Garrett Duke

The tall and lean body of the youngest Duke cousin is bent over and lying half way under the orange hood of the beloved race car he had helped build with his oldest cousin. His thoughts are heavily entwined of thoughts of his date with Clare Wenthworth and thoughts of The General. Only to produce mixed emotions of happiness and excitement that had formed from his first date with Clare and mixed with anger and frustration directed from The General. "Hey cuz," comes a familiar voice from behind him to force Bo to jump slightly before he backs out from the hood to stand up and look around to be facing his older cousin. "I should have known you'd be out here with The General." Bo slowly nods at his cousin before he turns back to the open hood, staring down at the hood. "And here I am," he finally states as he wipes a thick lock of blond hair out of his eyes to spread grease and oil into his bright hair. Luke gives Bo a sad smile while shaking his head at Bo. "You are just so damn stubborn, you know that right?" Luke finally asks as he steps up to The General while takes in his cousin, silently admiring him. Silently admiring Bo's sharp and strong determination to work at getting what he wants no matter on how improbable it may be or how many times that people try to convince him of how impossible it may be to get what he wants. While Luke's strong hopes and desires are often dulled and deflated by the harsh reality of how impossible it may be. Leaving him often times giving up on getting to where or what he wants. With their friendship, their differences towards attaining what they want often times works well together to balance them out while other times it causes friction and arguments between the two. "I mean," Luke finally breaks his silence, "we went over this two days ago of how The General needs official help; meaning new car parts and other things we don't have access to. He needs to go see Doctor Cooter to fix him up. Not us. And in order for him to go to Cooter and get the new parts, we need money to pay him for it. Money we don't have." Bo sends Luke a harsh look, anger directed at his cousin despite knowing that Luke was right, but too stubborn to accept it. "So just like that, you're just going to give up on him, huh, Luke?" he finally shoots back at him as the front door to the house squeaks open and he glances over Luke's shoulder to watch their uncle stepping out on the porch. Turning to Luke he states, "Well you may be willing to give up on him, but I ain't. Heck, I hope I don't get sick or get in some horrible accident where the doctor says I don't have much of a chance of ever waking up. You'll just give up on me too, I suppose!" "Stop being so childish Bo! You know damn well what I mean. Your problem is that you're too damn stubborn for your own good!" Luke snaps back at him, his eyes fall from his cousin down to The General, "I don't want to accept it as much as you don't, but sooner or later, reality has to sink in and to be faced. Not ignored. Ignoring it won't make it go away or make it get better. Reality being that we don't have the money to fix The General right now. So until we can find work to get the money to fix him up, we will have to leave him be." Bo shakes his head at Luke. "Well couldn't we borrow money or the parts from Cooter and pay him back when we get the money?" Bo asks, too impatient to wait for the money to come, "Like we did a few months ago." "I already talked to Cooter about it," Luke shakes his head, "he says he don't have the parts or money to spare us this time. Hogg's raised his mortgage up and he is barely making ends meet at the moment." "Damn," Bo cusses and as sadness clouds his baby blue eyes, guilt courses through Luke at deflating the hope that Bo had tightly held onto. "You're right," Bo pauses to look up at Luke to send confusion through Luke, "I shouldn't have raced him as hard as I had yesterday or jumped that damn pond. I just saw Rosco behind us and pushed The General. If I hadn't -" "Stop blaming yourself, Bo. It's not me that was right. If it wasn't for you pushing the General as you had or jumping the pond, we'd be in jail right now and probably stay there for the next few years. That is unless we were lucky enough to have someone else clear our names for us, because I can tell you right now no one would have the money to bail us out. Leaving us in jail while Jesse and Daisy struggled to take care of the farm on their own. If it wasn't for you and The General, we'd be in jail," Luke confidently responds, "What I said to you yesterday was harsh and uncalled for. I was just upset and you just happened to be there to take it out on. I'm sorry." "Luke's right. You did what you needed to do to get away from Rosco. No one is at blame here. The General's just sick as you two got sick so many times growing up. It just happens. We just need to find a way to fix him up and back to health again as Applebee helped you two do so many years ago," Jesse speaks up for the first time, drawing both the boys' attention, "But until you all find the way to fix him back up, Daisy fixed dinner and it is on the table." "Yes sir," Luke responds placing a comforting hand upon Bo's tense shoulder, "What's for dinner." Jesse sends Luke a stern look. "You have to ask that, Luke?" he finally questions, "Rice and beans." "Again?" Bo complains, "We've had that all week and I'm - " "Stop your complaining Beauregaurd!" Jesse sternly yells, making both boys jump, "We don't have no more money for groceries and all we have available is rice and beans. Though if it will make you happy to hear, we are almost out of that as it is. Once we're out, we're out of food all together and we don't have money for groceries to get any more. So if you don't want to eat it, fine, suit yourself; that'll leave more for the rest of us. The choice is yours!" Bo and Luke look at each other and then up at Jesse and nod. "Rice and beans it is then," Luke breaks the silence as he walks up the stairs and Bo slowly follows him there. "Sorry," Bo mutters under his breath, "for complaining. You're right, we're lucky to have what we have." Together they walk into the kitchen where Daisy is setting down the last of their plates at the table with glasses of water in front of the plates. Jesse forces a small smile through the guilt that has been eating within him for the past couple of days. Guilt at the lack of his ability to support and feed his family as they all deserve to be fed and supported while worry for his uncertain future rush within him. Mortgage was due in only a week and so far they only had enough money to pay a fourth of it, if they couldn't come up with the money by next week, they'll be evicted. Evicted from the only place he had to call home. Sighing heavily, he sits down at the head of the table and glances around the table at his two nephews and at his neice who worriedly watches him. Once more he forces a small smile in attempt to convince them everything was going to be OK. "Your meal looks very good, Daisy," he says to Daisy who only nods, knowing he is trying to be positive about the meal and their situation. He looks away from Daisy and at everyone before saying, "Dinner is ready and on the table. We all should count ourselves lucky to have what we had and do have." He bows his head, "Let's say Grace." (CUE DANEY - sorry to post out of turn.)

What was I thinkin' - Dierks Bently

Bo 26 Luke 23 Daisy 5 Jesse 21 Cooter 20 Enos 5 Jesse gave a point to Bo

*cusses angrily under breathe as I hold onto the door, my eyes go to the deer out front to the back window to see the truck getting closer.* Ok Roger *Voice calm despite the inner turmoil* Slow it down a bit, I'll jump out with the money. *Looks out window at the deep ditches besides the road* Yeah that's it *Says aloud though talking to self. Turning to Roger, continue.* Slow it down and I'll jump and side track the guy in the truck. You keep on going. Either he'll be bought off or I'll convince him to forget the whole thing. If that don't work, *pauses and shrugs* I guess I'm on my way to jail. It won't be the first time. *Lets out a long breath of air I'd been holding. It wasn't suppose to work this way.* I won't say a word about you, I promise. You can trust me...you should know that by now. If they don't let it slip, I'll convince 'em I forced you to drive. It was my brilliant idea, it should be me to take the fall for it. *Looks out the back window at the truck before looking ahead at the deer. *Just don't hit the deer, they'd kill your car!

The Sprint Cup Series (the main NASCAR series...with Gordon, Stewart, Jr and other drivers) will be racing at 3:00 (ET) Sunday (on FOX) at Texas Mortor Speedway. It is a mile and a half length track. Jeff Gordon was the last winner at Texas in the Spring race...meaning it will be a year since his last win. Which was the first time he won there, leaving only one other track that Gordon has yet to win at before he has won at all the tracks on their current circuit. The Busch brothers seem to be good at this track. They only race a handful of races on Saturday nights in the Sprint Cup - normally the Nationwide Series races on Saturdays (Which is kinda like AAA baseball is to MLB - though veteran Sprint Cup drivers are able to drive in the Nationwide if they chose to do so. Some do, some don't.) Which is probably why it makes it so exciting when the Sprint Cup does race on Saturdays, because they don't do so very often. I wish they would do more racing under the lights. . . Well I just read that Kasey Kahne who drives the number 9 Budweiser car will be leaving Richard Petty's team at the end of this year. And in the year 2012 he will be racing in the number 5 car at Hendrick Motorsports...taking over for Mark Martin who's contract ends at the end of next year. In the article I read at NASCAR.com, Kahne does plan on racing next year and it may be for Stewart-Haas Racing that has a connection with Hendrick.

Bo 24 Luke 23 Daisy 7 Jesse 22 Cooter 20 Enos 4 I gave a point back to Bo and took it from Daisy.

*Listening to the loud squeal of the tires and the engine, my thoughts listen into the silence that is trapped within the car, wondering what's going on with my partner in crime. If he has had second thoughts upon our robbery and if it was my loud mistakes that enforced them on him. Only send my worry of what he plans on doing with me now if he has had second thoughts on the whole operation. I turn to face Roger as he speaks up to break the silence between us and his words send chills of fear down my back.* Company? *I ask as I nervously glance around and as I glance in the rear window, I see the dark shadow of a man standing there.* We got company...unless you want us to be room mates at the Hazzard jail, you better get this thing going. And fast!

Dang I forgot we already talked about him. Sorry for the repeat. I guess I am good at that...repeating myself. So just ignore me then. LOL. I am with ya there...smile with every mention or connection to the Dukes. It is neat that they pray before each race and all that they do with that.

*Seeing the get away car, I quickly walk over the car where I open the driver seat to quickly climb in and throw the bag of money at my feet. Closing the door, I turn to Roger.* Why didn't you respond? How was I to know if the coast was clear or not if you don't tell me? *Shrugs* Oh well I got the bag we planned to grab so let's get outta here so we can figure out what money goes to where. If we ain't keepin' the money, then the sooner we get rid of it, the better.

Thanks Roger...I may not know a whole lot, but I do know NASCAR which is probably why I get excited about it. Yeah I caught that too...though didn't think too much of it at the time since I was still a little disappointed that Gordon didn't get the win. It is interesting all the statics and all that they know and all. Don't know if you know the announcers at all, Roger, but Darrell Waltrip use to be a real good NASCAR driver before he retired and is now one of the announcers. Then Jeff Hammond (he is the one that explains about the car and the pits and all that) use to be Darrell's crew cheif. As for questions, if you have them, ask away. I don't know everything about NASCAR, especially when you get to the nitty gritty things of the car, but I do know some and would be glad to answer the questions I know the answers to.

*I silently make my way to the door, thinking of the mistakes I've made thus far into my robbery, as I slowly open it and step back out into the chilly night air to close the door and relock it through the window. Seeing a truck parked across the street, begin to wonder and worry if it was there before I had went in or not. Inhaling deeply I glance up and down the darkened street before I slowly walk down the stairs, wondering why Roger hasn't responded yet.* Guardian Angel, this is Bandit, *I whisper into the walkie talkie* You hear me? I'm out of the bank, you see anyone? *Places walkie talkie into pocket while eyeing the location of where I am to meet Roger at. Nodding to myself as I see no one in sight, begin to walk over there.*

LOL...I saw that. I am not the fastest poster around here. But thank-you for pointing that out for me. I answered that question in my last post after I saw that I missed your post. LOL Joey Lagano won at Loudon (I think) last year but it was due to the race being called due to rain. If they race half the laps and over of the race and it starts raining where they can't dry it or it rains nonstop, they call the race then and it is over. But if it rains before the halfway mark, they will post pone the race and start over again on Monday. If that makes sense. In other words he won his first and only Sprint Cup race last year due to it being shortened by rain. Though by how he has been racing lately, I predict he'll get another win sometime this year.

That was a dramatic finish...I had a hard time sitting still to watch it! Ryan Newman use to be number 12 until the beginning of last year when he went with Tony Stewart to Stewart's co-owned teamed of Stewart-Haas. Didn't know that it was number 39's first time to victory lane, but that was interesting to know. I know what you mean Roger about wanting to like someone with good values or high values and wanting to get to know them better. That is a great way to do it...I was only giving you a hard time about it with Jimmie. Though, if you want to chose someone with high values, it may be Jimmie that you want to go for. Or Gordon...LOL. Jimmie was known last year as Vanilla (not my favorite nickname) for his clean record of not doing anything wrong or getting into trouble. Or something like that. (I am not saying that to convince you one way or another, just a little bit of info to spread along. It is up to you on who you want to go for.) But I doubt he'd be another Tiger Woods...then again, I don't think many people expected something like that to come from Tiger Woods. Uncle Jesse would have made a great driver to follow if you go by values...I think the boys would have been pretty good at that themselves. It'd be interesting how Bo would would do out there on today's NASCAR circuit and how Luke would do as a crew cheif and if he could compete against Chad Knaus (Jimmie Johnson's crew cheif). Talking of crew cheifs...Steve Letarte - Gordon's crew cheif - lost a lot of weight it looks like. Wonder how he did it...LOL.

Well was that a race or what? What an exciting finish to a great race...it'd be a whole lot more exciting if Gordon would have been able to hold on to his lead to win the race, but second isn't so bad. A lot better than I thought he had with a hundred or so left to go when he was eleventh or twelveth. Two races in a row though now that he had the lead dangling in front of him on the finishing laps only for it to be snatched away. Oh well, as he said in the post race interview, at least he is up there at the end competing for the win. Kyle Busch had the race won if not for that caution and he went with four tires while seven or so drivers went with two. Kyle went from leading the race with four or seven laps remaining to finish in eightth place - only to show, not to give up or to be sure one driver is going to win it just because they are close and he's in the lead. Jeff Gordon went with two tires to get out of pits the leader with Ryan Newman in second. Gordon spun his tires to give Newman the lead who went on to win the race. Newman, Gordon, and Johnson were the top three drivers. Matt Kenseth may have came in fourth, not sure right now. Jr who had a pretty bad night finished twelveth after all his problems which was a good finish with all things considered. As for points Johnson is ahead of Kenseth and then I think Biffle, Harvick, and Gordon moves up from seventh to fifth in points. Next Sunday they will be racing in Texas where Gordon won his last race at (was his first time to win at that track) it will be 2 ET on Fox. (Sorry for all the info on Gordon, hopefully I am not boring anyone out there. I just know more of his statics than some of the other drivers.) It should make for another fun race.

Me like volleyball or basketball? Well we are all entitled to our likes and dislikes and I'd hate to disappoint you GLG, but I am not a fan of either one. If I had to chose, I'd go with basketball since I did follow it a little bit for awhile. But for now it is mainly NASCAR and baseball. Besides you are just going to ditch the WHOLE sport of NASCAR just because your chosen driver didn't win? What kind of fan are you? (I tried tellin' you to go for Gordon, but you didn't listen to me, now did you? He may not have won, but he came in second. LOL )Gordon has yet to win a race all season, in fact next week's race will mark a full year since he last won a race. If I decided not to like NASCAR due to Gordon not winning the race, I doubt I'd be a fan of NASCAR at all. They all have their good races and their bad races, GLG, you just need to hang in there. HA HA Well I'm glad y ou don't mind or care of me buggin' you...just had to make sure as to not feel so guilty about doing so. LOL

*Finding the bag with the sticker on it, I slowly bend down to pick it up just as I hear my walkie talkie start going off. Lifting the bag and walking out of the vault, I take the walkie talkie out of my inner pocket.* I got it and am on my way out. See anything out there? That...um...explosion was louder than expected. *Bag of money thrown over shoulder, I quickly walk over to the door through the shadows.*

Kurt Busch is Kyle Busch's older brother. Kurt was involved in an accident on lap fifteen or something like that that took Kasey Kahne out for a hundred and one points. Though Roger, I can't believe you would just ditch on Jimmie Johnson like that for Kurt Busch. LOL. Poor JJ. Though Jamie McMurray who drives the number one car is a reddish orange color tonight. Thought that was neat - he's having a pretty good race seeing how he spun out and has been to pits several times so far to fix it up. AJ Allmindinger got his first pole for today's race and is still in the top fifteen so far which is pretty good for him. JJ has led a lot of laps tonight and is still on top, Juan Pablo Montoya who is in second led a lot of laps as well.