Whew!! What a whrilwind weekend. Left Houston at 1:30 Friday went to Orlando then Daytona then back to Orlando then back in Houston at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. Good trip though. As Tress mentioned I did have some time to see a few sights. Yes, Daytona International Speedway is fricking huge. You can't really see it for the trees but when it appears, wow. Florida state highway 92 runs along the front straight-a-way. If you hit all the lights red it takes 3 min. to get from turn 4 to turn 1 at 200 mph about 22 seconds. Texas Motorspeedway is big. You can pick TMS up and set it in the infield of Daytona. My Hotel was located between turns 3 and 4 about 1 block away. And yes I did have a hard time sleeping due to the 112 purple boiling in my veins. On Saturday after completion of my mission, I visited Dayton USA which is the museum on the premisis. Lots of fun things to see. I got to see the #3 car Dale won the 500 with in 1998, deposited my penny to the cock pit, shed a small quait tear and moved on. Intresting display of the COT, of course it had to be the #24, but cables are attached to the body and every several min. the body starts raising off the chassis, then the roll bar chassis raises from the suspension leaving the engine, rear clip and suspension so you can see all the parts. Way cool. Outside there is a bronze statue of Dale and a walk of fame with hand prints and such of all who have won the 500. The only camera I had were my 2 phones and they didn't take many pictures. I feel very lucky that I have been given a chance to fulfill two of my dreams. Driving a CUP car and getting to see Daytona Speedway. Next on the list is being at Daytona or Talledega for a race. 2.5 miles of shear HAUL ASS. I'm In. I also saw the car #29 Kevin Harvick won this year's 500 with. The winning car is placed in Daytona USA for one year in it's original state, no cleaning, no removals, nothing. It is a little ripe from the booze and coke and confetti and such. Got stick ups everywhere. Cool thing though, Kevin's helment and gloves are still right where he left them in the car. If you didn't see the race, he scrubbed the wall twice, blew out a tire, and rubbed Mark Martin hard at the end. Boy is that car beat up! I will email blair a couple of pictures so he can put on the site.

Uncle Gearhead.