Didn't, Didn't, Didn't

We made our yearly trip to the Buick Performance Group Nationals in Hebron, Ohio this past weekend.  It was a weekend of things that just didn't go as planned.

We didn't have a terribly smooth trip out there.  When we got about here in Pennsylvania:

We heard a big BOOM! which was this:

A blown trailer tire.

Which led, of course, to this:

Thank goodness Paul is extremely organized and prepared.  Aside from having to take the ATV out of the trailer (and almost roll it into that ditch) to get to the spare tire under the floor, everything went very smoothly and we were back on the road in, no joke, about 15 minutes.  He changes tires so many times on his race car that he could do it in his sleep.  And luckily his friend Rob had a smart phone and found a tire place 5 miles away so we could get a new spare (one more reason to add to my list of 80,000 reasons why maybe someday I might think about potentially getting a smart phone).

Then Friday, the first race day, didn't go very well.  Ray (Rob's dad) and I made several trips to another tire shop to get all new tires for the trailer, since a couple of others look suspiciously like the blown one.  Paul was very distracted getting the tires off the trailer etc, and didn't do well in his races that day.  Plus it was hot.  REALLY hot.  (YES, I had my shaved ice but I had quite a scare because the usual guy/cart was not there and I had to hunt for another cart that had it....)  And then there was Rob's car...

That is Paul and Rob taking the motor out of Rob's car to give to a guy to bring back to his shop in Michigan because it ate the bearings (I think.  I got shown little tiny bits of them in the oil filter.).  So, he didn't race.  He was not happy.  On top of all this, the racing was different this year  in that the organizers decided to have some night racing.  We didn't leave the track until 10:30pm and we were exhausted.

Saturday was the last race day and it didn't get much better.  It was hotter than hot.  It was sticky, muggy, wet-air HOT. 

That is Paul trying to stay cool while waiting his turn.  The racers have to wear long pants and long sleeves as well as a helmet, so you can imagine how hot they get.  Plus the windows have to be rolled up.  AND the inside of Paul's car is all black. UGH.

In the burnout box warming up the slicks (big, fat race tires).

I took a little video of Paul's last run.  The one where he didn't win. : (

(I hope you can play this.  I've never put a video in the blog before.)

BUT, he did come in second, which came with some prize money that covered our gas bill for the trip! (Yay, a silver lining!)

The threat of storms was looming for the end of the day so the race organizers were trying to push things along to finish up early.  Because of this, we decided we would at least start back home later in the day rather than wait until Sunday morning.  So Ray and I (the ever faithful pit crew) went back to the hotel to check out and get all our stuff.  Then the races went until 6pm anyway and we didn't leave until almost 7pm.  Again, things were not going as we planned.  But wait!  There's more!

We started home, got several hours under our belt and started looking for a place to stay.  We tried a couple of places but either the area was really seedy looking or the parking lots were not big enough for two trucks and car trailers.  Soooooooo. We decided to drive through the night.

Yup, I took a picture of the night for you. 3:00am-ish.

And the sunrise at the last rest stop.

It was ok for a while.  Then it was just torture.  Tired and wanting to get home.  But we made it home at 6:30am and immediately went to sleep.  Now we are recovering.  They can't all go terrifically, so this one didn't.  We'll hope for better luck on the next one!  (I've typed "didn't" so many times in this post, it doesn't look like I'm spelling it right anymore!)

In Knitting News:

On the trip out, I worked on my Cranberry Capelet and it was coming along nicely:

Then, I didn't touch it for the rest of the weekend because it was too HOT!  Now, I'm a little nervous because there are only 7 days left to complete it and have a chance to win a prize.

Also, I got completely obsessed with these:

Watermelon Slice Socks

And had to order the kit which was waiting for me when I got home and now I really want to start them but I'm not letting myself until I am done with my capelet.  Don't they look so cute and... refreshing?

In Book News:

The lastest book I've read is Goodnight Nobody: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner.  The author and I were in the same class in high school!  She is VERY witty and has written several books including In Her Shoes  which was made into a movie.  I'm working my way through them and have liked all the ones I've read so far.  This was her first crack at a mystery and I really enjoyed it.  A stay-at-home mom, struggling to identify with the other moms in her new suburban neighborhood (after moving from NYC), discovers the dead body of one of her neighbors and then proceeds to investigate the murder.  Intertwined with the investigation is the story of her life and relationships with her husband, best friend and a lost love.  And lots of wit sprinkled in, which, in my opinion, is a specialty of Jen's.

An extra bonus for me when reading her books is the little references to the town we lived in and her life.   Jen and I had the pleasure of being part of the enchanted forest during a summer theater musical production of Peter Pan when we were on college break. (What this means is that we were trees.  Yes, trees.  We had tree costumes and had to stand like trees, allowing ourselves to "sway" our branches when our arms got too tired.  Ooh, and we also danced with the other woodland creatures.  It was so fun to be in these productions during the summer, that I really didn't mind being a tree at age 18.)  Jen referenced being a tree in Peter Pan in one of her books.  It was so funny because I was reading along, got to this part and just laughed out loud remembering.  Do I dare try to find a picture to share with you???

In Other News:
This opened up nearby:

I was excited because when we go visit Paul's brother and his family in Virginia, there is always something interesting and yummy from Trader Joe's at their house.  The last visit, it was sweet potato chips.  So yummy.  I got some today.  It was crowded since it just opened 2 days ago, but I saw some great stuff that I will go back to get. (Not terribly pricey as I had anticipated, which was a bonus!)

And on the way there, I saw this:

OMG.  He's wearing a seat belt and GOGGLES. Cutest. Thing. Ever. (the dog, that is...)