We were up at 2 AM to make it to Alex's race (4 1/2 hours away) by 7:30. If I EVER hear a soccer parent complaining about morning games again . . .

Karaoke!

Tiffany has had an Applebee's gift certificate burning a hole in her pocket since her birthday, and both she and Alex wanted to go to Applebee's this evening. Alex got all ready for bed, then put some clothes on so we could go for their 9:00 happy hour, with half price appetizers. (We Can all eat for less than $20).

We found out that Thursday is Karaoke night at Applebee's; I don't think Alex had ever seen real Karaoke before. We couldn't get him to sing, though . . . He saw that, although the microphone was set up in the restaurant, people were coming out of the bar to sing, and even HE could tell that the singers had a little too much to drink!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

We're not having much luck talking Alex out of Mount Vernon. Evidently it's his favorite track because it's so bumpy.And there's only one race there each year.

The van was broken into last night.  The window was broken, and the GPS was stolen.

Soap Box Saturday

Alex finished sixth place in Stock today. His first defeat was against Tajha Goodwin-Lowell, who won first place today; his second defeat was against Kirstin Vorpahl, who won second place today! That put him in a runoff for fifth and sixth against Kallan Wehrmeister; he lost the runoff.

He had seven runs down the hill and had fun; he also drove well. In fact, in one run we decided to break to the outside, and Alex pulled that move off perfectly, breaking smoothly, and at just the right point. Our times seem to be very consistently .5 seconds behind first and second place, and .3 seconds behind the next several places. I am convinced that this consistency means that we DO have a decent car setup, and that Alex is driving well. If there was a problem with his driving, he would not be as consistent. Because we have disassembled and rebuilt the car so many times, the same is true of the car's setup.

I am convinced that our primary problem is Alex's size. His shoulders don't fit into the Stock body, and he easily outweighs many of his fellow drivers by 30 pounds. Although the cars all weigh the same, this difference means that THEY get to put 30 pounds of steel plates in their floorboard, thereby lowering their center of gravity. Hopefully this problem will be rectified late next Spring when he is old enough to race Super Stocks; the cars are larger, and the drivers are closer to Alex's size.

Alex says he had fun today when he was racing, but not so much after he was done racing; nevertheless, he did come running across the park at one point to tell me that he had caught the Red Gyarados in his Pokemon video game . . . He is still talking about that, and I think it may have been the highlight of his day.

We have checked in to the Rodeway Inn in north Salem, and are looking forward to another day of racing tomorrow.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Chuck E Cheese

We decided to take Alex to Chuck E Cheese this evening. After work I rushed home to put the back seat in the van, then rushed to La Center to pick up Hailey and Haden.

We got to Chuck E Cheese about seven o'clock and stayed there until about nine when Melissa got off work and showed up to pick up Hailey and Haden. The kids had a blast, but I think even THEY were tired and ready to go home.

Finally, I dropped Tiffany and Alex off at home while I went to feed Tiffany's parents' cats.

We've got to get up about five o'clock in the morning to make it to the Soap Box Derby race in Salem. That is going to be awful early.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Bandon to Newport

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.8