It would be one thing if we (as in ourselves) set the prevailing mood for the weekend, and with all the cool toys, we do a pretty good job, but, and as hard as it is to say this yet alone believe it, NHRA and Famoso's crew have the same attitude.

You won't find event director Greg Sharp trying to brush away the hallucinations under the Famoso tower, nothing like that. However, you will find almost uniformly, everyone banging the drum for a party attitude.

Here's an example. I was flat broke the weekend of the reunion. Terry Lee says don't worry, catch up to him at the World Finals, let's go. He bought me to one-days for Friday and Saturday, and on Sunday, we had a guy with an event credential that he would give to me late Saturday before we left the track.

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Well, I forgot to pick it up. I was on all fours barking at my reflection in the hubcaps of one of the street roadsters at the camp, and completely neglected the program. Never mind, blind drunk at 120-mph on California 99 and those things have a tendency to get lost in one's Tule fog. So, we crash at the hotel, come back Sunday morning and remember what we forgot. Terry said, "Let's just tell the guy you left the ticket at the mobile home last night and ask if we can go back in and return to the gate to get it punched."

We see the guy at the gate and pop the question. No big deal, he says, just go on in and don't bring the ticket back. Think of any drag race you've been to in the last 10 years where that attitude prevailed. That's what the California Hot Reunion is like in that all-important category.

Now, I hope I don't get this guy into a lot of trouble over this. Nothing would rub off some of the weekend's luster more than if I found out he resembled a duffel bag hanging from a tree limb at the end of the weekend. NHRA really knows how to use the cattle prods when inspired.

But...

The weekend was a gas in more ways than one. The food was out of this World. Phil and Jim are way better than average chefs, serving up steak tips, barbequed asparagus (which as gut-wrenching as that sounds is fabulous), the usual burgers, and a dish called fasoli, which is a Mexican menudo that features pork strips rather than tripe. Phil also punches out the best breakfast drink I've ever had, a concoction called a "Bloody Caligula," which is highlighted by clamato, New Orleans hot sauces, Norm Weekly's particular brand of cured asparagus and other exotic fluids. And these were just the appetizers.