The Talladega Adventure began with rising at 4 a.m. [again] and Lou and I were on the road with the trailer by 5 a.m.  Made it through DC and the 3 days of Virginia and on to the 5 days of Tennessee.  The weather was just plain weird; rainy for 15 minutes, then sun, then some hail!   We were making good time though, skirted through the 20 miles of Georgia and hit the Alabama line around 5-5:30 p.m. :-)

We were about one exit before getting off I-59 when Lou pulls out to pass a van and the next thing we know the people in the van were waving and blowing their horn.  We quickly pull back over and see smoke billing out from behind the trailer! :-0 I thought we had a tire blowing out or something.  We pull off on the shoulder and both run around to the back of the trailer.  Lou checks everything and then realizes the smoke was coming from the truck. :-0 We run back around to the front and lift the hood, only to find that transmission fluid is everywhere and leaking on the ground! :-0 Lou sees that it seems to have come from a hose which had blown off.  We didn't know what to think except that towing the trailer up those mountains in Virginia may have blown the transmission. :-( We can see an exit sign ahead, saying ½ mile to next exit, so Lou decides to set off on foot for a gas station.  I lock myself in the truck and make sure my cellphone (Batphone #1) is turned on and Lou takes Batphone #2 with him. ;-) He hasn't walked but a few feet and a car pulls over and offers him a ride.  Hey, we ARE in the south, you know. :-) I sit there and try not to think about that movie we just saw two nights before (Breakdown with Kurt Russell). :-0

The good samaritan who gave Lou a ride turned out to be an Alabama State employee and brings Lou back after he picks up several bottles of transmission fluid at a gas station in Attalia, AL.  The man also told Lou to call him if he needed any more help while there!  Go figure!  People would NEVER offer that in the DC area!

Lou puts in about 4 quarts of fluid and finally gets a reading on the dipstick.  We take off gingerly, expecting the truck to seize up at any moment, but it seems to be shifting just fine  We get off at the next exit and stop at a gas station (none of them seemed to have service bays), so Lou just decides to hose off the exhaust system (which got a lot of the fluid on it and caused the smoke).

After that, we only had one more exit till we got off the interstate in Gadsden and the rest of the way to Dega was on local roads, through several little towns.  We figured if we had any more trouble, we'd at least be closer to help.  Everything seemed to be fine and the transmission did not seem to have an ill effects.  We pulled onto the Speedway property around 7:30 p.m. :-) (Lou checked out the truck later and it seemed a clamp had come off the hose and that's why the transmission fluid had come out.)

As we pulled into the campground, Lou was skeptical that his "usual" spot on the waterfront (as Tom Duwe's called it and is really by a large drainage ditch) would still be there.  He stopped and walked down into the camping area a little and said he thought someone else was in his spot, but there was plenty of room left, so we pulled off the road.  We remembered a couple from Mississippi (Chris and Kay) who always camped back in the corner in a pop-up.  As we pulled in, we saw a blue pickup and I said "that looks like Chris!" :-) As it turns out, Lou's spot was still there and Chris had been saving it for us.  (Lou has managed to camp in the same spot at Dega for the past 7 years.)  This time, Chris and Kay were camping in a big motorhome with another couple right behind Lou's spot.  We parked the trailer and got out to have our first "we've arrived at the track" beer!  In this case, it was also to celebrate "we're here in one piece!"   :-)

As we were setting up the trailer, two guys on the other side of us, camping in their pickup, said "You got here just in time for dinner!"  They introduced themselves as Mike and Ronald, two Cajuns from Baton Rouge, LA.  They said they were fixing up a big pot of Jambalaya and we were welcome to join then.  We decided that after the last 2 hours that didn't sound like a bad idea. :-)

As we were completing our setup, I was inside doing the kitchen things and I hear a voice outside yell "I'm looking for Cheryl Thompson!"  I run outside to meet RASNer, Robin Belyea, who had come down from NC the day before.  I had told her where we'd be camping and about when we'd get there.  She just stop by to meet us and said she'd be back later. :-)

After that, we starting some serious visitin' with the neighbors!  We met Ginger and Bo, the couple camping with Chris and Kay and then took some more beers and went over to share some authentic Jambalaya with Mike and Ronald.  We found out they were crain operators on the Gulf Coast and were big Buckshot Jones and Sterling Marlin fans. :-) Later, Chris started a campfire and we naturally gravitated over to it.  Sometime around then, Robin came back and joined us with a Molson.

We were wondering about the famous/infamous "Kentucky Boys" that we had met at Talladega last year.  Anybody who remembers my UCAPs will remember Charlie and his smoker, who insisted on feeding us every night we were there.  Charlie and his Kessler whiskey mixed with Surge ("That Surge'll kill ya!")  Around this time, they showed up!  "You're late," we said.  They'd brought two campers this year, so we helped them park then in the dark and managed to use them to sequester ourselves in the back of the campground.  That way no rowdy strangers could infiltrate our nice little group. :-) We got reacquainted with the two sets of brothers from Kentucky: Richard, Paul and Dale Green and Charlie and another brother, this year, Bo.  We pretty much felt our group was now complete (but we had forgotten one another group that would arrive on Friday). :-)

Here it is only Thursday night and some cretins in a pick-up come blasting by us and go for "the ditch."  The bad thing about the ditch is [usually Sunday after the race] the jerks in the 4-wheel drive pick-ups have had just enough to drink that they feel invincible and decide to try to cross the ditch.  Usually being taunted by drunks on the other bank in competing makes of trucks.  Well, this night, these guys must've already got a big jump start on partying and already had that extra shot of testosterone.  They go flying into the ditch (in the dark no less) and promptly get their truck wedged sideways into the banks. :-0 Robin and the rest of us watched in amazement.  The guys make a token effort to get out and then just quietly turn off their lights and sit there.  We figure they think if we can't see them, we'll forget about them.  Eventually some of those "kind" southerners convince Lou to help them try and push the idiots out of the ditch.  They have no luck, but Lou manages to get his good jeans caked with mud.  Oh well!  Nothing like one bunch of drunks trying to help an even worse bunch of drunks.  Eventually everyone gives up; the idiots wander away on foot and we FINALLY decide it is time to hit the sack!  4 a.m. rising and a 14-hour drive just takes a lot out of you.  We sleep with visions of qualifying and RASN reunions to look forward to tomorrow!
 

Talladega Day 2 - Friday, I Got's My Bobby Labonte Socks, My Bobby Labonte Hat and My Bobby Labonte Jacket. . .

We got the banner and headed up to the track by about 9:00.  Jody Minor, Billy Kauffman and his wife, and Rusty, of the Alabama Gang were already there. :-)  We put the banner up on the back of the seats and settled in to watch some practice.  A little while later, a guy walks up looking
for Roger Smith.  It's Trey Breckenridge, who we met last year on that cold Busch Saturday.  We ask him to join us and a few minutes later Roger shows up.  He has his wife, Marcy, with him and some other friends from Mississippi, and lo and behold the "missing" Blair and Janet Reeves! :-) I'd spent some time with them two years ago at Dega (remember the "detachable Hooters UCAP?-why didn't we have an archive back then?  I know Duwe remembers that one!).  Anyway, Blair had since taken a job with Boeing and moved to Seattle, WA.  It was great to see them back again and I spent the next two days ragging Blair about DE! :-) We also had Billy to rag too since he is a big DE fan. :-)

During the afternoon, we enjoyed chatting with Roger and Blair and the Alabama Gang (noticeably minus one Mr. Gary McGriff). :-(

Earnhardt captured the "provisional" pole early on and then it was a long afternoon of waiting to see if he would hold it.  They did something a little odd in qualifying for WC this year and did not let the next car get on the track until the last car had pretty much cleared off.  Jody and Billy were getting ballistic over this after qualifying went over an hour.  I told them I figured that it was because of TV, but they thought it was to make so they could be sure no one caught a draft off a previous car and they had not done this with Busch qualifying the day before.   They were just getting antsy cause I think they had run out of beer (like Lou and I).  In a few minutes, they announced they were heading back to their campsite and I asked what was their problem, did they have somewhere to go or were they just out of beer?  They said they had some Jack Daniels back at the campsite. . . They denied it later, but I think they went out cruisin for chicks ;-) cause they weren't there later when Lou and I stopped by after qualifying was over.

Luckily, I still had a diehard DE fan sitting near me in Blair, so when Bobby Labonte came out to do his run near the end, I started whooping so loud, Blair cringed even with his headphones on. ;-) Then they announced Bobby had knocked DE off the pole and I became truly obnoxious in my joy!  But Blair was good-natured and took it in his stride.  It would have been so much more gratifying to have Billy there to rag; he takes it much more to heart. :-)

We had finally had enough of a day in the sun and left for our campground about halfway through Busch happy hour.  On the way back down the road through the campground, Lou saw a redneck trying to focus his satellite dish (kind of an oxymoron in the first place), but Lou heard possibly the best quote of the weekend.  The redneck is having trouble doing what is pretty much an idiot-proof process with a DSS and keeps saying "Sumfin ain't riiiight har."  "Sumfin ain't riight har!" That became mine and Lou's favorite phrase to mock after that.  :-)

We return to our campground friends and find that we were indeed missing an integral part of the group: The Cannucks (as Lou calls them).  A group of guys from Strathroy, ON who have been camping there almost as long as Lou.  Myron and his group drive down from Canada every year (which is actually no longer a trip than from Maryland-go figure!) pitch a couple of tents and rough it for a couple of days.  We renewed acquaintance with them for a while and then made the rounds between the Cajuns, the Kentucky Boys, and the group from Mississippi.  We decided we surely had an eclectic group of race fans. :-) Especially, the one Canadian who kept sneaking up, trying to steal my Terry Labonte standup! :-( We have to "strap" Terry to the awning post as it is because he tends to fall down a lot! :-0 Former WC champions should use a little more decorum when drinking, but like the rest of us Terry likes to cut loose once and a while! ;-)

Lou and I steamed some shrimp in the newly established Martinsville fashion and invited the Cajuns over to sample some to pay them back for feeding us the night before.  The Kentucky Boys had a whole salmon and were in the process of cutting up for steaks.  Later, they offered Lou one, but unfortunately it wasn't quite done yet, so Lou dumped it when he got out of their sight! ;-)

As the night went on, we traipsed back and forth between campfires enjoying the various conversations.  At one point, I was sitting with the Kentucky Boys and one of Chris' young [punk] friends from Mississippi started blowing this strange horn.  You know the thing that sounds like something you would hear in the Alps.  Really kinda stupid. . .but we were all laughing at him, when we heard what appeared to be someone on the other side of the ditch answer him on a similar horn.  After a few minutes, I went back around the corner to our campsite and realized the "answer" was Lou mimicking a horn with his mouth! :-) The funny thing was that the kid blowing the horn thought it was great that someone was answering him. ;-) He never did realize that it was Lou mocking him all night! That was a great source of enjoyment for the rest of us (especially Lou). :-)

After a while, I suggested we drop by Jody's campground so I could harass Billy about BL knocking DE off the pole.  I knew he'd really appreciate the thought, so I dressed in my Bobby Labonte socks, my old BL (Monte Carlo) hat and my BL (Maxwell House, #22) jacket.  When we arrived at the Alabama Gang's campground, I made sure and pointed these things out to Billy and received the expected "Agggghhhh!!!" from him in return.  My mission was complete! :-)

We finally returned to our campground and hit the sack, looking forward to the Busch race on Saturday and hosting the official RASN reunion for that day.
 

Cheryl

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