The loudest cheers in the driver's meeting came when it was announced that a Google maps link would be provided with our route sheets. For teams like Scott and Kim Abbott, or Squirrel and Dan DePew, who carry around Rand McNally Road Atlas' with slide rules, or guys like Boone and I who aren't as smart as our phones, that didn't seem like such a big deal, but everyone else seemed pleased.

After the microphone was handed around by ten different people, it finally settled into the hands of Brian Lohnes, master orator, who felt the meeting needed to end with a moment of silence, both in remembrance of 9/11, and to honor our friends Michael Wenzler and Monte Smith, who we had lost in the year since our last Drag Week adventure.

"I didn't even remember it was 9/11 today", Boone shook his head as we walked in the grass back towards our pits. "Did you tell Rachael happy birthday this morning?"
"Well, she slammed the passenger door on the Valiant, and then when she went to open it later, she pushed down instead of pulling up, so she locked it. I couldn't open it from the outside, so I yelled at her for abusing a fifty year old car and breaking the door mechanism. Then when I figured out that it was just locked, I apologized and told her happy birthday..."
"I bet THAT went over well, Boone laughed.
"She told me I was a big fat jerk, and the birthday salutations were null and void because I had already yelled at her!"
"Way to go old man", Dale added, a step behind us, "If Rachael ain't happy, none of us are going to be happy!"

I had chosen a pit spot for our cars just on the other side of the paved return road, so we wouldn't have to haul our stuff very far, but the brothers all vetoed that plan, because they wanted to pit next to the track, so they could see the scoreboards and watch everyone run while they were wrenching on their junk. Great idea, but about two football fields away from our rigs. The Valiant, both Dusters, and the Charger were already re-located, and everyone seemed to be using Derek's Chevy as a mule to haul stuff back and forth. That left Dale's Gremlin, and Rick's Dart.

We were down to twenty minutes left before impound would be closed when I walked over to see what Rick and Sharma were doing. They still seemed to be working out of their enclosed trailer like they would at any race.
"Guys, you need to get the car over to the other spot!"
"Yeah, we know", Rick looked around, "I guess we'll just get the rest of our stuff organized before we leave this afternoon."
"No, no no", I emphasized, "The truck and trailer are off limits until the event is over on Friday, or you are DQed!"
I could see panic in both of their eyes as the realization sat in. "So we have twenty minutes to get every thing we need?"
"Yeah, to the other side of that return road, after that this side is off limits to anyone still in the event!"