Slipstream - September 2008

Catch My Draft
by James Shoffit, President
It’s good to be back. Wendy and I took
a much-needed vacation in July. Since
she was a young girl she has always
wanted to go to Paris. The one in France. The
one with an Eiffel Tower that does not have
a cowboy hat on top of it. And for the past
few years all our vacations have either had to
do with my work (I can write off my portion
of the trip since I am there on business), with PCA (Parades
and other regional activities), or family. Wendy had a lot of
anticipation for our upcoming trip – she was having recurring
nightmares about missing the flight for one reason or another
(forgotten passports, missed connections, etc). But the
stars finally aligned, and we bought the tickets in April, spent
months developing the itinerary, and executed the plan.
We arrived on July 19th, stayed in a 100 year old hotel
(well maintained, and much larger room than we expected),
and started our adventure. We saw the Arc de Triomphe
(climbed all 288 stairs to the top), Notre Dame (no hunchback
spotted, but we did see some really amazing artifacts),
Sainte-Chapelle (most amazing stained glass in the world),
Ile St. Louis, the Eiffel Tower (our cheapest meal in Paris
was at midpoint on the tower!), the Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries,
Jardin du Luxembourg, and a few thousand other things.
We were in the room about 6 hours per day – all sleeping – it
seemed. We got to see TWO other Statues of Liberty – the first
one was a small model and the other, the larger, more famous
one, was on Granelle Island facing her even larger big sister
in New York.
We ate crêpes every day, and if we missed a day, we ate
more the next day. But despite all that, we were VERY glad to
return home to the land of ice in drinks, where not every food
has Ham and Eggs in it, and you can afford dinner without taking
out a mortgage on the Porsche. So it is good to be back.
This past Sunday was our hot autocross at the Ballpark in
Arlington. Clay managed to wrangle us a rental of their parking
lot, and we made the most of it. You may remember that I
blew up the engine and transmission of the track car last November,
and therefore it had been nearly a year since Wendy
or I had driven a well-prepared car with spirit and enthusiasm.
The car has been ready for a few weeks now, and we couldn’t
wait for the next autocross. It was so nice to be back at the
wheel, even if we didn’t do quite as well as we would have
liked. It was good to be back!
Check the calendar for upcoming events – we have fun
stuff for track rats, Sunday drivers and people who just want to
socialize. So come on out and join the fun! See you soon!
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