Al

The winner! I hate to show favorites, but this guy was like a father to me. In fact he WAS a father to me. Al is going to chill out in Maine, waiting for Don to catch up. Actually, in this race, it looks like Don was the Hare, blowing his lead in New Orleans with a bunch of hot geo-chicks. "Hey!" says Al, "That doesn't make me much of a winner!". Anyway, once Don catches up, they should chained to each other and make the return trip to Chicago together. They never spent much time together, but they should get along fine. Below is the original goal: This travel bug is engaged in a cross country race with Don. They will be released in San Diego in November and they are both racing toward Maine. The first one to be logged in Maine is the winner.

On a recent trip to Colorado, I stopped in a store and noticed that there were only two keychains left that had the old state license plate. Coincidentally (or not) they bore the names of my father and my father-in-law.

Since we are going to be in San Diego for Thanksgiving, I decided to have them race across the country just for fun.

This bug is Al, named after my late father. I say late because he has passed away, he would not want to be known as late because he hated being late. Unfortunately he was constantly made late by the rest of his family who had less regard for punctuality than he did.

Even so, he managed to use his lead foot to minimize the impact of his less-than-organized wife and offspring. Let's see if his lead foot helps him in this race across the U.S.A.

The other bug is Don, named after my father-in-law. He is living and will be accompanying us to San Diego. If lead foot Al is the hare, then Don is the tortoise, slow and steady. He has never received a traffic violation of any kind, but just the same, gets to where he is going on time.

When I think of Al and Don in a car race, I think of Al Unser and 'Big Daddy' Don Garlitz. Sorry, but this race is between two guys whose last know M.O. was driving 5 miles under the speed limit in the left lane with their left turn signal on.