Hello from Phoenix

Hi everyone, from sunny Phoenix. When we last updated you, we were planning our Japanese dinner out to celebrate Miranda's birthday. We had chosen a well rated place with a good deal that week for happy hour. So, we drove across town to Takamatsu restaurant, only to find it closed down, boarded up. We were disappointed, but luckily there were several other Japanese restaurants in the area, and we chose one that looked interesting called Sachiko. It was a very plain, simple place, but with some very neat fresh fish deals. Marlene ordered a bento box with soup, salad, tempura, california roll, teriyaki chicken and of course, rice, served in a wooden sushi boat. I had a futomaki roll, and a barbecued black mackerel with soup, salad, rice, california roll. We also had a flask of sake, and green tea too. Food was excellent, service OK, and it was only $48.40.

After dinner, we stopped in to Trader Joe's, and picked up some Italian red wine for just $1.99 a bottle, complete with a real cork! Then we went home and tried it, and liked it. Amazing value! All in all, great celebration for Miranda's birthday, and of our one year on the road anniversary.

We also had told you that we were looking at houses in Phoenix. We found one, and made an offer, only to find out that there were now two offers ahead of us! Too bad, because it was in a decent neighborhood, and in reasonable condition for a foreclosure. We offered $16,750 against a list price of $19,900.

We went to Target to buy some shirts for embroidering, because we had a Halloween job booked in Tucson. Shirts were $50 and embroidery with the logo was $21. A good deal. Then our job at Tucson Raceway Park was canceled the next day because no drivers had registered to race. (read all about it at: www.tucsonracewaypark.com).

Sunday the 24th. we went to check out Kennedy Lake, an "urban fishing reserve" in Tucson. There are 4 of these little "lakes" that are stocked with game fish. In Alberta we would call these ponds, but here in the desert they are lakes. Anyway, we had a nice walk, and Ben enjoyed it immensely. The only complaint: The loud honking of the geese!

Sunday afternoon Marlene and I went downtown to the Jewish History Museum for the opening of the time capsule from 1910. They had promoted a street fair, but there were just four mangy booths set up by synagogues to sell memberships and paraphernalia. Worst of all, there was NO FOOD!!! How can you have a Jewish fair with no food?? We strolled up and down the street, but the sun was high and the temperature was soaring. We wanted to watch them open the capsule, but it was being done down in a dip where you couldn't see anything, so we left. We read online that there were mostly documents that had faded and fallen apart. We did learn that the next weekend they were having a Jewish food fair, complete with an attempt for the Guinness Book of Records entry for the World's Largest Matzo Ball, which is supposed to weigh over 200 pounds, and will be cooked in a specially made 1500 gallon soup pot. It would take 36 hours to make. Too bad we will miss it, but I will make some soup of our own.

This week we stocked up with groceries and liquor, including some matzo ball mix so I could make my matzo ball soup. We also renewed our PO box, and we researched and located a storage facility for our trailer. The soup turned out very well. We also did 4 loads of laundry.

Wednesday night we didn't feel like cooking, so we ordered from Pizza Hut. A Super Supreme Big Italian. This is a GIANT pizza, over 2 ft. long, won't even fit in a box. Total price including delivery: $19.99. It was delicious.

Today we dropped off the trailer in storage, then picked up the Tracker and headed north. This was the first time towing the Tracker, and it towed well. We arrived at our spot at Phoenix Metro RV Park in the north of Phoenix at around 1:30, and by 2:00 we were all set up. This place is different from Desert Pueblo in Tucson. It is mostly RV's, with some mobile homes too. It is clean, and the spots are large, so it is quite nice, and it was priced $100 a month less than others we checked out.

Tuesday we are meeting our realtor to look at some more properties. Still no word on the place we made an offer on 2 weeks ago!

Pictures above are Japanese birthday meal, Kennedy Lake, and our giant pizza (with a beer can for scale reference!). Stay tuned, things are going to happen now!

Tucson cools off

Hi everyone, we're finally back blogging. We've endured 105 degree days since we arrived here, and the last few days we've had seasonal temps of high 80's. We were walking Ben at 6 am every day, and then again after sundown, otherwise he would burn his feet. Now we can wait until 7 or even 8 before he has to go out!

Because of the heat, we really hadn't been doing a lot, but we were out house hunting. We found a nice mobile home in a 55 and over park, and made an offer on it. It was listed for $12000, but we offered what we thought it was worth: $5000. Unfortunately the owner lives in Washington, and was traveling and couldn't be reached. It took two weeks to find out our offer was turned down. Kinda strange, since the owner is paying $500 a month to have it sit there, and its been like that for over a year!

Anyway, after that frustrating wait, we decided to look further afield, and also to look for a house on a property, not a mobile home park. There are few such homes in our low price range in Tucson, but lots of them in Phoenix. So, on Saturday we drove to Phoenix, and did drive-by's of listings we'd looked up online. We met up with a realtor, and we're going to look at 5 of them with him tomorrow.

Yesterday we went to the Tucson Meet Yourself fair downtown. This is a multi-cultural fair, spread around several venues in Tucson Centro. We sampled a nice Thai combination dish: Chicken satay, Pad Thai, yellow curry chicken and rice for $6. We also tried sweet potato pie at a native booth. A lot like pumpkin pie. Then we had to have some of the Afghan lamb kabobs wrapped in nan bread, also $6. That was very tasty.

We watched quite few classes from a local Latino dance school performing on a big stage. We also demolished a huge Mexican fruit cocktail. Giant pieces of melon, apple, mango, orange, strawberry and cucumber. We heard a nice blues band at one of the venues, too. We went into St. Augustine's Cathedral, and sat for a few minutes of the service. Also in attendance at the fair were the local lowrider clubs. Some really well prepared cars were on display. I don't get the lowrider thing, but it is very big down here.

After we'd had enough of the crowds at the fair, we went to the Jewish Cultural Museum. It is housed in the original synagogue built in Tucson in 1908. Jews started coming to southern Arizona in the early 1800's. Many of them were from Germany, originally going to California to serve the miners of the gold rush, then moving east to Arizona to set up businesses to serve the military and the ranchers. By the time Arizona became a state in 1912, some of the Jewish businessmen had become powerful in the community. There were many more Jewish men than women in Tucson, so men would often marry local Mexican ladies. Today, Tucson has a large Jewish population, and is served by 13 synagogues.

Next week we plan to go out for a celebration dinner. First, we are celebrating the 21st birthday of our daughter Miranda, and we are thrilled for her! Second, this will mark the anniversary of our first year on the road. We are still hoping to do a couple more jobs before shutting down jet car operations for the winter.

We've attached pictures of the Tucson Meet Yourself activities. Stay tuned...

Happy New Year (Rosh HaShana) from Tucson

Hi everyone, greetings from Tucson. After leaving our noisy over night spot at the Flying J, we made an uneventful trip to the Walmart on Valencia in Tucson. Our plan was to stock up on groceries, then go check into our site at Desert Pueblo Mobile Home Village. We were surprised to find the Walmart in disarray, undergoing renovations. We navigated the narrowed aisles, gathering enough supplies to see us through a couple of weeks. We had no car here yet, so shopping would be difficult once we got set up.

Fully stocked, we proceeded to Desert Pueblo and got set up. Same site as in February, very nice here, but fewer people around. The snowbirds won't start to roll in until mid-October. Also, a number of the year-round residents have passed away. We like it here, people are friendly, the place is spotless, but we feel old here. Saturday morning we rented a car so we could go car shopping. Enterprise gave us a good deal, and they picked us up too.

On Saturday evening there was a "picnic" for the community. We showed up, but turned and left when we saw the long, long tables stretching across the room, occupied by rows of white haired folks, all impatiently waiting to be served their "picnic" dinner.

Hungry, we went in search of a small, Greek cafe that was highly recommended online. Marlene was having a craving for a donair, so we were seeking a really good gyro, basically the same thing. We ended up at a great little place called Fronimos (www.fronimos.com) . Here you order at the counter, then wait at a table for your food to arrive. A friendly fellow behind the counter could see our confusion as we looked around, and asked if we had been in before. Replying that we had not, he explained the process and gave us menus to peruse. Marlene decided on the gyro sandwich, a pita rolled around slices of beef and lamb, slathered in Tzatziki sauce and onions and tomatoes and served with a Greek salad. Marlene really enjoyed this plate (even served on plastic!).

I ordered the house special: braised lamb shank in tomato and rosemary sauce, served with saffron rice and a salad. I really liked this meal. The meat was tender and tasty, and there was a lot of it. The rice was light and fluffy, and the salad was made with fresh lettuce, cucumber, tomato, onion and olives. After demolishing our entrees, we eyed the pastry display and decided to take a baklava and a kataife to take home for later. Oh yeah, we also had a lemonade and a Snapple. Total cost of this meal: $28 with excellent food and service.

I had started the horrible task of finding a vehicle to buy. We had planned on something small enough to squeeze into the trailer with Armageddon, so we looked at a few Mazda Miata's, but Marlene found them too small for her liking, and I found them expensive. We went home to rethink our plans, and in the end we decided to buy something suitable for use here and in Mexico, that is small enough to tow behind the motorhome, gets good gas mileage, and fits in enough stuff for a two-night trip in Mexico.

We had learned that if we buy a car at a dealership we would have to pay 9.1% in state and city taxes, as well as a documentation fee of at least $263. We were told this covered the cost of bonding a title, transferring the title, applying for registration, fees associated with title transfer, etc. To me it smelled bad, especially since dealers aren't shy about asking for big money for old cars. We decided to shop privately, and after a lot of looking we found a low mileage Geo Tracker (Suzuki Sidekick) in nice shape. We had to pay more than we really wanted to, but it is a clean little jeep-like machine. We handled the title transfer, registration and all of that ourselves for $42. But first we had to get insurance. Hah... not so easy. Tried online with Geico... application went well, they took my credit card number and gave us a "guaranteed" premium that was very reasonable. Then they phoned and said they couldn't do it because we don't have Arizona licenses. We can't get Arizona driver's licenses unless we are landed immigrants or better.

We also tried a live agent in an Allstate office. She quoted us $621 for six months of terrible coverage (just $100,000 in liability), and we would have to first get 5 years worth of insurance company experience letters and driver's abstracts. NOT.

Finally, I called a nearby agent called EZ Insurance, and the proprietor Josh said they could do it for us. We trekked on over to their little office, and found a small, family run agency with the family actually living behind the office. Of course, this is a Hispanic family. We waited while Josh dealt with a couple of clients ahead of us (both Hispanic), then his wife Elizabeth arrived and offered to help us. A few minutes thought, and half an hour punching away at the computer and Elizabeth was able to get us covered, with much better coverage, and at a lower price than Allstate, and no documents from Canada required. And which company did she place us with? Progressive, one of the ones I had tried online to no avail. Go figure!

We celebrated our success with a couple of drinks, and made arrangements to pick up our new Tracker the next morning. Friday morning we went to the bank to get money to pay for the car, then drove across town to pay for the car and take delivery. The seller was a retired fellow, the neighbourhood Mr. Fixit, and he took his time over the whole thing, but eventually we were ready to leave. Marlene was nervous about driving the rental car, but she did just fine. We dropped the rental off, and then went to register and title the car. A painless process at the 3rd party registration place. We had been warned that the wait at the government registry offices could reach 3 hours!

Friday night we celebrated our successful entrance to the new year (Rosh HaShana) with a rack of lamb that we scored at Safeway. It had been priced wrong, instead of $20.99 a pound it was priced at $2.99 a pound. So we had a nice piece of lamb for $3. We also had my Mediterranean eggplant salad, roast potatoes, green salad, roast garlic, French bread and of course some nice red wine. Now we are stuffed, and decided to update you all about this week.

Pictures above are me making salad, Marlene with the new car and our dinner table ready to feast.

Stay tuned...

Viva Las Vegas

After overnighting in Springville and then Cedar City at Walmarts, we arrived on Tuesday at our RV park at Arizona Charlie`s Casino in Las Vegas. We checked in and discovered a nice RV park, with lots of greenery, a very nice pool, a clubhouse and a clean laundry which also happened to be the cheapest laundromat so far.

After getting set up, we did a few loads of laundry (2 weeks worth), and had a couple of drinks before setting out to check out Arizona Charlies hotel/ casino. What a nice little place. We signed up for players cards, and immediately got 25% off buffets and 10% off all other meals. We had a couple of 50 cent draft beers, then went to the buffet. We pigged out on a HUGE variety of foods, including such delicacies as smoked brisket, Pork roast, smoked sausage, several types of fish, pastas, salads, soups, etc., etc.

After dinner we waddled back to the motor home and watched TV for a while before bed. We are going to get spoiled: fifty-three TV channels on the free cable here!

Wednesday we slept in, then decided to stay in during the day when the temperatures soared to 107, and go out in the evening. After a day of laying around, and napping, we caught the public bus and went downtown (an hour ride). This year the downtown casinos are having a ``summer of the 70`s`` promotion. We wandered around people watching (lots of weirdos here) and then watched a Rolling Stones tribute band. We realized that all the people dancing in the street and singing along looked really old, and we wondered if that`s what we looked like, so we retired to the sports bar at the Fremont for a 16 inch pizza and pitcher of beer for $9.95. Actually, the pizza was quite good, very cheesy, and we couldn`t eat it all.

Thursday we stayed in all day, except for Marlene`s expeditions to the pool for some swimming. She really enjoyed the pool. We had a seafood pasta for dinner, with some of our $2.97 wine, then we went to the hotel and had a couple of $2 margaritas and listened to the band. These were good margaritas, made with Jose Cuervo Silver tequila, not your usual cheapo drinks like you get downtown, even served in a real glass with salted rim! The band was OK, a Phillipino group playing stuff like Lady GaGa. Not our taste, but they were alright. We returned to our comfortably air conditioned motor home, and went to bed.

Friday, Marlene went swimming again, and took Ben for a long walk. We lay around again, and then Marlene cooked up a spicy rice dish. We had a nap, then got up and caught the bus to the strip (an hour and a half). We went to Bellagio, and had a couple of $7 beers in the lounge and listened to a couple of bands, then we went south to the new City Center development. It has come a long way since we were last here, but it has a lot of construction to go. We walked through the Aria hotel. Very fancy, lots of young (20 somethings) people hanging around, but not doing a lot of gambling. Very expensive restaurants and no entertainment in the bars!

Next we went to the Monte Carlo, which has been renovated again. We checked out the pub there, but it has gone downhill with only a DJ making music. New York New York was next. There was a very long lineup to get into the pub there, so we moved on across the street to the Tropicana. This venerable old girl is getting a facelift, and major market shift. No more grey haired grannies here, now they`re after those 20 somethings like all the other hotels.

We were tired, and a bit disappointed, so we walked to the bus stop and caught our bus home. One transfer and an hour and half. Back at Arizona Charlies we were hungry now (it was 1 am) so we stopped in the restaurant and had steak and eggs gambler`s breakfast. A 6 oz. steak, 2 eggs, a mound of hash browns, toast and jam for $3.99. A bit more reasonable than $32 for a pork chop at the Monte Carlo!

Saturday we decided to party at home, and save our money. I cooked up some steaks on the barbecue, and we enjoyed a nice meal and some wine.

Sunday morning we rose late. We lazed around, then in the morning we took the bus to Walmart and picked up some necessary items, then bussed it back home. Marlene swam in the afternoon, and we napped for a while. At around 6 pm we caught a bus and headed to our destination for the evening. We`d decided to go to an Asian Buffet, that had good ratings online. By mistake, I got us off at the wrong bus stop, and we had to walk a few blocks to the restaurant, which was OK because we worked up appetites. The food here was very nice. Over 150 items, including cooked to order steaks, mongolian beef, shrimps and veggies. There was crab legs, oyster on the half shell, clams in garlic sauce, sushi galore, teriyaki chicken, several varieties of shrimp and beef dishes, a couple of fish dishes, salads, deserts, the whole groaning table! All for $12.99 including beverages. We made pigs of ourselves, and thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Marlene snuck some meat for Ben, and we crossed the street to catch the bus.

The bus arrived on time, and we relaxed in the air-conditioning. We didn`t get far though, and the bus had to stop because the police had closed down Flamingo street due to an accident involving a police motorcycle. We had to get off the bus, and walk about a mile or so and catch another bus. Of course, we missed our connection for the next bus, so we walked another mile to get home.

Monday it was time to pack up and do the last laundry. Marlene and I cleaned, serviced and prepped the motor home for the road. In the evening we went to the hotel and got a couple of those 50 cent beers, then we went to the restaurant and had a last meal. Marlene had chicken soup, home made with tons of fresh veggies and chicken pieces. She also had wings, and they were very good too. I had the gambler`s dinner: Prime rib and shrimps, with french fries. Total bill for dinner was $20 with tip.

This morning we packed up and headed southeast to Phoenix. There was a lot of road construction, and the short drive seemed to take forever, but we arrived at the Flying J truck stop in Phoenix and we`re settling in for the night. Tomorrow its off to Tucson, where we`ll stop into Walmart to stock up on groceries (because we don`t have a car and can`t easily go shopping), then on to Desert Pueblo RV park where we have booked the same spot we left in March.

Above, you can see pics of rock formations on the road to Phoenix, $10 pizza and beer, Rolling Stone tribute band, fountains at Bellagio taken from the terrace in the lounge, and the band at Bellagio. Stay tuned...

Disappointment in Pocatello

We ended up staying 3 nights at the Jerome Walmart. This is a nice, quiet store, staffed by really friendly people. On Wednesday morning we moved out, stopping in to Twin Falls to dump and fill tanks, then to the liquor store for necessary supplies, as well as to the bank to deposit our pay. Then it was westward bound to Pocatello. We followed the GPS to the area, but still had a hard time finding the track. They have no signs out. Oh-oh, not a good sign (no pun intended).

We met the husband of the owner at the track gates, and he led us to a spot in the pits with power for us. Bonus! We settled in, then checked out the track. A good track surface, and everything else was bad. The stands haven't been painted in years, the weeds under the stands are waist high, there's no electronic timing system, there are no restrooms, only smelly old porta-potty's, the concessions didn't have fresh cooked food, just packaged. The whole place looked like an abandoned race track.

The location is great, at the airport just outside the city, with a potential market of 120,000 people. I went online and found out the track operator, Claudia, only pays $3000 a year to lease the place from the city. The property is 18 acres, and nice and level. Too bad Claudia doesn't have a clue that she's in the entertainment business. We sat at the track, and on Thursday afternoon she called and said we were to display the car the local Toyota dealership, a track sponsor. When the fellow from the dealership called me, we laughed at how Claudia had made it sound the we were doing the dealership a favor, and the dealership thought they were doing us a favor! After dealing with the dealership, I next heard from the local newspaper sports reporter. He wanted to interview us and take some pics, so we told him to come out and see us. He got lost trying to find the track too. He wrote a nice piece, but he is prone to embellishing quotes. Here is a link to the article: http://www.journalnet.com/sports/local/article_2c2f97be-ac20-11df-a411-001cc4c03286.html .

Friday morning and of course Claudia had arranged nothing. No signs, no shelter, no handouts, no publicizing the fact that we were going to be at the dealership showing the car and signing autographs. Nothing. We sat there for a couple of hours, then packed up and went back to the track. And waited. We expected to hear from Claudia, or see some sign of preparation for the "biggest race of the season". All we saw were the snakes and the rabbits, and we watched the activity at the airport, including a large autocross club having a race meet. Lots of people there. We saw not a soul on Friday afternoon. We eventually gave up hope and had a nice Shabbat dinner of BBQ steaks, potato salad, green salad and mushrooms, complemented by our favourite red wine.

Saturday morning Marlene cooked up a great breakfast of huevos rancheros, with bacon, and we showered and prepped for race day. We had been told that the gates opened at 1pm, but no one showed up until 4pm. Nobody cleaned the track, or anything, and we didn't hear from a single person. At around 6 a couple of race cars showed up, and the drivers stood around talking. At 6:45 we'd had enough, and I walked around to the office and met Claudia in person. She weighs over 400 pounds, and can only walk 10 steps at time. I introduced myself, and told her we were wondering what was going on. She shrugged and said no other race cars were coming, so she was canceling the event. I told her I understood the problem, as I looked around her cluttered office. Claudia told me that she had had a lot of phone calls asking when the jet car was going to run. Some fans also were turning up at the gate. We met one family who we had spoken with at the Toyota dealership when they were buying a car.

Claudia pumped me for information about how poorly the other 2 local tracks were doing. I burst her bubble when I described their prosperous operations. She was especially proud of her big marketing gimmick this year: she hands out strips of condoms imprinted with the name of the track! Marlene went ballistic when I told her about it. I mean this is a family sport, and a large number of the young families here are Hispanic Catholics. Not condom users.

Anyway, we were canceled. I told Claudia we would pack up and be off in about half an hour. I walked back and explained to Marlene, and she was not surprised. We gave some cards to the forlorn looking fans, and hit the road. We went 5 miles to a dumping station, then another 5 miles to the Walmart, where we had a light supper of soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, served accompanied by a Manhattan and a Martini.

Sunday morning we rose early and packed up to hit the road. Tonight we are in Springville, Utah. We're going to move slowly, taking a couple of days to reach Las Vegas where we will stay a week and lick our wounds. The pic above is the view from our living room towards the airport.

Stay tuned...

We meet some really polite people

We arrived at Meridian Speedway in the center of Boise, ID, to find an older, but nicely refurbished track with two large grandstands. Next door is a park, with pools, fountains, and nice lawns for Ben. The other side of the track was a ball park, schools and river winding through an old well kept cemetery. We could see the mountains on the horizon. It was a gorgeous place to stay. We arrived early, but already there were people working at the track. This is very unusual. We met the promoter and he assigned us a choice area in the pits, right where we could watch the action from our living room. We were lucky to also have power here.

This is a big event for Boise. The promoter told me that there would be over 3500 spectators and 1000 total drivers and crew. The event is billed as the "Eve of Destruction" and there is lots of preparation going on. Cars are being stripped, ramps are being placed and boats are being attached to cars. There will be a 200 foot car drop, a dominoes car jump,(see before and after pics above), a kids bicycle race, a gauntlet race, a wonderful jet car show, and a boat race. Plus fireworks and much more, all right outside our windows.

Thursday night we had our usual pasta night, this time with shrimps in red sauce, accompanied by our favourite red wine. Friday we cleaned the car and fired it up for a couple of minutes. We dined on steaks and ceasar salad for Shabbat dinner while racers were setting up for next day's activities. Some of these guys have very pricey race rigs. Saturday morning and the racers are arriving early. We watch them set up through the day. We also finalized preparations for our part in the big show. We inspected the burn car, and supervised its placement. We also coordinated with the pyro technicians and the announcers.

At 4 pm the gates opened and the stands started to fill. At 4:30 we had the driver's meeting right outside our door. This is a really well run operation, everything is pre-scripted and everyone knows the plan. At 6 the kids had their bike race, followed by the national anthem and then the series of races. In between the serious races, the car drop occurred, which was really cool. The falling Mazda totally flattened a mini van. Then the hornet cars (small 4 cyl junkers) were each given 4 pieces of duct tape and a bicycle. The object was to tape the bike onto the back bumper of your car. You are to knock the bikes off your competitors cars. The last car running with a bike attached wins. Really funny to watch! The crowd was getting excited.

More serious racing followed, then we had the domino jump. A local fellow jumped a station wagon through three cars standing on end. The pics above show the result. Next was the gauntlet race. A van races around the track, full of melons and cantaloupes and two guys to throw them. The little hornet cars chase the van, and try to block it in so it can't move, while the shooters hold them off by throwing melons at them. A real hoot, except we were on next and the track was now covered with melons and the 3000 gallons of water that they'd sprayed on the cars as they raced by. Oh well, the show must go on.

I was towed to the front stretch where Marlene supervised my car placement, and checked the burn vehicle. The promoter was on the track announcing live from in front of the car, and he read our whole Mike Flambet bio. Marlene's part of the story got some reaction from the crowd, and she even gave them a royal wave when they laughed and cheered.

I did our usual Fire and Fury show, with a change to suit two separate grandstands. The crowd seemed to love it. I did get into a four wheel slide on one corner due to melon and water problems, but survived to finish the show. After us there was the boat race, where each of 22 cars tows an old boat (NOT on a trailer) around the track. The object is to be the last car running with at least 4 ft. of boat still attached. What a riot. Marlene loved it!

After the boat race was a fantastic 10 minute fireworks show, then they opened the pits for fans. We were deluged by the crowd, all wanting autographed cards and to talk about the car. They sure liked the show, and we heard: "Thanks for coming here for us" from lots of nice folks. Marlene got some hugs from a few grandmotherly types who sympathized with her over my callous purchasing of the car without her permission! I signed over 600 cards for people.

After putting the car away for the night, we had a light supper of soup and grilled cheese then listened to some music while having a couple of drinks. The race crews were partying it up in the pits. I took Ben for a walk, and ran into the promoter, who was effusive in his praise for our show. He seemed to be really impressed, and had already been hearing lots of good feedback from fans. All in all a great night, and we even stayed up til 3 am partying!

We pulled out of Meridian at around noon, a little hungover but happy, and drove to Twin Falls where we deposited our check and dumped our tanks. Went to the liquor store, but it was closed, then went to the Jerome Walmart for the night. We stayed here before and it is a nice spot. Too bad we were hit with a HUGE windstorm around 11:30 pm when we were asleep in bed. It was the strongest wind either of us ever remember witnessing. Thought we were going to blow over. Took in the bedroom slide and the TV antenna and weathered the storm. In the morning the rig was half buried in tumble weeds. We'll stay here a couple of nights before moving on to Pocatello for our next gig. Stay tuned....

Spending some time in Idaho

Our next overnight stop was slightly before Twin Falls, at Burley. This is a Supercenter but has a surprisingly small parking lot. It was also noisy at night. In the morning, after a nice breakfast, we went further west, stopping at a truck stop in Jerome, ID to wash the rig. This time we had it RainX'd to make the wash last longer (we hope). It gets expensive at $75 a wash!

We reached Twin Falls, and stopped at a liquor store for some necessities, then followed the GPS to the track. Well, not quite. Following the GPS we ended up at the landfill, 5 miles from the track. The gate operator at the landfill was using his binoculars to watch several grass fires burning around the area. We turned around after getting directions, and found our way to Magic Valley Raceway. What a nice facility. Newer buildings and stands, all well maintained, and a great asphalt track surface.

We were assigned a nice pit area with power, and settled in and started cleaning and prepping the car for the show next night. Lots of out of town racers coming in for a big Pro 4 race. Crews ignored us, as they always do before they see our show. We barbecued some nice sirloin steaks, and had a nice evening watching TV with a bottle of wine.

Saturday morning and we took the car out of the trailer and started it up. A great wake up call for those crews still asleep in their rigs! Then we settled in to wait for our show after dark. The waiting is always hard. Racing started a 6 pm, and moved along well, until the two main events races. Both were long races, and plagued with wrecks, dragging things out for a long time.

Finally, racing was over and it was our turn. While one fellow dragged our burn victim car onto the track, another nice guy towed me in the car around the track where Marlene helped them line things up. They were supposed to water the grass in the burn area, but had not, and now we were all set to run they were trying to get the pump to work. Marlene took charge and told them to clear out, the fans weren't going to be happy waiting any longer. I fired up the car, and made another of our great performances. I immediately pulled off the track and into the pits, ran to the motor home to make a quick clothing change, then ran back to the car to sign LOTS of autographs. We had people lined up for half an hour waiting for an autographed card. Also had some nice comments from the previously aloof crews. When we had finally signed all the cards, we pushed the car to the trailer, and retired to a dinner of Minestrone soup and fresh French bread. A couple of cocktails followed, and a little TV viewing, before we collapsed into bed, exhausting. I think the most tiring thing is the waiting all day and evening to finally run the car.

Monday we left the track, and went 8 miles to the Walmart at Jerome. A nice store with lots of parking. We stayed there for 2 nights. On Tuesday morning I walked the 2 miles into downtown Jerome to buy a couple of things. What a poor town. Many closed down businesses. In fact, other than the thriving farm equipment dealers, only the Hispanic stores seemed to be doing well. Must be a lot of Hispanic people here judging by the large number of Mexican markets, restaurants, beauty parlors, travel agencies and accountants. Oh yes, the banks are all doing well offering refinancing of homes to pay down credit cards. Haven't we heard this before?

Walking the 2 miles back to Walmart, I saw a farm family in a parking lot selling corn off the back of their truck. Their young girl yelled at me as I walked by: "Hey, that's the jet car guy. Do you want to buy our corn?" How could I refuse. Six ears of sweet corn for $2. Marlene loves corn. This was my first encounter with fans away from the track... kind of weird.

On the way to our next stop at the Walmart in Meridian, we stopped to dump tanks and fill with water. We reached the Walmart at around noon and it was BUSY. It stayed busy until after 11:00 that night. We were lucky to squeeze into a spot. We left early Thursday morning so we wouldn't get blocked in by Walmart shoppers, and stopped for breakfast in an empty parking lot. Then we drove the 5 miles to the track. We reached Meridian Speedway without trouble, and discovered a nice, large track facility right in town. They have two large grandstands, which they tell me will be filled on Saturday night. Now we'll get the car ready, and watch the preparations for Saturday night's Eve of Destruction.

In the pics above you can see Montana riverside homes, a farm by the truck wash in Jerome, Magic Valley Speedway with double rainbows over it, and the Snake River Canyon.

Stay tuned....