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The
holiday season is here again. Is is just us, or do the years
seem to fly by faster and faster?
 The biggest news of 2002 for the McDaniels has been the
birth of Katelyn Nicole on Sept. 19. Because she was breech, the
6-pound, 4-ounce bundle of joy was delivered via C-section over
the doctors’ lunch hour. Both baby and mom are doing fine,
although the first couple of days at daycare were tough on Sue.
Katelyn spends her days Monday-Thursday at the daycare center on
the Indian Hills campus – less than a 5-minute walk from
Sue’s office. What a great arrangement!
The year didn’t start out very good for us, though. On
Jan. 4, returning from a day of picking up and delivering
racecar supplies, Sue hit a deer with one of our pickups just
north of Brighton. Fortunately, it was a warm day, but by the
time the tow-truck arrived, she was plenty chilly! Then on Jan.
20 (the day we first learned we were pregnant), Sue’s Grandma
Shuler had a stroke. She’s now living in a nursing home in
Charles City.
In February, we held an open house in honor of our 5
years in business and to show off our new shop and showroom. We
were fortunate that it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and we
were blessed with an incredible turnout.
During the summer months, Sue spent several weekends
helping a friend of ours with his traveling modified series. Her
travels took her to races in Iowa, Minnesota, Arkansas, and
Oklahoma. She had a great time (especially in Batesville, Ark.)
and met a lot of wonderful people. She also worked at this
year’s Drivers’ Dream Race at the fairgrounds in Des Moines
on Labor Day weekend, which gave her the opportunity for an
extended visit with her sister Jennifer, who lives with her
husband, Cory, in Urbandale. (There must be something in the
water -- Jenn and Cory are expecting their first child in
April!)
Bert didn’t get to race as much as he would have liked
this year. He split his Friday nights between Bloomfield and Des
Moines (where he was the victim of the track’s only carburetor
claim), and went to Donnellson and Allison a few times as well.
Brian Fullenkamp drove the car for us at a mid-season special
while Bert worked in the parts trailer. And Bert did manage to
hit a couple end-of-the-year specials in Missouri.
Cars that we built did very well this year, though. Kris
Walker defended his IMCA hobby stock national title; T.J. Criss
won the hobby stock qualifier and feature at the Stock Car
Shootout in Oskaloosa in July; and Rocky Fosdyck missed the
first night of qualifying for the Dream Race, so he came to Des
Moines the second night, started at the rear of his B main and
won, then won the A main!
In October, Bert’s mom flew up from Arizona for a
weeklong visit with her first grandchild. It was wonderful to
have an extra set of helping hands and Sue was the one who cried
the most when it was time for Maxine to go back home. She’ll
be back the first week of December, along with her husband, Ed,
for his parents’ 60th wedding anniversary party and
an early Christmas celebration.
The last day of November proved to be exciting for us.
Bert and his brother were furiously working on building racecars
in the shop that morning, when a piece of pipe caught in the
chop saw and smacked Bert on the bridge of his nose. It created
a pretty deep gash and a quick trip to the Ottumwa hospital’s
emergency room was necessary. It took 4 stitches to close the
gash and his nose was cracked. Guess we won’t be having a
family picture taken anytime soon!
It’s been a year of ups and downs, but we have much to
be thankful for during this holiday season. We hope this
“letter” finds you and yours safe and happy and hopeful for
the coming year.
- Sue, Bert and Katelyn McDaniel |
