Buccaneers VS Saints - Bucs win!

We (Ford) held a 2009 F-150 Launch event at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game today. We had a tailgate party with vehicle displays, interactive consumer games, giveaways, free Coca Cola products, and a live band - One Night Rodeo - they rocked! We also had Earnest Graham and Shelton Quarles signing autographs. I got to pick up Earnest and Sheldon in the player parking lot in the Buccaneer Flex and shuttle them to the Ford Display - I took the kids with me. They thought it was pretty cool to meet an NFL running back and former Linebacker. Earnest is currently on Injured Reserve with a foot injury - Shelton retired in 2007 after 10 years with the Bucs. It was a fun day - the Bucs won - and are now 9-3 on the season and having a great year!

Great Florida Winter Day

70 Degrees, Sunny, clear Sky - what a day! Belinda went shopping all night long - left at 11:30PM Thursday - came back at 11am Friday - crazy. She did a great job though. I got up early and helped the kids decorate the house - more on that later.

Around 4PM I went for a motorcycle ride with Andrew, Bob, and Eddie. We took one of our favorite rides - out to the west of Orlando in South Lake County. Hills and twisting roads are rare in Florida - but that part is actually full of great roads around Montverde, Lake Apopka, Howie in the hills, and Suger Loaf Mountain, which is the highest point in central Florida. We stopped at Boondocks in Howie and the Hills on Lake Harris for dinner. It was Friday Fish Fry - very good!

Tiger Growl 2008 Scout Camping

Diego, Antonio, and myself went to Camp La No Che , the Central Florida Boy Scouts of America Scout Reserve last Saturday for a campout. La No Che is a great place for the kids. They have all the fun activities set up and ready for the boys - bb gun shooting, archery, crafts, etc. It was a cool night, it got down to 39 degrees - but we were prepared and really had a good time. Rob Casler made chicken and dumplins in his dutch oven cast iron pot. VERY YUMMY!

Video - Lap 1 from the Yates #28 Pit

I watched the first 50 laps or so from the pits. It's interesting to see all the action behind the pit wall. Also, every pit box has a flat panel TV with stats and the broadcast so you always know what's going on. This video was taken from the #28 Pit (Travis Kvapil).

Ford Champ Weekend Videos

More Video. This is post pit stop inspection in David Ragan's pit of the tires.

Winners Circle Video's From Ford Champ Weekend

Ford 400 - Carl is the Man

Well, going into the last race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Carl Edwards had to do a few things to lock up the Championship. He had to lead the most laps, and win the race. Well, he did just that. Unfortunately, Jimmie Johnson had to do something too - finish worse than 36th which he didn't do. Oh well, Carl won 9 races in 2008 - he is on his way to greatness in the sport and with the determination he has showed lately, he will win a few Championships in his career I am sure.

Once again, we found ourselves in the winners circle taking pictures. It was fun - Thanks to Tim Duerr at Ford Racing for a fun weekend!

Ford 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Race - Pre Race

Sunday was picture perfect. Sunny clear weather with temps in the 70's. I spent some time in the Ford Display area today, then ran over to the hospitality area to greet several dealership employees we were hosting. Then, I made it back to the infield just in time to attend the Drivers Meeting. VERY COOL! It's neat to see the inner workings of a NASCAR Race.

After the drivers meeting, I went back to the Ford Motorcoach for lunch. For the past 10 years, Steve Van Hauten has been traveling the country for about 36 weekends a year with the Ford Coach as it serves as an office on wheels for Ford Racing. At special events like Ford Championship Weekend, Steve cooks 3 squares a day - some really good grub for all the workers, Ford Drivers, Sponsors - basically anyone who wants to stop by and mooch some food (people like me basically).

Once I was nice and stuffed from lunch, I headed over to the driver intro area to watch the pre-race festivities.

Ford Championship Weekend - Ford 300

The dealer at Wayne Akers Ford, Al Young, is also our South Florida Ford Dealer Advertising Boards Chairman. Al is a great guy - he works hard in the business and is a strong supporter of Ford Motor Company. He has tons of enthusiasm and gave a very passionate speach to the crowd prior to the start of the NATIONWIDE Series race.

Carl Edwards drives the #60 Car in the Nationwide Series. He came in to the race a few points behind Clint Bowyer for the Championship. Carl had to win the race and Clint would have to have a bad race for him to win. Well, Carl won the race, but, Clint also ran a good race. Not too bad. However, you could sense the dissapointment in Carl and his team - they were so close to that Championship - one that Carl won last year.

Tim had all the Ford people at the race come up to the winners circle for photo's with Carl. He took the time to shake everyones hand and say thanks to Ford for the opportunity and also to apologize for not winning the Championship - Carl - please, nice, but not necessary!

Ford Championship Weekend - Kraft Promotion

Ford NASCAR Marketing Manager Tim Duerr ran a year long Ford Mustang Sweepstakes that culminated at Ford Championship Weekend. The lucky winner of this decked out V-6 Mustang with performance upgrades got to do hot laps around the track with Matt Kenseth, Driver of the # 17 Dewalt Ford Fusion. Matt said he had the car up to 120 at one point. The lucky winner had Matt sign the dashboard for her. He, like all the Ford drivers, was very gracious with his time and took many pictures and visited with the winner for a little while.

Ford 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Friday was a busy day for me. I had to help take display and test drive vehicles from the Seminole Hard Rock Casino back to World Ford Pembroke Pines where we barrowed them from. The dealer was very helpful in supporting Racefest!

Once that task was completed, I had to deliver race tickets to 4 dealerships around Miami and then check in to a different hotel - then, off to the track for the Truck Race!

Here I met up with my old friends from Ford Racing. Lead by Tim Duerr, Ford NASCAR Marketing Manager, this is a really fun and hard working group of people. They work hard and do a great job leveraging Racing with our consumers. Tim is also a great host to the Regional Office employees who attend the race. He recognizes our hard work and is gracious enough to let us "tag along" while he does his job networking with all the various NASCAR people/Race Teams. Tonights winner - Todd Bodine.

Ford Championship Week - Thursday

Today was a couple of great events. First was "Race Fest" at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Ft Lauderdale. This is a joint event with Ford and NASCAR and several race sponsors. We held a ride & drive event for consumers to test out 2009 Ford Products. Ford Racing hosted driver autograph sessions with several Ford Racing drivers. There was also an appearance by the guys from Orange County Choppers.

At the Ride & Drive course, we had held a radio promotion for a lucky fan to take hot laps in a 2009 Mustang GT Convertible with NASCAR Driver David Ragan. David was a real good sport about it - he gave the winner 4 laps - 3 of which had smoke rolling off the tires the entire time. David is a really nice guy - I hope he does well in the 2009 season. Later on Thursday, I went to "Club SI" - this is a joint Ford/Sports Illustrated party on South Beach. It was fun, but I have to admit - I was really tired and pooped out after about an hour.

Ford Championship Week - Wednesday

Today I helped our Ft Lauderdale Zone Manager, Kate Borgman, set up for our big "Racefest" event that is going to be tomorrow at Seminole Hard Rock Casino. More on that later!

Then, I threw the monkey suite and tie back on and headed to South Beach and the auto show for an autograph session with NASCAR Drivers David Gilliland and Travis Kvapil from Yates Racing. I have worked with Travis before on a couple of other events and the Yates folks are pretty cool. They signed autographs and took pictures for a couple of hours.

After the session, our advertising agency took the group out to dinner at Joe's Stone Crab. WOW - if you are ever down here between October and May, you need to check this place out. They are closed during the summer because of the crab season as they only serve the fresh stuff!

NASCAR Ford Championship Week - Tuesday

Big week for Ford in our region. It's the last NASCAR Race weekend of the 2008 season. Ford is the title sponsor. Myself and several people in my office have been working very hard with Ford Racing to leverage this sponsorship locally. In addition to the race, we have the Miami International Auto Show going on. I think in total, we have over 100 Ford vehicles on display around south FL. The week started for me on Tuesday when I attended an autograp signing at Metro Ford in Miami with driver of the #6 Ford Fusion, David Ragan. He is a very nice guy - he did very well this year for his 2nd year in cup racing almost making the Chase.

Cub Scouts at Rob Casler's House

Monday night, we combined forces with the Wolf Den and Tiger Den and held our meeting at Rob and Mary Casler's house. They have a really cool house and piece of property on a lake. Their property is a boys dream. It's equiped with tree house, 2 fire pits, a hiking trail, and a bb-gun and archery shooting range.

My Webelo Den is working on completing their Citizen Badge. One of the things we have to do is learn about the American Flag and what it represents. We also learned about how to properly destroy an American Flag that has seen it's usefull life expire (worn out). We had 2 old flags that needed to be destroyed so we held a ceremony to properly burn the flags in the campfire. The ceremony was very nice - complete with a singing of "God Bless America". Pretty cool!

Red Sox VS Cardinals

It was another beautifull fall day to play baseball in Florida. 80 degrees and no humidity - perfect. Antonio had 2 hits - 2 ground outs. He also had an awesome play while playing pitcher - he threw out a runner at first. He is really doing well this year - and plans to play again in the spring.

Scouting for Food Part II

A few of the boys in Pack 529 went out for round II of Scouting for food today. This is a program where the first weekend the boys put plastic bags on the door handles of houses. The bags give instructions that the boys will be back next week to pick up the bags full of canned goods that will be used to feed the homeless on Thanksgiving weekend. Some of the boys dropped off the bags and some picked up the food - it's a good group effort project. I took Diego and Hunter Allen with me. They did a good Job.

Trick or Treat Part II

Couple more pictures - Mom and Dad were visiting - mom stayed home to give out candy until I kicked her out of her position so I could sit on the front porch and smoke a cigar. NICE!

Trick or Treat

Halloween was a great time here in Florida. We had a real fun block party to kick off trick or treating. The kids had a blast and came home with a ton of candy. I saw a bunch of old friends around the neighborhood as I walked with the kids - it was a good time!