Made it to Volusia

What's up everyone, I made it to Volusia yesterday (Feb. 2nd) in the afternoon and pulled into my normal spot in the camping area by the go kart track. If your at the track, come by and say hi. This entry will be a short one, right now it is 2:50pm and I'm going to work the All Star races, so I have to be to work around 4pm.

I left Deming Saturday around Noon and headed East on I-10. After a stop in El Paso at the Flying J to top off for fuel, I set the cruise control for 65mph and hoped to make it to Ft. Stockton with no problems. Thats exactly what happened, I had no problems and pulled into the parking lot of K-Bob's Steakhouse for a nice dinner. They have a great salad bar (they call it a salad wagon) and their dinners are good too. I had the prok chop dinner, good stuff, after getting permission from the manager to spend the night in their parking lot (I promissed to eat breakfast in the morning) I set up camp and spent the night.

After having a good breakfast, I took off around 10am and got back on I-10 east and set the cruise at 65mph and logged miles. I don't like driving through San Antonio, so I always take HWY 290 through Fredricksburg and Johnson City to Austin, TX. If you ever get the chance to make that drive, it is a good easy scenic drive and Fredricksburg looks like a great little town to spend a day at. I made it to Austin with no probems and stayed on 290 east and headed for Houston. I was feeling good and the Motorhome was running great so I kept driving with a goal of making it to Beaumont, TX to spend the night. If you take 290 all the way to Houston, you will drive right by AJ Foyt's race shops, I haven't had the chance to stop either time I've driven by, but hopefully I will get the chance one day. I followed my new Garmin GPS through Houston, it wanted to take me on the toll road, so I bypassed it and it then took me to downtown Houston, I really didn't want to do that, but thats where it took me, now I know not to follow the GPS blindly. However, it get me around the construction on I-10 in Houston and I made it safely to the Wal Mart in Beaumont, TX.

Monday morning I was back on the road around 10am (slept in a little later than I wanted) and on my way back on I-10 east with a goal of making it to Tallahasse, FL. After stopping at the Flying J in Orange, TX to fill up the motorhome with diesel (2.67/gal = $280.00) I was back on the freeway. After passing the most depresing sign (the last mile marker in TX 878, that is just way too many miles to have to drive in one state), I was in Louisiana and cruising at 65mph. The motorhome was still running great (I got 8mpg through TX) and I cruised through Louisiana with no problems. There were a few crazy Saints fans honking their horns with Super Bowl or Bust on their windows passing me, if they only new I was a diehard Vikings fan, they probably wouldn't have came so close to me on the road. I must be honest, I did want to run them off the road eachtime they came close to me. My goal of Tallahasse was a bit much to pull off and I only made it to the Wal Mart in Marianna, FL, however that was OK, that put me about 300 miles to Volusia.

I was up by 7am and on the road by 8am back on I-10 east hoping to make it to Volusia by 3pm to help with the practice night. After turning south on I-75, I received a text from the WoO saying the practice session was cancelled because of rain, so I didn't have to rush to get there. I must have missed the rain, because I never hit any rain after I got off of I-10. I followed the GPS and it told me to get off I-75 at exit 358 and follow the bypass around Ocala to HWY 40. I knew about the bypass, so I followed the GPS and it got me to HWY 40 with no problems. I arrived at the track around 2:45pm and parked in my normal spot behind Steve's bus. After going and saying Hi to everyone (Bill & Lynda, Jim & Luci, Donnie, Carlton, Justin, Tony V, Johnny, and the new tech guy Steve) I helped set up the hospitality area for a short time and then headed back to my RV. I went out to dinner to a great little seafood place about 1 miles west on HWY 40 with Bill & Lynda and Jim & Luci. I had a great steak dinner and even better conversation as we all caught up with eachothers exploits during the winter season. Then it was back to the track and to my RV for the night. Luci came over and we watched American Idol and chatted for over an hour, I knew it was time for Luci to get back to her RV when we could hear Harley wining for her to come home.

Tonight will be Woody's shakedown to see if the new Penske Shocks work as good as they look and to see if I got him back together correctly. Weather looks good and I can't wait to get on Woody and start pushing sprint cars again.

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"