"Live" from the Western Swing

[mikeloge]

Hi Patsy,

This is Mike Loge's wife, Debbie. My family races in DIVISION 7. Mike showed me your post and I just had to reply. Like you and Larry, Mike and I both turn 60 this year and celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in January as well. When considering what we wanted to do to celebrate this milestone year, our picks came down to taking a cruise or an extended race trip. I have been going to the races with Mike since we were 15 and although Mike and our boys have traveled to many races across the states, I have not been able to take the time for these long trips with them. Ever since Chad and Jamie made their "race tour" several years ago I have wanted for Mike and I to be able to do a shortened version of what they did. Mike has never been on a cruise and we couldn't quite work out the race trip to attend the races and see what we want this year so we are going on the cruise. I am hoping for next year. We look forward to your posts and wish you a safe, fun, and sucessful trip. Welcome to our part of the country and see you in Sonoma.

[Larry Hill]

Well, we are back on the road again and out of internet and cell phone jail. According to Bev Picht, in Marion we were in God's country and he didn't need cell phone to communicate. and BTW, thanks to Bev for letting me use her phone to call Chris and let him know we were ok.

So about Marion---a great little race track. The people were friendly, lots of different racing there, the track hooked after the first run and they started working on it a little. The air was bad, tho, just gettting us ready for Denver, I guess. The altimeter read 1500'. Yesterday the DA was around 4000' most of the time. Hot and muggy. But we are having a great time. I have lots of pictures to post, but it will probably be tomorrow before I get them on. It is hard to do with cell phone service going in and out. We are on our way now west on I-90 towards Rapid City, SD.

I will let you know more about the race later. I am going to post before I lose service again.

[bdixon]

I want to thank you guys for stopping at our stk/ss shootout on your western swing,,, it is always nice to meet other people from across the country that love this sport...I was the guy with the silver duster in staging lanes when we talked , again wishing you folks well and have a safe trip until we meet up again...Bryan Dixon stk 5010

[Larry Hill]

Just leaving Rapid City, SD. Only 1168 miles to go, I still have very poor service and still don't have the pictures ready. If we finally find some internet service today thru Montana, I will post some more. We usually don't see other racers on the road, but we stayed for a while yesterday at the same Wal-mart with a motorhome and small trailer that had Allen Johnson #7 Prostock. Also we saw Jason Line's rig at a rest area in Wasto, SD. This morning Vance and Hines rig is at a Harley dealer close to Sturgis.

Service is about gone again, so more later.

[X-TECH MAN]

Larry and Patsy......If you have time and are close you should stop in Jackson Hole Wyoming. to sight see. It is beautiful there. I flew out of Rapid City after a western tour vacation a couple of years ago and cant wait to go back to the Grand Canyon and yellow Stone Park. Enjoy and be safe.

[Larry Hill]

I just saw my first antelope! We just went thru Gillette, WY. For any of you who live out this way, what are the roads made of that makes them red or pink looking?

Lots of oil wells and huge coal mining here!

[Larry Hill]

We have a little bit of internet service now, so I will try to catch you up. After leaving Marion, we drove thru SD thru some really beautiful country. Lots of rolling hills and wheat fields. Being on the 4th of July it made me want to sing "America the Beautiful". Then we stayed at a Walmart in Rapid City and rented a car and drove to Mt. Rushmore on Monday. It was spectacular! We also drove thru the Badlands. If we ever have service for long enough, I have some pictures. Also the ones I took in Marion.

Today, we have been in Wyoming and now in Billings, Montana. We started out at Mile Marker 550 something and will go all the way to 0 in MT. It is amazing how far you can see here in Big Sky Country.

Now for racing. Who won on Sunday at Marion?

Brandon Bernstein's rig passed us this morning. Then he had to stop at the scales and we passed him back. Then Larry had to stop to pee and they passed us again.

I will try to reply to everyone once we get stopped to where I have constant service.

[Stick Racing]

Originally Posted by Larry Hill

I just saw my first antelope! We just went thru Gillette, WY. For any of you who live out this way, what are the roads made of that makes them red or pink looking?

Lots of oil wells and huge coal mining here!

The last time I drove through Gillette, I counted close to 500 antelope.

If you notice, a lot of locals driving trucks all have huge grille guards on the front of their trucks.

Antelope are fast but not too smart...

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Andy Stone 1102 A/S 1112 SS/C