It's good to be back in SoCal after an extended jaunt to my old stomping grounds from June 10 to the 20th. I flew into Newark with Englishtown as my primary destination, followed by visits to Pat Musi Performance in Carteret, New Jersey, and an enjoyable drive to Connecticut to see my Moroso Homies.Thursday the 11th dawned wet and gloomy, so I decided to hit Musi's shop instead of the fabled Raceway Park. Pat was working on one of his incredible Edelbrock/Musi 632 motors and a giant 903-inch Chevy featuring a Dart aluminum block and Leonard/Musi canted-valve heads. Incredible stuff! Musi and I have been friends for almost 20 years and he's a certified hoot to hang with.Friday was typical for Englishtown -- Really hot and REALLY HUMID! I did my usual deal, shooting features of David Rampy's Stock Eliminator Camaro, Blake Alexander's A/Altered Planetary Bantam Roadster, and Rit Pustari's absolutely spotless Top Fuel Dragster.Saturday was much cooler and overcast, so I continued making my rounds, visiting with Manzo, Grant Stoms (tuner of the winning A/FD), the Horner Brothers, Kenny Winward, Cory Lee, Alexis DeJoria, Snake, Grover from the Dover Drag Strip Reunion, and jeez, I forget who else. Anyway, you get the picture. I was home again. As it turned out, the rain came back around 2:00pm, so we were down for the day.Sunday opened wet and cloudy, but the skies parted and the NHRA did a masterful job getting the race in. I shot on the starting line up until the semi-finals and headed for my Connecticut homestead, rolling in at about 8:00pm. It was a nice three-hour ride and Sunday traffic wasn't bad at all -- didn't even have a slow-down on the Tappan Zee Bridge.The highlight of last week was a full day at Moroso Performance on Wednesday the 17th, where the Super Crew performed 10 dyno pulls (!) testing four different oil pans, four different pumps, and three or four different types of vacuum pumps. I also shot a factory tour and a feature on Dick Moroso's awesome '61 Corvette. Precious little time was spent at my little waterfront home on Bolton Lake, but at least I got to see it. Now I'm back in the trenches and have deadlines staring at me for the next four weeks. Gotta get back on the throttle. Cheers!