Sun-N-Fun 2006

The title says it all. It was Sun-N-Fun for the entire week. The Miss-Ta-Fire crew was invited to join Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to help with their display at the Sun-N-Fun airshow in Lakeland, Florida. We headed to the event on Monday morning to drop off the truck & trailer and get everything into position. While we were there, Chris received a phone call from his former auto teacher Mr. Button. (it is hard to now call him Larry even though we are in our late 30's) He came into town for a short visit and made us a top priority. Pretty cool. He was a huge influence on Chris's decision to go into the aeronautical field as well as sharing his love of drag racing.

After meeting with Larry and his brother, it was early to bed to get ready for the big week. We were on display from Tuesday until Sunday evening. I was worried that the beginning was going to be slow and the days would drag on. I don't know if we were just lucky, but everyday the show was swamped. It just kept getting busier and busier. The days just flew by. I can even begin to guess how many photos I signed and how many times I told people how fast my car was.

Every afternoon we were treated to an airshow from 2-5. Not a bad way to end the day. Each day built up to the main events on the weekend. People say what I do is crazy, they don't even know what crazy is until you see how they make the airplanes dance in the air. These guys are nuts!!!!!

On Thursday we saw a big puff of black smoke and heard two loud bangs. My stomach sank, I just knew the worst had happened. Well it turned out to not be as bad as we had thought. It hadn't rained for 41 days in central Florida so the grass was really dry. A low ground clearance sports car pulled into a grass parking lot and and the hot exhaust system caught the grass on fire. The fire proceeded to burn down 24 cars. Can you imagine coming back to a charred and burnt car???? Luckily we received some well needed rain early Sunday morning.

I believe the final count on the jet car handouts was almost 2500. We had a great week and had the opportunity to meet a lot of really cool people. One that comes to mind is Matt. This 15 year old was pretty cool. He has a great attitude and I can't wait until our race in Commerce, Georgia where he is planning to help crew our car.