Whoopie!

Well, we be so excited I had to sit right down and tell sumbody!! We
are at the Atlanta Motor Speedway; Davey got tickets for Sunday’s
NASCAR race for my birthday. This is Friday and we just got settled in
the unreserved RV lot. Not to be confused with an RV park, this is a
lot, very large, and all manner of “recreational vehicles” are pulling
in. Between spending the last week around a truck shop, and one hour
here, I have already seen more cammo hats, rebel dew rags and ugly butt
cracks than I ever wanted to see. Nevertheless, I am so excited to be
here I can hardly sit still. YEEEE-HAW!!

Almost two weeks ago we were leaving High Falls State Park and couldn’t
get up the hill to get out of the park. I had already gone ahead with
the little red car to Indian Springs State Park, our next job fairly
close by. Dave said he noticed transmission fluid on the ground so he
figured the guys in Macon hadn’t tightened something up when they
changed the transmission fluid. I’m thinking, right, $800 bucks and we
drive 60 miles and quit. poop. To make a long story short, we finally
found a guy from Georgia Truck & RV Repair to make a house call and he
determined that the guys in Macon hadn’t put in enough transmission
fluid, so he went out and came back with more and filled it up and took
us for a test drive. Dave sat in the passenger seat and I sat in the
back and the terror we both felt after five minutes was the most we’ve
ever felt together. WUH! This guy drove right on the edge of these
narrow little roads, drove FAST and took a couple of phone calls to
boot! It was really scary. At a relatively wide spot, he stopped the
rig, got out and looked, and announced that we were leaking diesel
fuel. What Dave had seen was diesel fuel that had leaked and dropped on
the transmission. Oh, Lord.

That was on a Thursday and he couldn’t get it in to the shop until
Monday, so we settled back and worked the Indian Springs park from High
Falls. Took the Bird in on Monday and just hoped this guy could get
down into the diesel puller engine and take out the leaky
whatever-it-was (Dave will probably fill in some blank spots here)
(fuel Pump – Dave) and put it back without having to open the front
radiator. With no house, we worked as much as we could, went to Atlanta
and saw three movies and the Cyclorama, an exhibit of the world’s
largest oil painting, depicting the battle of Atlanta. Staying in
motels for a week and eating out was pretty awful but we made the best
of it.

Every motel within 60 miles of Atlanta is full, or will be, due to this
big race. It is hard to describe how big it is. NASCAR was born in
Atlanta and the south and, is still a favored son of the south. We had
planned to drive up early this morning (left the car and the dolly at
the truck shop) to be sure to get one of the $60 spaces. Other,
reserved spaces are $150 and up. Some spaces are built up on a knoll
and have water and electric and cost $7,000 per year. We’re actually
out in a pasture type field and figure we’ll shower on Monday. Our
neighbors are five young guys in a camper, drinking beer from a cooler
with a carborator on the top, in a kid’s wagon decorated with a
memorial flag for Dale Earnhart plus the American Flag, and a skull
attached to the handle. They seem like nice fellows. On the other side
is a father and son rig, the kid is about eight, and from what I can
see, he is about as excited as I am. Only he verbalizes it by yelling.
The noise level seems to rise by the hour, what with all the generators
and planes coming in, very low, to land at the nearby Speedway
airfield. Tonight they have truck races and tomorrow is a 300 mile
race, then the big 500 mile race on Sunday. We have seats for the
Sunday race in the section across from pit row, about 15 rows up, in
the middle. When we got the tickets I went in to the gift shop and the
lady said, “Wull, gitcher ear plugs, yu’ll need ‘em. It’ll rattle yer
chest and yu’ll feel it fer a cupple days after.” I figure the closest
I’ve been to that experience is sitting in a tin toilet when an F-15
went over at the Abbotsford Air Show. You probably don’t want me to
describe it any further, but trust me, it’s memorable.

Thanks to all of you for the birthday greetings. Davey got hisself that
satellite device that lets him find the teeniest hole in the trees. And
I got the Atlanta Speedway!!! I still can’t believe I’m here!!

Love,
Sam