Honk Honk PUNCH!

Yea yea, I got back from Loudon a while ago, and I know I was supposed to put up some pictures, but to be honest, I was just lazy, and really have been in vacation mode up until this past week.  Then I got sick.  Anyways, like the post title says, better late than never.

I actually had quite a blast back in NH, it was really awesome to see family and friends, and I actually got to hang out with my mom for a few days prior to heading to Loudon for the weekend, which was nice.  Jeff came and picked me up in Portland on Wednesday afternoon and we made the hour-ish long journey to the dirt pit.  When I finally got to see the camper for the first time in person since Jeff gave it the workover, I was pretty taken aback.  Even after 10 years, Jeff’s now-famous paint jobs really impress me.  They look very professional, and a few people even asked us if we did painting for a living.  Heck, one guy even stopped to tell us that he had the picture of the old paint scheme hanging in his bathroom at home, and stopped to get a new shot so he could replace it.  I dunno about that, sounds pretty white-trash to me, but hey, I was the guy living in a 1964 junker camper for 5 nights with no running water, so I couldn’t throw stones.

Highlights from the weekend, since it would be a 10 page post if I tried to include everything:

I guess I got fat.  Haha, I actually knew this, but my relentless friends never missed an opportunity to point out the fact that I have gained about 20 pounds since I got here last June.  Hey, life is good at the top, what can I say?  Jeff was pretty happy though, he had a food buddy for the weekend.  Used to be I’d rather drink another beer than go to grab a cheesesteak, this weekend I was actually game for both. Meanwhile, “Skinny Pete” has now taken my place among the fatness scale, while Jeff moved to the top.  I am mired somewhere in the middle.  Hold on a sec, I have to take another bite of this hot dog.

Jeff and I cleaned up on horseshoes.  For the most part, we were just “on” this weekend.  It was crazy some of the shots he and I were making.  I’ve never played so well in my life.  The big loss we did suffer was when we bet my Dad and his friend Craig that if we lost we’d drink my Dad’s Ballantine 16oz pounders.  Of course, the pressure of having to drink that swill got to us, and we lost pretty badly.  I don’t know how he drinks that stuff, but we got through it eventually.  We even got Pete to join in on the fun, somehow.  Pete’s a pushover I think.  Haha.

We got to burn stuff.  Burning stuff is half the fun of camping!

It was cool to see my friend Bill after not seeing him for like 10 years or so.  After many, many years of trying to convert him to be a NASCAR fan, I never succeeded.  We fell out of touch, and suddenly, though the magic of the interwebs, we “met up” again, only to find out he has converted and become a huge NASCAR fan.  He agreed to meet up with us on Sunday before the race, bearing the gift of a bunch of cooked lobsters.  Obviously, he was a hit with everyone up there, and it was nice to trade barbs and catch up on old times.  He brought a friend up, and somehow, as is always the case on race day, some guy showed up in full Ricky Bobby gear, and she got in a good pic with him.  I’m pretty sure that guy died of heat exhaustion in the track, cause there is no way a polyester suit would have been cool in that heat.

Tony Stewart’s Nationwide Series car is sponsored by Old Spice, and every year they hire a bunch of model-type girls to hand out free Old Spice body wash samples to the thousands of people milling about.  They have a huge tractor-trailer parked inside the track with “shower karaoke” and all kinds of little games and gimmicks.  Since the camper is professionally painted up like Tony Stewart’s car, we awoke one morning to an Old Spice utility vehicle parked outside our camper with a couple of said girls yelling at us to come out.  They took pictures and handed out a bunch of T-Shirts and swag to us, and claimed that the pictures were going to go to Stewart.  I doubt that would happen, but it was kind of cool to know that word got out to them that there was a camper dedicated to their driver, and they ventured out to check it out.  Yea, we’re awesome, that’s just how we roll!

I got to see my neice Leighanne when my sister ventured up for the day.  She’s growing like a weed!  For her birthday, Lori and I gave her, among other things, a little Walter the Farting Dog stuffed animal.  When you squeeze it, it belts out an assortment of fart sounds.  To a little kid, this was endlessly entertaining.  To be honest, it was pretty entertaining to Lori and I too.

After 11 years of listening to Jeff’s snoring, which could wake Rip Van Winkle, I finally found a solution – iPod!  I plugged in my iPod right before sleeping (with the traditional Advil and two bottles of water to head off the hangover), and slept like a baby.  Jeff did the same, but nobody told Pete about this solution.  He had to deal with the wrath of both Jeff and my snoring, which, according to Pete, was pretty unbearable.  I don;t know what he was talking about, I slept just fine.  Sorry Pete!  Bet you buy an iPod for September!

The race itself was rained out with about 20 laps to go.  And when the skies finally opened up, they really opened up.  The rain was just plain crazy, with the lightning and thunder and soakingness.  Of course, this did not stop Jeff and I from doing a little shopping in it anyway.  Hey, we were drunk, and already wet anyway, might as well enjoy it.  By the time we got back to the camper, there was nothing that wasn’t wet.  Except the camper, which was completely dry for once.  That rebuild was very much worth it.

These are just a few samples of the good times we had up there, I am sure that I missed a lot of things, but this post is getting lengthy at this point, and it’s dinnertime!  I don’t miss many meals these days, and be damned if I am going to miss this one.  It’s the last pizza I’m going to eat for a while.  It’s about time I got my fat ass to a gym, and the workout regimen starts this week!

Some more pics that I have no real stories for: