My sister suggested that I expand the July 7th post to include more information about the Seattle Underground tour we took. So, please check out the added post for that date.
We drove up to Lynden on Friday afternoon so we could celebrate Michael’s nineteenth birthday. Because he is working in a berry packing plant this summer and putting in long hours, we decided to celebrate on Friday evening. Mark smoked pork short ribs, BBQ’ed corn and Michael made his famous “cheesy bread”. All was to die for. Mark and Michael have the rub and smoking down pat and the cheesy bread was fabulous.
Late Saturday afternoon Clyda and I drove an hour south to the Skagit Speedway to watch Matt, Dawn’s boy friend race his Sprint car. He had just put a new engine in the car so this would be his first race since the old engine died. This also was the Mid-Season Championship race and was followed by a fire works show. We had been to this same race two years ago.
The show opened with 3 sky divers landing on the track followed by patriotic songs. A great opening. Matt only made two laps in his first race before tangling with another car and breaking something in the left front steering. They managed to get it fixed before his next race.
In his second race he was doing very well and moving up on his competition when on lap 17 of a 20 lap race he tangled with the same car he had the earlier problem with. This time however, the results were not as fortunate. His car flipped forward on turn three and bounced high up on the safety fence, hung there for a second and then landed on its top back on the track. There was a few anxious minutes until Matt got out of the car but he appeared to be ok. He tore off his helmet and stomped back to the pit area, obviously very mad. The race was delayed for several minutes while repairs were made to the fence. Thank goodness the fence was there or the car would have flipped over the wall and down an embankment.
Loading the car on the trailer.
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Top sail after the crash.
Matt (back to camera on right) loading his car.
Dawn next to the loaded, slightly bent car.
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After the race Clyda and I went to the pit area to look at the car and check on Matt. He was in a better mood by then but the car looked to be heavily damaged. In any case, lots of body work to be done. Fortunately, it is 2 weeks before the next race so plenty of time for expensive repairs.
The fire works show was great but it had to compete with a lightning show to the south of us. The lightning drew as many ooohhs and aaaahhhs as the fire works. It took us a half hour to get out of the parking lot so we arrived back in Lynden just after mid-night.
