This morning I packed up all of my stuff and headed out to Freddie’s Lakeside and checked in. It’s an interesting place – they’ve taken what seems to be a pre-fab metal building and divided it into 3 cabins. I had the leftmost one, which has an extensive fishing theme. They used a variety of trims, including rough-sawn wood, beadboard, tile, etc. You can tell that it was a pre-fab building – the floor is concrete (with area rugs) and sloped toward the standard 4″ drain found in that type of building. There’s a combo entryway / kitchen, large bathroom, living / dining room, and a separate bedroom. Since I was using it mostly as a place to pass out when I got back from the track, it was a lot more than I actually needed. There’s at least one motel a little closer to the track, the Keystone Lake Motel with a big $39.99 sign out front. No idea what that place is like, though.

I brought the stuff I didn’t need at the track into the cabin and then headed off to the track. Various Atom folks had arrived and were in different stages of getting set up. The day was rainy off and on, so the event that was running over the weekend had a large number of their attendees leave due to the weather. By early afternoon, the weather had cleared somewhat, but because they had so few cars, they invited all of the Atom owners who had gotten set up out on the track. Eddie Hill took them up on the offer and ran a few laps. I’m not sure they knew who he was 😎

Randy got a bunch of us together and treated us to a great Italian dinner at a place called the Spaghetti Warehouse in Tulsa. By that time it had started to rain, so I asked Tim Webb to drop me off at my cabin and to collect me in the morning.

Last night, after I posted the update, I get a call from the front desk. They say “There’s a Tom Smuh… Smi….” and then I hear Tom say “Smurzynski” in the background. The front desk wants to know if they can tell him my room number. I tell them “Of course!”.

Turns out they’re in the room across the hall from me. Tom saw an Atom under the outdoor car cover and peeked under. When he saw the Wildberry Metallic fenders, he knew it was mine.

He and Judy (his wife) were heading out to dinner and wanted to know if I wanted to come along. Unfortunately, I just received a delivery from the Italian place that advertises in the hotel elevator, so I passed. When they got back from dinner, they invited me over to their room and we spent hours talking about Atoms and other things.

This morning (well, as early as I can rouse myself) I drove out to Freddie’s Lakeside Cabins and confirmed that they did have a room for me. Then I went to Hallett (the track). The guy handling the gate (the road to the infield crosses the track, so there’s a gate to prevent accidents) called me by name, as he remembered me from 2 years ago. Mostly I just watched the group that was running on the track, as none of the Atom folks were there (one guy had driven his rig in earlier, but had business elsewhere, so he was away). After a fun day, I went back to Tulsa for the night.

Well, I’m close to the track and 2 days early, since I didn’t take any days off due to bad weather. Unfortunately, the bad weather seems to be saving itself for the track:

I’ll be staying here in Tulsa until Sunday morning. Sunday morning I’ll check into Freddie’s Lakeside Cabins (presuming that they actually processed my reservation) and unload a bunch of stuff, then I’ll head to the track (unless it is really pouring down) to help Randy set up stuff for AtomFest.

I’m on schedule, staying tonight in Huber Heights, Ohio. Depending on how the weather looks on Wednesday, I’ll either stay another day or move on to Greenville, Illinois.

So far I’ve been pretty lucky with the weather – it just started misting when I pulled into Somerset, PA last night. It was quite humid there, though – 98%.

The weather was a bit chilly this morning when I left there, but it warmed up later in the morning. There was intermittent rain for most of the drive today. Every time I’d pull over to put my jacket on, the sun would come out. And when I took the jacket off and put sunscreen on, it would start raining again.

I apparently missed a torrential downpour near Columbus, Ohio by less than 15 minutes – someone else staying at the same hotel I am said that when he came through, he could barely see the road to drive.

Here’s a picture from my rollbar camera:

The second US  AtomFest will be held on September 15th through the 17th. I’ll be driving there and back like I did for the previous event. I’ll be driving the shortest route there, which is on the interstate highways. But I’ll be taking the long way home, meandering through the South and sampling lots of BBQ and the best driving roads. I’ve posted a tentative calendar in PDF format here.

I’ll have the same Atom Across America hotline number as in previous years – 551-580-0100 – if you want to call in to see where I’ll be. This number will be active starting September 7th and through to October 1st. I’ll try to update the message each evening to say where I’ll be on the following day.

Here’s a group shot from the first AtomFest in 2007 (click on the picture for a full-size version):

You can find more information about AtomFest at http://www.atomfest.net