Monday morning as I stopped at York's Shoe Repair in West Plains, my half brother stopped by when he saw me to visit a few minutes. We always talked about our Grandchildren and how wonderful it always was. His name was Larry Piper and the only thing half was his name, because he was the best Harris that was not named Harris. We both loved and admired our Grandpa Ted Harris and hoped that we could be the kind of Man he was. Larry was 10 years older than me and he was my go-to guy. The go-to guy is important for anyone and he was always there for me and our cousins and friends. To put it in perspective, if I'm 16, he was 26 and had the ability and love to be there when I needed him. Well, we talked about 2 more times on the phone as he was helping his son deliver product, and fell over with a massive heart attack and was gone before 3pm.

When the preacher called I was instructed to help my sister-inlaw by contacting my younger brother and sister. And most of all, our Mother. With the help of my sister and Aunt Ruth it went as well as expected and we were blessed by a beautiful funeral service and judging by the attendance the respect was equal to that of our Grandpa Ted. I hope I can match that respect too.

The Family Reunion went well, and the Joe Harris Family did a great job of leading the event and all were pleased.

The timing of the Reunion was the same as the Show-Me 100 and mix that with work at the Radio Station, well I needed Monday to recover.

The Show-Me 100 was very exciting and a new winner took the $40,000.00 home to Muscatine, Iowa. Brian Birkhoffer has recently had a good run and has won two of the last three Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series events for $70,000.00. According to the last news release he won an additional $10,000.00 Sunday night at an event in Illinois. The favorite after Friday night qualifying was Scott Bloomquist theVooDoo Child, but he did get the third place money. I had two bets going for a race track Hot Dog that was the Field against the Past Winnners. Well I won!!! The big local news was the modified wins both nights by Shawn Walsh of Ash Flat. Shawn got the competition from the top nationwide Modified Racers, but made it look easy and cashed in on $1,750.00 for the weekend. It seems like a lot, but everything in racing is expensive.

Well my weekend was filled with excitement and emotional highs and lows, but it was one I'll never forget.