Yep, the NHRA Mello Yello tour is off to Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa. this weekend. I, however, will be heading in the opposite direction. As mentioned in last week’s blog, I’m instead flying to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif. for a bit of sightseeing and info gathering. It’s a “location scouting” visit for the new book that is officially underway. The trip will help me get a real feel for where my SoCal character grew up, went to school, and surfed. And to make it even better, I’m having lunch with Jeff Morton on Saturday. Jeff is Director of Advertising Sales for NHRA and he’s big into baseball in Southern California. He should be, because his son Kale was a left-handed pitcher at Glendora High, then went the University of Arizona before transferring back home to play his final three seasons at Azusa Pacific University, where he had a fine career.
I am on our screened porch with my two fuzzy assistants around me. One is neck-deep in the catnip plant we grow and water just for him. That would be Buster. The little guy, who always craves sunshine, is near me but on the wooden floor. It is “that day” and you can mark it on the calendar. September 6, 2018. The day you can feel it. The day summer really begins to end and the first wisps of autumn are in the air. From this point forward, we’ll have brief warm-ups and days where we say, “hot one today” but the tide always turns and today feels like that day. At 8:30 this morning, when I went out to get the newspaper in the driveway, it was chilly.
I’ve been writing this blog, in this web location, since the beginning of 2016. NHRA.com was kind enough to allow me to keep writing the original blog for a couple of months at their site, after I officially retired, to help transition my readers over here, to our family charity site. That was very helpful because I could end each NHRA blog with reminders about the move and a link to this new site (although a lot of people didn’t get the memo, as we say.) I wanted it to be a seamless transition for as many folks as possible, knowing that NHRA.com was going to take down their blog page as soon as I was done. 10 years in one spot was a long time, but now we’re over here and still rocking.
What an adventure I’ve been on since my previous blog, last week. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it, and I’ve experienced a lot so that’s saying something. And the key part is that the experience wasn’t just good, or fun, or interesting. It was all of those but it was also incredibly valuable and enlightening.