When this blog installment is published, I’m hoping (very seriously) that it’s on our appointed Thursday Blog Day. This week, that would be July 27. I can only hope, though, at this point. Right now, it’s 1:50 pm on Tuesday and I’m sitting in the Delta Sky Club at MSP getting ready to board my flight to Seattle. Once there, it’s three and a half days of fun and other merriment with my buddies Lance, Radar, and Oscar, including golf, fine dining, and a Mariners game. We play golf at 8:00 am on Thursday, so I’ll need to have the discipline necessary to carve another hour out of my schedule to get this posted then. Heck, I might even have to do a second blog to include all the Seattle tales. That might be on Friday Blog Day.

If it seems like I just got off a plane, it’s because I did. I flew to Denver on Friday, spent Saturday at the track, and flew back Sunday. Now, 48 hours later, I’m going all the way to Puget Sound. Then, on Friday, I’ll fly down to Sacramento and drive to Sonoma. Saturday will be my track day, and I’m still hoping to meet up with Vince “The Bronze Fox” Bienek and his lovely wife Mary, an actual native of Paintsville, Kentucky. Then, back to Sacramento on Sunday morning for the long flight back to MSP, and then home to Woodbury to spend a few hours with one Barbara Doyle before she takes the Sunday night flight back to Spokane, which is where she is right now. It’s really easy to get confused by all of this. Plus, next weekend I go back to Denver, this time with Barb, for a wonderful outdoor wedding as niece Erin Doyle weds her fiancé Eric Novotny. Busy, busy, busy…

And now busy again, because it’s time to head to my gate. More from the plane… Back in a bit.

Section II.

Greetings from 33,000 feet somewhere over far western North Dakota. Cloudy all over this part of the country, so there’s not even anything good to look at. I’m in the front cabin, in seat 2D. I guess that makes me like a Flat Stanley, because I’m two dimensional. Hmmm.

Okay, back to my Denver fun. I got to the hotel in Lakewood in time to see the final qualifying session on NHRA All Access, and Wilk was ripping pretty hard on both Friday runs. I was definitely excited to get out to Bandimere on Saturday, although the odd schedule there made it a bit of a marathon. Both Friday and Saturday featured sessions that started in late afternoon and ended well into the evening, so Saturday was going to be a long day. So long, actually, that I wished I’d taken a closer look at the race schedule before buying my Delta ticket. I could’ve flown in on Saturday morning and made it to the track with time to spare.

There was much to do, though, and plenty of people to see, so I drove out to Thunder Mountain around 10:30 despite the first Funny Car run being scheduled for around 5:00. With Saturday at Denver always being the huge hullaballoo that is the special Dick Levi “friends and family” gathering in the LRS hospitality center, I was jazzed to not just see the team and Krista Wilkerson, but also Dick himself and Shelley Williams, who comes in for the biggest of the big LRS functions to help out. Shelley and I have been buddies for many years, and Dick is such a great guy I can’t say enough about him. As I wrote about Dick Levi in my book, he’s a very important and successful man. And he never treated me like anything other than a peer and an important colleague. “Class Act” comes close to describing him, but he’s more than that. Truly one of the most impressive people I’ve ever met in my career.

We also had a few promotional things planned, although not all of them happened. Instead, what happened in a sort of organic way was a wave of fans coming by to ask where they could get “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” and, in Denver, giving someone directions to the correct souvenir trailer is as easy as pointing to it from the end of the pit. All day, Saturday, people kept coming by wanting autographs and inscriptions, and some of them were pretty emotional about it, which I wasn’t expecting. That stuff generally gets to me, and it was hard not to be as touched as they were. That’s a part of this whole process I never expected.

I was also really happy to see that Bob Vandergriff was racing in Denver. I walked over to his pit and saw a big smile on his face when I arrived. It was the first chance I’ve had to personally thank him and shake his hand after the Kickstarter campaign ended with him being the actual person who put me over the top of my goal. He said, “I did that at 31,000 feet on a plane. I was on the WiFi and knew it was your last day, so I checked on it to see how close you were. When I saw the number I thought to myself, well I’m just going to do this and get him there.” I’m still humbled by that and by all the generous people who stepped up to make the book happen. All I had to do was write it!

Our great friends Gerald and Kari Meux were there, as well, and that’s always a great thing. Many years ago, when I first met Gerald, I told Tim moments later, “This guy is going straight to the top at Hormel. Just watch. He’s got that ‘it’ factor going for him. He’s going to run the company someday.”  Well, I got that one pretty much right on the nose. After being recruited out of college by Hormel, he’s been promoted so many times I’ve lost track of all the places he’s been. Now, he and Kari live in Austin, Minn. and he works at corporate headquarters. Just since the last time we communicated, he’s been promoted again and is now a national accounts sales director for the company.

All that’s good. I love Gerald and Kari, but I really love Gerald’s mom Nadine. She’s a phenomenal woman and I look forward to every chance I get to see her. This time, she was in Denver for the day and her daughter, Brittany, was with her to spend the day with Gerald and Kari. I hadn’t met Brittany before, but we were besties within a minute after we met. That’s a Meux family trait. Meet them and you’re immediately friends.

As you probably know, Wilk’s LRS Mustang lifted the front end pretty high in Q4, and when it came back to Earth from that wheel stand it bent the frame. The guys worked those typical and well-documented epic long hours to switch everything over to the backup chassis and used that for Round 1. And what happened? The car did another wheelie and the same result came about. The scramble to have a car in Sonoma is unfolding right now, as I write this.

Fabled chassis builder Murf McKinney had another chassis in process at his shop in Indiana, but it was really just the cockpit part of the car with a few straight tubes pointed forward. Murf’s guys sprang into action, though, and from what I saw on Facebook it looked like they had nearly completed the chassis by the end of today. Now all that has to happen is to get it out to Sonoma and finish putting all the systems on it. Wilk hopes to have it ready by Q2 on Friday evening, but if they have to wait until Saturday to know it’s good to go, that’s what they’ll do. The Western Swing is a challenge for everyone, but it’s even more of a challenge when you bend both Funny Cars in a 24-hour span at the first of the Western Swing races. Yikes.

Update: We’re finally over the middle of Montana. I think we’re in slow motion.

Here’s another old blog feature that used to be popular. While I’m typing, I have my Bose earphones on listening to music on my iPad. I chose a playlist I compiled for one of our long drives from Spokane back to Woodbury, and it’s cleverly entitled “Trip Mix 2” since it was the second one of those I put together for the three day drive we did many times.

Since I’ve been writing this in-the-air segment of the blog, I’ve listened to songs by Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle, Tool, Thousand Foot Crutch, Evans Blue, Fight or Flight, and Cavo. Right now, “Erase My Scars” by Evans Blue is serenading me.

I’m anxious to get to Seattle right now. Lance, Radar, and Oscar are all already there. When I booked my flight I figured we’d all get in during the afternoon, but those guys booked earlier flights than me. And this third reunion is already a lot different for me. I was pretty intensely involved in setting everything up for the first two, but Lance took all of that on this time around. I’m not even sure what all we have planned, but that’s cool. I’m just going to arrive and have fun.

Our hotel is actually right across the street from the famous Pike Place Market in downtown. That’s the public market where they toss freshly caught fish through the air to get them on display for customers. Should be big fun, and Seattle is a cool town so I’m sure we’ll find no shortage of interesting things to see and do. Including the fact Lance has us scheduled to go on a boat trip one afternoon. And I’m not talking about a big ferry boat. We’re going to tour around Seattle on a sail boat. If none of us fall overboard I’ll consider it a success.

That’s about it for this segment. I’ll add more to this after we engage in Seattle shenanigans…

Wednesday Update…

Whew. What a whirlwind but what fun. And right now, at around 5:20 pm on Wednesday, we’re all in our respective rooms taking naps or otherwise catching our breath. I just went to a Target in downtown Seattle to buy grapes, trail mix, and bottled water I don’t have to pay $6 for if I consume it from the mini-bar.

First, let me say this now that I’ve been here 24 hours.

A) Lance has done a masterful job organizing all of this and getting it all paid for and set up. When we leave, I’ll find out what I owe him and send him a check for more than that. What a pleasure to just fly out here and ride along in whatever direction he has us going.

B) To that end, we enjoyed a marvelous dinner at a nearby bistro last night, and the fresh salmon tasted not quite like anything we can get in Woodbury. Hmmm. Not sure why.

C) Our hotel is fantastic. I look out from my room and see the Pike Place Market. We leave the lobby and walk the steep almost San Francisco-like streets of this wonderful city. I’ve always dug Seattle, but this trip is making me love everything but the overwhelming traffic. That’s OK though, because we’re walking or taking Uber everywhere.

D) We attended the Mariners – Red Sox game today and had a phenomenal time. Safeco Field is really a gem. The staff there is as attentive as any I’ve seen in Major League Baseball. And Chris Sale, who pitched for the Sox is, as we say in baseball parlance, not just nasty but filthy. We saw numerous Major League professional baseball players take feeble swings that looked like something you might see at a local batting cage. When you can throw 96 to 98 and run it in on guys’ hands, then throw an 84 mph change-up or slider, it’s almost not fair.

E) Lance saw some Converse-like sneakers online and loved them so much he bought a pair for each of us. They are MLB sneaks, and I got the Twins version. Oscar and Radar got the Cardinals. Lance had to take the Dodgers because it was all he could get in his size and slip-on.

Now, once we all get a little rest, we’re off to another fabulous restaurant, this time an Italian bistro a few blocks away. This city has such a vibe it’s invigorating. Just looking around near our hotel, almost every high-rise building is residential, so the sidewalks are alive with people who live here and tourists like us. We walked 1.5 miles to the ballgame, and the sidewalks were jammed both ways. Love it here.

More tomorrow…

UPDATE: Well, best laid plans and all. It’s now Friday and I’m in the spacious new Delta Sky Club at Sea-Tac airport, waiting for my flight to Sacramento. Traffic can be so bad here, you always want to give yourself a ton of time to get to SEA, but my cabbie drove like an IndyCar guy, and we made it in 20 minutes. Then, after checking my bag, I went around the corner to see the typical TSA lines that go out of sight, but with CLEAR I had my fingerprints scanned and in I went. Badda boom badda bing. It’s a beautiful thing.

Yes, yesterday was the appointed blog day but Lance had so many incredible things planned it got away from me. We were headed for Broadmoor Golf Club by 7:45 in the morning, back at the hotel by 3:00 after playing 18 holes and having lunch, and then had reservations for a two and a half our sailboat cruise that night. All we could do between golf and the boat was take naps.

So here we are.

Seattle was fantastic. None of us rented cars so we walked everywhere and if you’ve been to Seattle you know that means steep hills in downtown. I’d guess we walked a solid 10 miles in total, and a lot of it was straight up those hills, but it was all fun and the company was as stellar as ever.

Broadmoor is a really exclusive private club (think Bushwood from “Caddy Shack” but 100 times nicer and more prestigious) but we got on because Lance knows a guy who is very high ranking with the PGA. He must be, because they treated us like kings. As for us, my three cohorts played golf as follows: Radar -Really good. Oscar -Gorgeous swing and he played great. Lance -Played a game with which I am wholly unfamiliar. He absolutely CRUSHES the ball and plays all sorts of shapes and fades. Unlike me, he does that on purpose. As for me, it was my third round of golf in five years and it was the most difficult course I’ve ever seen, much less played on. Tight fairways, lots of big trees, and more sand than Miami Beach. I was in way over my head, so I just concentrated on having fun and not letting my lousy skill level get to me. I hit a few good ones, but they were few.

After we returned to the hotel, and had our required naps, we walked down to the pier and met the sailboat crew, a First Mate who looked 18 but was probably more like 28, and a Captain who was certainly no more than 35. We all commented the obvious: The older we get the more trouble we have guessing the age of anyone under 50.

We had a nice group of about 20 on the boat with us. It was a 75-foot sailboat, but there were no seats on it. You just had to sit on the deck. How was the experience, you ask? Phenomenal. It got a little chilly when the sun went down but it was so worth doing and they did have blankets for us. I was pleasantly surprised that all four of us could sit on the deck like that without having our backs seize up totally, as well.

We cruised all around off shore from downtown Seattle, going all the way out to one of the islands you can see from downtown, and never did much more than 6 or 7 knots in terms of speed. As for our youthful looking crew, they were terrific and kept us out of trouble. Nobody fell overboard, so that’s not just a good thing it’s also kind of surprising. The boat does list in the wind, the deck is small and covered in ropes, and there’s just a small cord between any passenger and the very cold water.

Let’s just say that everyone was very careful any time they walked around. Everyone but the two drunk guys up at the bow, anyway. How they stayed in the boat is a mystery. And did they really have to sing that Christopher Cross song (“Sailing”) off-key for the last half-hour of the trip.

By the time we got back to the city, nightfall was upon us and it was beyond gorgeous. Seattle is a beautiful city to begin with, but right after sunset, as the buildings light up, it’s stunning.

We’d, by then, made ourselves well known at the bar/restaurant across from our hotel, in almost a full-on “Cheers” fashion, so we headed there for some appetizers and a round of drinks or three. Don’t try this at home. We’re highly trained professionals. Plus, we walked everywhere and the bar was across the street from our digs.

This morning, we wanted to have an early lunch at an Italian place about a mile away, but Lance had forewarned us that he’d read up on the place and it’s a bit quirky. It’s really little, but it’s only open from 11:00 to 3:00, or something like that, and the line forms early. We got there at 10:50 and at least 30 people were on the sidewalk waiting for it to open. They don’t have seating for 30, so it didn’t look good for us since I had a firm time I wanted to be headed to the airport. When they opened, the line did start to move but it quickly stalled out. No such Italian luck for us.

We did muse about the odd business model the place utilizes. You could hear the owner in your mind, saying “We’re only going to be open 12 minutes a day and we won’t have nearly enough tables for our guests. That should work great!”

We’d passed a gourmet taco place on the way, which was only a counter inside with outdoor tables, and it was actually fantastic. We were all walking back to the hotel together, but we passed a little urban courtyard were a couple of classical musicians were tuning up and folks were gathering, so I said my goodbyes, shared the hugs with three of the greatest guys on the planet, and took off by myself.

And now I’m here. Very tired, but determined to get this blog posted. A day late and many dollars short.

Tomorrow, Sonoma Raceway and the Wilk pit area. Plus, my Paintsville buddy Vince and his wife Mary said they’d like to come with me to experience their second NHRA race, so that will make it even better. Tomorrow night, dinner with them at the Swiss Hotel on Sonoma Square. I have indeed eaten well on this excursion.

Sorry for being tardy with this one, and I know it rambles, but at least it’s here.

Oh. Wow, almost forgot this. Last week I did a fun interview with the sports writer for the Woodbury Bulletin, our little weekly suburban paper. it ran on Wednesday and is on their website. You can see it here:

http://www.woodburybulletin.com/sports/4303772-woodbury-author-chronicles-lifetime-sports

Have a great weekend everyone! See you next week (hopefully on time) and you know this drill: If you read these words and liked them, please officially “Like” them by clicking the button at the top.

Bob Wilber, at your service and still savoring Seattle.