After the exciting, eye burning warmup, we put the car in the box and headed for town to meet Bp and everyone at the restauraunt. We followed Mike to town, after a couple times of,..follow me, no you lead, no get back in front of us, we made it to the place! We had a great meal, Mike, Mike, and I did our usual cutting up! I sure enjoyed Young Mike, he has a good sense of humor and is an all around great guy. I kept telling them that everything tasted like Nitro, not that there's anything wrong wth that!!
I think Boyd, Novel-T, had nitro lemon pie! Everyone had a great time at dinner. That's where we met Norb and Bonnie Locke. Super nice people!! And a cool dragster too! After eaing and more talk we disbanded to the Motel, where as Bp said, even though everyone was pooped, we just could'nt tear ourselves away from each other!! Man I love you all!! Finally we retired to our rooms, I woke up about 6;30 am, could'ntwait to start the day, about 7;30 or so went to the lobby and WC was there, so we hopped in the truck to go to Arnolds auto parts and WC and we got a chance to spend some time together! We talked and talked, Cat, you are just as I thought! You are sincere, caring, very intelligent, and a total joy to be around!! Thanks buddy! We were buying repair stuff for Barb's headlight cover, when I spied a HEMI! So I bought it!! The guy at Arnolds was cool, WC and I talked to him for a bit, then back to the motel. We all gathered inside then outside again. That's when Leon asked, what the h#$@ is a bird cleaning room? I almost died! He asked, man this is a motel that has everything! We said, No Leon, it's for cleaning Game Birds! He said, what kind of games? I said, I give up!! We finally got to the track and everyone filtered in, Bandit and Leon worked like a well oiled Top Fuel team, while Larry and I loafed! Bandit and I were putting DZUS fasteners back in the body, when Larry said, Bandit!, did you cross thread that DZUS? We cracked up!! Larry has a way of saying the darnedest things at the darndest times! Bandit was helping Leon most of the time, we made the first pass, I did the burnout and backed up, told them pro tree please. I pulled into the pre-stage with the hand brake, bumped into stage and hit the trans brake button and floored it. 1,2,3,4,5 seconds and no light, my feet were getting hot thru my fireboots and shoes! I was just about to get off the throttle, when all of a sudden the light flashes and off we go, the car left with the wheels up pretty far, that's when I remembered the wheelie bar was still in theupper hole! It went toward the left guardrail right away, so I short shifted it and turned the wheel, it came down and straightened out, but a lazy pass pushing fuel out a couple pipes and on 7 cyls. Can't remember, 5.60 something, 126mph. Anyway, I never saw the orange block at the end, and so help me I forgot I was on an eighth mile track!! I let off past the scoreboards, and thought, UH, OH, I quickly hit the chute and grabbed a handful of brake! Whew! We got back and someone told me, Randy said, I hope he remembers this is eight mile!! I did Randy, right after I went about a quarter mile! We got it back to the pits and Bandit looked at the engine and looked at me and said, no oil. I said what? He said the valve covers he put on were'nt leaking! I said Good! Bandit worked his butt off all day, and we appreciate it too! He cared for that car like it was him in the car and that's the way it should be! He is gonna be a good funnycar crew member! hear that Bandit!! Fast forward to the second pass with Mike after the photos and Norb's fire up. Mike wanted the right lane and I wanted the left, so we put the cars in the wrong lanes and stood on the starting line and had some fun! We acted like we were mad at each other , throwing our arms around and pointing at each other, Bp added to the tension by throwing his hat down and walking off! It was great! We flipped a coin for lane choice and of course we both won! We swapped the cars and got ready. We fired the engine and NO OIL PRESSURE big red light glowing, and guage on zero! I thought, oh, no, Leon listened to the engine and said, Go for it! I looked at Larry and he gave me the UP TO YOU sign. I had a 8000chip in the box for the burnout. I don't mind telling you my feet were a little nervous down there, It sounded fine on the burnout, I was still nervous and that light was grabbing my attention more and more!! Mike, I'm sorry if we held you up any bud. I was sure it was ok though after surviving the burnout. Bad guage I guess. We told them a pro tree. I prestaged as quick as I could to not hold up Mike anymore, then we both staged. I matted the pedal and a flash of yellow and I was gone, OOPS! .500 tree I saw the next light flash as I went past the tree! WTH? On a pro tree, if you wait, you lose, I started to lift and thought, might as well run it out! I clicked it a little early, just in case the guage was working! Mike went sailing by me with the chutes out, We had a good laugh about the tree deal! We watched Randy's run from the top end. The rest of the evening was eating, talking and putting things away. What a time, absolutely the best people in the world, I did'nt want it to end! 
Back to the motel for some sleep, NOPE we gathered in the lobby again!! I love you guys!! Next morning we said our goodbye's, everyone had swollen eyes and hugs were everywhere. Thankyou everyone for the most wonderful time we have had in a long time. Thanks for being our friends. 
Bandit and Billy, you know. Next year will be bigger and better!! See ya then!
........... I really WAS tryin' to hep 
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