Hanging in Knoxville

Welcome back, it is Monday night and I'm still here in Knoxville camped at the fairgrounds. Right now I'm watching Two and a Half Men, Charlie Sheen is pretty damn funny. The reason I'm still here is, I took Woody to the transmission shop here, Advance Transmission. If you're ever in Knoxville and you need tranny work done, I highly recommend them and ask for Bruce. They rebuilt Woody's tranny last year, so I took him there to get his tranny checked and serviced. The other reason I'm still here is, I'm waiting for a package to be UPS'd to me at the Hall of Fame. Hopefully I will be able to get on the road to Indy tomorrow afternoon. Well, lets catch you up on what's happened since my last entry.

When I ended my last blog entry, I was it Coucil Bluffs, IA at the Harrah's Casino. Well, Thursday I drove over to Knoxville, I ended up going the long way because I didn't review the map, so I thought I needed to go on I-235 to get to HWY 5, wrong, I needed to go south on I-80, so I ended up taking HWY 163 south to HWY 14 west into Knoxville. If you were one of the people who honked at me when I was on I-235, yes I did get lost for a moment. I arrived around 1:00pm and man was everything nasty dirty from driving in the rain, I spent the next 4 hours washing my RV, trailer, & Woody. After getting everything looking good, it was time for dinner. A bunch of us (me, Eloy, Vince, Tom, Bill & Linda) went to the Mexican place downtown. Then is was back to the RV so I didn't miss Survivor, CSI, & Southland.

Friday I went to the Hospital to get a blood test taken, don't worry, everything is fine, then it was off to the laundomat for the next couple hours to get some clean whitie tighties. In the evening I was invited to park Woody in front of the Hall of Fame for the Grand Opening of the 2nd floor exhibits & theater and to display the new Cheryl Glass exhibit. It was a really nice time and the Hall of Fame staff did an outstanding job. I got to meet Cheryl Glass' mother & sister and talked with them for a little while. I remember watching Cheryl race at Chico when I was around 12-14 yrs old. After I left the Hall of Fame, it was off to Dingus for drinks with friends, a good time was had by all and I think a lot of us had more than one to many adult beverages.

Saturday I woke up slowly to bright blue skies (around 11:00am) feeling the effects of too many beers, but I was excited because it was race day in Knoxville. I knew it was going to be a good night, RV's just kept coming in all day Friday and Saturday, that meant a good crowd would be on hand. As they opened the pit gate, the haulers just kept coming in, they didn't stop coming until about 6:00pm. 104 sprint cars in the pits, 47 410's & 57 360's, thank god the 360's don't qualify. Warming motors I must have made 30 passes driving through the pits and pushing cars, crazy. After hot laps for both groups of cars, the track was still in great shape. With one lap qualifying, the track held together pretty well, but it still paid off to have an early number. The racing was good all night and the A-Main was an exciting dual between Brown, McCarl & Schatz. I could tell Schatz was being patient and waited for his chance to pounce, which he did and then drove off to the win. The universe can now start spinning again now that Donny won a race in dominating fashion on a track he has owned for the past 5 years. After the races, a ton of Woody's fans came by to say "hi" and ask how my parents are doing. My favorite Knoxville family came by also, it was great to see Lee, Ralphie, Delany (Bob), & Jac, you guys are the best and I wish I could have spent more time with you.

Sunday, I relaxed all day and watch sports on the boob tube, washed Woody and walked around the fairgrounds to get my excercise. Everybody was gone by Noon except for Jin & Lucy and Tom, who went with John hunting mushrooms. I guess the hunt didn't go well, but after John found a big snake, Jim was done hunting for anything. Also, Jason, Robin & Delaney Meyers also stayed in their RV. After dinner, I walked to Godfathers Pizza, I came back to watch Amazing Race and Celebrity Apprentice, thank god for DVR's, because the reason Jason stayed Sunday was to test. He had two haulers here, one came out from CA, they spent 2 hours testing a bunch of stuff, I didn't go into the pits and I only watched for about 15 minutes before I hung out with Lucy in her RV for about an hour. I stayed up and watched Amazing Race, I couldn't believe one of the sisters had to stop to piss when they where within a 100 yards of making it to the pit stop and to be in the final 3 for the race to a million dollars. Costing her and her sister a chance to win, they got beat to the pit stop by seconds. I would have pissed all over myself to get a chance to win a million dollars, even on TV, you would have seen piss running down my legs filling my shoes. After watching Donald Trump get down to the final two (Annie Duke & Joan Rivers), which I knew he would choose those two weeks ago. Next Sunday I predict Trump will force Annie Duke to work with Melissa Rivers and Joan Rivers will be forced to work with Brandi. I don't know who will win, but I will predict Annie Duke wins.

This morning I had to get up early (7:00am) to get Woody to the shop by 8:00am. I walked back to Mr. C's for breakfast, Mr. Capitani (better known as Cappy) sat down with me, and we had a quick conversation then he was out of there. Later as I finished my meal, Duane, John, & Jim came in so I stayed and had another cup of coffee with them. The rest of the day, I relaxed, paid some bills, filed paperwork, and cleaned out the trailer. Exciting stuff. Hopefully, I get Woody back tomorrow and my package shows up, so I can get on the road. The way I'm going to get to Indy, I'm going to take HWY 92 to Oskaloosa, then HWY 63 to HWY 34 to Burlington. From HWY 34 to I-74 to Indy. In Indy I'm going to meet up with my good friend Randy Frank, who I've known since we started working on the Outdoor Channel broadcast together in 2004. Randy is a great cameraman, if you know of someone needing a cameraman for an auto racing event, look him up. He also is an awesome artist, I think he is the best sprint car T-Shirt designer, check out his website www.franknsigns.com. Then we are going to head to Eldora Friday morning for two days of great racing and fast crazy slide jobs. Hopefully Chad has been working the track the way I think he wants it to be, which would mean he put the belly back into the track. We will find out Friday. I can't wait!!!

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"