red bull

the haps

so i haven't posted anything but an errant photo or two in the last few months. i've been busy with travel and adventure and haven't had the patience to sit down and actually write anything of worth. not that this post will be any different.

so let's see... august found me with a visit from my dear friend E, along with a trip to Boston, two weeks home in CLE, and about 5 days in Canada for the last race. i barely had a spare minute to breathe and found out that september came creeping in without warning.

i had a visitor from NEO over labor day weekend and tried my hardest to do absolutely nothing. while i would like to say i came close to it, i still managed to work as much as possible over the course of 3 days. not that it made a huge difference, as tuesday is the new monday.

now i'm off to jersey and the OVT until monday. i'm back for about 5 days, then off to boston, wisconsin, and atlanta returning sometime around the 30th. i'm hoping to celebrate my belated 31st in ohio sometime in october, but can never really be sure. i do know that i will spend the 31st year of my life waking up in boston, flying to WI for a day, and red-eyeing it to north carolina to meet the guys for a trip to atlanta.

until then, i'm off to sing bon jovi songs at the OVT as our series heads to jersey for races 8 and 9!

whiskey island

shake

outdoor loft fisheye

hatteras

halfway to 2010

it's no surprise that i've had quite a year... i've travelled cross country, i've moved out of state, i've begun new adventures, and have managed to lose all track of time. sometime this morning, i realized that 2009 is half over and couldn't believe what i've managed to pack in the past 6.5 months. here's just a hint of things i've done since january 1st of 2009:

• taken 27+ flights (and a helicopter ride)


• travelled 22 states including: ohio, virginia, california, utah, nevada, washington, idaho, montana, wyoming, south dakota, missouri, kansas, nebraska, iowa, indiana, illinois, west virginia, north carolina, michigan, arizona, oklahoma, and the district of columbia.


• spent 108 nights in 15 different hotels


• moved TWICE... to a rad condo in NEO, then to an even more rad loft in southern virginia


• spent 28 days on racetracks (67 days if you count the days i lived on one), 2 days in the air on planes or helicopters, over 3 months in hotels, 7 days in a car driving, and about 5 minutes wondering where my time has gone...


• this year, i've been lucky enough to drink wine in napa (and sonoma), play the slots in vegas, wear a cowboy hat at mt rushmore, stand in deadwood SD where wild bill was shot, see the st louis arch, walk the pier in coeur d'alene, go deep sea fishing in the atlantic (and catch a HUGE striper), see the cherry blossoms in DC, spend one holiday (easter) with my family, spent time on both coasts with amazing views of the pacific and atlantic oceans, visit pike's market in seattle (and see the flying fish), explore the outerbanks in north carolina, visit 3 civil war battlefields (manasses, bull run, and appomattox), stand on the shore of the great salt lake, ring in new years in detroit, take a helicopter to the floor of the grand canyon (complete with a champagne toast!), visit 4 different smithsonian museums (the castle, air/space, native american, and american history), meet a real life pirate with a clip on ponytail, photograph a ghost town in the middle of the desert, meet a peruvian sheep herder in the hills of CA (and his two spanish speaking dogs), ran into shand's boyfriend johnny fairplay at our local bar (total chach) and changed jobs/careers (UPGRADE!).

all of that and STILL not a grey hair in sight. here's hoping all of you have had an incredible adventures this year. happy trails!