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January 13, 2007 On this trip I had a special project I was working on. My mom and I are applying to be on the next season of the Amazing Race. We had a ton of fun taking videos and pictures of ourselves throughout the vacation. It was good having a reason to push ourselves to find crazy and interesting activities to do together. We rode four-wheelers and Mom kept me from panicking as we snorkeled amongst many scary fish. I had to use Dad as our camera man while we video taped our application. He is so used to being the entertainer of the family that it proved very difficult for him to stay quiet while the cameras were rolling. You can hear his voice in the background of a lot of the video we shot. Silly Dad! So why do we want to be on the Amazing Race? Mom and I have the best time of each year while we're together on our family vacations. We love to travel and try new things, to have adventures and push our limits. And Mom is such a sweet and friendly person; she's great for me to hang out with because I feel like I can just relax when I'm around her. I think I have such a focused and driven personality that I feel the need to be intellectually challenging when I'm around other people who have similar perspectives. But the honest truth is that I don't enjoy this near as much as being around someone that makes me feel like I can let my guard down and just have fun and be silly. Mom puts me totally at ease and I find myself enjoying our time together more and more as the years are passing. I sure am lucky to have such a great friend in my mom. So it's only natural that I would jump at the chance to spend a month traveling around the world sharing new adventures with her on the Amazing Race. Click on the picture below to view the "extended" version of our Amazing Race application video. I'll keep you posted if we hear back from them in a couple months. You can see pictures from my trip on the "LEISURE" page under the Cabo San Lucas link. ********************************************* January 30, 2007 On Saturday mom and I road tripped down the coast to check out Sanibel
Island and have lunch at a very unique restaurant called the Bubble
Room.
On Sunday we got up at 4am to drive inland to Sebring International
Raceway. There were 7 total people attending the racecar school that
day, and each person had very different backgrounds. The first thing
we were asked to do was introduce ourselves, where we were from, what
we do for a living, and the car we drive. The others in the group
all had project cars they had spent a ton of time and money on. I
had to laugh when I explained that I drive a Taurus and was only there
because I won a contest at work. Everyone was great about it and we
all had a great time together throughout the day. The instructors were as great as you could ever hope for. Very personable
and happy to work with all ability levels. This was proven when I
had to confess at the beginning of the day that I don’t even
know how to drive a stick-shift. They corrected that problem in a
few minutes and then we were on to the fun stuff. For the whole morning
we were driving high power street cars, such as the Mazda Miata, the
BMW330, and the Mazda3. We worked on a “skid pad” where we practiced gaining
control of the car when it goes into a high speed slide. This was
basically like a large parking lot with sprinklers keeping it very
very wet while we were driving on it. I picked this skill up very
quickly, as it was something I had learned at an early age, driving
on the icy roads in Iowa Next we practiced driving at higher and higher speeds, and then stopping
the car as quickly as possible without using the ABS or locking up
the tires. This skill was then combined with evasive maneuvers and
emergency lane-changes. Next was the autocross, which was basically a race course, set up with orange cones on a large parking lot area. We learned about weight distribution and shifting the pressure to the back or front tires to assist in technical cornering while racing. They talked about how to pick the best line for the greatest amount of speed on the course. After we went through all of this we each were able to take several laps on the autocross with an instructor riding along coaching us as we drove. This was great fun. We all went out to a 5-star brunch, and they invited our families
along to join us. I loved how they made Mom and the others feel so
welcome and included throughout the day. This made the day fun for
both mom and I. They were very welcoming and every time we drove to
a different location at the racetrack they made sure everyone came
along to watch and cheer us on. After lunch we had some more class-time where we learned about driving
the Formula One racecars and went over each turn on the famous Sebring
racetrack. After that, we got our racing suits on and went down to
look over the cars and get ready to go. I’ll admit that I was
pretty nervous once I was strapped into this car that looked like
a rocket with wheels. There was no way to get out of that car in a quick way, which was
both comforting and intimidating. After I got in they put the steering
wheel back on the car (it had to be removed to make room for your
legs), buckled all 5 of my seatbelts, put on my helmet, and then put
the shell back on the car. We were dividing into pairs with one pace car to lead each pair around
the track. We would drive around the track for about 5 or 6 laps and
then would pull off to the pit to talk about how it was going and
get ready to pick up the speed. We ended up doing this about 4 times,
so by the end the pace cars were completely maxed out and we were
really flying down the straightaway. The course had many turns in
it, so we never had enough room to go faster than about 120-130 mph,
but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t amazingly exciting! Mom was invited to ride along in the pace car, so she sat in the back seat and strapped herself in backwards so she could take pictures and movies of me as I drove. But because of all the high-speed turns we were taking, with the pace car sliding through most of them – after two sessions on the track she was getting very sick to her stomach, and watched the rest from the sidelines. At the end of the day we drove the Formula One’s out on the
roads and back over to the autocross track we had driving earlier
in the day. We got to have a little competition where each person
drove on the autocross for three timed laps. I would love to say I
won, but I only got third place. I lost to a stunt driver and another
guy that was already a serious racer, but I was still disappointed.
I did get quite a lot of praise for doing so well when I had been
learning the stick-shift that day. The instructors told me that I have excellent hand-eye coordination,
and they were very pleased that I “was not afraid of the throttle.”
At the end of the day they were talking with mom and said that if
we do get on the Amazing Race, that they’d like to have Skip
Barber sponsor us in some way. Even if that can’t happen, it
was pretty fun to have them say it. This was an amazing weekend of pushing my limits and trying new things. Mom and I both had a great time together and I would highly recommend the Skip Barber Racing School to anyone looking for a new experience and an unforgettable day. I attended the One Day Combo program, but they have different classes available depending on what you are looking for.
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