Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

I love traveling and having all kinds of new experiences. Sunday was one of those days. We are on our way to Florida. Luckily, we have two daughters who live convenient distances and stopping points for travels to Florida. We stopped at Jen's in North Carolina on Saturday which allowed us to recharge our personal batteries before setting out on the road again. We're planning to see Kristen on our return trip. We attended church with Jen at High Rock Church. The worship service was high energy and we loved the music and the friendly people. Tom talked for a while to the small-group pastor who is also a high school football coach. His son is also a football and baseball player who is starting college this fall. They had lots in common. Jen has several friends at the church including a teaching colleague. I met her son who is one of Jen's students and got the real scoop on Miss Benedict. It was all good! Sunday afternoon we visited the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It is 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...

We had a relaxing weekend after such a busy two weeks in California.  Friday we went to bargain day at the movies and saw Slumdog Millionaire.  It was excellent and that made it fun watching the Oscars last night because the movie won 8 awards.  We then went looking for a new computer for me.  My computer has been acting up but we didn't find what we wanted and then I was able to get my computer working well again, so we will see.   Saturday we went to an Arizona State University baseball game.  They played University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  It wasn't even close-I think Arizona teams have such an advantage over Midwest teams because they can be outside practicing so much of the year.  But the best part of the game was just being able to sit outside without being bundled up. Yesterday we attended church, went out for breakfast and then relaxed watching the NASCAR race and the Academy Awards.  We also took Kristen out to help us find a laptop for me but once again, computer shop...