Hot Rod Power Tour day 1!

We made it! (Even thru the HOT sunny day - it was something like 94 degrees in the shade today. There was rain, but only from our forheads...

We had an awesome day today, and just for fun I'll start with the end of the day and work backwards.

I'm now all ready for bed and just getting the BLOGGG typed up so I can get some ZZ's and head north to Springfield early in the morning. It's about a 215 mile drive and we are supposed to be there by 10am. whoo hoo! Gotta burn rubber and get outta here!



There was a nice time had spent in the KOA kampground pool this evening cooling off... and my not quite 3 year old son got daring and jumped into the pool without someone there to catch him, but all 4 of us were in the pool and saw him and was able to get him to safety. He was a little confused at first as to why he did'nt float, but he now understands first hand how it works.

Before the pool was a trip with the RV to Wal-Mart to get a few supplies and as we walked into the store it looked just like I'd imagine it would if Y2K were just about to happen. The shelves were mostly empty - and not just missing a few things, but EMPTY - there were rows and rows of empty shelves and then a few products scattered here and there. I'm thinking to myself, self, why is Wal-Mart empty? The answer was on the door as we entered into the store, but I ignored it. So I took it upon myself to ask a friendly employee and they informed me that the store was closing! Well that answered that! We got 42% of what we needed and headed on our way back to go to the pool...

Before the Wal-Mart adventure we stopped out at a Steakhouse - the entire crew was very well fed tonight. The best salad bar in Little Rock along with phenominal service by the wait staff. Manuel (one of our servers) even took time to stop what he was doing and said hi to my kids. He told us he has some young ones at home and was able to relate. (after a long hot day in the sun, those of you with kids can imagine what a almost 3 year old might be like when he's hungry and not had his usual 2 hour nap that day...) So Manuel - if you are reading this - THANK YOU! My son also very much enjoyed seeing all the fish in the fishtank. He even named them all.

Before the steakhouse, we spend the day at the Fairgrounds on the Power Tour show. The AVE booth was all set up along with the DRIVEN1 booth. We were missing the GTO today, but I learned today that Kevin with V8TV has it all ready to go and he and Kelle will be delivering it tomorrow in Springfield. There were a few bugs to work out in the electrical system and things like that. I pretty have decided I'd rather have the car later and drivable than early/ontime and a trailer sissy.


At the PT we met many awesome people - one in particular - Althea - was a very nice woman we met who was a grandmother (whom I guessed her age to be 58, and got a nice big hug and kiss from just after that...) who had been on the Power Tour for years! She lives in Florida and has a wonderful compassion for taking care of her grandkid who has ceberal palsy. Being that she is a long hauler - I'll enjoy seeing more of her and many others I met today.

There were a few pastors from churches that stopped out and just by hearing the music we were playing got drawn in to our booth to see what we are all about... Well AVE is all about designing, selling and installing professional audio, video and lighting systems. Driven1 is all about...well wait a minit...just read the blog and the www.driven-1.com webpage to find out! (if you haven't already)

This morning we woke up at about a quarter to 9 and realized that the pancake breakfast was only supposed to go until 9am, but they kept the "griddle" hot for us past 9... so we got our fill and got the call that the show was about to start! We need to get our butt's in gear and get out to the show!

Oh, boy, at this point of the day I'm still sleeping... or was I bloggin from the night before?