Marlys' multiple brushes with fame

We have been out on the road again, with the camper, for the last 10 days attending a wedding in Minnesota and the NASCAR Nationwide race at Road America in Wisconsin.

During the time between the events, we visited friends in Spooner where I learned a few things about antenna's that will be the subject of another post, stopped in at the Lienenkugels brewery and the birthplace of colby cheese (in Colby, WI), but not one Mills Fleet Farm or Menards of which we passed many.

The race was our first in the camper and we had made reservations for a "just off" track side spot with electricity.

The race at Road America also known as the "national park of speed" because of its setting in the rolling hills just west of Sheboygan and the very park like setting was one of the few road races (not on a oval) on the Nationwide schedule.

This being a road race meant that location for viewing the race was a critical and much re-thought decisions during the weekend. Also this course is over 4 miles long so there was allot of walking involved in going any place.

We got into the track at noon on Thursday thinking we would be there before the crowds showed, but over half of the spaces in our area were already occupied and the rest would be filled by evening.

We were located just south of the start-finish line and across the track from the pits and paddock all in all a good spot.

Parked next to us, were a couple of guys that had been part of the Northern Tool NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series marketing team, the year before when Erik Darnell had been the driver of that Roush Fenway team. In fact, Eric showed up late in the day on Friday and we had a chance to visit with him. Although he has no permanent drive this year he is still under contract to Roush and was here setting up Carl Edward's car, who was splitting duties between Road America and Sonoma, where the NASCAR Sprint series race was going on this same weekend. A few drivers were going to be jetting back and forth between the two races all weekend.

Also there were another couple of guys from Kohler (the plumbing manufacturer) there too and they provided me with a possible solution to the leaking toilet issue and water saving that many of you know has become a obsessive past time of mine. I believe there were part of the quality testing department, but I could be wrong. This conversation too will be the subject of a future post.

By the end of the day, I had decided to take Marlys out to dinner...so we were walking down to the nearest brat stand, when we ran into a line of people. A line for what we had no idea, but it was at the entrance to the tunnel going under the track to the paddock area.

Marlys, being Marlys, walked up and asked what was going on, to find out that people were waiting to be escorted to the pits to meet with drivers and get autograph's.

Since we had no other plans, other then a brat (which we had had many of over the last week, remember we were in Wisconsin), we decided to join the crowd and meet some drivers.

Having nothing to get signed, Marlys grabbed a paper towel at the brat stand, but the woman running the stand said she needed something better then that and tore a page out of a spiral binder for her.

Standing in line lasted only a few minutes and then across we went. Between the Chicago Police Detective behind us, and the guy from Alabama who kept trying to get in front of us, Marlys had a number of people to talk to. For those of you who don't know Marlys, she very social.

When we got to the pits, the one driver I wanted to get a sig from was Jucques Villeneuve, who was the 1997 World F1 Champion and has been attempting to break into NASCAR, since leaving F1, although there are rumors that he may be going back to F1.

Marlys got into line at his table. She didn't need to have a piece of paper, as Jucques had sponsor brochures to sign.

Marlys, of course told him exactly what she wanted written and Jucques appeared to be humored by the whole encounter.

He kinda looked like a grown up Harry Potter with his glasses.

He got a few more sigs then mosied back to the encampment, where we ran in to Dan Evans who is a singer doing a concert at that track, but gained fame on the show "Biggest Loser". His tour bus was a couple down from us and had his before and after picture on the side (along with a ad for his latest album). He has lost allot weight and was a real friendly guy to talk to.

We didn't make it to his concert as it was on the other side of the track and we were walked out.