Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

We started our day by driving from Munising to Marquette. Bonnie had to call on the bookstore at Northern Michigan University and then we went downtown. Marquette has wonderful shops and restaurants. We had lunch at Babycakes Muffin Company . Everything was tasty with a very interesting clientèle. We also returned to Snowbound Books because we enjoyed it so much last year. On our way from Marquette to Houghton, we stopped at Canyon Falls. It was a great 10 minute hike from the park to the fall but it took us much longer because we kept stopping to enjoy the beauty. Bonnie and I are going to rename our tour to the Bookstore, Coffee Shop and Waterfall Tour. We are finding the most beautiful waterfalls that are located very close to the highway. The Sturgeon River flows rapidly through the woods and ends in a canyon. There are flat slate stones on the edges so you could get very close to the water and still feel very safe. Further up the road was the Bishop Baraga Shrine in L'A...

Here are some pictures from my trip to Michigan International Speedway today. This first one is a driver giving autographs before qualifying for the Nationwide race. I don't know who it is. Anyone able to identify him? He was very cordial and nice. This is Justin Lofton, the driver I interviewed yesterday, walking with his publicist. Yes, he has a publicist for his first Nationwide race. Here is the crew getting Justin's car up to the line for qualifying. He qualified well and ended up 16th in the race. Great finish for his first race in Nationwide. I took a walk through the fan campgrounds. There are no words to describe what I saw. Just look at the pictures. I had a hot pass which meant I had full access to the garages. This is Michael Waltrip's spot with his crew chief in the wheelchair. You had to be really careful because the cars don't look out for you. Here Kevin Harvick and I got real close. The next two pictures were taken from the roof of the tower w...

Today I attended the NASCAR race festivities at Michigan International Speedway which is south of Jackson. I was there representing InsiderRacingNews.com whom I write a weekly column for. There was no racing today-just press conferences, practice and Cup qualifying. My pictures aren't in any particular order. It was a very warm day at the track and I spend most of today learning my way around the media center and the garages. The picture below is Mark Martin pulling out of his garage during practice. Kasey Kahne's crew was changing his engine here. I attended several press conferences. Here Tony Stewart is answering questions. Stewart is #1 in the points race and was very relaxed while answering questions. I also attended press conferences of Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman & Carl Edwards. Here is the infield and the Media Center is the brown building straight ahead. Nothing fancy but worked well for a cool place to sit and collect my tho...