A current day post

        The drive up from Florida last week was very easy for me. I only stopped when I needed gas and made the trip in 17 hours. You always see weird things while on a long drive; and that trip was no exception! From south Florida to the Georgia border takes about 5 hours; and during that stretch of road there must have been 7 RVs with blowouts. From the big expensive motor coaches on down through the little pop-up campers, Florida was like a campers graveyard! I imagine they assume that if the treads are okay they are good to go. Dry rot doesn't care about treads, people driving campers around need to change their tires more often.
        Even though that drive is long I still prefer that than flying coach! Jonas sent me up to qualify a few the week before; and, I flew United Airlines. On the way up north I had a window seat next to an older couple in the last row in the plane. I'm 6'3" and 2 something and I felt like a cow stuffed onto one of those livestock trailers! I had to pee for the last hour of the flight, but, didn't want to deal with asking the cranky old couple to get up and let me out. Then on the way back to Florida I was in a middle seat sandwiched between two guys even wider than me if you can believe that! I was reading a book, and that always makes me want to sleep. Every time I dozed off the 3 year old girl in the next row would start screaming bloody murder for 15 minutes or so.  I'm going to get Jonas to buy us a company plane to make our travels more comfortable!!
        Getting moved into Winners farm has kept me pretty busy. The very large office is on the second floor overlooking the track. It's an awesome setup, but, it was in dire need of a paint job. I put on my "HandyRandy" hat after getting the riding done and went to work up there. It came out nice, and now if owners visit Jonas has a nice room for them to watch their horses train.
        After almost a year away from racing my body is slowly adjusting to the erratic sleep schedule. So far we've raced at the Meadowlands a couple times, qualified a few times up there, and raced at Pocono one night. You have to learn to take a nap here and there, whenever the right time comes.  While in Florida my internal clock had me waking up at 3am every day and I would toss and turn till about 5. Racing has sure cured that problem! I have no trouble "sleeping in" until 5 now!
       The stable of horses Jonas has put together is a very nice bunch! Racing them is fun because they are well mannered and so far have been very competitive. I see no reason for us not to have a very good year with this group! In horse racing a trainers job is to bring a horse to the track happy, fit, sound, and properly classified; the rest is up to the driver and racing luck. We will take care of our part and hope for the best...talk to you soon