RaceBuddy road blog (cont'd)

Day 24 -- Sunday, June 28

• The Magic Mile. Any chance we can click our heels three times and wake up in Daytona? ... No, well it's back to the highway -- after the race.

• We've settled on staying in Boston tonight and then leave for D.C. in the a.m. Wonder what B.O. is up to tomorrow? Maybe we can get next on the midday pickup game ...

• What's everyone talking about today: Billy Mays died. This has not been a good week for the famous.

• Ralph Shaheen is doing play-by-play for TNT at Loudon. ... A lot of buzz around the track today. Lots of rumors. Lots of opinions. Reminds me of what mama says: "Just like bellybuttons -- everybody's got one." Fact is, there's your story, my story and the truth is somewhere in between.

• Look for Kyle Busch to be in the middle of something today. He needs a good run to get Big Mo' back in his pit box. Let's see if his brother Kurt gets in his way ...

Day 23 -- Saturday, June 27

• Big shout out to the best dessert stop on the trip: Kimball Farm in Westford, Mass. Really did not want to stop grazing but work called ...

• Finished the left-to-right journey, from sea to shining sea. Wonderful sights and sounds from the people, the small towns and a few back roads. ... But we cannot imagine doing it again.

• Two more weeks are on the horizon, and right now the only thing I want to see is the inside of my eyelids.

• Say good night, Gracie.

Day 22 -- Friday, June 26

• The end is near (at least the end of the line for this week)! Good thing the race is on Sunday; I'm sleeping-in Saturday ...

• Made it through Indianapolis, rolled by the Brickyard (tires held up well, thanks for asking) and spent the night -- a few hours, actually -- in Columbus, Ohio.

• Rolling along I-71 / 80 / 95 toward Pawtucket, R.I., today in search of David Hartman. As much as I like Charlie Gibson, Hartman is still the face of Good Morning America for me.

Thinking about renting a Mustang in Boston and riding around town with the windows down while repeating, Spenser: For Hire lines -- "I was a cop, found myself restless with the hierarchy, decided to go private. I was helped to that decision by getting fired."

• I'm hoarding all the Pepsi Throwback and have just once question: Why can't Pepsi just make Throwback and throw back the current version?

• Bumper sticker of the early a.m.: "Dyslexics are teople poo".

Day 21 -- Thursday, June 25

• Kansas City was the culinary highlight of the past three weeks; no one does barbeque quite like Arthur Bryant's on Brooklyn Avenue. Short ribs, beef sandwich, fries, baked beans and a pickle -- made the past two days of hauling to the Midwest well worth the trek.

• Stopped by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, which is in the same building as the American Jazz Museum. If you're going to Kansas Speedway in October, make time to check out those two museums.

• Rolling through Columbia, Mo., we stopped for gas and debated backflipping off the window. ... Logic won out.

• Suffice to say, Carl Edwards' No. 99 decals remain runner-up to Mizzou stickers.

• En route to Terre Haute, Ind., to pay homage to Larry Bird. (It's also the hometown of Tony George.) No doubt we'll be tempted to head south on U.S. 41, which winds its way back to Cobb County, Ga. -- and home! (It also travels north to Green Bay, which is oddly comforting to a Packers fan in Dixie.)

• Farrah Fawcett died. Sad. Who didn't have her swimsuit poster?

• And Michael Jackson died. ... Death comes in threes -- Ed McMahon, Farrah and Jacko.

Day 20 -- Wednesday, June 24

• No dice in Winslow; only thing that slowed down was a semi hauling hogs.

• Willie Nelson is totin' the tune o' the day: On the road again ...

• We blew through Guymon, Okla., a bit ago and noticed on the Rand McNally that it's almost halfway between Texas and Kansas, in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas: three state in less than an hour -- we're rolling! And yet, still several hours from Kansas City ...

• One sight-seeing stop today: Museum of the Antique Fan in Andover, Kan. What can I say, we're fans. And we're old, or so someone back in the office is constantly reminding us.

• One thing about the Southwest: You've gotta be going somewhere to get there. This stretch of the trip has been a lot of white-line dashes. And we're still about 1,600 miles from Loudon.

• Mash the gas, hoss.

Day 19 -- Tuesday, June 23

• Folks, it's a hike from L.A. to Albuquerque; we left well before sunrise and we're still a long way from entering the Land of Manny Mania. Lucky Albuquerque; Manny begins a minor-league assignment for the Dodgers tonight.

• Flagstaff is on the horizon and then we're going to do something I've always wanted to do -- stand on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. (I'll let you know if a girl in flat-bed Ford slows down ...)

• It's easy to see why so many people want to live here. The land is amazing, the weather has been fantastic and the folks have been inviting.

• Bumper sticker that made us chuckle: "Bumper stickers are stupid."

• Back to the road ...

Day 18 -- Monday, June 22

• Left civilization about 90 minutes outside Sonoma -- hit Dublin, took a left on I-580, waved good bye to Livermore and drove down I-5 this a.m. Once we reached metro Santa Clarita, we stopped, kissed the ground and were thankful life as we knew it had not vaporized during our trek through No Man's Land.

• As movie dorks we had to swing by Magic Mountain; KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park was filmed at this Six Flags! (On a lesser note, so was National Lampoon's Vacation.) And we have general tourist items on today's agenda: Stars Walk of Fame, La Brea Tar Pits ... In-N-Out Burger.

• Catch us on a Dearly Departed tour; yep, I'm a Scott Michaels Death Hag.

• L.A. was typical -- in that "Wow, it makes you wonder about the depth of some folks' gene pool" -- but it was great to wander the streets, chow on big-time Mexican food and snap a few pics (saw Taye Diggs!). (Continued)