Over the years, heavy weight boxing has seen some titanic clashes: Joe Louis and Ezzard Charles, Floyd Patterson and Ingemar Johansson, Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay, and George Foreman and Mohammad Ali. None had any more gusto than this weekend's clash between Big Red and the Weather Gods.

Round one was Friday in Martinsville. Cold, rainy, windy and after 9 hours, Tank, Peggy and I did a total of $14 in sales. Round one to the Gods.

Saturday, at Liberty, Laura, Chuck, Ryan and Angelica fought the same elements and an insane 2 overtime game where 80% of the fans were gone by halftime. The bottom line, we did one third the sales we had done at the last LU game. Thankfully, this game had nothing to do with the Funnel Cake Bowl.

At the same time in Martinsville, we battled the elements until early afternoon and thankfully got the truck race in. While it wasn't a disasterous day, sales were better than last year on Saturday but not near the totals of some past truck races there.

(download)

Click here to download:

big-red-takes-on-the-weather-gods-HDfjdoFFqrFFJklDFlGa.zip (83 KB)

Round two was even.

After the LU game, Chuck, Ryan and Laura drove to Martinsville to join us for Sunday, which started off at a brisk 30 degrees.

In the corner of the ring between rounds, the troops revolted and basically said, "we're moving your fat ass and your chair out of the tent. You are in our way." What could I say, but OK.

So, I did. Since I can't stand anymore for any length of time, I moved my chair outside and handled the drinks. Tank cooked funnel cakes, Chuck handled batter, corn dogs and filled in with funnel cakes when there weren't orders for footlong corn dogs. Laura ran the register, Ryan sugared and Peggy served, expedited, and jumped back on the fryer when Chuck had to mix more batter. They were all fabulous and Big Red had a record setting day for Martinsville. Our total for the weekend fell well short of the record due to the first two days, but, wow, what a recovery.

In the end, Big Red takes a split decision over the Gods.

This weekend, Laura, Tank, Chuck and Ryan will handle another Liberty game while Peggy and I and maybe Justin will be at Meadow Events Park for the Equine Extravaganza, an event we've done in the past at Richmond Raceway.

Location of this event was not Tombstone, AZ, but the Olympic sized pool at the Y in Lynchburg.

In Lanes 3-8 was a local ladies collegiate swimming team. In Lane 2 was a gigantic tuna. The girls were going through their daily workout. The tuna doing what he does best: very little.

Featuring strong but yet graceful strokes and sleek flip turns, the team members sliced through the water at speeds that had onlonkers in awe.

The tuna flailed along stopping at each turn to catch his breath. After 20 minutes of this, the girls had put in 50 +  laps and going for more. The tuna 4 laps and gasping for air.

It was a totally embarassing and humiliating experience. I may never swim again.

JC Penney...or Ralph Sears...or Henry Ford...or one of those big business dudes once said that the major rule of commerce is location, location location. I've found that the major rule of therapy is consistency, consistency, consistency.

When one is faced with ridiculous variables: how many sets, how many reps, how many laps, how much time, and at what level of difficulty which I face every day with my therapy to try to avoid a hip replacement for as long as possible, you can throw it all out the window if you don't do something every day. Even if that day is one of rest.

My schedule calls for exercises at home every day and water therapy and the step machine every other day. While I was keeping religiously to that, I was seeing and feeling improvement almost daily. Last week was a crazy one that found me driving all over the state every day getting things set up and ready for my two event weekend. Plus I ended up in Martinsville for three days (as I will again this next week). I can do my exercises when I'm at Peggy's or in a motel. They can be done on a bed, in a chair or on the floor. And I've been pretty good about that. But, I missed three water days in a row.

And I paid a big price for missing. On Tuesday when I finally got back to the Y, I struggled with every element, and the pain level was way up. It has taken me three sessions during the week to get back to where I was almost three weeks ago.

Very discouraging.

So remember. Do something every day and follow the schedule somehow. Tomorrow, I'll hit the Y at 5AM just to get my workout in before I head to Richmond for my supply run. I'm still not sure how to get a water session in next weekend while at the races in Martinsville. But, I'll do my exercises every day.

On a positive note: weight down to 265.

This weekend, Laura, Chuck and Ryan will do a Liberty game on Saturday and then drive down to Martinsville after the game. Peggy, Tank and I will be open at Martinsville Raceway on Friday and Saturday with the full crew there for Sunday. I still might use Justin on Friday depending on Peggy's schedule. It really sucks that I can't do what I've been doing since I started this silliness but that God I have really good people working for me.

This year's race to the mythical Funnel Cake Bowl title had been close. JMU had one game, Liberty had one. But sales at each game were very close. As I looked at this weekends final head to head clash between the two schools, I thought Liberty might have a slight edge only because I had Justin hawking lemonade and drinks in the stands.

JMU's game with Villanova, Parents Day and a sell out, started first and Peggy, Chuck and Ryan had a good solid game. Actually their best game of the year although I am still not seeing sales coming close to previous years.

(download)

Click here to download:

liberty-rolls-to-funnel-cake-bowl-title-IJHjinFfkqHhujnsfJgx.zip (17 KB)

Tank, Laura, Erin, Justin and me were set up and ready for gates at 1:30 for Liberty's Homecoming game with Coastal Carolina. It was a beautiful fall day but the winds were brutal. We had a good pregame and Justin had a pretty good start hawking. By midway thru the first quarter, we got slammed and I had to pull Justin out of the stands to help in the tent. Basically, Tank cooked funnel cakes, Laura handled drinks and sugared, Erin Lemonade and corn dogs. The funnel cake volume was so high that Erin started helping Tank by pouring funnel cakes when there wasn't an order for corn dogs. As the business kept rolling, everybody just flowed into the needed position. I even had to make an emergency Sams Club run right in the middle of the game to restock some supplies. Erin just slid over to take the register, Justin took her place on the fryer, Laura to lemonade.

They all were amazing. Like a fine-tuned sports car. The end result, Liberty's game more than doubled JMU's and LU wins their second Funnel Cake Bowl title. And Big Red had a new football game record.

This week is an off week and believe me, my hip needs the break. I've lost some ground this past week as I was forced to do more of the heavy work than I should have been doing and I am paying for it.  I'm looking forward to 10 days of therapy to try to get back to where I was last week.The last weekend of the month features both a Liberty game and the NASCAR races at Martinsville.

I was beginning to think I was totally snake-biten. On Friday night, after picking up Justin and Erin in Woodbridge to work the weekend at Martinsville, I hit a deer on Rte 29 doing about 60MPH. Thankfully, we weren't hurt, but my truck is trashed. Drivable, but the whole front end needs to be replaced.

Then, on Saturday, our first day at Martinsville Speedway for the modified weekend, we had a horrible day. There was only about 75 people in the stands for practice and qualifying and we didn't even take in enough to cover the motel bill for Saturday night.

Meanwhile at JMU, Peggy, Chuck and Ryan were having a pretty good game only to have a fryer fire that caused them to be shut down early in the 3rd quarter. Since I have been unable to find a service person in Harrisonburg, I had to pull Big Red out and bring her back to the farm where my technician will attack it tomorrow to find out what happened and correct the problem. I am hopefull somehow everything will be fixed for this weekend's game.

On Sunday, we were there early and ready to go for the Virginia is For Lovers 300, the Super Bowl of modified racing. Tank was cooking funnel cakes and making batter, Erin working lemonade, Sister Jean handled drinks and sugaring, Gene took care of corn dogs and helped Erin squeezing lemons. Justin hawked lemonade and drinks in the stands. Because of my hip, I sat most of the day and worked the cash register.

It was a great crowd, my guess up about 10% from last year. And we had a nice increase in sales over the past two years. It was a very good drinks and lemonade day and again, our hawking is paying terrific dividends. Plus, we had a line most of the day for funnel cakes. Our location for this race is perfect--under the main grandstands right up from the start-finish line and right in the middle of all of the action.

Nice to have something go right this week.

After the race, and packing up everything but the fryers and their hot oil, I started driving. From Martinsville to Dale City to take the kids home, then to Peggy's in Harrisonburg to retrieve Big Red and her damaged fryer. I got to Peggy's about 4AM. I picked up Red and drove back to the farm, then back to Martinsville to pick up the fryers and tent and back home again. 700 miles in 24 hours, with some 5 hours of it pulling one or the other of my trailers.

I imagine I'll sleep well tonight.

If all goes well tomorrow and I can get Big Red back in operation and safe, we have two games this weekend. Liberty's homecoming and Parents Day at JMU. It should be a good football weekend as long as that damn snake doesn't raise it's ugly head again.

The mythical, self-proclaimed Funnel Cake Bowl is going again this year. This past weekend, Liberty evened the score with JMU at 1 game each. The title will be up for grabs on the 15th during the third simultaneous football game encounter. I base the outcome on Big Red's total sales for the day. The first game on Sept 10 went to JMU by $175. Saturday's effort was won by LU $252.

The only problem was that Saturday's games were terrible. I was at LU. Cold, windy and rained during halftime. It was also a lousy game as Liberty won like 250-0 so by the time the rains came, everybody left. We were also hit by a huge gust of wind during the pregame that destroyed several of the vendors setups and they were forced to leave. We survived but it took 4 of us to hold down the tent. Most of the pregamers stayed in their cars and only came in the stadium near gametime.

Peggy, Chuck and Ryan worked JMU again. For some unknown reason, we just aren't coming anywhere near or sales figures of previous years. It leaves me literally scratching my head.

This weekend is another JMU game, plus Tank, Laura, Justin, Erin and I will be at Martinsville for the modified races. I'm hoping to do as much there as I will at the NASCAR races the end of the month since I can hawk lemonade and can't for the Cup races.

A brief note on therapy. After a couple of off days as I was running all over the state, I was back in the water today after I got home. It was a terrific workout, I added to my lap totals, and I feel great. I've struggled the past couple of days as my hip doesn't like the colder weather. Florida, Puerto Rico or somewhere warm may be in my future.