Just wanted to make that point, with the headline. It's Friday the 13th, but it's all good.

This race is already pretty "crazy go nuts" in terms of stuff going on, so I'm not sure how long or coherent this blog will be. It seems like every few seconds I'm reacting to some other different assignment or conversation, but the bottom line is I have some great pics to share so I need to at least tap a few words out here just to have a vehicle for the photos. This blog will play the part of the chips, and the pics are the good queso. You have to have a way to get the queso in your mouth; hence the chips...

I'm also about hyped to the max on coffee this morning. John Fink and I have eaten breakfast together over at the Sheraton each morning, and the waitress is always hovering over us to keep the cups full, then (of course) we still need to make our standard morning pilgrimage to McDonald's for another large one. Considering I don't drink coffee at home, and only have it sporadically at the races, I'm not saying I'm hyper but things sure are moving at a high rate of speed! LOL.

Okay, a few short updates:

1. The flight out was uneventful except for the 35-minute delay leaving the gate so that some sort of repair could be made to the Captain's seat in the cockpit. A mechanic made three different trips in there, and on the last one he was carrying a roll of duct tape, so that must have cured whatever ailed the pilot's perch. You can't make stuff like that up.

2. Hertz gave me a brand new (4 miles on it!) black Cadillac DTS. It's a pimp-daddy ride for sure, but a very nice car. Plus, I can make a few extra bucks at night driving teenagers around to proms or dances! All I need is the snazzy hat.

3. I'm in a nice room at the Sheraton. Originally, Barb was planning on coming out for the race and she likes to stay there because she can ride the tram over here from the Wally Parks Museum. She's still in Europe, though, so I could've stayed with the team, but I like the place too and Finkster wanted to stay there, so I bucked up for the big room rate and took it like a man.

4. On Thursday morning, John and I drove out to Ontario to pick up Jon Gimmy and Kevin Wilkerson, who flew out here in the morning. Considering they landed at 10:00 in the morning here, and had to fly from St. Louis to Dallas, and then to Ontario (and, of course, first had to drive the 110 miles from Springfield to the St. Louis airport) I was wondering what time they got up. According to Kevin, they didn't. They had to leave Springfield quite literally in the middle of the night, so they both stayed up and then slept some on the planes. No way in the world I could do that... No way.

5. The team was originally staying in San Dimas, just up the road, at a hotel that shall remain nameless, but which rhymes with Red Roof Inn. They checked in on Tuesday, and were immediately struck by the quaint way in which half the guests appeared to be actually living there, and how they so charmingly put their chairs out in front of their rooms and offered illicit pharmaceuticals to our guys when they arrived. Plus, Brandon had to ask for a different room because he just wasn't digging the way they had decorated his first one with a large blood stain on the carpet! The added bags of trash laying around the parking lot, and the guy hitting his "bong" with his room door open only added to the ambience. By the time I got here on Wednesday, they were fairly "over it" so I got on the horn and was able to move the whole team over to a brand-spanking-new Holiday Inn at Ontario Airport. If you're ever in San Dimas, though, and are looking for a hotel that provides all of the benefits described above, you know where to look. An Inn with a Roof colored Red. Sweet place...

6. We ran pretty well yesterday, but still nicked the heads a little in the lights, running a 4.15. Right now we're 5th, but today features cool temps and cloud cover, so everything could end up jumbled from here.

7. Barbara is still in Edinburgh, Scotland as I write this, but her day is nearly over and the hectic (crazy) business portion of her trip ended yesterday. Today she toured Edinburgh Castle, at the top of the Royal Mile, for most of the day, and she really had a good time. She's been all over the continent and basically reported that she can do without Zurich, she liked Geneva, The Hague was charming, and Edinburgh was really great. In the photo gallery, you'll see a pic of her next to a huge cannon in the castle, and she noted that it was installed there in 1457, it weighs six tons, and it took 100 men and horses to get it into place. Its cannon balls weigh 150 kilos each, and with 55 kilos of powder needed to fire them, the gun could only be used 10 times in a day, due to the heat it generated. It was last fired in 1681... You gotta love Europe! The part of Edinburgh known as New Town is the more recently constructed part of the city. It was built in the 14th century... Most importantly for Barb, she now gets to fly home!!! She's very anxious to get there.

8. Last night, Tim and I attended the Summit E.T. Bracket banquet at the museum, and let me tell you something... That was neat! Those guys are such dedicated racers, and just getting here to Pomona is such an enormous accomplishment it's hard to fathom. As Tim told them "You guys are the reason I'm a pro racer now. Beating people like you in bracket racing was just too damn hard!" One guy, who earned his way here running at Maple Grove, in Reading, drives a '68 Camaro, and when he won the division championship and earned the right to race here, he DROVE HIS RACE CAR from Pennsylvania to Pomona. How cool is that! We sat with the Summit guys, at the front table, along with Larry Morgan, Jason Line, and Greg Anderson, and a good time was had by all, due in no small part to Alan Reinhart's wonderful work as the Master of Ceremonies. Very neat deal, and a real honor for some fantastic hardcore racers. Best of luck to all them!

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Getting right to work with some media stuff. "Tim, tell us how you feel..."

 

10. My phone was buzzing throughout the banquet last night, with text messages from Dave Rieff. His favorite hockey team is the Tampa Bay Lightning, and they were hosting the Wild down in Tampa last night. Rieffer was keeping me updated, including the fact the Lightning scored with 15-seconds to play to tie it up, and then won in a shootout. Oh well... Rieffer lives in Omaha now, and we've been talking for a couple of years about him coming up to the Twin Cities during the winter, to go to a Wild game with me. His last text said "I am coming this winter!!!! Gotta see the rink" By "the rink" he means the Xcel Arena, of course, so we'll have to find a time for him to make the trek north and grab some hockey action this winter. That'll be major fun.

11. Speaking of hockey, Neighbor Dave has absolutely SHOT to the top of our big NHRA pool, and he said Rob Flynn and Jeff Arend both stopped him on the way into the pits this morning to comment on that. Amazing that his stats could outpace the rest of us by so much in a week like that, but his team did indeed do it. I'm 11th right now, and currently Mr. Ozubko has changed my name one more time, to Mariano Wilber. Apparently I'm now "The Sand Man" closer for the Yankees, after being Reggie Wilber - Mr. October and then B-Rod Wilber after that.

12. My direct contact at LRS, Shannon Heisler, sent me a photo she still had in her in-box from last year. I don't remember if I showed it on here or not, but either way it's worth another look. At this time last year, someone put a big electric highway warning sign on the side of I-55 near Springfield, and you'll have to look in the photo gallery to see what it said. Very cool!

Well, I'm sure there's more but that's all I have time for right now... Gotta run. Let's go racin'...!!! Plus, the coffee is wearing off. Time for a Dew maybe?

Wilber, out!