It is Friday afternoon at the Mile High Nationals at beautiful Bandimere Speedway and right now, we should be warming up our Sunglass Machine and getting ready to head to the scales. But wait, there is just one problem with that plan …instead of getting ready for the first qualifying session, I'm sitting at my desk, 1,700 miles away, listening to the audiocast just wishing that I was there. What a bummer, huh?

If you have been reading my blogs for a while, you already know that the Western Swing is my favorite time of the season and this is the first time that I have missed the Swing since 1990. Oh well, we have still been having a great time the past few races racing with Ryan Ondrejko and we are all looking forward to picking back up after the Swing. I can't wait!

Since my last blog, I have been really busy, not only with racing but with lots of family events. For the first time this year, Toni and I finally had time to take the boat out for Father's Day weekend. We decided to cruise to National Harbor, which is a new Gaylord Resort/Marina on the Maryland side of the Potomac River. It isn't very far from our house (therefore not much fuel consumption!) but it is such an awesome place we feel like we are on vacation when we are there and since it is across the river from Old Town Alexandria, it is close to the kids.

We have enjoyed boating for many years and have cruised up and down the Intercoastal Waterway from Miami to Virginia, boated the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Keys, the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, however, we really haven't spent much time enjoying the Potomac River and Washington D.C. So, for a change, we decided to play tourists in our hometown and we had a blast.

We cruised up the Potomac and took a detour up the Anacostia River which hosts the new Nationals Baseball Stadium (the team may not be so hot, but the stadium looks awesome) and took in the sights of the many military bases that surround that area of the river. We then traveled up the Washington Channel (which actually dead ends just this side of the Tidal Basin) and then decided to dock at the Gangplank Marina to grab a quick lunch of fresh steamed and barbequed shrimp. After a great lunch it was back to the boat and then back down the Potomac to our slip at National Harbor.

Our weekend "vacation" continued with Jamie, Cynthy and Ryan coming to the boat to take me to lunch and then Jon and Alli joining us later and taking me to a great Mexican restaurant for dinner. No, Melissa didn't treat me to breakfast; Toni made me walk five miles for that! Unfortunately, Melissa was working at the NASCAR race that weekend so she couldn't be with us, but she was with us in spirit.

After a weekend filled with family and fun it was time to get back to work and set our sights on the Summit Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. It was another successful weekend and Ryan did another fantastic job behind the wheel of our Wiley X GXP. Though we had to bump back into the show on the final session, Ryan did what he had to do to tweak out those precious four thousandths of a second that kept us in the field. Whew, I have to admit, it sure is harder standing on the starting line worrying about qualifying than it is sitting behind the wheel of that Sunglass Machine. LOL Anyway, we got to race on Sunday and that is what it is all about. Unfortunately, Ryan had Greg Anderson first round and though Ryan left on him at the starting line, he just didn't have enough steam to keep up with that Summit car. I was still very proud of him – he once again made our Wiley X team look great! I know he is going to be anxious to get back into the car after the swing.

Well, by the time we got back to the shop, unload the car, shipped out engines and cleaned out the rig it was time for our annual July 4th family boating trip to watch the fireworks at the Washington Monument. Once again, everyone met at National Harbor, boarded the Finishline and headed back up the Potomac River. We took some time to cruise the river before the crowd of boaters set in, stopped at Main Avenue where you can jump off of the boat and buy fresh seafood, enjoyed a quick dinner and then found a place to drop anchor to watch the fireworks.

The weather was cool and the fireworks were amazing this year. Everyone had a great time. Unfortunately, the only person we were missing again was Melissa. She was working at the NASCAR race in Daytona but Jamie and Jon were keeping her updated with constant text messages so at least she could feel like she was somewhat a part of the festivities. Gee, what did we ever do before text messaging?!

After a wonderful July 4th weekend, it was back to the race shop where Jon and I have been busy cleaning and organizing, as well as engineering some new ideas for our Wiley X GXP. Jon has been working so hard on our racing program and has a lot of really good ideas which we have been working on which should really help our performance at the next race. It is so nice to have him and Alli back at home.

By the way, I have to take a moment to say how proud I am of Jamie. He has just finished his first summer session at the University of Maryland and once again has pulled straight A's! He has this weekend off and then starts the second summer session on Monday. So far with straight A's and only two more semesters ahead of him, I know that he will soon see the light at the end of that long tunnel. Way to go Jamie!!

As you can see, I have been having a great time with my balance of racing and family. I even got treated to a fantastic birthday dinner last night that Melissa prepared for all of us. It was complete with balloons, presents and tiramisu for desert. Wow, was it awesome. Luckily, Toni didn't have time this morning to make me walk five miles. Thanks goodness for that! LOL

Well, I have been listening to the audiocast while I have been typing this and waiting for Bob Frey to start announcing. When Bob starts talking, that means that the Pros start running and that means I have to finish this blog and listen. This isn't exactly how I had planned to spend the Mile-High Nationals weekend, but if I can't be there in person, at least I can be there in spirit, right? I'll be checking in with you soon!