It seems like I haven’t been very busy lately, because I’ve had to dip into the “Blog About Nothing” well a few too many times. This installment will be different. I’ve actually been on the go pretty much nonstop since last Thursday, and there’s a lot of good material to cover. “But what’s the challenge in that?” Right? It’s fun to write about great stuff that just happened, but sometimes it’s as much fun to come up with 2,200 words about absolutely nothing. Very Seinfeldian, you might say.
Anyway, on Friday I had an 11:00 flight out to Las Vegas and that was an odd enough thing to kick the weekend off. I have gone to a few races, in recent years, where I never made it out to the track until Saturday, but it still feels enormously odd. In 2017, when I spent the second half of the NHRA season doing publicity work for “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” I’d only go to the track on Saturday, and I’d try to maximize my time signing books, chatting with fans, or talking with Alan Reinhart on the P.A. This year, I went to a few races for Del Worsham, to help him out with some social media and PR, and I felt like I needed to be there all three days but it would be OK if I got there on Friday and went straight to the track, at least getting there in time for the night session. After 20+ years of flying out on Thursday and back on Monday it all seemed a little off. With Vegas now going with a new and kind of odd “early schedule” in terms of Friday qualifying, I wouldn’t be able to get to the track until they were done.
This time, I’d be hanging with the Wilkersons again, since Del wasn’t racing. I did get to see him, and we had a great long chat. I also had to return a parking pass he’d loaned me for the Brainerd race. That was important, because Pomona is the only race left this year and that’s his home track. There aren’t enough parking passes in captivity for Del when either Pomona race rolls around. He was in Vegas helping out as a new set of eyes on Shawn Langdon’s car, for the Kalitta group, and I don’t think there’s any doubt he helped them. They ran pretty darn well after struggling at a few events.
Before that, though, I had to pick up my rental car around 2:00 at the Las Vegas airport, and then drive up to North Las Vegas to get to my hotel. It seemed like the drive up I-15 was as long as the flight. It wasn’t, but it sure seemed that way. Traffic in Vegas appears to be a 24-hours-per-day thing, and it’s usually not a good thing.
And, the place I was staying was also a first for me. I’ve been going to Las Vegas for close to 30 years. My first trip to Sin City was in 1990, when I was working for Converse Shoes, but that initial trip was actually not Converse related. My buddy Pete Delkus was in Triple-A then, in the Twins organization, and his Portland team was in Vegas playing a series against the then Las Vegas Stars, who were the Triple-A team for the San Diego Padres that year. I wanted to see him, so I made the short flight over from Orange County where I was living then, but he never got into the one game I was able to see.
The Portland team was staying in downtown Vegas, near Fremont Street, for that series because the ballpark is just north of there. So, I got a room in the same hotel they were in. It was the Las Vegas Club Hotel and Casino. It seemed like it was 1960 in there. A total throwback. After that, when I’d go to Vegas to call on various coaches at UNLV, I’d stay at the old Imperial Palace on The Strip. It only seemed like about 1965 in there.
The point here is that I’ve always stayed in hotels that had casinos. Whether it was the Imperial Palace, the Monte Carlo, Caesar’s Palace, the MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Cannery, Luxor, New York – New York, or the JW Marriott, there was always a casino. And that wasn’t necessarily an awful thing. Over the decades I’ve been pretty lucky on the slots. This time, though, I just got a room at the Springhill Suites on Craig Road. No casino attached. It was a very nice place, very convenient in terms of getting to the track and back, and I spent zero dollars on any machines. As a bonus, In-N-Out was directly across the street. After I got in and got settled, it was a Double-Double, fries well done, and I even broke with all tradition by having a few gulps of a chocolate shake. Let me say for the record that I absolutely demolished that Double-Double. It never stood a chance.
Being out at the track was pretty wonderful, and getting to spend two days with Team Wilk was fantastic. It was really great to hang out with them and feel “home” for a couple of days. The weather was also incredible. Warm without being hot, and calm breezes instead of the howling winds we often get out there.
I usually stress a bit when I go to a races these days, not being sure who will remember me or who never heard of me in the first place. The Media Center is populated by a lot of people who always seem to be around, especially in terms of the reporters who cover the sport, but the PR group does go through some flux on a regular basis. Just this year, two of my favorite PR reps took new jobs. Cody Poor, who worked for Kalitta, and Leah Vaughn who worked for DSR. I’ve known Leah since she was aspiring to somehow land an internship to get her foot in the door right out of college. She turned into one of the best PR reps in the business, and Cody was universally considered one of the hardest working people in the sport. He was tireless in his efforts to get the Kalitta team as much creative publicity as possible. I miss them both. They’re both great people and a ton of fun to work with.
But, all was not lost. Many of my other favorite colleagues were thankfully still in the room. Those hugs are always a great way to fit back in, if only in a non-working way. I was just there to see everyone and have some fun. Great fun it was.
And, I got to go to the starting line with the LRS team and enjoy that fringe benefit as well. A good blast of Nitro is good for the sinuses. And actually, just getting out to Nevada was really good for me. I’ve been battling my allergies really hard for the last couple of years (it doesn’t help that I’m allergic to cats, but don’t even go there.) The ragweed and other pollen in Minnesota has been pretty rough lately and I’ve been kind of nonstop congested, often with watery eyes that are so bad it looks like I’m crying. It wasn’t until late on Sunday in Vegas that I noticed all my symptoms were either gone or barely noticeable. So it was a great trip in that regard. The desert helped me!
What also made it a great trip was the Hujabre family, who were all in attendance on Sunday. Buck and Mary seem to never change at all, while Gibson and Hudson continue to grow like weeds. We still make it a point to remind Gibson that he took his first steps at our former Woodbury home. We should ask the new owners to put a plaque in the living room, or something.
Mary brought along some fantastic bagels for us, and I had just loaded one up with cream cheese when someone said “Let’s do our group shot!” Perfect timing. At least it wasn’t in my mouth and I didn’t have a cream cheese mustache going.
It really was marvelous, stupendous, wonderful, and fantastic to get to spend a day with the team, my dear friend Krista, the Hujabre family, and everyone else who stopped by and spent some time with us. It seemed like the reunion meetings in the pits, in the lanes, and in the Media Center never ended. There was always someone saying hi with a friendly face, a firm handshake, or a sincere hug. I loved it.
And no, I did not go to In-N-Out three days in a row. It took an enormous amount of willpower, but I only went once. Instead, I went to a nearby grocery store and stocked up on things like granola bars, nuts, and crackers to soothe the longings for another Double-Double. And I ate well at the track, thanks to Krista Wilkerson and the catering in the Media Center.
Another huge highlight was this car. It’s pretty much like nothing you’ve ever seen before, and it seemed like there wasn’t a minute during the weekend when people weren’t crowding around it and taking photos. “What is that monster?” you say. Well, Wilk and Richard Hartman put this bad boy together. It’s one of Tim’s former Funny Cars with a fabricated sort of AA Fuel Altered body mounted on it. That’s a full standard Nitro Funny Car motor mounted in there.
It’s an exhibition car, really, since there basically isn’t a class for this combination to run in. They thought it would be fun, so they built it. They wanted to see what it would do, though, so they displayed it during the race but then ran it on Monday when a lot of other teams were testing. Richard got to drive it, which I know he enjoyed. I wasn’t there but I’ve seen the videos of a couple of the runs they made and this crazy thing hauled butt, firmly planted and pretty much right down the middle. They never planned to make a full run, and didn’t, but I know Tim and Richard were really happy with how it went. They weren’t sure what it would do, but they had an inkling it would run pretty well if the tune-up was right. It pretty much earned straight A’s for grades.
Vegas was all fun. I’m thrilled I spent the dough to go out there and see everyone.
On Monday, my flight was going to board around 1:30 so I couldn’t go out to the track to see the new creation run. When I factored in Las Vegas traffic with the typical long lines and congestion at McCarran Airport, I felt I should leave the hotel super early just to be safe. So, of course, the traffic wasn’t bad and now they’ve added a CLEAR lane at the TSA checkpoint so I sailed right through. That was OK by me. I’d rather be early than be totally stressed out and stuck in either traffic or a TSA line, or both. Plus, there’s an American Express Centurion Lounge out by the D gates, so I got to hang out there for a bit and have some early lunch.
I didn’t get home until pretty late Monday night, thanks to a flight that’s more than three hours and the loss of two time zones, and I’m not afraid to admit that I was totally exhausted. The hot tub played a role in our lives that evening, and then I slept like a brick.
On Tuesday I worked on the new book some more, going back and adding some new flavor to a few of the completed chapters. I think that’s going to be a common thing until I’m done. When you’re writing about fictional characters new ideas tend to pop into your head at any given moment. Then you think, “Oh no, it would be so much better if I had him do this, rather than that.” It’s called character development, and I’ve never really done it before.
The first things I wrote for the book were the studies for Brooks and Eric, the two main characters. I did long outlines about where they’re from, their families, how and where they grew up, their personalities, and the time lines for their lives. Even those studies were adjusted after they were done, and now that I’m writing I’m really “getting to know” these guys. It’s more than just a little exhilarating, to be honest. And with so many people asking me about it out in Vegas, it really got me fired up to get home and get back to work. My best conversation was with my friend Kelly Wade Topolinski, who is a brilliant writer who loves creating fictional characters. We were both so charged up talking about the process and the wonder of it all, it was hard to stop. But, she was out there working for Summit Racing Equipment and all their teams (including Wilk) and I was just there to be there. Good thing she was working, or we might still be going on and on about this stuff.
On Tuesday, Barbara had to leave work a little early and I had to shut the laptop down by 5:00, because we needed to be in downtown Minneapolis by 6:15 or 6:30 at the latest. For the second time, we were headed to the phenomenal Dakota Jazz Club for dinner and a show. A few weeks ago it was Livingston Taylor, and his style and presentation were really great for that small intimate venue. On Tuesday, its was going to be very different. I was 125% excited to see this show, while eating a wonderful steak and sipping some fine wine.
Remember Emerson, Lake, and Palmer? They were a huge and very successful band back when I was in high school and college, playing extraordinarily technical and complicated progressive rock. Sadly, Keith Emerson and Greg Lake both passed away in 2016, but Carl Palmer is still playing the drums. He calls this tour his Carl Palmer ELP Legacy tour. With him on stage are his amazing drums, and two other musicians.
Paul Bielatowicz is the guitarist on the left side of the stage, and Simon Fitzpatrick is the guy playing a very interesting instrument on the right. They are both nothing short of World Class. The interesting instrument is the Chapman Stick. It has 10 strings and can be made to sound like such a seemingly endless array of things it was mind boggling to watch Simon play it. His fingers were a blur and he powered all 10 of those strings.
And the show was made better by two things: 1) Carl Palmer came out from behind the kit after every song to tell us what the next song was about, or how it had been written, or how it impacted their careers as ELP, such as when he said “Without this next song, I wouldn’t be standing here. People like you made it our first real hit, and it changed our lives.” It was the ELP classic, “Lucky Man” and the crowd went crazy. 2) The crowd itself filled the venue, but we were literally right in front of the stage. We were no more than 20 feet from the drums, in a private booth. It was stunning, and the sound in there was absolutely perfect. It was loud and powerful without being too loud. The mix was right on, with the two amplified guitars perfectly matched with the acoustic drums. And other than a few sung vocals, it was all instrumental.
Barbara was never a big ELP fan, although she knew a lot of their songs. I don’t think she knew what to expect, and frankly I didn’t know what to expect either. What we both experienced was a musical masterpiece. It was incredible to hear this ridiculously complicated music played by three virtuoso artists, with such power and coordination, in a venue this small. Blown away doesn’t come close to describing it.
Early on, the look on Barb’s face when they got into their first flat-out riff, and then changed time signatures all at once to head off in another musical direction while all being within a micron of each other in terms of arrangement, was one of stunned amazement. She turned and look at me with eyes wide open, just kind of shaking her head while saying “WOW” but I was just as busy doing the same thing.
I’ve seen a ton of amazing concerts through the years. I’m officially labeled a “music freak.” I’d alway considered concerts by Genesis, Supertramp, The Who, Yes, and (of course) Rush to be at the top of my very long list of “best ever” shows. I need to let this one digest for a bit, but it would not be out of the realm of real possibility that this would be in the Top 5. It might even be the best show I’ve ever seen. The players and the venue had everything to do with it, and with the place being so intimate we all got to meet Carl Palmer before heading home. A night I’ll never forget.
And that brings us all the way up to yesterday. At 12:30 I headed over to a local restaurant called the Tamarack Tap Room (because it’s part of the Tamarack Village shopping area on Tamarack Road) here in Woodbury, to meet a very important guy for lunch. A few minutes after I got there, former Roseau Ram and NHL star Paul Broten walked in. For more than 90 minutes we shared conversations about Roseau, hockey, the NHL, junior hockey, and other stories of his life as the youngest of the three Broten brothers. It was amazing. This whole last week has been amazing.
Paul is a great guy, so that really made it special. He was just as interested in me, and my life story, as vice versa, so the conversation never slowed down. Plus, he told me a number of great stories about what it was really like to grow up in Roseau, and what the winters were like up there. But, as he said, “We never really thought about it. You just dealt with it. It was home. It was a great way to grow up.”
This morning, I was looking back over the notes I’d scribbled and within an hour I’d gone back into Chapter 4 and added some the stories I’d just heard yesterday, thanks to Paul. They were so rich they had to be included, and as I write more about my Roseau character Eric, there are plenty more Broten stories to add. As a matter of pure coincidence, my character Eric is going to graduate from Roseau High in 1984. Paul Broten graduated from Roseau High in 1984. He got a huge kick out of the fact he’ll be a “teammate” of Eric’s in a fictional way.
We had a great time together, and I after lunch I presented him with a signed copy of “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts.” I think he’ll enjoy it. Today, his brothers Neal and Aaron are joining him for a trip back home. They’re headed to Roseau to see their parents, Newell and Carol, some friends who still live there, and to do some hunting. That last part is the most important, I think. The Broten boys out hunting back up by Roseau is about as rich as it gets. The last thing I told Paul was, “Tell your folks that crazy guy from Woodbury who is writing a book said hello.” That time I spent out on the Broten family porch was priceless. So was my lunch with Paul. We’ve already made plans to have dinner with our wives some night, when it works out for all of us.
So that’s 3,177 words right up until now. And the process of writing this flew by at warp speed. What a great week in my world. I can’t wait to keep cranking on the book. To that end, here’s something that’s been secret up until this moment. Only a few close confidants have heard the working title for the new book. And now here it is in writing.
It’s “How Far?”
When you read it, and I hope all of you will, that title will make sense about six different ways. I’ll just leave it at that, for now.
That’s all for this week. My fingers are tired!
As always, if you perused this string of sentences and thought it wasn’t too bad, please do me a favor and click on the “Like” button at the top. I’m trying to get into the “Like” Hall of Fame, Eastern Woodbury Division, Dancing Waters subsection.
Bob Wilber, at your service and still beaming about the week that just was.