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Saturday, January 28, 2006
NAVY SEALS, NOT QUITE
This post comes to you from dreary Philadelphia as Mark and I wait to participate in the East Coast Motorsports Press luncheon. No, I haven't had a Philly cheesesteak (yet), nor have I quenched my History thirst in my first real experience in this city where our independence began.

This trip from hell started in Charlotte where we were informed that you could not check bags inside of thirty minutes before your flight, so we had to forfeit our direct flight to Chicago for one with a two-hour layover in D.C. Our flight from O'Hare to Philly was the worst I have ever been on. It was a packed, old plane (the monitors were huge and came down from the top of the fuselage) and they cut the air off as soon as we landed, which wouldn't have been that bad had we not landed at the farthest point from our gate.

But I digress.

Mark, Dale Jr., Gus, JR and I were in Chicago getting a crash course in Navy basic training. Great Lakes Naval Base is the only basic training post in the U.S. Navy these days. We basically (no pun intended) saw a group of young recruits as they first arrive at the base and at the end of our trip we watched a group graduate and get ready to join the fleet.

Without a doubt the highlight of the trip was our attempt at the NAVY Seal preliminary physical conditioning test. We more or less are in half the shape we should be to even be considered to the Seal program. We had to swim 8 3/4 lengths in the pool using only the side or breast strokes. We made it three. We also did half of the number of push-ups and sit-ups (60 are required in two minutes, but we really didn't push ourselves). One of our goals for this year is to get in enough shape to at least pass that test next year.

-Hovis