Mil Cumbre

Could this be Wally and the Beaver(The two on the right) it is really Brad Kaplan and Bob Oglive (I hope I got his name right) They look just like Wally and the Beaver I told them that more than once. Fernando on the left was driving when they went off the road on Mil Cumbres I have included the video link right after they went off . Brad was always upbeat no matter what happened. While they were waiting to get towed back, Brad pulled 2 baseball gloves out of the trunk and him and Fernando played catch to kill time. The car was repaired the next day and as you can see in the next picture a pretty good job for less than a day. Brad had to be one of the most positive people I have ever met.
We all signed the hood I of course wished Wally and the Beaver my best. At the time Brad was talking about replacing the the hood and hanging the old one in his garage . I would have kept the old one on just for the war stories. It would be a Badge of Courage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut2-Yyybs7c

We lost our alternator just before Mil Cumbre so we decided not to run make the repairs and run the next day. We still think this was the best option as we found out later there were more than a few teams who missed speed sections to make the necessary repairs so they could race the next day. We did drive the Mil Cumbre section just after everyone had left and it was getting dark. On the way back we found a Porsche with a British team which lost an engine so our crew happened to arrive so we loaded them up in our trailer and pulled them back. Their crew finally showed up and we caravaned the wounded soldiers back toward the hotel. Tom might have gotten a little testy during this trip because the Brits got us lost and it was raining and dark and we were running on battery power only. Tom is normally a very calm logical person and this day was not a good one I remember the "F" might have been spoken more than once and F^&%^g Btitish C)@^$&":#$'s might have been mentioned once or twice also. When we got back I might have had a slight temper tantrum after being left in the mountains we did get our time card in and Gerie Bledsoe helped us find an alternator from Sam Berg to get us back running. When all seem hopeless someone is always there to help. Steve Walters helped us rebuild the alternator while his wife Janet went to the drivers meeting. We had a prayer meeting in the lot and our car was blessed by Stanley Gold ,he told us that our car was good for the rest of the race and he was right. This whole event is about the people they all seem to help each other in some way. I really believe in the term now "Paying Forward"

Taking One For The Team

Tom and I have been trying to figure out how to get some sort of sponsorship for 2008 and I have come up with a novel idea. I am going to sell Tom's services to ladies at retirement homes.My mother God Bless Her used to say the old ladies "Never Tell ,Never Swell and Appreciate It Like Hell" I really think Tom has a calling. Just how do I break the news to him. I am thinking of having him dress up in his racing suit and telling him they want us to visit then and suddenly leave him on his own. This is what is called taking one for the team.

My wife and I hope to visit our son in Pearl Harbor in October he is currently serving on the USS La Jolla SSN 701 a fast attack submarine . So this year we are not going to make it to the la Carrera. This will give us time to get some sponsorship and keep up with family obligations which are very important to us. Our wives supported us for two years while we built the car which we were absent from them most of the time. Without their support we never could have done it in the first place. Tom and I both have MGA's which were hardly driven the last two years so a couple trips with the wives are in order.