I am not really a car guy but I have always wanted to go to the Barrett Jackson Collector Car Auction in Arizona. Well… Exciting News… Barrett Jackson is coming to us! The Barrett Jackson team has signed a five year deal with Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. They will run a 4 to 5 day collector car auction right here in our own backyard!
 
Ellen and I invite Ron (the little white haired kid) to join us as we camp out at the casino and rub elbows with the northeast collector car elite. We didn’t actually meet any of the elite but we sure rubbed a lot of elbows! This place is PACKED! The entire event sold out on day one, a first for Barrett Jackson. It also is the largest attended event in Mohegan Sun’s 20 year history!
 
There is a lot of really cool cars here and a pickup that I adore called the Raspberry Dream. Thank God I don’t have a Bidders Card or I might be $28,000.00 poorer right now!
 
This Barrett Jackson group runs a slick operation. They know what they are doing and everything runs smoothly as they turn up the excitement with every passing hour.
 
There are displays from the Detroit Big Three complete with ride along hot laps in your favorite Mustang, Camaro, Challenger Hellcat, and Viper! We didn’t do the ride alongs but we did drive the simulator, racing a Hellcat on a roadcourse. Everybody was finishing 4th or 5th including me but when it was Ron’s turn to drive, He came in FIRST! The crowd went WILD! Who knew he could drive a race car so well? Turns out, Ron wasn’t driving at all, the car went into demo mode because Ron didn’t step on the gas when the light turned green!

Each year we migrate north back to New England, back to our roots, back to our friends and family. We may not stay long but we savor every moment of it.
 
It is always super busy when we’re home. Maintenance projects, parties, dinner invites, graduations, and let’s not forget, WORK.
 
I do love my work and each summer I get to collaborate in the office along-side of my peers. It can get pretty intense when I’m here and my 10 hour work week tends to slide toward 20 to 30 hours, but I love every minute of it.
 
Ellen does a great job of keeping our social calendar in order and makes sure we get to see EVERYONE at least once while we’re here. Now as our mid-July departure date closes in, our social schedule gets even tighter as everyone wants to get together at least one more time.
 
Family time is always great when we’re in Massachusetts. The Mayo clan celebrated Jay’s graduation from college which provided a great opportunity to catch up with everyone on that side of the family.
 
My sister Lisa scheduled a big family gathering for our side of the family. The gathering is celebrating 3 great family events, Lucy’s 2nd birthday, Erin and Wayne’s engagement announcement and Alexis and Nick’s recent wedding.  We hope to meet up with Erin and Wayne as we pass through the Fresno California area.
 
Now it’s almost time to go, but we’ll be flying back at the end of September and again around Christmas, so home is never too far away.