After last year's Dega weather disaster, I figured Mother Nature owed mesome good weather.  After this year's Daytona 500, I figured the racing gods owed me a race outcome I could be happy with.

With that in mind I headed for Tampa Saturday morning for my annualflight to Birmingham.  The first leg was to Atlanta on a packed-out L-1011 jumbo jet.  That sucker was *full*, so full I saw only one empty seat on a plane that holds 300 passengers.  Fortunately, that one empty seat was right next to me!  Good omen #1.

The flight from Atlanta to Birmingham goes right over the speedway.  As we passed overhead, I debated with myself whether or not I should point the track out to a guy sitting behind me.  Yeah, the fellow was decked out in full Earnhardt regalia, but I decided risk it.  Turns out this was his first trip to Dega and he'd never seen it from the air.   He was articulate, polite, and appreciative, i.e. not exactly what I expect from the stereotypical Earnhardt fan.  Good omen #2.

When I get to Birmingham, my brother says that dinner is on him.  I'm thinking McDonalds, but we chow down on thick, juicy sirloin steaks with all the trimmings.  Good omen #3.

After an overnight stay at his father-in-law's lake house Andy and I head for the track Sunday morning.  Traffic is almost non-existent on the back roads, and even on Speedway Blvd. it's flowing smoothly.  When we get to the parking area, we find a perfect spot right on the exit
road.  Good omen #4.

I leave Andy to amuse himself and head for the trioval looking for the reunion.  I'm supposed to be hosting this thing, but somehow the banner transfer plans never really got made.  I can only trust that someone from Saturday will bring the scroll today and that we can find each other.

Just as I'm about to give up, someone recognizes my RASN hat.  Hello Robin!  Good to put another face with a name.  We talk a bit with the main topic of conversation being the sad state of affairs in the U-group and our mutual desire to see the moderated version of RASN get on the air.

>From there I don't remember who came when, but eventually Phil Gravel and Breland show up with the banner which is immediately tied to the fence behind us.  Before it was over, I had made Mike McCarthy's acquaintance for the first time and renewed acquaintances with Lou, Cheryl, Roger and Marcy.  (gee, hope I didn't forget anyone).  Not a big reunion, but a good one.

I spent the race next to a somewhat rare breed--a guy who pulled hard for both Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon.  Actually, he was yelling for anything with a bow tie on it regardless of who was in it.  I don't think he ever fully understood that I was cheering for Dale Jarrett, not the blue oval on his hood.

I guess I just wasn't tuned to the right guys to get any good scanner bytes.  I did hear Rusty call someone "the dumbest son of a bitch who ever lived", but missed the first part of the transmission so I'm not sure who he was talking about.

Sitting in the 4th turn, we couldn't see much of "the wreck"--just the smoke.  It was a couple days later before I would see any video.  Looked like a carbon copy of Earnhardt's bad one.  I had always been pretty neutral on Ward Burton, but he earned a great deal of my respect by owning up to his part in it.  You've just got to pull for a guy like that.  Hey Ernie--you listening??

Looks like the omens were right.  The weather was excellent and even though my first choice didn't win, he was in contention all day, missed the wreck and finished third.  At the reunion, I promised Cheryl that if DJ couldn't win, I'd pull for Bobby Labonte so I was indeed happy with the outcome.

The Gadsden cheap seats are the best in the house in one regard.  We were in the truck and on the road before 99% of the crowd made it out the exit gate.

One other interesting side note.  As Andy pulled into the Birmingham airport Tuesday morning to drop me off, we noticed the Fuji blimp taking off.  As I sat in the plane at the gate, I noticed the blimp had returned to its mooring post at the far end of the field and was taking off a second time just as we started to taxi out.

Wednesday morning, Andy sends me an e-mail titled "blimp crash".  I kinda wondered how something that's lighter than air and filled with non-flammable helium could "crash".  A newspaper clipping arrived a couple days later explaining that it was blown into a fence while trying to land at the airport and the pilot pulled a ripcord that deflated the envelope.  Wonder how much a blimp full of helium costs?
Next stop, Daytona under the lights!

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