After a terribly disappointing basketball season, mixed in with four shows that were at best break-even, Big Red finally had a winner Friday night at the ACS Relay for Life at Washington and Lee University in Lexington. But, it wasn't without some testiness.

I got there a couple of hours early to set up Big Red and do my prep work only to find out the event didn't start until 7PM. I had scheduled Tank to arrive about 5PM for a six o'clock opening. So, we had more than an hour to sit around doing nothing.

Once everything got going, we were busy. Suprisingly, our fish sold better than at any of the recent shows. As expected, hot dogs, corn dogs, funnel cakes and lemonade did well all night, normal for a college campus.

Somewhere around 10PM it started raining, lightly at first. Then it turned into a raging storm with high winds and heavy rains. The Relay emptied out. At one point, I counted 18 people left. So I sent Tank home, thinking at least one of us could get some sleep.

I didn't count on many of the kids going back to their dorms, changing clothes and returning. By 11:30, I was slammed only attempting to do everything alone. Then after midnight, the partiers from bars and frat houses hit me and I stayed slammed until after 3AM. By then, I was so tired I didn't care what happened.

Finally, about 5AM, I shut it down and escaped before all of the closing cerimonies started at 7AM.

In the end, we came close to doubling what we did at the W&L Relay last year. And I feel certain, we'll go back next year again. I won't send Tank home early. That I can promise you.

We are off this week to get ready for our first race of the year at Martinsville, followed by the opening of the Potomac Nationals season the following week. From then on, my schedule is pretty crazy.