West Virgina

Kevin has been waiting anxiously for this past weekend to arrive. Every year the Joel Bender memorial nationals (aka summer blast) are held in Martinsburg WV, not far from the Maryland border.  We have been unable to attend for the last couple of years because of conflicts with pregnancy due dates and kiddos.  We were afraid that our move to Michigan would again throw a wrench into our ability to attend.   Have no fear though, Kevin was determined and we were going to make it this year.  After getting the new engine into the T-bird, Kevin ran into a few complications with a possible broken piston and a drive shaft that was hitting the under-body.  Kevin was able to get a smaller drive shaft by the day before we were to leave and get it installed and was able to barrow a small camera from a friend to get a look at the potentially broken piston.  From what he could tell there is not a broken piston so at the last minute we were ready to go!  The next morning we loaded up and headed out...

With T-bird in tow, we set out across Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania into Maryland to get to West Virgina.  We hit a few road bumps along the way with heavy down pours of rain, a unexpected total of $50 in tolls, Chase's DVD player dying (very bad!), and Chase coughing causing him to vomit (even worse).  After 9 hours on the road we made it to our hotel.  After getting slightly settled and bathing the kids we headed to the Friday night meet and greet.  It was a late night for all of us and everyone slept well crammed into one small hotel room.

Saturday morning everyone gathered in the hotel parking lot where we received a police escort to the park where the car show was held.

 We had a police escort but they also had police blocking each intersection we crossed. It was pretty cool!

 Leah couldn't decide if she loved or hated the wind blowing in her face on the ride over. 

 The car show was held at a really nice park, it had several different play areas for the kids and a nice picnic shelter for lunch/shade.

 It was a really great day and the kids were excellent considering lots of hot sun and no naps... well no naps for Chase at least...

  Leah took little naps in her carrier.  Kevin placed 3rd in his class and we also managed to win the longest distance traveled.  That night they had an ice cream social at the dairy barn, yum yum! 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Chase found a girlfriend that he had fun playing with all weekend.  They met Friday night at the meet and greet where they sat in a chair together and watched cartoons.  My little man is a player because we caught her leaning in to give him a kiss.  They really played well all weekend, it was nice to have someone his age there to keep him company.

Sunday was race day at the Mason-Dixon drag way in Maryland.

The T-bird pulled well but did not show the numbers Kevin was hoping for.  His best time was 12.94 sec at 106 MPH. He got in 4 runs (2 test runs and 2 rounds of bracket racing).  After leaving the drag strip we headed to Golden Corral for dinner with everyone where we said final goodbye's till next year.  

We stayed one more night to recover and have a full day for travel.  Luckily before we left Kevin was able to take the DVD player back to Walmart and convince them to give us a new one, SCORE!! The drive home was actual very peaceful and we were happy to get home!