Garrett Duke

baseball (Sorry this is the only thing that came to mind with fun...a couple more weeks til baseball season. Am I the only one excited for baseball to start up? )

Jesse Duke jumped slightly at the sound of the front door banging shut to shatter the thick silence that had plagued the farm for most of the day. Inhaling deeply and counting silently to himself he fights back his temper from yelling out at Bo for slamming the door behind him. After all his years of growing up at the farm, he still refused to close the door quietly behind him as Jesse had told him to do over and over again. Any other day, he'd have scolded him for his neglegence about the door. He knew better than to treat the house in that way. But today, Jesse thought better of it. Things had seemed to go wrong for Bo from the moment he got out of bed and Jesse knew he didn't help things much when he had scolded Bo about his speeding ticket. About thier shortage on money this month. Their money shortage wasn't Bo's fault. Well, not completely anyway. If he didn't get the speeding and parking tickets that he did... But they all knew they were all fake and falsely written for Hogg to get more money, for Rosco to glorify himself with the thought that he finally caught the Dukes to give the ticket to. Just as this morning's speeding ticket was falsely given to Bo. Jesse had seen the speedometer when the sirens started to go off and he was below the speed limit. Yet Bo got the ticket and they were left wondering how they will ever pay off the speeding tickets plus mortgage and all the other monthly costs. "You're not going to say anything to him?" Luke questions as Jesse walks into the kitchen, motioning towards the door where Bo had been only moments ago. "Give it a rest, Luke. He's having a bad day," Jesse sighs irritatably as he glances out the window at Bo who is examining the damages upon The General. Looking back at Luke, Jesse gives a small smile and asks, "I don't have to remind you who had started his day off bad, do I? After all -" "It was I who left the dang shovel on the ground. I apologized to him about that," Luke interrupts his uncle who gives him a knowing look, "I know that didn't make it better or his day. Don't give him no reason to go off on Daisy like that. She felt bad enough as it is not alone to have him yelling at her for something that can be easily fixed." Jesse nods. "We all know that. Including Bo," Jesse motions towards the front door to where Bo is, "but after tripping on your shovel and getting a bloody nose, the speeding ticket and both of us angrily scolding him over getting the ticket," Jesse shrugs as he grabs a glass from the cabinet, "it made it seem worse than it was. Just as you just said...he apologized once he saw he went over board with his reaction." Jesse pauses to pour himself a glass of water. Turning around to face his oldest nephew, he shakes his head and says, "So no, for once I am not going to say anything about him slamming the dang door. It'd only make it worse." Luke nods in agreement. "Well," he shrugs as he gets out of his chair, "it's like you use to say. You need to have a bad day in order to appreciate the good days." Jesse smiles and nods at his nephew who now looks through the front screen of the door at his cousin. "Very true," he slowly states, "but it don't make it any easier on you when you are having a bad day." Luke runs a hand through his hair as he watches Bo slowly move away from the car and walks towards the barn, where he normally goes when he wants to be alone. "No it don't. Guess I over reacted at Bo, as well," he slowly admits, "just hate seeing Daisy that upset and to see Bo make it worse. Though," he gives a short laugh as he steps away from the door, "have to admit, I understood how Bo felt. Always depressing to see anyone hit The General like that...kinda like seeing someone in the family get hurt." Jesse nods as he finishes his water and places it by the sink. "Well, his driver won and he was excited about that. So his day wasn't all bad," he smiles at Luke, "he'll be fine and so will Daisy. By tomorrow all this will roll over and we'll be facing a new day. As for now, I believe I should start getting dinner ready."

*Shrugs as lights another cigarette* Guess I finally done something right. Imagine that. But yeah, it's all interesting. Now what are we...or what you going to do about it? *Glances quietly around the crowd, listening to their angry chants and yells* They do seem upset. Ironically, I don't recall all these people upset when I was arrested. *Glances back at Roger* You're probably right. Best no one gets hurt...despite whether or not they have good qualities about them. Though, I still think it'd be fun to start a riot. We got the right crowd and atmosphere for it. *Falls back to silence as he inhales from his cigarette, taking in the scene around him.*

Bounce

Winnie the Pooh

Just an update. I read an update that Robby had made a comment and he says that they had a heated exchange and that he didn't punch Conway. That all of this was a publicity deal for Conway. That it was over all the money Conway and his sponsor still owes Robby...in fact owes his current car owner as well. Also stated was that this was a manner that would now be served in court...

Nice try there Roger...but Kurt is younger than Gordon. Gordon will turn 40 this upcoming August, so it should be Gordon that goes to break and beat JJ's streak of championships than Kurt. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of Gordon racing until he's a hundred years old, but doubt that would happen. The thought of him retiring only gets me upset, but sooner or later I have to face reality and reality is, is that Kurt may have a few more years of racing than Gordon has left. Though hopefully I am wrong... Either way, I think Gordon should break JJ's record. After all, it is Gordon that brought JJ into the Sprint Cup and owns half of JJ's car...

NASCAR has placed ROBBY Gordon (not JEFF Gordon...) on probation through the rest of the year, today. I've read a little about this on Saturday or so and more so today... Kevin Conway (rookie of the year award winner of last year) drove seven races for Robby Gordon in the Sprint Cup Series last year and supposedly they are both suing each other. Robby is suing Conway's sponsors for money they supposedly owe him and Kevin is sueing Robby for his money from the rookie of the year program. Anyway, on Friday when they were at Las Vegas for qualifying there was an altercation between the two. Robby claims he didn't throw any punches, but according to Conway Robby punched him twice. He then called in and placed a misdemeanor battery complaint against Robby...as well as told NASCAR of the altercation. According to Conway, Robby had ambushed him in the garage at Las Vegas...most of what I have read seems to be coming from Kevin and little to no comments from Robby. NASCAR has now placed Robby Gordon on probation for the rest of the year...

***AN HOUR OUT OF HAZZARD*** Staring through the windshield of his personal car, Jeff Gordon stares at the bright sunny day and the vast country land that surrounds him. Country he has traveled over or quickly through, but never at a leisurely pace as now. Normally he'd be in his trailer or on a plane on his way home from the race, but after the large win he had accomplished only a couple of hours ago, he didn't want to rush. Don't get him wrong, he wanted to be home with his family. He couldn't wait to go home to be with his wife and his two kids who were busy and were unable to go to Atlanta with him for the race. But he just wanted to be for a while. Wanted to absorb Georgia as he never was able to do before. He wanted to take it all in. The scenery, his high emotions of excitement and adrenaline. He wanted to be alone to digest every minute, every hour, ever lap, every pitstop he made. He wanted to digest it all, make it real and not just some hyped up dream that it all seemed to be. He just won the Atlanta race! He still couldn't believe it! Yet he should...he has won over eighty races in his whole Sprint Cup career. Won four championships. It hadn't been that long since his last win, either. Yet, his excitement is just as high as it always is after a win. Staring ahead, he begins to wonder where the road will lead him or where he is going to stop or why he has opted to go for this drive by himself. His sponsors, his team, his fans would never forgive him if he got lost and was unable to make scheduled stops. But who was he kidding? He had another four days until he had to show up at the next track for practice. How could he get that lost or stuck somewhere to miss that? He had his GPS system. He had his cell phone. Up ahead a green street sign slowly comes into view reading: Chickasaw 50 miles. Hazzard 40 miles. "Hazzard? What kind of a name is that?" Gordon muses out loud, silently wondering how a town could come up with the name as Hazzard. Or why? They even spelled Hazzard wrong...

*Garrett winces slightly at the mention of a security camera being ran in the jail. He hadn't even thought about an security cameras nor had a reason to. Of all the times he's been at the jail, there never was one in the building. Heck the only building in Hazzard he'd think of a security camera would be at is the bank and perhaps the little jewlry store in town. But the jail? Well this was Hazzard and anything is possible in Hazzard. Shaking off the thought and worry over the camera, Garrett's thoughts go back to what he had heard. Of Meadowmufn's charges and what she was being accused of. Of Brian forging her signature. Of the power that may give him. Only to send chills down Garrett's back. Something had to be done. Garrett glances around the corner once again to take everyone in before he slowly walks back to the back door and silently slips back outside and quietly closes the door behind him. He follows the same path he had taken to the back door back to where Roger is standing, surprised at all the yelling and to see how worked up everyone seems to be. * "Roger," Garrett whispers in his ear, "we have to do something." He then goes on to tell Roger what he had just overheard and saw in the jail.

pancakes

milk

*Garrett quietly enters the jail through the forgotten back door and quietly closes the door behind him before coming to a halt behind the thick wall. He peers momentarily around the corner long enough to see the jail area and to see Meadowmufn behind bars before repositioning himself behind the wall as to not get seen in return. Pressed against the wall, hidden from sight from the jail, Garrett hopes to overhear what is going on in order to relay it all to Roger and the crowd that lingers outside of the jail.*

Another great New Kids on the Block song... Sorry Hoss...there's none of their great dancing in this video.

Well I generally don't like spiteful songs, but I do have to admit I do like this song. The video does have a few suggestive scenes that it could have done without...just a warning.

toothbrush

Here is the top ten drivers in the Sprint Cup point standings after Vegas: 1. Tony Stewart 2. Kurt Busch Tony and Kurt are tied in points. . . 3. Carl Edwards 4. Juan Pablo Montoya 5. Ryan Newman 6. Paul Menard 7. Martin Truex Jr 8. Denny Hamlin 9. AJ Allmindinger 10. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Am sure there are a lot of happy people at Jr Nation this week to see Junior move into the top ten in points. I am happy for him and so far, the past two weeks he has shown improvements...then again he has Gordon's old crew, his old cars, and his old crew cheif, Steve Letarte. So it shouldn't be surprising to see Jr begin to improve. I just hope for him that he will continue and will sometime soon break his winless streak that is going on 95 races...I think. (I'm also hoping that Gordon will be able to reclimb through the points as he did after Phoenix since he fell down to 19th in points. ) All that is of my own opinion, of course. And once again...the points have been shaken up from last week. It is interesting to see how the new point system is working.

Here is the top ten in standings after Las Vegas: 1. Reed Sorenson 2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr 3. Jason Leffler 4. Danica Patrick 5. Justin Allgaier 6. Trevor Bayne (am really enjoying watching this kid in the Sprint Series...he looks pretty impressive to me.) 7. Aric Almirola 8. Kenny Wallace 9. Mike Bliss 10. Joe Nemechek Looks to be only a couple of changes from last week...

Cale Yarborough and Jeff Gordon This has nothing to do with today's race, but more with last week's race, but thought I might place it somewhere. I know not everyone here is a Jeff Gordon fan...for all I know, I may be the only one on here that is a Jeff Gordon fan. But since Cale Yarborough was on the Dukes a couple of times, I thought someone might find it interesting...I did, but then again, I'm a Gordon fan. It is a four minute commentary discussing Cale's and Jeff's differences and similiarities in racing and in their background...since Gordon tied Cale's win record at 83. Feel free to tell me what you thought of the clip...

Well the Las Vegas race has just gotten over and talk about the differences one week makes. Last week I felt like I was on top of the mountain, so to speak, with Gordon's win. And well...now I feel lower than low. Gordon had a pretty good race. Top ten car. Not a winning car, but not bad either. Well right before green flag pit stops started on lap 195 his tire blew and he hit the wall hard. Main thing is, is he's OK...but boy is it disappointing going from a win last week to finishing 36th...and dropping from fifth in points down to 19th...unofficially. Kyle Busch had his problems as well...he first cut a tire which brought out a caution. Then older brother Kurt spun around to bring out another caution. Right after that caution, Kyle Busch's engine blew and his car caught on fire. Luckily, he was OK. There was a lot of pit road penelties...one coming from Tony Stewart who was leading at the time. Stewart had led the most laps and came home second on a track he has never won at before. Due to pit road strategies from Stewart and Edwards, Edwards left the last pit stops first and ended up winning at Las Vegas! He's not Gordon nor does he drive for Hendrick, but I do like Edwards and it is always great to see him do his famous backflip he does off the window edge of his car after he wins. Here is the top ten finishes at Las Vegas: 1. Carl Edwards 2. Tony Stewart 3. Juan Pablo Montoya 4. Marcos Ambrose (Great to see him get a top five finish!) 5. Ryan Newman 6. Martin Truex Jr. 7. Denny Hamlin 8. Dale Earnhardt Jr (Letarte and Gordon's old crew seems to be doing good with Jr...now is 10 in points - unofficially) 9. Kurt Busch 10. Brian Vickers (Talk about a bad race...not only did Gordon do bad, but so did all my fantasy drivers. I am doing horrible on my fantasy team!) Sadly there is NO race next week since they have an off week. Wish they had an off week this week...lot easier for me to live off a win for two weeks than a 36 finishing spot for poor Gordon. Guess that's life for ya. There will be an hour special about the Daytona race with commentaries by Gordon, Trevor Bayne, and others. Some footage never seen before, so they say. I think it is on at one or noon next Sunday on Fox. Then two weeks from today they are at one of my favorite tracks...Bristol! We'll be going short track racing. Now that should be fun:popcorn:.