Greetings and "Howdy" from the LRS pit area at the Texas Motorplex on a beautiful (and get this...) SUNNY day. It's been so long since we've had a weather forecast that basically just calls for sun all weekend, none of us can really remember the last one.
We run in about 90 minutes, and I have a bunch of stuff I either still need to do or I'm in the middle of, so this is going to be brief. Not a legal brief and not men's underwear, just short. Not hot-pants short and not terse either, just brief. You know what I mean…
Trip down yesterday was as smooth as can be expected really. I got our press release out right at 9:00, to announce that we've extended our alliance with Bob Tasca and his team for another year, then headed for the airport, parked in my general typical spot on the blue side of the MSP parking ramp, and even had time to answer a few e-mails in the Sky Club before heading over to gate G-21. Lo and behold, when I walked into the club and headed back to the little semi-private "work area" cubicles, who was sitting right next to me but Nelson Jones, from ESPN. We chatted a bit in the club, and then he sat right in front of me on the plane. I threatened to kick his seat the whole way, but relented…
Nelly was the camera operator up on the ultra-high platform in Charlotte, and as fun as he said that was he also made it a point to mention that he's okay with never doing it again.
Speaking of that viewpoint, in the photo gallery you'll see a photo taken from just below Nelly's "crow's nest" location, by Kara Melia Waddell, the daughter of Ryk Waddell. Ryk had previously asked if he could join up with our team for the Charlotte race, in a sort of "Official Photographer" position, but I knew we were going to be really tight and really busy, so I suggested he contact our old buddy Berserko Bob over at Gilbertson's, since they had just announced that they'd be running there. I knew BB would do the guy right, and he did, just like I expected him to. Ryk got to hang with their team, shoot a lot of pics and video, and just get a taste of what it's like behind the ropes. Thanks BB, and I'm glad you got to do that, Ryk.
In the photo Kara took, all four cars are backing up from or just finishing their burnouts, but if you ignore the fact the roof hatches are open, you can almost convince yourself that Tim is in the lead and kicking butt... LOL. As slippery as that lane was, it's the only way you can look at that exhibition and think that.
We landed right on time, I picked up my rental car, and the one-hour drive down to Ennis was mostly uneventful, which is a good thing when you're driving through downtown Dallas. As for my car, it's an American-made vehicle from a company named after a planet in our solar system, and let's just say it's been "rode hard and put away wet" a few times. Rental car miles are like dog years. My rule of thumb is that whatever is on the odometer, you can multiply that by four to get an idea of the shape your car is in. This one, surprisingly and disappointingly, had 37,000 miles on it! Hertz usually rotates their
cars out of the fleet by 30,000, so I was a little mad about that, but I had already pulled out of the exit and swapping cars, therefore, was going to be too much trouble. Put it this way, it feels a bit like you're driving on a rumble strip, even on the smoothest road.
One of my first stops in Ennis was at the H-E-B grocery store, and that was the first thing that really brought back a few pangs of sadness, as I realized how much we enjoyed our years living in Austin and how much I miss that place. H-E-B was our grocery chain of choice down there, and I stopped at the one in Ennis to specifically buy a couple of 1-liter bottles of their store brand fruit-flavored sparkling water. It is dee-lish!!! We used to always have a few bottles in the fridge at our house in Austin, and it's the perfect beverage if you ever wake up in the middle of the night dying of thirst. Great flavor and just enough carbonation to make it perfect for a late-night guzzle.
Austin is a couple of hours south of here, and that's just too far for me to make the trip, but I sure wish I could. Driving around here, seeing a lot of the same sorts of plants and trees, brought it all back. We had the coolest little house there, on Love Bird Lane (I'm not kidding) that was built into the side of a small canyon. From the front, it looked like a really small little brick ranch-style home, but that was because the whole house was "upside down" inside. From the back, it was a full two-story, because the front of it was cut into the hillside. So, you walked in on the main level, with the living room to the left, my office to the right, and the dining/kitchen straight ahead. If you went downstairs, you found another living area, and all the bedrooms.
Our great neighbors down there, Robert and Barb McCarley, still live in the house next door. Robert and his boy Colin (who is a real kid now, but was just a baby running around outside with no clothes on when they first moved in) will be up here on Sunday, and I can't wait to see them. I'm pretty sure Colin will be clothed.
Things I love about Texas…
1) Tex-Mex food. The absolute BEST Mexican restaurant in Minnesota wouldn't stay open a week in Texas, especially in Austin.
2) Austin itself. A wonderful, quirky, artsy, funny town, with great food and more live music than you're capable of stopping to hear on any given night.
3) San Antonio. By far, and it's not even close, my favorite large city in Texas. Big D and Houston are just too big, too congested, and too everything. San Antonio, and especially the River Walk area, is terrific
4) Texas Martinis. Sometimes referred to as a Mexican Martini, it's just a top-shelf margarita that comes in its own shaker. Not to be missed.
Things I don't like so much about Texas.
1) Cedar Fever. There's a pollen given off by the trees down here, and if you're allergic to it you know it immediately. Aches, pains, and sinus pain.
2) The heat. I remember once, when mowing the lawn in Austin on 105 degree day, thinking I just might die. When we moved to Minnesota, people down here would gasp in horror and say "You won't even be able to go out of the house for four whole months." Well, four or five straight months of Texas heat is no better, and I've yet to burn the backs of my legs on a car seat in Minnesota.
3) Fire ants. I had successfully forgotten about them. When you live here, you fight them constantly, and it appears the fight remains on-going. They're everywhere.
4) Critters walking in your door when you open it. The crickets in my hotel room were no extra charge.
But I did mention the Tex-Mex…. TDF…
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It's a beautiful day at the Motorplex!
This weather, that we have right now, is perfect. It was actually cool this morning, and the air is nice and dry. It is heating up, and it's supposed to be 90 by Sunday, but there's no rain in the forecast and we all know those weather guys are correct 100 percent of the time. They never miss.
Speaking of which, if you live in this area you can see one of my all- time best friends, who is also a former roommate and former baseball teammate. Pete Delkus is the weather guy at WFAA in Dallas, and back in the 80s we played semi-pro ball together (yes, on the famous Sauget Wizards team), then he signed with the Twins and I was his agent. Great guy... I wish we could've gotten together this weekend, but he's swamped and I have this whole racing thing to take care of.
Okay time to wrap up this brief, short, blog that ended up being neither of those two things. I did include two cool pics of the Motorplex in the gallery. One satellite view and then the very-cool Bing.com "Bird's Eye" view. Enjoy, and wish us luck down here in Texas, pardners…
Wilber, out (yee-ha!)