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My friend Gretchen, who also is a blogger, expressed her frustration last week that she could not comment on the blog without being a member of Google. I had no idea! So I've changed the setting so that ANYONE can comment on our blog entries. Now there are no excuses. Comment away.

Bristol -- Day 3

Another beautiful day at Bristol. Blue skies and temperatures in the low 80s. Couldn't have asked for a better weather day. Although I have to say that I'm glad that our seats were in the shade. I can only imagine how much redder my neck would have gotten. This is right after the National Anthem and the flyover.

504 laps and many cautions later, Kyle Busch won the race. It was an exciting finish. Kyle wouldn't have been my first choice for the win (Jeff Burton would have been better), but it definitely was better than Jeff Gordon.

Signing off for now from Bristol. Tomorrow is the long ride home. We'll be posting more when we get back home and I have a faster Internet connection. Thanks for reading.

Bristol -- Day 2

This is pretty much what we saw all day at the Busch race. Spin after spin. This one was pretty early on in the race. Kyle Busch (the spinner pictured above) spun a couple of times but managed to come back and finish third. But that's OK because ...

my favorite driver, Carl Edwards, won! And we got to see his trademark back flip. Never thought I'd get to see that in person.

Hate to cut this short, but it's time to get ready for race day. The big Cup race is in a few hours. More later!

Bristol -- Day 1

After making a good portion of the trip on Thursday, we hit the road from Christianburg, VA. It's always nice when the signs point to your ultimate destination.

Here is our faithful pilot. Thanks to Matt for doing ALL the driving (not that I didn't offer).

When we pulled into the driveway of the house that we're renting, we looked into the backyard, and this is what we found. Cows!

I know what you're thinking. It's Abe Froman -- the sausage king of Bristol (if you don't get that joke, you need to watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off again). No, it's Jim, enjoying a sausage sandwich. No pictures of his elusive wife, Diana. But we're working on that.

That's their daughter Emily with her finger up Junior's nose. And Kirsten there for moral support.

Sharpie set up an autograph wall for the fans to sign this weekend. If you look between our heads, Matt signed us in.

Can't believe that we're actually at Bristol. The weather was amazing yesterday for qualifying. We're expecting more good weather today and tomorrow. The only thing that spoiled the day was that Jeff Gordon won the pole. After watching qualifying, we did some shopping, got autographs from Dave Blaney and, oh yeah, Kasey Kahne, and then watched Carl Edwards at the Speed TV stage.

Matt and Jim went out last night to take some pictures. Here's the result.

Check back later. We'll hopefully have some photos from today's Busch race.

Let's go sledding!

Matt and I went to New Hampshire last weekend to go snowmobiling. This a group shot from our ride on Sunday. That's me and Matt on the right. In the middle is Dennis, our host, and his girlfriend Deb. On the left is Dennis' brother Patrick and his girlfriend Rachel. Dennis lives right near the lake, so it's a quick ride out his backyard onto the lakes and trails. The trails were in great condition, and the weather was perfect for our ride on Sunday. Blue skies!

Matt has snowmobiled for years, but I have never been before. I look pretty comfortable on the sled, but then again it's not moving. :) I was pretty sore when I got home, but it was worth it. Saturday was trial by fire -- we went out Dennis' back door and rode on the frozen lake. I quickly got used to the speed -- it was fun. Sunday we basically rode the trails. Some of the trails were narrower and twistier (is that a word) than others, so it was nervewracking at times. I had to remind myself that I was riding through the beautiful snow-covered woods. We covered more than 40 miles on Sunday!

Matt bought himself a new (well, new-to-him) snowmobile while he was up there. It's a 1998 Ski-Doo MXZ 670. Apparently it's quite fast (over 150 horsepower), and I think it's pretty. Now Matt just needs some spare time and snow to ride it!

Even the novice that I am knew that the trail conditions were really good. They had a lot of snow up there, so there were a minimal number of rocks on the trail. At times it was hard for me to comprehend the trail system and how it wound through the woods. At one point, we actually rode on the perimeter of someone's farm. We used the farm as a rest stop. Patrick enjoyed the two ostriches (or were they emus) that they kept at the farm. And we all enjoyed the old John Deere tractor and 1925 Ford. On the way home, we passed right by the Seventh Day Adventists Church. Snow apparently is not an excuse to miss church.