Gone racin'

Well... watching anyway.

This weekend I couldn't make it home because of the long drive that I needed to make. Well... I could have, but I would have had to fly home Friday night, get home after everyone was asleep, and fly back on Saturday evening to make a 9 hour drive on Sunday. So I elected to not go home this weekend. But... I will be getting home on Tuesday, and will be home the rest of the week before I fly out on Sunday to resume my training. More about that another day.

Friday, after work I drove from the Sacramento area to Medford, Oregon. Then on Saturday drove from Medford to just south of Portland. If you've not driven in this part of the country, you really need to. The pine trees are so thick that they are layered in front of each other like sardines in a can. Except that they are much nicer to look at. And probably smell better too. San Diego weather may be among the most welcoming to guests, but the lack of rain doesn't let it approach the abundant conifer production of the great Northwest.

Had dinner with Mark on Saturday night. He's the guy that hires me for these programs. We determined that we've known each other about fifteen years. And we still speak to each other! In setting up the dinner engagement, I learned that Mark was racing this weekend at Portland International Raceway with his brother-in-law Todd (who I just worked with on the Nissan Versa launch). Saturday was practice and qualifying, with a couple of races on Sunday. (They both run Spec Racer Fords, a class in which all of the cars are identical, which makes for some very competitive racing.) I didn't think I'd make their first race, until 6:00AM this morning when I was awakened by the logging train blowing his horn outside my window. So I crawled out of bed, into the shower and grabbed a bagel and off I went.

Picture post card weather provided the wonderful racing weather that everyone wishes that they had every time out. Met Marks mom. And his best friend since he was a kid. Mark made some beer brats for lunch. And then invited me over to his place for dinner, which he and the lovely Suzanne prepared together (isn't that sweet?). Also got to see the house that they'd just moved into a couple weeks ago in Southwest Portland. Beautiful mature backyard landscaping provided the perfect environment for a thoroughly enjoyable end to a very relaxing weekend on the road. Then I got to come back to my hotel where the upstairs neighbors have decided to continually re-arrange the furniture to be more accomodating to the herd of elephants that they brought with them. I could swear the sign said "No Pets"...