Relaxing in Beaver Dam (cont'd)

Welcome back, I'm still camped here on Beaver Dam Lake, right now it is 9:30pm and I'm watching the Discovery Channel's "After the Catch", it comes on after the airing of "Deadliest Catch". Today was a little bit of work and a little bit of play, first it was laundry day, I did mine and Selena's laundry along side Alisha as she did her's and Justin's. It was nice spending that time with Alisha. After we got back Justin rented a pontoon boat for a few hours for all of us to go out on and tour the lake. As we got to the middle of the lake, Justin & Jim jumped in and Justin & Alisha's puppy "Emma" (7 month old black lab) followed Justin and jumped right in. Jim & Luci's dog "Harley" was little more reserved and got to the edge of the boat and thought better of it, and just barked at Jim. All of us on the boat (Jim & Luci + Harley, Justin & Alisha + Emma, Bill, and Vince (Eloy's son who now lives here in Beaver Dam), Lynda and Eloy stayed back to relax in their RV), we all had a good time touring the shoreline looking at all the cabins and houses on the lake, we really had a relaxing time cruising around on the lake. After we got back to shore, Bill made his now famous Pork Marsales (probably misspelled) and Luci steamed some fresh broccolli & califlower, we all enjoyed the great meal and good conversation. Once the mesquito's started to take over, we all dispersed back to our RV's. Now that you know how my day went, let's get back to catching you up on what happened during last week.

When I left off last night, I was in Kansas City with Selena and Payton with me. Sunday morning it was still stiffling hot and I was the last one left at the track, my plan was to leave around 9-10am and drive to Sedalia, Craig (Payton's dad) asked me not to leave Kansas City until he called me with his plan to pick up Payton, well noon rolls around and I still hadn't heard from Craig, so I stayed at the track watching the F1 race on TV. After the race was over, I had Payton call he dad and when she got ahold of him, we found out he was in Sedalia already, oh well, no big deal, I got to watch the F1 race. Well, we then headed for Sedalia, I took I-435 around Kansas City to HWY 50 and headed to Sedalia. We arrived around 3pm and stopped at Baskin Robbins for some ice cream and then we headed to the fairgrounds and parked at our campsite and settled in. Selena went with Payton to spend the night and I took Alisha out to dinner. When Justin & Alisha pulled into the campground driving the WoO Souvenir trailer, I knew right then that Gene & Starla had to fly home to take care of their family emergency. Starla, I know you read this blog, please pass to Gene that all of us out here are praying for his brother and if there is anything any of us can do for you two, please don't hesitate to ask.

Monday was a day to catch up on everything that I had been putting off, I asked Alisha to do my laundry along with hers & Justin's, I did offer up my laundry soap and I paid for all of it, so don't think I made her do it. With Alisha doing my laundry, I was able to take my time (most of the day) and wash my RV top to bottom, wash the trailer, and wash Woody. It takes about 4 hours to wash everything, the sun was out and it was hot, but I took my time and got it all done. Afterwards, I needed a haircut, so I took Woody out in town to find a place. I ended up at the Cost Cutter's near the old Goody's store. I got back to the campground and Bill & Lynda & Eloy were going to go out to eat, they invited me, so I went in to take a shower, I noticed my hot water heater was spewing water out of the relief valve and I thought it was because of hard water deposits in the valve, so I went in to take my shower, just as I climbed into the shower, I noticed the water pump lights went out and I had no water. I didn't know what the hell was going on, but I was hungry and I needed a shower and they were all waiting on me. Luckily I had a water spicket next to my RV and hooked it up, I was able to take a shower using the water pressure from the hose. We all had a great dinner at a nice steakhouse on HWY 50. After dinner, we headed home and when we got into the turn lane, we noticed we had a flat tire. Eloy pulled into a parking lot and we got the tire off and the spare donut on, but the donut was pretty much flat, so we had to call Justin to bring my air tank to us so we could get back to the campground. After we got back, I started troubleshooting my water pump problem, I found out that I didn't have power to the main switch. I jumped the bad lug and got my pump working again (after making a phone call, i found out that it was a circuit breaker that had popped), so at least I had a water pump again.

Tuesday was race day, it was the make up race for the rainout last week, I woke up to no hot water, my hot water heater wouldn't stay on, so I had to spend the morning troubleshooting that. What it ended up being was the relief valve was still leaking water and it was leaking all over the wire that went to the striker for the hot water heater. I made another phone call and found out that the water pump was continually running (a such a slow rate you couldn't hear it) and it was over pressurizing the hot water tank, so the relief valve was actually operating correctly. After disconnecting the striker wire and letting it dry out, I hooked it back up and the hot water heater lit as normal, yeah I fixed it, now I just needed to get another water pump. It was a beautiful day for a race, last week when it rained out we had 24 cars, today 28 cars showed up, but two of the 360 teams decided not to run when 24 410's showed up. It was great to see Wayne Johnson show up with his new car and he was fast. I sure hope he has some good luck with his own car, he definitely could use it. I don't know why Wayne isn't driving for a top flight 410 team, I know if I owned a team, Wayne would be on my short list of driver choices. I couldn't believe how many fans came back for the make up, the stands were packed. This was my third time at Sedalia, the crowd tonight doubled the previous crowds that I had seen here in the past. The race wasn't a very exciting race, but the way the track at Sedalia is layed out and how big it is, it never produces a great race. Sam Hefertepe Jr led from the start and it looked like he might get his first WoO win, but with about 8 laps to go, he was a half straightaway ahead of Sides and the rubber was down on the bottom, Sam made a bold move to pass a lapped car on the outside of turn 3, and by the time Sam got to turn 4, Sides was by, Sam was able to stay infront of Sammy and that is how the race ended. I was rooting hard for Sam, he deserves to win one of these things. However, it is great to see Jason Sides win his 3rd race of the year.

Wednesday, I woke up dreading the drive up to Sioux Falls, SD, after spending practically most of the past 10 days on I-29, I wasn't looking forward to spending another 10 hours on it. I was on the road around 9am, I took HWY 65 over to I-70 and headed to Kansas City, where I caught I-29 and headed north towards Sioux Falls. I had to stop in Council Bluffs, IA at the Camping World to again exchange water pumps. When I stopped, I heard a hissing sound coming from my trailer (I knew it couldn't be good), just as I thought, the propane line going from the tank to the fridge in the trailer broke at the flare fitting and was dragging on the ground. Thank god brass doesn't create sparks, because it could have been a disaster otherwise. I shut off the tank, exchanged my pump and headed to my stopping point for the night, Winnavegas Casino at exit 127 in IA on I-29. It is a great place to stop, they have electricity for RV's for only $10/day and it is a pretty quiet place to park. I met up with Eloy, Bill & Lynda, Jim & Luci, and Justin & Alisha. I went to bed early for me (midnight), knowing I still had 100 miles to drive to Huset's Speedway.

Thursday I was up around 8am and ready to travel by 8:30am. I topped off with diesel (it was only $2.72/gal) and was on the road headed north on I-29 (yukky), thank god I shouldn't have to travel on I-29 anymore this year. I arrived at Huset's after stopping at the Flying J to fill up the trailer propane tank and eat a late breakfast. Selena & I arrived at the track around noon. It was a windy and hot day, all of us had heard all the rumors about how bad the track surface has been all year, so we all had our finger crossed hoping the track would hold up. The track crew definitely were putting a ton of water on the track early trying to keep up with the weather. After both races were rained out last year, I was hoping we would get a big crowd, I don't know if it was their largest crowd for a WoO race, but it was a big crowd. When hot laps began, I would have sworn the track was going to rut up and be rough as hell (I was wrong), I also thought after we blew off the moisture in the heats, the track would slick off (again I was wrong), the track was in awesome shape for the feature. Again, one of our young hot shoe's jumped out to a big lead and looked like he might pull off his first win, Lucas Wolfe was flying. After a few restarts, Lucas kept Steve Kinser at bay and looked good, then Sammy got by Steve and then both got by Lucas when Lucas' car started getting loose and he couldn't get off the cornors like he was earlier, but he was able to hold on for 3rd, not to shabby finishing 3rd behind the greatest modern sprint car drivers of all time (Lucas your win will come soon). Sammy ended up holding off Steve at the checkered, it was a big night for Big Game Tree Stands, because not only did Sammy win, but after having to stop early in the race on lap 5 to avoid drilling McMahon, Craig Dollansky had to restart in 22nd place. At the checkered, he made it all the way back to 5th, he was the only one out there passing at will, I think he definitely was the fastest car on the track, His slide jobs on Joey & Kraig in turn 4 in the closing laps were crazy close, it was just good short track racing. I have to thank Loren Bosma for advertising his company BOSMA Poultry, Inc. on Woody's wing tonight, it was his 4th race of the year on Woody (Jackson and Eldora's races earlier this year) and you will see it again at Spencer and Deer Creek in September.

Friday was another long drive (over 400 miles) to Brainerd, MN, I took HWY 11 to HWY 23 in MN to St Cloud, MN where I got on HWY 10 to HWY 271 to Brainerd. Selena and I arrived in Brainerd around 4pm and parked at the Movie Theater. I had promised Selena I would take her to see Toy Story 3 in Sedalia, but since that didn't happen, I made up for it tonight. It was a good movie, pretty much just like Toy Story 1 & 2, it was funny and entertaining. It was really quiet in that parking lot and no one came and told us we couldn't stay the night there, so we settled in for the night instead of going out to the track or moving to the WalMart.

Saturday I woke up to blue skies and hot weather with about 15-20mph winds, there was a threat of rain later in the evening, so I was hoping the rain would hold off, I would of hated to drive that far to get rained out. We headed to the track around 11am and parked the motorhome where I thought there would be less dust with the way the wind was blowing. After helping set up the hospitality tent and making sure the T-Shirt trailers got parked, I noticed the wind has changed directions and my motorhome was now getting the brunt of the dust. Thankfully there was still room over by Jim & Luci and I moved over by them, it was a good choice because the wind never quit blowing and most of the dust missed our RV's. As for the racing, the track is a small 3/8 with not much banking and up by the wall, the track flatens off, so you can't race up on the wall, they really need to continue the banking up to the wall, if they did that I believe the racing (at least for sprint cars) would be faster and better. Don't get me wrong, the racing was good and Schatz and Meyers put on a good battle during the last few restarts, but watching the drivers tip toe around on the top of 3 & 4 was amazing car control. The last time we raced there in October 2008, when the green flag was thrown to start the feature the tempature was 31 degrees, not this time, it was a comfortable 70-75 degrees. The track was dusty, but it will always be dusty with the type of surface it is, it had nothing to do with track prep or lack of water, with that type of surface (dirt/sand) more water will normally bring more dust. It was a good job by SLS to get a low and high groove to race on and the fans got to see a good race. In the pits after the races, all the fans that stopped by Woody for an autograph or just to check Woody out or ask me how my parents are doing all enjoyed the race and thanked us for coming up there to put on a good show. Also after the race, I met two more fans of this blog, I'm sorry i don't remember your names, but thank you for following Work'N Woody and reading my blogs, I hope you continue to enjoy reading them, it really motivates me to know everyone enjoys reading what I'm up to.

Well, I've finally got everyone caught up on what I've been up to, hopefully now I will get the time and have the energy to keep it updated weekly, if my motorhome would cooperate and not have any problems for the rest of the year, that would free up a lot of my time and energy. Plus, now that I have a new computer (I got it over a month ago) I don't have to wait over 30 minutes for it to boot up or connect to the internet. Thank god, because it was very painful to use that old computer as it was dying a slow death.

Again, I want to thank all the fans for supporting me and Work 'N Woody and the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. So, until my next blog, stay safe and keep all four wheels on the ground.

Work 'N Woody,
"Just Push'n Off"