Back Home in Florida cont...

Welcome back, right now it is Thursday night Dec. 3rd and I'm sitting in my living room watching the Jets vs Bills and the Oregon vs Oregon St football games, Alisha came home from College and is in the living room with me, hopefully she is working on her college paper, but more than likely she is chatting with her boyfriend. Well, lets go back in time and continue where I left off last night.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day, I took Donna to breakfast and then we just relaxed in the RV until it was time to check into our hotel room at the Great Wolf Lodge where the Banquet was held. We checked into the hotel around 2pm and relaxed until it was time for the banquet to begin. I've only been to 3 other WoO Banquets and this one by far was the worst one yet. Cocktail hour prior to the serving of dinner was horrible, not only were the drinks not free, but they were way over priced and you had to go through two different people before you got to the bartender, and then the bartenders had no idea how to make a drink or even which beers were domestic or not. We were finally invited to our tables and dinner was finally served after grace was said by Don Grabey. Dinner wasn't that bad but it wasn't that good either. After dinner, it was time for the awards and recognition to begin to be handed out. Most of the awards given out were pretty much pre determined, but the most surprised recipient of the night was Randy Wolfe for Crew Chief of the Year. During the following week I read a bunch of posts on the Hoseheads forum about how Randy wasn't deserving of the award because of the performance of Lucas during the year, I say that is a bunch of crap for all the bashing of Randy, his and Lucas' stats might not have been that great, but their teams finances and budget was very small and it was amazing they did as good as they did. Randy worked his ass off during the year and if anyone ever asked for his help, he stopped what he was doing and helped out. In Dodge City the morning after the powerful hail storm hit us, I couldn't get Woody to run right, after I messed with Woody for a couple of hours, I went and asked Randy for help, he stopped working on Lucas' car and helped me with Woody, he helped me for over 2 hours before we finally found the problem with a broken t-fitting in the vacuum system. Without his help, I never would have figured out Woody's problem and I would have had to park him that night. Later on that evening during the driver's meeting, I noticed Randy was scrambling to get Lucas' car ready, I went over to see if he needed any help, Lucas' told me that he got behind because he helped me out for as long as he did. That is the type of great guy that Randy is, all year long he worked his ass off to keep Lucas' dream alive and his sprint car on the track and the hauler on the road. Randy, the Crew Chief of the Year award went to the right person this year.

I really wasn't able to fully enjoy the banquet as much as a should have, because I found out that there was a hurricane headed straight for the Pensacola area where Selena was home alone with her babysitter for the weekend. I didn't know anything about the hurricane until Bill told me about it during the cocktail hour, so I was worried about that all night until I got back to my room to look it up on the computer. I did manage to hang out and have a few drinks and good conversation with Leonard Lee, Marie (when she would stay in one spot for more that 1 minute). It was a good night to see everybody in a relaxed environment and having a good time, Donna had a good time for her first banquet and she got to meet almost everyone involved with the WoO.

Monday it was time to check out of the hotel and head back to the RV, Donna wasn't flying home until Tuesday, so we spent the day cleaning the RV, Woody and the trailer. If you've ever been to Charlotte, you know that red dirt gets into everything especially when the track gets dry slick and dusty. It took us over 3 hours to get everything clean, but man was everything filthy. After that we drove back over to ButlerBuilt to camp out until Tuesday. Monday night I took Donna out for a nice steak dinner and a movie for her Birthday (it was a early B-Day night out, but I knew I wouldn't be home for her actual B-Day a week later). We had a really good time and enjoyed our night. Alisha Flew home early Monday to make it back to college to take a test, afterwards she drove home to our house to be with Selena and the babysitter (Alisha's college dorm mate) to ride out the hurricane. After the movie, when we got back to the RV, I just tuned in the weather channel to see what was happening back home. I figured if it turned into a bad storm and the house got destroyed, maybe I would get to see my kids interviewed by CNN or the Weather Channel to see how bad they would throw us under the bus for leaving a 17 and 11 year olds home alone to ride out a bad storm. I was sure we would be voted worst parents of the year by People Magazine. Thank god the storm lost its steam and was only a strong tropical storm and all the girls at home were ok and never lost power.

Tuesday I dropped Donna off at the airport and hung around Concord until I knew her flight took off, after her flight was in the air, the tropical storm was just starting to cause it to rain heavily in Concord, but with it forcasted to rain for 2-3 days straight, I couldn't wait it out, so I took off for Deming, NM. My goal was to make it to the Goergia/Alabama border, what a shitty drive it was, it never quit raining and I mean raining hard the entire drive. I had to run the wipers on fast the whole trip. I made it to Oxford, AL around 8pm and honkered down for the night at the WalMart. It rained and the wind blew hard all night until around 5am. I woke up around 8am and there was finally some blue skies and dry weather. The rest of my trip was awesome weather, blue skies and no wind the rest of the way. Wednesday I drove from Oxford, AL to Shreveport, LA and spent the night at the Horseshoe Casino. Thursday I drove from Shreveport, LA to Odessa, TX (man I hate driving through TX, it just seems like you never get out of that state when you drive across it). Friday, I drove all the way to Deming, NM and pulled into my parents place around 3pm. My goal was to make it to Deming before 5pm so I could make it for Poker Night at Billy Roy's. I made it on time, but I should have spent the evening with my Mom, because I lost my ass at Poker Night (your welcome Dad and Clyde, I hope you spent my money wisely).

I sure was glad to pull into Deming, it signaled the end to a very successful year, it meant I survived my rookie year in one piece. Woody drove off his trailer just as easily as he drove on the trailer back in February. What a great year. Thank you to everyone for all your support and I can't wait to do it all over agian in 2010. Well, that's all for tonight, I will continue catching everyone up next week, I'm back home in Navarre, FL and I'm going to go to the Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola and freeze my ass off Friday & Saturday nights. Saturday night I will be rooting for Ryan Blaney (Dave's 15yr old son) during the Snowflake 100, last year he probably should have won the race, but he got caught up in a 5 car pile up with 3 laps to go running in the 3rd position with the freshest tires. I will let you know how he did next week.

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"