The 2007 Muscle Car 1000 ends…

Wow … what can I say. I am exhausted, elated, and very happy to be home. I have literally just arrived home, with the Muscle Car 1000 complete not a day too soon for me. I loved many, many moments of it, but as the photographer, videographer, sound-man, editor, and luggage carrier … well, it was also brutally difficult.

You can see a bunch of the photos over at the “official” blog at www.mc1000blog.com … and you should look over there for the official story on the trip. But here are my personal highlights:

– Talking with a Fox News reporter about his experiences in Iraq, and with his Producer about her experiences in presidential politics (and OJ stories)

– Taking the Superbird (the crazy green car with the huge wing) down to the aircraft carrier… never having driven it, not being able to find the lights nor the seatbelts, with no rearview nor side mirror, not knowing where I’m going, and chasing a bunch of speeding muscle car maniacs … in retrospect, fun!!!

– Filming, hearing, watching, feeling a drag racer speed by me at 130 mph to get a 10.6 sec quarter mile time, while talking with the guy who runs the track.

– The crazy, insane, let-it-all-loose evening at Mikado restaurant in Palm Springs, with Michelle and her pink wig, seeing the entire men and women doing karaoke, and watching (anonymous) have something like 30 shots of sake … what a night.

– Having our cars line up in caravan so that the news helicopters could “chase” us as we entered LA for new spots.

– The luxury and amazing service of the St Regis … the sheer grandeur and history of the Beverly Hills Hotel … sitting on the BH Hotel’s enormous balcony, enjoying the perfect weather, palm trees, and muscle car roars as they arrived

– Standing on the Bev Hills Hotel’s 4th floor balcony, talking on the hotel’s cordless phone while in my suit … seeing a bus full of tourists doing the “star tour” … and having said tourists immediately begin snapping pictures of me on the balcony.

– Having Wendy invite me over to her table… so I could sit and have dinner with playmate Tabitha Taylor… and then talking with her all night (very sweet girl, actually), trying oh-so-hard to not be distracted by the fact that she was only bodypainted with a Muscle Car 1000 logo.

– Watching the MC1000 participants get a little loose and jump into “the grotto” and swim

– Taking tons of beautiful photos on the deck of the USS Midway aircraft carrier, as well as at the Palm Springs Air Museum

So … that’s a lot more highlights than I expected. I guess it will go down as one of those “it was really fun in retrospect” kind of weeks, huh?