Captain Blowdri’s Cool Adventure!

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(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

On Tuesday of this week I was able to fulfill a a trip that was 37 years in the making!  For all my flying years, and that dates back to August 1973, I have always wanted to visit the USAF boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ.  The “boneyard” is formally known as the 309th AMARG (Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Group) located at Davis-Monthan, AFB on the East side of Tuscon.

After making some phone calls to get the tour schedule, we decided to get over to the Pima Air & Space Museum on Tuesday morning for the 10am tour bus departure.  I was very excited about the possibility of seeing some of my old friends, the T-37 and T-38 from my USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training days at Williams AFB, AZ, and my old C-141′s that I flew during my six year USAF tour at Travis AFB, CA.

Two of my brothers, Jim and Jerry, along with Jerry’s son, Scott, decided it would be best to be on the first tour of the day which launched at 10am.  So we arrived at the Pima Air Museum a little after 9am to purchase our tickets and assure ourselves of being on that first tour bus.

As we pulled out from the Museum heading over to the “boneyard” my excitement began to grow.  Our first stop after entering the acres and acres of stored airplanes is called “celebrity row”.  In this area there appears to be one of just about every aircraft that is stored in this facility.  In this area there were C -130′s, S-2′s. S-3′s, F-4′s,F-16′s, F-14′s, A-4′s, A-7′s, EB-66′s, F-111′s, KC-135′s, EC-135′s, B-1′s, just to name a few.  There were helicopters like, the Cobras, Hueys, Sea Furies, etc.

As the bus turned one of the corners I could see row after row of the T-37 Tweet.  That is the first airplane that I flew in Pilot Training.  All those rows of Tweets instantly brought back the memories of 2Lt. Boyd L. Hammack climbing into a USAF aircraft for the very first time.  Back in August of 1973 there were feelings of excitement, exuberance, as well as feeling hugely overwhelmed at the fact that, here I really am a humbly poor boy from Fresno, getting the chance to become a USAF pilot!

Further on our bus tour stood row after row of the T-38 Talons.  This aircraft was the second plane that I flew at Williams AFB, AZ.  Seeing all these plans brought back another emotion, that of being “bullet proof”, as well as a felling of accomplishment.

However, my biggest disappointment was learning during the tour that just recently almost all of the C-141′s that were stored in the “boneyard” have been removed, cut up and destroyed! What a dramatic let down!  Nevertheless, I was informed that there was one C-141 spared and sent over to the Pima Air & Space Museum, the next stop on our tour.

As we walked around the 74 acres of aircraft in the Pima Air & Space Museum, I spotted my old long lost friend, the C-141 pictured above.  When I got closer to this old war horse, I recognized the tail number as one of the airplanes that I personally flew during my five years at Travis AFB.  There was a warm fuzzy feeling the flowed from my head to my toes.  It was like seeing an old high school or college friend that you haven’t seen, for me personally, in 36 years!  It was 1975 all over again!

As I walked up to it and touched the skin of my long lost friend, I had instant flashbacks.  There were the memories of my first trip across the Pacific, my first landing at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, my part in the Saigon Evacuation in April of 1975, checking out in the left seat and becoming the aircraft commander, and many, many more pleasant memories.  I could have sat down in the shadow of my long lost friend and mulled over the plethora of “good old days” experiences that I had over those five years flying this airplane!  However, I had to move on, and with great regret I had to say good bye.

Nevertheless, the rush of feelings and memories continued to flow through my brain for hours and hours, long into the night after I left my old friend.

So as you can see, the tour through the 309th Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Group was cathartic for Captain Blowdri.  This tour comes just a few days after I have received notice that my flying career with United Airlines is now history.  Therefore, this tour generated much more meaning for me now than it would have been a few weeks, months, or years ago!

Once again, I must bid adieu to three old friends and the memories that composed those “good old days”!

ROGER, WILCO, OVER AND OUT!

The Time Has Come!

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(Captain Blowdri in his high altitude office)

On January 5. 2011 I received a phone call from United Airlines Medical Department that my request for a medical retirement had been approved.  United Airlines had no choice because The FAA had grounded me back on July 9, 2010 in light of the cardiac ablation procedure that was performed on me to try to regulate my heart’s rhythm.

I have had 24 hours to reflect upon the reality and gravity of the news.  I have had time to ponder, evaluate, and relive some of the 37 years of flying memories that my career spanned.  Over the coming days, weeks, and yes months I thought that I would put some of those memories to paper and share them with you the readers, my friends, and family.

Although the end to my flying career didn’t end in the manner that I had envisioned,  nevertheless, my 37 year aviation career has reached its sunset. I will miss my flying buddies from Eastern Air Lines and United Airlines, but I will not miss all the behind the scenes, contract negotiations , bickering, feuding, and company BS that accompanied the job.

So I will leave you with a song that probably sums up my aviation career, and most likely my life as well.  It is a classic song that Paul Anka wrote and “old blue eyes” sang so eloquently, “My way”!

Check out this classic Frank Sinatra video.  Nobody can do it like Frankie did it!!

THIS IS CAPTAIN BLOWDRI SIGNING OFF……

ROGER,WILCO, OVER, AND OUT!!!

 

Duty, Honor, Country!

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(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

This week on November 11 we will celebrate Veteran’s Day.

I would like to make a suggestion that each day this week we all should take time to reflect, appreciate, and honor those men and women who are serving in our military in the Army, Navy, Marines, and the Air Force, both domestically and abroad.  These men and women are the future of this country in more ways than one, they are our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and some are our mothers and fathers.  More importantly, these honorable men and women are asked to fight for, and defend the basic core of our existence, yet they get very little in return.  Notwithstanding, some may give the ultimate sacrifice, their lives, in order that we may have the freedoms that we all take for granted everyday.  It is quite unfortunate that, as we have all come to learn, freedom is never free, it is paid for by the lives of our young men and women!

Additionally, we need to honor those men and women who were asked to defend our country and fight the most unpopular war in the history of this country.  I am referring to the conflict that engulfed and divided my generation, the Vietnam War.  Those returning Vietnam era GI’s never received the respect that the GI’s of any other previous war in our history got to enjoy.  In fact the Vietnam vets were treated generally with disrespect and contempt upon their return to “the World”.  They were only doing what was asked of them by our government at the time.

It is also a time time honor all those men and women who came before us, “the greatest American generation”, our fathers and grandfathers who fought “the war to end all wars”, WWII.

This week take time out of each of your days and make an effort to do something nice for these men and women, make a difference in their lives.  After all, they have made a difference in our lives.  The easiest way to that would be to go out of your way to tell a veteran/GI that you really appreciate the sacrifice that they are making for us.  Try it, you might be surprised at the response that you will get!

To all my friends and family who have served our country, I want to thank you very much for your sacrifices!

Duty, honor, country, those are the words that General Douglas MacArthur used in a speech that he delivered to the West Point Military Academy student body on May 12, 1962, at the age of 82!

The idea of duty, honor, and country still rings true almost 50 years later. If you want to read MacArthur’s speech, click on the previous link of duty, honor, country.  Additionally, for those who may not be totally familiar with the USA’s quintessential war horse, click on his name above and read about him.  MacArthur was like no other American general in our history.

Check out this Trace Adkins video.  Listen to words, especially at the end of the music.  It is the West Point men’s choir that sing the final verse, it is very moving!

Say a prayer for peace for our daughters and our sons!

Captain Boyd L. Hammack, USAF (1973-1979)

The 2010 Trek To Talladega

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(photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

With all the required preparation complete, Tuesday was the the day to launch out of Yuma with my brother, Jim, for our second adventurous trek to the 2010 Chase “wild card race”, Talladega Superspeedway, in Talladega, AL.  The plan was to fly to LAX Tuesday, grab a hotel, then launch out of LAX early Wednesday morning flying to Denver, then on to Atlanta, GA.  Once we got to ATL, we would grab a hotel room, get a good nights sleep, get up Thursday morning, rent a car, drive over to Anniston, AL, about 1 1/2 hr drove, and set up camp at our hotel for what is billed this year as the “Hallodega” race weekend.

Well, Tuesday was our shortest day, flying from Yuma,AZ to LAX.  That first segment went off without a single hitch.  We got to our LAX hotel, checked in, and got a good nights sleep, knowing that we were getting up early at 5am for our next segment of travel, LAX-DEN-ATL.

Day 2, Wednesday, started out early with a wake up call at 5am. we hopped on the 6am hotel bus back to the airport.  Security went swimmingly well with almost no line whatsoever at the security checkpoint.  Both Jim and I were hungry for something small in order to get our morning medications down. So we stopped at the gourmet restaurant of Mickey D’s, we knew that we would have a couple of hours at Denver with much better eating choices at the Mile High airport.

As it turned out there were plenty of seats available on the Denver flight, therefore, Jim and I had a whole row to our selves.  Once we got into our seats, settled down and buckled in, the B-767 pushed back, started up the engines, and taxied out for takeoff on runway 25R at LAX.

The 1:47 flight went by very quickly, added by a couple of a cat naps along the way!  On the descent, my thoughts turned to the layover time and the ability to get some better food at the Denver airport vs. LAX!  As we settled into a seat in the food court, I decided to look quickly at the departure screens to determine how far our walk would be to our departure gate.  To my total and utter dismay, I noticed that our flight to ATL had just been cancelled!  There was only one more flight to ATL and that was going to be in 6 hours.  Not only was it going to be a 6 hour wait, there would be more passengers there than seats available on the airplane!  Since we were standby passengers, it wasn’t looking very good for us to get to ATL  Wednesday night.

What a bummer!

With some quick mental gymnastics, I tried to look for a quick and reasonable alternate plan.  I saw that the Birmingham flight was running about 1:30 minutes late and it was scheduled to depart now in about 20 minutes.  Quickly I called Karen, got her working on listing the both of us on that Birmingham flight, cancelling our room in ATL that night, trying to get us a hotel room in Anniston, AL, and reserving a rental car in Birmingham, as well!  Those were going to be some daunting tasks to be done rapidly.

The first task was accomplished quickly and we were able to get onboard the flight to Birmingham.  The rest of those tasks would be accomplished while the two of us were airborne to Birmingham.  Now I had to wait until I landed in Birmingham to see if the other requests were able to be fulfilled, the rental car availability, hotel room, cancelling the room in ATL, etc.

Once we landed in Birmingham, I thought of one more problem that I failed to address before we got on the plane to Birmingham.  Our bags were going to ATL and we were now in Birmingham, AL, 125 miles away from ATL.

OOPPSS! The only way to get our bags was to drive to ATL airport and pick up the bags once they arrived there.  Well first things first, we have to see if we have a rental car reserved in BHM.  I turned on my phone to find that there was a voice mail from Karen saying that there is reservation at Enterprise, the hotel room in ATL was cancelled, and that I would have to get the hotel room in Oxford/Anniston myself, but there were rooms available.

When I showed up at the Enterprise Car rental desk at BHM and talked to the person behind the desk, I found out that there was no reservation in the computer, additionally, that they didn’t have any available cars!  Big Bummer dude!  I tried  call Karen, but she was hanging out with her girlfriends at a casino in town playing bingo.  So I left a voice mail on her phone and decided that Jim would start at one end of the car rental area and I at the other end and just checking to see if there was a way to rent a car.  It wasn’t looking very favorable when Karen returned my call.  She had the confirmation number, I gave that number to the Enterprise dude behind the desk, and his reply made my heart sink.

The reservation was for the following day!

What do I do now? I’m in BHM with what looks like now way to leave!  Nevertheless, within a couple of minutes the Enterprise dude had me hooked up with a sardine can for a rental car, but a rental car nonetheless!  Now we have to decide what our approach would be for a hotel room.

The decision was to approach the hotel that we have reservations with for Thursday-Sunday to see if they had a room for the additional night of Wednesday.  Using the now world famous Hammack charm, Jim and myself was not only able to requisition a room at our hotel for Wednesday, but got two queen beds to boot!

We have successfully dodges almost all the bullets that were shot our way…….so far.  Now we have one last obstacle in our way, getting our luggage at the Atlanta airport.  We are feeling soooo good now, what could possibly go wrong now?

We depart Oxford/Anniston, AL headed for Atlanta 93 miles away.  With a  phone call I was reassured that the DEN-ATL flight was landing at 10:29pm.  ATL is in the Eastern time zone and because the drive was about 1:30, we left Oxford at 7:30pm trying to time our arrival at ATL.  We arrived at ATL at approximately 10:10pm, parked the car, walked into the terminal, and was reaffirmed by the TV monitors that the plane was scheduled to land at 10:29pm.  Now the only question to be answered is, did our bags make this flight?

So the brothers Hammack hung out at Carousel #5 patiently waiting for the bags to come up the conveyor belt and plop down on the circular belt that takes the bags around and around.  Thirty minutes no bags, forty five minutes no bags, where could the bags be? More questions and less answers as the time rolls on!

While waiting so patiently, we struck up a conversation with  two wome that were waiting for someone off of that same flight.  We found out that because of all the weather in the area earlier in the evening, there was a backlog of flights arriving into the ATL airport, forming a logjam on the taxiways, and thus the planes were unable to get to the gates, causing excessively long delays.

Nevertheless, we waited patiently by Carousel #5 for our bags.  Now it is one hour, an hour and fifteen, on hour and a half, still now bags!  The patience has now turned frustration, cynicism, and even a small bit of anger.  Finally at the one hour forty five minute mark, the bags start to fool off the conveyor belt!  Jim’s bag was the second one to come up the chute, hooray!  Now mine should follow shortly.

Not so fast pilgrim!  We waited and waited, it was an additional ten minutes before my bag came ambling up the chute.  Hip, hip hooray our evening was  a success!  It is only now 11:50pm Wednesday night.

Now we have the 1:30 drive back the Oxford/Anniston,AL, initially in a driving down pouring rain storm.  Our final arrival time to end our day was 1:15am Thursday morning!  If you were counting that was 18:30 minutes after we started our day back in LA!

That my friends, was how my Wednesday went this week on the trek to Talladega!


Tissue or Mechanical?

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Have you ever been asked that question?

Well, looking back on all the segments of my life, there have been many questions that have been asked of me.  Questions like how do you like your steak?  Would like paper or plastic?  Is this cash or charge?  Would this be credit or debit?  Would you like cheese on that?  Would you like that super-sized (my answer to that was always of course)?  Are you married or single?  Do you have any children?  Are you a  Republican or Democrat?  Are you conservative or liberal?  These questions get asked of most everyone very frequently, but not mechanical or tissue?

Well, now I have to really start thinking about how to answer what quite possibly might be the single most important question for my future.

Would you like tissue or mechanical, Captain Blowdri?

Aortic Valve Replacement Picture Using Bioprosthesis Valve Device

This mechanical aorta valve will last forever.  However the the patient must take coumadin for the rest of his/her life.  There are some really serious possible side effects from prolonged use of this drug:

Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); back, side, muscle, joint, or stomach pain; black, tarry, or bloody stools; blood in the urine (pink or brown urine); bloody or coffee ground-like vomit; chest pain; decreased urination; dizziness; fainting; fever; numbness or tingling; pain, unusual color, or temperature change in any area of the body; pale skin; purple, dark, or painful toes; shortness of breath; skin sores or ulcers; stroke symptoms (eg, confusion, slurred speech, vision problems, one-sided weakness); sudden severe pain in your legs, feet, or toes; trouble swallowing; unexplained swelling; unusual bruising or bleeding (eg, nosebleed, unusual bleeding from gums, increased bleeding from cuts, increased menstrual or vaginal bleeding, coughing up blood, bleeding at the injection site); unusual headache or weakness; unusual pain, swelling, or discomfort; wounds or sores that do not heal properly; yellowing of the skin or eyes.

Additionally the following may occur:

  • Fatal or nonfatal hemorrhage from any tissue or organ. This is a consequence of the anticoagulant effect. The signs, symptoms, and severity will vary according to the location and degree or extent of the bleeding. Hemorrhagic complications may present as paralysis; paresthesia; headache, chest, abdomen, joint, muscle or other pain; dizziness; shortness of breath, difficult breathing or swallowing; unexplained swelling; weakness; hypotension; or unexplained shock. Therefore, the possibility of hemorrhage should be considered in evaluating the condition of any anticoagulated patient with complaints which do not indicate an obvious diagnosis. Bleeding during anticoagulant therapy does not always correlate with PT/INR.
  • Bleeding which occurs when the PT/INR is within the therapeutic range warrants diagnostic investigation since it may unmask a previously unsuspected lesion, eg, tumor, ulcer, etc.
  • Necrosis of skin and other tissues.
  • Adverse reactions reported infrequently include: hypersensitivity/allergic reactions, including anaphylactic reactions, systemic cholesterol microembolization, purple toes syndrome, hepatitis, cholestatic hepatic injury, jaundice, elevated liver enzymes, hypotension, vasculitis, edema, anemia, pallor, fever, rash, dermatitis, including bullous eruptions, urticaria, angina syndrome, chest pain, abdominal pain including cramping, flatulence/bloating, fatigue, lethargy, malaise, asthenia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, pain, headache, dizziness, loss of consciousness, syncope, coma, taste perversion, pruritus, alopecia, cold intolerance, and paresthesia including feeling cold and chills.

Rare events of tracheal or tracheobronchial calcification have been reported in association with long-term warfarin therapy. The clinical significance of this event is unknown.

Priapism has been associated with anticoagulant administration; however, a causal relationship has not been established.

Let me just add that if I were to “suffer” from priapism I could start a whole new professional acting career and make a ton of money down in the San Fernando Valley!!  (I understand that the adult film industry, just like the United States Marine Corps, is always looking for a few good men!!!)

Now my other choice for aortic valve replacement is a tissue valve.  The tissue replacement may come from the patient, from a pig, or from a cow.  Life expectancy of the tissue replacement valve is approximately 10 years.  Therefore, at my present age, 59, there is a possibility that I might have to endure two of these surgeries, when the decision to replace my aorta arrives !

Now having researched these two options still doesn’t make the decision very easy.

Let me review these choices:

If, when the time comes, I select a tissue replacement from either a pig or a cow there are some serious humanitarian concerns.  What are the ramifications to society for consuming either a very finely grilled prime rib, rib eye, T-bone, porterhouse, an In-N-Out burger, or some really great pork chops?  Would that be a tabu thing to do in our society?  Would I be considered a cannibal?  These are questions that I want the surgeon to clear up before I ever have to make this particular decision!

Similarly, if the decision is made to have the mechanical valve relacement, and I was confronted with the dreaded side effect of priapism, would I be considered an outcast if I decided to capitalize on that “misfortune” and move to the San Fernando Valley to start my film career?

What is your view?  I need your help!  Is it mechanical or tissue?

I’ll get by with a little help from my friends!!

The Boys Of Fall

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(Captain Blowdri in the B-757 cockpit)

It has been 41 years since my high school graduation, which makes me the class of 1969!  That can only mean that I am staring at my 60th birthday in February.  My two sons are now grown men, Jason is 36 and Jeremy is 32 years old.  Additionally, Jeremy now has two children of his own, a son named Cole and daughter named Hannah.  Yep that makes me a very proud grandfather!

How can all this be so, I have asked my self many times?  It wasn’t long ago that I was on the field of the McLane High School football stadium watching and listening as The McLane Highlander’s “Pipe and Drum Corp” marched into the stadium playing “Scotland The Brave“ for the senior graduation ceremony!  It was the last time that I would have the privilege to hear those bagpipes as a student of McLane High School!

My how fast the time whizzes by!  I remember anxiously awaiting each Fall Friday night.  Oh how we used to live for “Tonight”!  Well now I am almost 60 years old and all those “tonight’s” have come and gone in a rapid blur!  I know that I echo the thought for almost all of my contemporaries in saying, “Man I wished that I could have  just one of those “tonight’s” back!  I would give anything to relive that senior year, those Friday night dances, the fun of it all, the camaraderie, the excitement of the football, basketball, and baseball games, spinning donuts with my red 1965 VW with a loud stinger exhaust in the fog, on the grassy area by the swimming pool and gym, oooppps, I never got caught for that!!!  I surely hope that the statute of limitations has passed!!  Those were “the good old days”!

Well looking back, there are more “tonight’s” behind me than there are “tonight’s” in front of me.  Nevertheless, I have spent a lot of time lately thinking about my legacy.

What is my legacy?

I am not sure that I have the answer. Do people remember you for your honesty, your humor, your loyalty, your hard work?  Just what is it that we want people to remember us for?

Is there an answer for that question?  I believe that the answer for the question, “what is my legacy?”, is for others to figure out.

Nevertheless, I do know one thing for sure. 

It is not what you take with you when you leave this earth, but it is what you leave behind when you’re gone!

Please take some time to watch this video below.  Pay close attention to the coach’s talk to his players, it rings oh so true to life!  Listen to the lyrics of Kenny Chesney’s song, I promise you it will stir emotions in your soul that may have laid dormant for years!  If this song and video doesn’t do for you, then I guess that I am just an old sentimental softie!!

Remember, life is a journey, not a guided tour!  The decisions that you make today, follow all the days of your life!

Dream big and give it your all!

Long live the “Boys of Fall”!

9/11: Where Were You?

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The 9/11 attacks

(UAL flt 175 prior to impacting The World Trade Center)

It has been nine long, and sometimes painful, years since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the UAL crash in Pennsylvania.  On that day I lost one friend, Captain Jason Dahl the captain on UAL flight 93, the airplane that crashed in PA.

Saturday marks the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States. For those of us in the airline industry, and specifically at United and American Airlines, the date is particularly poignant. It is a painful tribute for all who lost friends, colleagues, and passengers. Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on that sunny September morning when we first became aware of what had happened. This Saturday, there will be numerous memorial services and events and, hopefully, you can take part in one of them.

The flight crew of UAL flight 175.

The flight crew of UAL flight 93.

The flight crew of AA flight 11.

The flight crew of AA flight 77.

Follow this link to see the video regrading the memorial and new proposal for the national park at the crash site of UAL flight 93 in Shanksville, PA.

Where were you on the morning of September 11, 2001, the day that the world changed forever?

Please never forget these honorable people and their ultimate sacrifice!  One must remember that the price of freedom sometimes can be the ultimate sacrifice!

When you watch this video pay close attention to this video and the lyrics from this Alan Jackson song!

My Enlightening Summer In Review

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(Captblowdri @ Talladega Superspeedway)

Labor Day is now upon us and that signifies the end of summer.  The Labor Day weekend is traditionally the last weekend of the family sun and fun.

My 2010 summer has been drastically different from any other that I have had since graduating from Fresno State in June 1973, or for that fact in my entire life!

The preface to my summer was written on the evening of May 16, 2010.  That was to be the beginning of, what I will deem, my enlightening summer!  The series of events, the UAL Flight Safety Investigation and the NTSB Investigation, that followed the cockpit fire, made me feel like I was under the intense scrutiny of both United Air Lines and the federal government.

In conjunction with dealing with the above events, I was notified that one of my closest college buddies, and the former Chief of Police of Madera, CA, had lost his gallant battle for his life.  It was the summer of ’69 that I first met Jerry Noblett. However, it was a cool spring morning on May 24, 2010 that I had to say farewell to my buddy!

As the next few weeks progressed, I came to realize that there was something strange going on in my chest.  I was feeling like my pulse was erratic, my blood pressure was giving me strange feelings, and I was feeling tired.  So I did what most responsible patients do, I contacted my cardiologist, Dr. John R. Nelson.

On Monday July 5th, I was able to get in to see my cardiologist.  Before I left his office he had me hooked up with a heart monitor that I had to wear for 24 hours. Late the next evening my cardiologist called me to relay to me the news from the monitor data.  The doctor instructed me to report at 8:30am for a heart CT scan and an echocardiogram.  By the time I left his office on Wednesday afternoon, I had an appointment to see the Electro-Physiologist, Dr. Khoi Le, regarding my newly found issue, Ventricular Tachycardia!

Thursday morning at 8:30am I consulted with the Electro-Physiologist.  When I left his office around 9:15am, I was scheduled for a cardiac ablation procedure with a hospital report time of 8:00am Friday morning.  The four hour procedure and my stay in the hospital was an experience that I soon will not forget!

One of the several outcomes from the cardiac ablation is being grounded by the FAA pending the outcome of this procedure and many tests that are to follow.  The latest from the FAA is that I am grounded until at least November of 2011.  Another outcome from all of this is that my aorta valve is approaching the point whereby it is needing to be replaced.  Another procedure that I must confront sometime in the near future!

In spite of the medical conditions that have come to light, I was able to meet up with one of my brothers in Belleville, KS and Knoxville, IA to get a heaping dose of midgets and sprint car racing in August.

So all was not lost!  In spite of it all, I have had a very enlightening summer!

Other than that Captain Blowdri,  how was your 2010 summer?

Eleven Days Of Dirt Trackin’

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(Knoxville photo courtesy Leon Hammack)

Well gang, I just returned from my annual summer trek to dirt track’s finest racing in these old United States.  This summer I was fortunate to add to my annual trip to Knoxville, Iowa for the 50th Knoxville Nationals, a side junket for my second trip to Belleville, Kansas for the 32nd Midget Nationals.

For those of you who are not familiar to either of these events I will try to explain the significance of these two events.

The Midget Nationals are held at The High Banks at Belleville Kansas.  This track is celebrating its centennial year hosting racing!  This racing facility is a high banked half-mile race track in this “sleepy” little farming town of approximately 3,000 people max!  But every year in late summer this little hallow comes alive with the sound emanating from an 850lb, 400hp screaming race machine!

Competitors travel to Belleville,Kansas from far and wide, North and South, East and West, just  to be crowned the victor of the USAC sanctioned Belleville Midget Nationals.  It is a two day event that is a crown jewel for all who race midgets throughout the USA.  The quality of racing at this event is ultimately the best in the US.  Race drivers that have claimed victory in the event reads like who’s who in open wheel racing over the last 32 years.  The past winners include the likes of the late Stan Fox in 1979 &80, Johnny Parsons,Jr. in 1983, Ron “Sleepy” Tripp in 1985, Jeff Gordon in 1994, Page Jones (Parnelli’s youngest son) in 1993, Kasey Kahne in 2000 & 2001, and Bryan Clauson in 2009 & 2010.

From Belleville, KS I traveled northeast 335 miles to Knoxville, Iowa for the 50th Knoxville Nationals.   The Knoxville Nationals is a four day racing event with competitors from all over the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as well!  During the middle of August this little town of Knoxville may only have 8,000 inhabitants, but prides itself on filling all the seats of the race track at the Marion County Fairgrounds to the capacity of 25,000 for the four nights of racing that is The Knoxville Nationals.  This little hamlet is the world center of sprint car racing!

The list of winners of The Knoxville Nationals reads like the elite of the sprint car world.  “The King” Steve Kinser has won this event 12 times in its 50 year history!  Donny Schatz has won it four years in a row, 2006-2009.  Mark Kinser, Steve’s cousin won it three times, Kraig Kinser, Steve’s son, has one victory, for a Kinser family total of 16 out of 50 years!  Doug Wollfgang has logged four victories, Danny “The Dude” Lasoski has four wins in this event as well.

To give you an idea of the grandness of this event, the winner of the A main event on the last night of this four day racing crescendo pockets a cool $150,000.00!  So now you can see why these two events generate a large following.

So if there was any doubt, I was really working on my redneck this summer!

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!