Back at Deer Creek Speedway

Welcome back, I'm sorry it has been a while since I last updated my blog, my only excuse is when I was in Chico for the Gold Cup, I have a lot of old friends that still live in that area and I tried to have atleast one adult beverage with each one while walking the fairgrounds each night. Plus, my parents came to their first WoO race since they retired last year, it was good to see them and they really had a good time and were finally able to enjoy the Gold Cup without having to actually work. I was even able to get my Mom to due my laundry for me (I know I will pay for that favor later on in my life, Mom never forgets), and my Dad loves to tinker with anything, so he helped me fix Woody's exhaust leak and fix a couple electrical cords for me (thanks Dad, you & Mom are the best). Right now I'm camped at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, MN, it is 9:30pm and I am watching the new Jay Leno show, his guest is Halle Berry (wow, she is barely wearing anything and damn she still looks great). Well, lets catch you up with the past week.

I wrote my last blog while sitting at Grays Harbour Speedway in Elma, WA on Sunday night, well Monday turned into a complete washout. I think the same rain cloud just kept circling around, it never could clear the mountains and it would just keep coming back and rain about a .10in every hour like clockwork. The track crew tried their best, but there was no way we would have ever got that race in, the pits were a lake and it would have been past 10pm before we would have got the track run in. Believe me, races aren't cancelled without careful consideration for safety and fan support. Along with our next race being the next day 250 miles away, we just couldn't stay stay forever to get Elma's race in. After the race was cancelled around 6pm, I loaded Woody up and headed for Portland, OR, my plan was to stay at the WalMart in Vancouver, WA, I get there and findout that there is a city ordnance and you can't stay overnight in parking lots. So, I drove down to East Portland on the I-205 bypass to a WalMart, I finally find it get parked and settled in for the night, NO, security comes by and kicks me out, can't stay at the WalMart there either (plus the security guard said East Portland has the highest crime rate in the Northwest). So, now what the hell do I do, I needed to stay near Portland, so I would be close Tuesday morning to hopefully get my inverter fixed. So, I drove about 15 miles back northeast and found a different WalMart to stay at in Wood Village, OR. I finally get parked and in bed asleep, well at 2am security is knocking on my door telling me I can't stay overnight and if I didn't move, I could get a ticket. I explained that it wasn't overnight because I got there after midnight, he didn't think that was very funny, I told him I would take my chances on the police giving me a ticket and that I would be leaving at 7am. I went back to bed and hoped he would be cool and not call the cops.

Tuesday morning, I woke up around 6:30am and thank god, no ticket. I called the inverter place and no luck on getting the parts I needed in over the weekend, so I took off for Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, OR. South on I-5 I headed, I got to the track around 10am and parked in the parking lot and hoped to get a new backoff strap made for Woody since the old one broke at Skagit, well I found out Cottage Grove doesn't have an uppolstry place anymore, so I wasn't able to get one made. After getting hassled about where I parked, I ended up moving about 4 times before the settled on parking my RV near the T-Shirt trailers. As for the racing at Cottage Grove, I like this track, the pits are super crowded, but managable. Brian Crockett has done a lot of good things to improve the facility and track. The track was tacky and fast, and Jason Sides set a new track record. I knew I wound need my backoff strap, the west coast is the worst, they always want there engine backed off when they spin out, thank god there are really good push trucks on the west coast and they are all preparred with straps. The 40 lap A-Main was a good race between TK, Meyers and Sides. Meyers won the race with TK 2nd, they had a great battle, but watching Schatz come from 20th to 3rd was amazing. I had a great time working the push lane with Kitty (that's one woman other than my Mom that doesn't take shit from the drivers and crews in her push lane), her late models listen to her and follow her directions to the "T". As usual, I was one of the last to leave the track, after I loaded Woody up and took a shower, I left the track around 12:30am and headed for Seven Feathers Casino, a nice stopping point for the next days long drive to Chico. I arrived at the casino around 2:30am and after having a beer with Jim, I put my head on the pillow around 3am for a 7:30am wake-up call.

Wednesday morning I actually got up and on the road by 8am, I wanted to get to the big climb out of Medford, OR, before it got really hot out. Climbing over the Siskyou Mountains is the worst climb on I-5. Back in 1986, my parents burnt their first motorhome down climbing it, about halfway up, the regulator on the propane tank blew and caught fire, after my Mom stopped the RV, they only had seconds to get out before the RV engulfed in flames, they saved only what was in my Mom's purse and their new kitten Sprinter, my Dad was able to get Woody off the trailer and drag the trailer away from the RV before it burnt down also. I made it over all the mountains safely and without any issues, just slowly. Driving past Lake Shasta is just depressing, I grew up vacationing at Lake Shasta and it was never as low as it is today, where my Grandpa used to dock his boat (Lakehead) is now a 10ft wide creek. Driving over the Bridge Bay bridge, again depressing, California is using way to much water, it will take record snow falls and rain for 10 years straight before that lake is ever full again. Anyway, I arrived in Chico at the fairgrounds around 4:30pm and got parked in my parents old spot by the pit entrance and settled in and hooked up to electricity. My parents had been in Chico since Sunday, so I walked over to their RV, them and Bill & Linda were waiting for me so we could all walk over to the Mexican joint for dinner. After some good conversation and food, I headed back to the RV to finish getting settled in. My Dad came over and we had a few beers and then I headed in to get some much needed sleep for the upcoming long 3 days of racing.

Thursday, first day of the Gold Cup, Work'N Woody's 31st consecutive Gold Cup, I was a little nervous knowing that my Mom & Dad would be watching me, hopefully I didn't disappoint them. Before the races, I had a few things to get done, fix the exhaust leak on Woody, get a new backoff strap made, get a new wing side panel (advertising panel, not a new side board), and to get a haircut. I was able to get all that done and ready for work by 4:30pm. It was pretty damn hot, not 100 degrees, but 92 degrees is still hot. The racing went really smooth all night, except for Steve's night, he didn't qualify good and then he flipped early in the A-Main. Meyers won the A-Main and set himself up for a good Saturday night. After the races, I cleaned myself up with a shower and walked over to my parents RV and talked with my Mom for about an hour, she didn't watch the races so I filled her in. I stopped by Jim & Lucy's RV where the rest of the WoO officials were hanging out and had a beer with all them, after that I headed over to where everyone was partying and having a good time. I ran into a bunch of old friends, and had a few too many beers. Times are changing at the Gold Cup, now the CHP patrol for security, a little overboard if you ask me. Around 1:30am, the cops got on their loudspeaker in their cruiser and told everyone to disperse, after someone yelled at them that they sucked, the 2yr old cop yelled back on the loudspeaker that he sucked too. So much for the cops having restraint. After all that, I headed back to the RV and went to bed.

Friday I tried to sleep in but I was up by 9am, I washed Woody up and headed out in town to run some errands, food shopping, pick up my mail, run by Stephen Allard's work place to get something small (seatbelt holder brackets) made for Woody (Stephen always hooks me up when I'm in town, it always seems like I need something made for Woody or my RV). I got back to the fairgrounds around 1pm and tried to take a nap before race time. I never did get the nap, but I was able to soak up some cold A/C for a few hours before race time. It was another good night of racing, the track was a little rough, but not too bad. Jason Sides set fast time and almost won his heat and then won the Dash, he led the first 26 laps of the feature before a tiny hesitation in lapped traffic and Joey shot by and won the race. Jason ran 2nd and ended up high point man and would start on the pole for Saturday's A-Main. After the races, everyone heads over to the Chili Feed and Bikini contest. I hungout with Lucas & Randy Wolfe in the pit area afterwards instead of going to the Chili Feed. When the Bikini contest was over, I showered up and headed over to Jim & Lucy's RV and hung out with the rest of the WoO group, after a few beer and some of Frank's fruit, I walked back to the RV for some sleep.

Saturday, my Dad and I went out to breakfast, Frank was supposed to join us, but after we sat in the car by his RV for about 3 minutes, my Dad took off. We found out later when we got back, that Frank did come out of his RV and tried to chase us down, well my Dad never looked in the mirror and Frank finally gave up (sorry Frank, you know my Dad, you snoose you loose when it comes to him waiting for anyone). After a really good breakfast, I finally had good home fries with my eggs (only in CA do they make home fries with fresh potatoes, sweet onions, & green peppers all grilled together), we headed over to Raley's to get some much needed milk and other food I forgot to get on Friday. After we got back, I washed Woody and cleaned up the inside of my RV and then watched everyone enjoy some good BBQ ribs over at the Gold Cup BBQ. When the BBQ was winding down, I went over and grabbed some ribs and walked over to my parents RV to just spend some time with them. Race time started at 5pm and it was time to complete the Gold Cup. The track was in decent shape and we started off with the E-Main, not much happened in the E & D-Mains, but then the C-Main was up, Steve & Tyler Walker were in the C-Main, by lap 5 Steve was up to 4th and headed to the top 2 for a transfer spot, when someone infront of him got crossed up and Steve & Jason York got together and Steve ended up on his lid again, not a good Gold Cup for him. Tyler didn't make it out of the C-Main either, so driving a green car wasn't the way to go for this years Gold Cup. The B-main from hell was up next, what a wreck fest, I think the B-Main took about 1 1/2 hours to complete, it took so long, that we had to scrap the driver intoductions for the A-Main. The A-Main wasn't much better, another wreck fest, it wasn't the tracks fault, it was in decent shape, it was just that most of the drivers just forgot how to drive & race. Jason Sides had the fastest car all night and just drove away fromJoey on all 10 of the restarts. The final 12 laps actually went caution free (only 15 cars left running) and that led to Jason's down fall, on the white flag lap Joey was breathing down Jason's back and coming off turn 2, Kyle Hirst got squirrly (everyother lap he was straight off that corner) and again Jason hesitated and Joey drove right by on the high side of 3 & 4 and won the Gold Cup and the $50,000. I couldn't believe it, I was cheering for Jason all race long, I thought he had it in the bag. I didn't even go over to congradulate Jason after the race for a good finish, because I knew he wouldn't be in a good mood, I knew I would be able to say something to him in Spencer, IA. I wish that the Gold Cup A-Main would count as a full WoO point race, I don't know why it can't, there are provisionals available and if you can't race your way into the A-Main or use a provisional, then all you deserve is show up points anyway. But still, Meyers & Joey were able to cut into Donny's point lead during the Gold Rush Tour, hopefully the three of them can keep the point battle going all the way into Saturday nights final race Live on SPEED at the World Finals in Charlotte, NC. After the race, I hung out with my Mom & Dad around Woody in the pits as everybody came up to say "hi" to them, after that I tried to get cleaned up and to bed as soon as I ccould. Sunday morning was going to come early, because I planned to wash Woody, the trailer, and my RV before I started the long 1,800 mile trip to Spencer, IA for Wednesday's race.

Sunday morning I was up by 6:45am to start washing everything up, to my surprise, my Dad came over to help me, wow was that a huge help. We got done around 9:30am (if I did it by myself, I wouldn't of had it done by 11:00am), thanks Dad, you are the best. I was on the road by 10:00am, when you have to drive 600 miles each day, you just don't get excited to get on the road. My goal was to make it to Windover, NV and celebrate Jim & Lucy's aniversary with them, to get to Windover, I recommend going HWY 70 through Quincy, CA to HWY 395 to Reno and then get on to I-80 for the next day and a half. The drive through the Feather Canyon is a beautiful drive and a much easier drive on the motorhome than going I-80 over the Donner Pass. I didn't quite make it to Windover (I'm sorry I wasn't there Jim & Lucy, I hope you had a good Anniversary), I did run into Carlton, Justin, and Tony V. (see Tony, you made it another blog) at Lockland, NV and stopped for lunch at a BBQ joint. I stopped again in Winnamucca, NV to fill up on diesel fuel and to collect $20 that my Dad gave me from his slots winnings he forgot to claim when he was there a month ago. I eventually made it to the Flying J in Wells, NV (120 miles short of Windover) and stopped to put up the satellite to watch a couple TV shows (Big Brother & the final episode of There Goes the Neiborhood) the Johnston Family ended up winning the $250,000. After watching TV, I wasn't in the mood to continue driving and it was 11pm, so I just stayed there and knew that Monday would be a 750 mile drive to catch up.

Monday I was up at 8am and on the road by 8:30am. I got to the Utah/NV border (Bonniville Salt Flats) and wished that I would have pushed through to Windover. I ran into a huge wind/monsoon driving across the salt flats, 45-60mph winds and 4in of rain in a 10 mile stretch, I had to slow down to 40mph with the wind blowing and the road under water with a white foam on top, I couldn't see crap, I was just hoping to stay on the road and not get rear ended by a big truck. I made it safely out of the storm and continued across the salt flats, when I stopped at the Flying J in Toole, UT, depression set in after I looked at how filthy my RV, Woody and the trailer looked, all that work my Dad & I did was for naught. I continued on, my goal was to make it to Sidney, NE, if you have ever driven through Utah on I-80, there is a really steep climb out of Salt Lake City, but my Dad showed me a easier way to go, it is 11 miles longer, but way more easier of a drive when your driving a RV towing a 10,000lb trailer. When you get to Salt Lake City, take I-215 north towards Ogden, then you take the HWY 89 bypass to I-84. I-84 will take you the same summit that is on I-80 north of Salt Lake City. When I got into Wyoming, I kept hitting small thunder storms about every 30 miles, when I finally got to a good rest stop, I drove through a strong rain shower for about 5 mles so I slowed down and hoped it would clean off all the road grime from the salt flats, it actually did a pretty good job and cleaned the everything up quite a bit. I made it to Cheyenne, WY around 8:30pm and stopped at the Flying J to fill up with 110 gals of diesel fuel and fill up with freash water and dump the gray & black water tanks. I left the Flying J and pushed on to Sidney, NE, I caught up with Bill & Linda and Jim & Lucy. They were both in bed by the time I cleaned the bugs off the front of the RV. So, I just got on the internet to update all my sports fantasy leagues I'm in and to wind down so I could get to sleep. My head hit the pillow around midnight.

Tuesday, only 550 miles to go, I was up at 8am and as I was eating a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats, I watched Bill & Linda take off and head out, Jim was out walking Harley, so I went out and talked with Jim for a little bit and then fired up the RV and headed for Spencer. I didn't want to take I-80 all the way to Omaha, so when I got to Grand Island, NE I jumped on HWY 30 and started cutting across NE. My plan was to take HWY 81 north when I got to Columbus, NE, well my plan was shot to hell when the only bridge across the Platte River in Columbus was closed, I had to take a 30 mile detour south to get across the river. So, I ended up taking HWY 15 up to HWY 35 and headed for Sioux City, IA. I do not reccommed HWY 35, that had to be the roughest road I have been on all year, stay on HWY 15 all the way to HWY 20 next time. I made it to Sioux City around 7pm and again filled up with diesel fuel and then got on HWY 75 to HWY 18 which finally got me to Spencer, IA. I pulled into the Clay County Fairgrounds and Speedway around 8:30pm, wow I made it without any RV problems or any other issues on the trip. I never thought that I would be happy to make it anywhere in Iowa, but I was sure happy to see the Fair going on when I arrived. After I got settled in and cleaned the bugs off, I was able to listen to the final song by Ricky Nelson at the concert going on at the stage on the frontstretch. After moving a couple of T-shirt trailers into place, it was time to get the satellite up so I could watch the final episode of Big Brother on the west coast feed on Direct TV. I was hoping that Kevin & Jordan would be the final 2, but Jordon won the final HOH competition and picked Natalie to go to the final 2, so Kevin was booted off. It was a good choice by Jordan, because she wouldn't of won against Kevin, during the final vote, Jordan won the $500,000 by a vote of 5 to 2. It was finally time to go to bed and not have to wake up early.

Wednesday, I rolled out of bed around 10am and took the time to clean my RV by hand (the bottom half only & wheels & windows with a spung and microfiber rag) and then I drove Woody into town to get some gas and eat lunch at the A&W. When I got back, I had to move the rest of the trailers into place and then get ready for the races to start. This was the best year by far for car count (mostly good cars), the track was prepped the best it has been, so everything was in place for a great night of racing (no support class, yeah). Kerry Madsen set a new track record and started the night off right. The feature was a good one, Joey and Jason Meyers battled for the win, the final 5 laps they swapped the lead 4-5 times, with Jason driving by on the high side of 1 & 2 and held Joey off to take the checkers 1st. With Donny finishing 6th, they both trimmed the point lead down, it is getting exciting. Again, there was a big crowd and they seemed to be excited to see a great race on a great track.

Today, I rolled out of bed around 9am and after a bowl of cereal, I washed Woody and loaded him up on the trailer. After getting everything ready to travel, during my walk around I noticed that one of my trailer tires was really low on air pressure, so I was pretty sure I picked up a nail or something, so on my way out of town I stopped at the Goodyear dealer and got my tire fixed. Sure as shit, I picked up a 1/4in bolt right through the tread, they plugged it up and I was on my way around 1pm. I took HWY 71 to I-90 at Jackson, MN, then it was about 120 mles where I got off on HWY 16 and headed to Deer Creek Speedway which is on HWY 63. I arrived here around 4:30pm and got settled in. My favorite reality show started tonight, the original reality show, Survivor, I don't have a favorite yet, I will pick one next week. Well, it is finally time to get to bed. Thanks for reading my blogs, I hope you are enjoying reading them.

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"