I was back on the road home by 2:30. I got back to our shop in Brownsburg about six and unloaded all our stuff out so I could get started on the dirty laundry. Melanie called me about 4 to tell me she was headed home. She made some good runs on Monday so she is excited to get to Bristol.

Melanie got home about 9 Monday night. The dogs and I were hard at work getting things done around the house. After being on the road for two weeks there was plenty of mail to open. Of course I had to sit down and read this week’s dragster coverage of Englishtown. Tuesday was a really busy day. I had a bunch of errands to run and bills to get paid. When you are only home for a little more than 24 hours there is a lot to get done in a short amount of time. The day was a success and we where able to going Chad and Michelle Head for dinner Tuesday night. Michelle’s birthday is this Friday so we took her for an early birthday dinner. We went to Plainfield which is just south of Avon to the new mall there. They had a bands playing in the streets and fireworks when it got dark. After dinner we walked around a little, did some shopping at one of our favorite clothing stores the Buckle and then met up with a group of our neighbors to watch the fireworks. Chad had to get home to bed because he flew out Wednesday morning at six for Watkins Glen IRL race this coming weekend. We left a little early too because we had a few things to finish and get to bed because were leaving at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning for Bristol.

Neither one of us wanted to get up to bad this morning, but we got up and going so we could get on the road. We are doing some filming for ESPN on our trip for an upcoming show that will show a little of what our on the road life is all about. We’ve taken turns using the camera filming each other and the dogs. We got on the road only about a half hour late this morning which is good for us. We are trying to get into Bristol before they quit parking today because we have a full day of activities tomorrow. I have to go into the Masters Entertainment studios to finish some voice over work on the TV show King of the Strip we did, which by the way airs this Sunday at 10:30 a.m. on ESPN2. Then we are both playing in the Bristol Dragway charity golf tournament tomorrow. I’m sure by the end of tomorrow night we’ll ready for some sleep. I’m hoping we can get into Bristol and get parked early enough that we can go catch the fireworks show somewhere there tonight. At least traffic isn’t too bad today because everyone has the day off.

So long for now,
TJ