From Steve –
On the weekend of April 6-7 Mona Liza and I went with Dave and Sue to Chandler to witness the NHRA Arizona Nationals drag races. I had not been to a major drag race event in many years, and fortunately my buddy Hans had told me about this one several weeks before. I immediately got tickets after Dave and Sue said they were all in. We were very excited as the weekend approached, but little did I know how amazing it would be for me.
The Cars
We stayed at a nearby hotel on Friday night, and enjoyed our first excellent dinner with good wine and conversation (as we have countless times before). As we approached Firebird Motorsports Park on Saturday morning, Dave and I could hear the beautiful music of screaming engines going down the strip and we both had goosebumps. Our first task was to go through the pit area, and who should we bump into but John Force, a Funny Car drag racing legend:
We moved to our seats and enjoyed a beautiful day watching several classes of race cars shoot down the track. The smell of tire smoke and nitromethane brought back good memories for me:
You think your car is fast? Watch this:
We finally left for our dinner reservation at Cooper’s Hawk Restaurant (thanks to Sue for this great find!) to begin a marathon dinner and wine tasting that lasted almost 4 hours! Our server Jackie was fantastic, maybe the best server I’ve ever had at a restaurant. She even talked us into joining their wine club! We discovered that she had lived just a couple of blocks from us in Tracy, California before we retired and started our RV life. You just never know who you’ll run into!
The Star
I’ve been a huge fan of the band Foreigner, and especially their lead singer Lou Gramm, since I was a teenager. I think he’s one of the top rock and roll singers of all time. After meeting Dave and Sue 12 years ago, at some point I learned that Dave had lived near Lou in New York and had interacted with him several times. I told Dave that I would kill to meet Lou Gramm, but yeah, right, like that’s going to happen. Well, it did!
By an incredible coincidence, Lou happened to be in Chandler performing after the drag races, and Dave was able to contact his stage manager who he also knew. This was a total surprise that Dave set up for me. We couldn’t watch Lou perform on Saturday night because the show was sold out, but Dave arranged a meeting with him at his hotel on Sunday morning. I was completely blown away and I can’t thank Dave enough for setting it up!
Lou is also a car guy, and we talked for over half an hour about cars and how life was in New York for him and Dave. He is such a cool, regular guy that I got over my nervousness right away. He autographed a blow-up picture of Mona Liza and me standing next to TAM (Dave had told me to print the picture but I had no idea why), and Lou was impressed with her:
I can’t think of a more exciting weekend I’ve ever had – race cars and meeting a rock ‘n’ roll star! You should all get your Foreigner music out and bring back the good old days. I’ve been re-living my memories while listening to my Foreigner, Lou Gramm and Shadow King albums. Life is Good!
A Quick TAM Update…
If you’re not interested in my TAM project you can stop here 🙂
The first time I drove TAM I realized that her rear differential gear ratio wasn’t right for the highway driving I wanted to do. After going only a few miles into town for a front end alignment, Dave and I tore out the differential and I took it into Phoenix for a gear change:
We noticed during our first test drive that the speedometer wasn’t working, which was strange since it had worked when I bought the car. After pulling the rear cover off the tranny we discovered that the transmission builder had put a faulty clip on the speedometer drive gear, and it had failed immediately. A complaint to the “professionals” at Hughes Transmissions in Phoenix is pending…
As Mona Liza reminds me on a regular basis, the never-ending money pit project continues unabated. But if you wanna play you gotta pay, and Dave and I are having a blast working on TAM. She will be screaming down the road again soon!
Lowes Travels 
Wonderful post! In case your baby boomer readers didn’t recognize the Foreigner singer, here’s a video that will jog their memory . . . Foreigner – I Want To Know What Love Is (Official Music Video) (youtube.com)
Hi Terri, I think everything Lou recorded was fantastic, but especially the ballads like the one you noted. How about Starrider, Spellbinder and Blinded by Science? The list goes on. Thanks for your comment!
😊 Wow, what a wonderful weekend the two of you. Yes, it is a small world indeed! Keep enjoying to the maximum.
Great Post!
We did have a great weekend and meeting Lou was the icing on the cake.
“Keep Rockin” Steve…Dave
I’m still on cloud 9, or maybe 10…
So glad you two are having so much fun!
WOW! We certainly live in parallel universes! Last year after a 30 year hiatus from a live drag race I went to Thunderbird Park for the NHRA races, and I was blown away in more ways than one! I got my picture taken with the greatest drag racer ever (apologies to Garlits, Grumpy Jenkins, and The Snake) John Force, who is still crushing it at 74 years young! What an ambassador!
I cannot write my memories here of listening to Foreigner as that might be too x-rated!
Since my last comment to you, we have moved on to Capitol Reef, NP. The Mighty Five have now been taken off my bucket list!
All the best to you and Mona Lisa and keep the posts coming as I have been following you both with interest for years. You make it possible for all of us to reach for the impossible/improbable!
Good to hear from you and thank you for the comment. When I lived in California I used to go to Fremont Drag Strip quite often before it closed, what a shame. I had a few chats with Don Prudomme when he had a minute – those were the days! Awesome that you got to meet John Force, I think he might retire this year, maybe on his birthday in May?
You’ve visited all of the top 5 National Parks in Utah? Good for you, it doesn’t get much better than that. I’m not able to view your blog site for some reason. Good luck in your future travels –
I don’t have a blog, but for some reason I had to struggle with wordpress to get a response to you. I do have an instagram page where I have started posting our travels.
I am on Instagram
@leonard_d_rempel
35′ Montana 5th wheel.
Safe travels and happy “Musclecar’ing!
Wow, what a weekend you had. I really enjoyed reading about it all, and particularly enjoyed ML’s horse racing hat :-).
Where to start? It looks like the Way Back Machine is working overtime on your behalf. NHRA, Foreigner/Lou, I just regressed into the ’70s, but it’s a good place to be. Every generation has a crooner, and Lou was ours. I haven’t stopped long enough in years to listen to an album from anyone, but I’m enjoying Agent Provocateur currently. I’m not sure I can pick out my favorite song ever from them, but I’ll keep listening and see if it comes to me. Thanks for the memories.
Good to hear from you. I’ve been listening to Lou Gramm music over the past week and I think Mona Liza is finally getting hooked too. Not a bad addiction. As Lou said, keep rockin!
“The beautiful music of screaming engines,” LOL LOL!!! You guys look like you had a blast at the races! Although I can’t say that I love loud engines, I do love Foreigner. Definitely brings back some vivid and poignant memories. It’s so cool that you got to hang out with Lou Gramm, and so cool that you have a good friend with connections. 🙂
Well, why don’t you guys just come out here for a visit and we’ll see how you like a screaming engine while we head up the mountain listening to Foreigner for lunch 🙂
That is a fantastic idea! ❤️
What a fantastic weekend with great friends! So glad everything worked out perfectly. How sweet that Dave made the meet up with Lou Gramm happen. Sometimes the stars align as we want! Love that photos of you, ML, and TAM. John isn’t a commenter but he is enjoying all the posts on TAM.
I mean, sure… driving a racecar 300 mph down a track sounds pretty impressive, but what I would like to see is these guys racing some 40 foot Class A’s down that track. Let’s see how fast they can make THOSE babies fly, eh?? Talk about excitement!!! Wowzers!
My ideas are terrible, you say? Fine.
Glad you all had fun!
That is a terrible idea, might spill the wine. Unacceptable. 🙂
To have such a friend who not only helped get TAM where she is but to know you so well to set up the meeting with one of your idols is just the most heartwarming and inspirational story. It makes me want to be a better person and friend. The world is a better place with the lot of you four ❤
Thank you for the nice comment! We are indeed blessed to have such close friends practically down the street from us, and one of them just happens to be an ace mechanic! Have you seen Sue’s posts about their awesome doggie?
I had seen the initial post of when they got the pup, but now I see there’s another waiting for me to enjoy YAY!!
what a great friend. I cant wait to see that car we are still planning on coming to Arizona. I saw Foreigner at a day on the green a long long time ago.
Hey Dan, I saw them at a Day On The Green in 1977, at Oakland Colosseum before I went into the Air Force – maybe you were there? Well, get down here and spend a couple of nights – we have power, water and wine onsite! It would be great to see you and show you around our town. We’ll give you and Judy a little high-speed ride around the area 🙂
yep that was the one.
We are headed to N Cal, Oregon Washington in june – aug then short stay at home and then hoping to head south next, Texas, Arizona, Colorado. Maybe crazy to try that in the fall but 🤷🏻♂️ its not planed yet but going south is. Remember the car show they did at the cafe? What was that fellas name who put it together, he came from Livermore.
any was that is one sweet muscle car you got there. Cant wait to see that baby.
I love that two people from the west coast and two people from the east coast can meet up in AZ and regale us with their wild and crazy and precious adventures for all these years! Thanks to all four of you…you guys really know how to pack it into one weekend! CindyP