As Toni previously stated, my responsibility is to write the second part of our weekly blog. Sorry I have slacked a little in my writing responsibilities, but I have been told by many of you that you like to hear things from Toni’s point of view so love letting her share her thoughts with you.

Well, as Toni said, our good friends from Kansas City, Don and Jana Knapp came to the race for the weekend. Since they had planned on staying in town until Tuesday and I really didn’t have any reason to drive the rig to Dallas before Wednesday, we decided to take a day and actually act like tourists for a change.

When the kids were small (and when we used to have a bigger crew) we used to take a day, while in each particular town, to enjoy the local sights. I guess, over the years, we have gotten away from that and I sometimes really miss it.

Well, the first stop on our Monday morning agenda was the home of Elvis – Graceland. I think we saw everything Graceland had to offer and we had a blast doing it. I got a real kick out of seeing John Force’s Funny Car in the Elvis Car Museum as well as Elvis’ plane, the “Lisa Marie.” After spending about five hours touring Graceland, we decided to take in the sights of Beale Street in downtown Memphis.

Because it was Monday evening, things were a little low key for Beale Street but we still had a great time. I know that a lot of other competitors at the track had visited Beale Street on more than one occasion during the weekend and experienced the sights, sounds and flavors that were offered, but I just can’t enjoy myself if I know that I have to concentrate on racing the next day. (I must be getting old!) So, going on a quiet Monday evening was just fine with us. We walked around, listened to several different performers and finally ended up at BB Kings for a delicious dinner of chicken and ribs. As we were waiting outside for our table, the doorman/host at BB Kings, Chris Thorton, noticed my Wiley X Sunglasses and had to try them on. Well, you can tell from the picture of him that he loved sporting the Wiley X’s and the only way I got them back was to promise to send him a pair as soon as I got home. We found out that Chris was a huge drag racing fan and promises to watch for his new favorite Wiley X Pro Stock team on ESPN2.

Our meal was enhanced even more because we were able to watch the first half of the Redskin vs. Eagles game and I was liking what I saw from my Redskins. We left BB Kings after the first half of the game and headed back to the hotel to watch the second half and I wasn’t disappointed in the outcome. The game certainly was a cliffhanger and the Redskins are now 2-0. Being involved with the McDonald’s Racing Team gave me the opportunity to know Joe Gibbs and his family personally and it is always fun to watch his team perform.

On Tuesday it was back to work. Toni had to do laundry and I had to spend a day servicing the rig. I had the oil changed at Speedco and a new tire put on the trailer, filled up with fuel and parked the rig – we were now ready to pull out bright and early Wednesday morning and head to Dallas – an easy eight-hour drive.

Wednesday morning dawned, and at 7 a.m. I got to, once again, do my imitation of a professional truck driver. We arrived right on time, set up, and now here we are on Friday morning getting ready to start another weekend of racing. The weather is hot and sticky – it was 94 degrees yesterday and appears to be well on it’s way to the mid-90s all weekend. Fun times! Keep your fingers crossed, we would love to get at least another semifinal finish this weekend. I’ll check in soon!