Back home in Florida Part 3

Welcome back, right now it is 10pm Monday night December 7th. Please remember all those who lost their lives in Pearl Harbour, HI. I have been through Hawaii many times in my Naval Career, but I was always just passing through and I never had more than a few hours their, I would love to go there and visit all the WWII sites and pay my respects to all who served during that time.

I'm writing this blog from the comforts of my couch at my home in Florida, I'm watching the Monday Night Football game between Green Bay & Baltimore. I'm rooting for Green Bay because I picked them in my fantasy league, but secretly I'm rooting for the Ravens, since I'm a huge Vikings Fan, it would benefit my Vikes if the Pack lost. My last blog ended with me arriving in Deming, NM safely and on time to make the Friday night poker game. Starting the Saturday after poker night, it was time to start taking Woody apart piece by piece and start the cleaning and inspecting part of starting to get Woody ready for the 2010 WoO Season. Thank god Super Clean is a series sponsor, because it takes about a case of that stuff to get Woody clean in all the nooks and cranny's and it isn't the cheapest cleaner in the world, but man does it work. The first few days I was there it was really breezy and kinda cold, so cleaning woody wasn't all that fun, but by Tuesday the weather was beautiful and the wind was calm, so I got really busy cleaning and painting, my Dad and I inspected Woody for cracks and parts that needed to be replaced, we only found a few places that needed to be welded and some pieces that finally after 30yrs that needed to be replaced. Both rear fenders, the complete pushbar, engine water pump & pulley, and a bunch of bolt on parts needed to be replaced or new ones made (fenders & pushbar). Everyday I spent a good 6-8 hours just working on Woody, I'm not gonna say I have as much work to do in the off season as one of the teams, but there is plenty to do to keep yourself busy. I also helped my Dad around his property fixing his fence (not a whole lot, but a little bit), I would have helped out more, but I had to get woody back into a running condition before I left, so Dad could move him around and drive him downtown to get the exhuast system modified. So, my main focus was working on Woody.

The following Friday night, I was determined to win my money back so I could leave Deming even or possibly ahead, well lets say I didn't quite make it back to even, but I did cut my losses in half. There are some great people in Deming, NM that help me out every year that I would like to recognize. First off the Harris family Bill, Billy Roy, & Mercedes are great friends and will stop everything they are doing to help me out when I show up with something I need help with fixing. Billy Roy owns Harris Auto Electric and his Dad Bill works with him, Bill likes to call himself the doctor, because there isn't one auto electrical problem that he can't fix, if your ever passing through Deming, NM on I-10, and are in need of some electrical work on anything RV, Big Rig, car, truck or tractor, they can hook you up and get you back on the road. My Mom & Dad's neibors Bill & Doris, they are great people and they make the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had. Ronnie the welder, he can weld anything and he is making the new fenders & pushbar. Kenny at E&M truck repair, he is the one who works on my RV every winter ensuring it is good to go for the next season and the 30,000 miles it needs to travel. There are a bunch more businesses that help me out, the town of Deming has some of the friendliness people, please stop in and spend a day there if you have the time.

Frank & Cathy Carr stopped in on Sunday after they spent the weekend at the Western World in Tucson, AZ and stayed there for the week. They had planned on spending some time with my parents and doing a little traveling through the northern parts of New Mexico over the Thanksgiving weekend. Tuesday before Thanksgiving I got Woody back together enough and mobile for my Dad, and since they were heading out with Frank & Cathy Wednesday morning, that ment it was time for me to takeoff myself and head for Florida. This year I decided to drive my truck (99 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 V6) home, mainly for two reasons, round trip airline tickets were going to cost over $500 and I wanted a vehicle to drive around when I was home since my daughter Alisha has our spare car in college. I took off Wednesday afternoon around 1pm and my goal was to make it to Ft Stockton, TX for dinner. I pulled into the Motel 6 in Ft Stockton around 7pm and walked over to K-Bob's Steak House for dinner. I took off Thanksgiving morning around 9am with a goal of making it to my friends house in Pearland, TX by turkey time. I made it to his house around 6pm and his friends had left me enough turkey and all the fixn's to stuff myself. I don't like driving the entire distance of Texas on I-10, so I always cut through Johnson City to Austin, TX on HWY 290 and then depending on if I want to drive through Houston or not determines which way I go after Austin. Try it next time, the mileage difference is minimal and it is a way more scenic drive. I spent Friday with my friend Jamie (we have been friends since 1985 when we met at SAR School I was in the Navy and he was in the Coast Guard, back then both services trained at the same school for Search & Rescue Swimmer training), now he is also retired, but he is spending his retirement as a cop in the Houston area. I took off from his place Saturday afternoon and drove all the way home to Navarre, FL, I pulled into my driveway around 10:30pm. My little truck rans its ass off and got me home with no problems at all. I sure was glad to get home and give big hugs to Donna & Selena (Alisha was in TX with her boyfriend for the Thanksgiving weekend).

This past weekend is one of my new traditions that I started back in 2001, I'm really not a big asphalt late model fan, but attending the Snowball Derby is always a great time. Since I have been going, it is always the coldest weekend of the year, and it didn't disappoint this year. If you ever have free time during the first weekend of December and would like to see great short track racing for 4 straight days, come to Pensacola's Five Flags Speedway and attend the Snowball Derby. Friday night the temp was around 39-41 degrees for the Super Late Models qualifying for the 300 lap Derby on Sunday. This year along with the souths best drivers, Kyle Busch, David Stremme, Ross Kenseth (Matt's son), Chase Elliot (Bill's son), Steven Wallace came to town to win the Derby. Qualifying was great, the pole was won by Johanna Long (17yrs old and the 2009 track champion) and Ross Kenseth was 2nd, all the big names qualified and locked themselves in for Sunday's race. Saturday I got to the track around 2pm after stopping at Lumber Liquidators and ordering my new floor for my house (I now have to grow back my arm & leg), I just made it for the Snowflake 100 qualifying for the Pro Late Models (same cars but only a 2 barrel carb), this is the race that Ryan Blaney was hoping to run in. Again, Johanna Long was fast and qualified 2nd, Busch qualified 4th and Ryan Blaney qualified 13th. The race started at 7:30pm and the temp was around 37 degrees, the race started with Johanna getting a great start and Kyle right on her bumper, on the second lap Kyle gave he a few bumps and she moved over to let him by, then two laps later Kyle slowed and gave the lead back to Johanna. She led for the next 15 laps and Kyle was back in 4th when to cars about to be lapped spun in turn 4, Johanna stopped and Kyle plowed into the back of her, ruining both their nights. Ryan was fast and worked his way up to around 7th by this time, this track is famous for wearing out tires in 25 laps, so for the next 35 laps there wasn't much passing but Ryan did get up to 6th before the next yellow, then pit stops came into play and everyone came in to get the 2 tires they were allowed to get, Ryan left the pits in 7th. On the start, he quickly worked his way to 5th and ran there until lap 90 when he was passed, he ended up finishing 6th. Not bad for a 15yr old, Ryan is so smooth, just like his dad, too bad he is in late models on asphalt and not in winged sprint cars on the dirt. Good luck Ryan.

Sunday, I took Selena with me to the races, the temp was around 50 degrees at the green flag at 2pm and the sun was out most of the race. 300 laps on this track means tire management is key to winning, and the best at that was Kyle Busch, he was the fastest and smoothest all day, the only other driver who had a shot at winning didn't pit for 4 fresh tires when Kyle did and never got a chance to pit after that, Eddie Mercer finished 2nd and Steven Wallace ran 3rd. Chase Elliot finished in the top ten, Ross Kenseth finished in the top 15, and Johanna Long finished 18th after getting spunout early and losing 2 laps. It was a good race, the stands were filled (around 8-10,000), and the winner won only $22,500 (during the weekend the teams are allowed to buy 8 sets of tires at $1,250 per set), that means the winner spent over half his winnings on a tire bill. So, for all you haters out there about sprint car teams having to buy goodyears to race with the WoO next year, if you win one of our races, at least your tire bill won't cost have of your purse winnings!!!!!!

This week I will be spending doing some of my honey-do list and getting my annual physical and then on Thursday, my daughter Alisha and I will be heading down to Orlando for the Performance Racing Index (PRI) Trade Show on Friday & Saturday. Hopefully I will be able to close the deal on a couple new advertisers for Woody and confirm all my 2009 advertisers will be coming back in 2010. I will catch everybody up next week with a full report on next weeks blog.

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"

Well, now you caught up with what I've been up to since the