July 20: I have met Dean Loucks several times. The wild blond hair, red Puma Ferrari
tennis shoes and hip sunglasses help to give him an undeniable rock-star flair. Dean had
suggested he fly us in his customized Engstrom helicopter from the East Chicago
Marina to his shop, The Art of Design (TAOD), located in Elkhart, Indiana (about 90
miles by air). Dean worked as the pilot the previous day at the Chicago Poker Run,
and Sunday was the only day he could give us the
July 19: Unfortunately, this appeared to be a particularly bad day for the Chicago
Poker Run, as the dark storm clouds made good on their promise to unload an
ominous payload. The kids waited in the hotel lobby, even though I was sure
there would be no poker run today.
We drove to East Chicago Marina. Upon entering, we could see puddles of
water forming on the boats
July 16: I won’t pay for first-class airfare, although I wish I had
on this trip. I never recline my seat during the flight, and I always
pray the person in front will stay upright as well. My flight to
Chicago became insufferable when a heavyset Russian
woman spent the entire flight practically in my lap, using all
of her might to recline her seat to its full capacity. I was wearing
my CAM boot because of my broken foot and couldn’t manipulate my
July 8: While teaching our youngest son, Drew, how dangerous it was to climb up the side
of our waterfall, I fell, broke my toe, tore the bottom of my foot and sprained my
tendon — an accident that would cause me no end of grief over the following weeks.
July 10: I limped through the airport in Vegas to board a flight to St. Louis. I met up with
JW and Earl there and then drove to Wentzville, Mo., for our morning appointment
with MTI owner Randy Scism. Marci
June 27: Dawnette and I drove out to the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort to meet Jim Wilkes,
who had driven up to assist me in covering the Southern Califorinia Offshore Powerboat Elite (SCOPE)
event on Lake Mead.
He found us a ride with Kevin and Charmaine Laney in their all-silver 382 Formula. Kevin is a SCOPE
board member, and he and his wife are one of the nicest couples
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