Clear my calendar!

I've always wanted to say that.

I am extremely weary. Six o'clock Friday morning, Chris and I finished preparations and left the house and headed to K.O.'s house to begin the trip to Fairfield for the weekend show.

I knew that K.O. and his nephew had had a late night, I just didn't know how productive it had been. They had installed a new engine is a competition vehicle and fired it about 1:45 Friday morning, only that slap the spark plugs with the pistons and "close" the gap! No spark, no run.
They were already up and at 'em and things were hoppin' 'round there. Loading was going on in three eighteen wheel "semi-s" and a big pickup with a RV.

Finally, K.O. told me and Chris to hop in an go. We were taking the oldest truck of the three and one final preparation was to charge the air conditioning. K.O. put a can of 134A freon in it and we began a walk around. In short order we heard a pop much like a 22 rifle. One of the hoses on the A/C had balooned and burst! Yuk! We were looking at almost three hundred miles each way in Texas in a truck with no A/C. At 11:11, Chris and I were on the road. (Three hours and eleven minutes later than planned).

Chris and I just puttered along. 61 to 62 miles per hour. We sure didn't want a repeat of the the last time we tried to take the "project" to a show.

Things went pretty well. One stop in Hico to tighten up a locking hub and it's adapter. Luckily, we met up with four competitors and they had all the tools we needed (because K.O. and the rest of our convoy were an hour behind us). Just outside of Waco, Chris and I heard a noise that sounded like car keys being thrown against the side of the truck. Chris commented, "That didn't sound good!"

In just a moment I smelled anti-freeze and when I glanced down, the temperature gauge was sweeping! Immediately I jumped of the throttle and began coasting, hoping it would begin cooling down. That didn't happen. I finally turned the ignition off and coasted to a stop. When we tilted the hood if the truck over, we found an idler gone and the water pump belt missing.

My first call was to K.O.. After that, five cell phones began calling various dealers and repair shops in Waco, trying to locate the necessary parts. (We were fortunate to have the competitors running in a newly formed convoy). After an hour K.O. arrived, and another hour later we became resolved that we couldn't find the parts to make the repairs to the "project". Finally a decision was made and we dropped one of K.O.'s trailers hauling his competition equipment as we removed the broken truck from pulling the "project". The final assessment was that the show could go on with two less competition vehicles but without the project, there would be no show.

Talk about a step up, Chris's and my new ride was a late model Peterbilt (K.O.'s wife Debbie had been driving it but she wasn't comfortable pulling the project). Best part was we had air conditioning! We continued on and arrived at the show location one hour before show time. We did a quick thrash, getting the "project" ready for the show, and it rolled onto the track prior to eight o'clock. I changed shirts and made my way to the announcer's booth, walking down the track to get there. In twenty-nine years I have never seen as poor of track preparation. The group promoting this even obviously have no concept of what preparations need to be done.

Friday nights show got no better than that. A two and a half hour show stretched to four hours. That made for a miserable evening for me in the announcer's booth and K.O., D.O., Landon and Chris trackside working with the project. After the show we gathered to go over and assess the "project" to be sure it had worked as designed.

Chris and I caught a ride to the motel and when we walked in, it was three in the morning.

I am not a night person. That was bad enough, but most mornings by that time I am cracking my eyes.

Saturday when we woke, Chris and I went next door to the "Golden Arches dinner club", ate and called Pat. She was twenty-nine miles away at Palestine with the new grand-baby. She and Robyn drove over to get Chris (I wanted to go see Chloe, but felt that we had to much maintenance to do to the "project".

It ended up we did the required maintenance, but most of my afternoon was spent with the President of the sanctioning body and then the chairman of the event.

I have never been in a position like this. For the week prior to the event, the chairman had been making changes to our agreement, which was made about the first of this year. Saturday he was telling me that his committee was not happy with the way Friday's show went and they didn't feel compelled to pay our agreed rental rate for the "project". He went on, telling me they didn't want me to announce the Saturday show. They had taken offense Friday night when I mentioned the fact that they had additional equipment needs in order to make adequate preparation.

My first inclination was to put the "project" back on the truck and head for Abilene, Texas. While I have been required to bank roll the equipment repair and modifications, K.O. had more hours working on the project than anyone else and I felt that he should have a say in the decision.

Finally, I told the event chairman to pay "what he felt was fair", that I could live with myself because we had done everything we had agreed to do. I continued on to tell this man that I required cash payment on the rental, prior to the beginning of Saturday night's show. He told me they were not prepared to make a cash payment, but he could give me a check. I told him no payment, no show.

Two hours prior to the advertised start of the show, we made two test passes and parked the "project" at the starting line. The announcer began the night's welcome and went into the national anthem and invocation. During this, the sanctioning body president came to me and asked if everything was good. I told him the chairman had failed to make the payment.

Showtime was minutes away, and without payment, so was the big Peterbilt.

With just seconds to spare, the chairman arrived with a check.

I should have dotted his eyes.

Instead, we completed the night's show. K.O. operating the equipment, me making all the decisions from the sideline. I had a notebook with notes from previous shows and even though it may come across as bragging, we knocked it out of the park Friday night.

People are funny, they are quick to complain, but slow to compliment. The jack-ass chairman of the event never acknowledged how well Saturday's show went.

I did tell him that I would not submit another bid for any future events of theirs, because if I did, the outstanding balance would be the first thing on the bid sheet.

Probably the biggest problem I had with the weekend was that K.O., D.O., and Landon, sacrificed competing to assist and operate the "project".

On our way home we stopped and picked up the "repaired truck" and the trailer containing tow pieces of K.O.'s and D.O.'s competition equipment.

Chris and I led the convoy home and with one stop on Waco for lunch, the rest of the trip went pretty much without incident.

The lunch stop was a first for me. We parked several big rigs at the truck stop and piled into vehicles to go eat. We ended up at a Hooter's.

This was something I had lived just better than a half century without experiencing. I was not impressed with the menu or lunch fares, but it was very evident why the restaurant is so popular. I guess what amazes me most is that the waitresses have no problem "dressed" as they were.

They might need to put a warning on the door!

A quick side note, Chris got to meet his new niece Chloe. You know how certain people bring out the best in others, Chris brought out the "poop" in Chloe. He said he had barely began holding her when she did her little entrepreneur imitation.

I just wish things had worked so I could have met her!

Hope things go well for you, today and this week!

FATHER, I am so weary. Renew and refresh me. Thank YOU for the safe travel, for the good show Saturday night. Bless-ed be YOUR name.