I missed everyone last week! With the weekends filling up, I forgot to file my blog. Last weekend, I left the office and set sail with my family down to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the opening weekend of the 2008 IndyCar Series season. It was quite the adventure!
Megan and Van are with me for this trip because I decided to stay in Florida between the first two events
. My cousin Ed, his wife, Heather, and baby girl, Makenna (who is a month younger than Van), are spending the week with us in Sanibel. While I am trying to chill out as much as I can and get quality, family time, I still find myself on this friggin’ laptop, working. I guess that is what to expect in the first couple of races of the season.
The beginning of my trip was fun. Megan woke up at 4 a.m. last Friday, March 28 for our 6:30 plane flight. Our hotel didn’t have a room for us when we arrived. Cousin Ed looked like he was going to get the pole but he was penalized for (can’t really say what it was, but it wasn’t a big deal), and he charged to a fifth-place finish. Go Ed!
Sunday morning we started early and hit the road. We didn’t have any tunes because our rental car radio only got 88.5? Weird. The Ford mini-SUV even has a special-edition Hertz Sirius radio unit that doesn’t seem to work, either. So we traveled across Alligator Alley in our packed SUV. I had no idea what it really took to pack for a 20-pound infant. His bag was bigger than Megan’s and mine put together.
We
made it to the hotel before the Carpenters. They had a late start, so we spent time out at the pool until they got to the “resort.” As we were setting up, the babies were hanging out, and Ed and I were trying to figure out what we were going to do about the Wii situation. Apparently the hotel doesn’t allow visitors to be gamers, as well. So what to do in this situation? We rolled down to Wal-Mart so that the parents could enjoy Wii time once the little ones went to sleep.
It’s been relaxing, and it will continue to be a good time. We all headed to St. Pete on Thursday morning to get back into race mode.
Since last week, I’ve had my bike out a couple of times and have loved it!
This week was fairly hectic. The IndyCar Series season is right around the corner, indycar.com had its preview party on Wednesday, deadlines are creeping, and “Up To SPEED” debuts this week at indycar.com. It was one of those weeks where I felt that I had to run to the bathroom, run to the studio, run between offices just to get everything in.
With the little guy at home, it’s harder to stay at the office and finish out the day, so I had to take work home with me a couple of days. Luckily, the indycar.com preview party forced me to relax a little bit, hang out with IndyCar fans and polish up the first episode of “Up To SPEED.” Check out indycar.com for the first episode this weekend.
The most exciting thing that happened this week was my venture to 96th Street Steakburger, which is not located on 96th Street. I went with my cousin, who felt that since he hit the treadmill for 30 minutes that he was granted a loaded double cheeseburger, fries and a large chocolate shake.
You would think that after a meal like that, one would have no problem running out of gas! Well, about 10 minutes later, he did run out of gas – or should I say his car ran out of gas! Luckily for us, it was in one of the busiest areas of I-465, with one of the smallest shoulders. As semis and cars whished by, his Chevy Tahoe felt like it was going to tip over.
I spent about 30 minutes starring out the back of the Tahoe watching drivers come to consciousness as they nearly ran into the back of us. I even texted a co-worker, “We ran out of gas, I am really scared!”
Lucky for us, help provided a can of gas, and we were on our way. If your car has one of those mile counters that tell you how many miles you have left, be sure that when it hits 30 that you get some octane.
The weekend looks rainy, and we have a lot to do around the house to get prepared for little man’s first Easter, so I probably won’t get on my bike. But the ride to work on Monday looks good!
Have a Happy Easter!
Jarrod