During the offseason, most drivers retreat into the sanctity of their gated-community homes, walling off the world, gathering around the table with their family to give thanks to Jesus in a tuxedo T-shirt. Most, but not Carl Edwards. Ol' Carl has had himself quite the holiday season:

The holiday season was adventurous - a lot of fun. It was really busy leading up to Christmas. We went testing [the Sprint Cup car] in [Las] Vegas, which went really well ... But it was pretty wild after that. I flew back from Vegas on Thursday afternoon and got up Friday morning in Columbia [Mo.], and took my fiancée and her friend and two of my buddies - we all flew to Atlanta and I got to speak to about 2,000 people for Aflac.

That was nerve-wracking, because I had to give a 30- to 45-minute motivational speech. And I did zero preparation. It ended up going really well, but I was nervous about that. We got that done and jumped on an airliner to go to London for the Race of Champions, did that and got on another plane and went to Thailand, spent a week there and then came home.

This interview is basically a must-read, if only to picture Carl Edwards and his crew of buddies cruising across Thailand. (That, and to see if you can get away with mispronouncing "Phuket" in public.) They dealt with traffic laws ("liberally interpreted"), food ("the veggies weren't veggies, they were little bitty fish") and, in a move that must have thrilled his Roush-Fenway superiors, bicycled through traffic, which you can see for yourself at carledwards.com.

With Thailand not exactly being a NASCAR hotbed, you'd expect Edwards to go fairly unrecognized, and indeed he did -- by everyone except one kid. Well, sort of:

So this kid's staring at me and I told my trainer, Dean - that kid's been staring at me and he looked at me real strange, like he might watch NASCAR or something. He's looking at us and looking at us, and Dean finally starts messing with this kid, asking him if he ever watched NASCAR.

His name was Will, I remember that, and he said yeah, he did. I think he said Tony Stewart was his favorite driver, but Dean asked him who did the back flips, and he said "Carl Edwards." Now I had introduced myself to the kid already and Dean said, "now what did he say his name was - Carl?" And the kid goes "Carl Edwards!" And I said "yeah."

So he goes, "I thought you were Michael Phelps."

Edwards also shared some tidbits from his time in London at the Race of Champions competing with Michael Schumacher and the like, as well as his plans for his next destination (Africa). Hell with Bear Grylls and "NASCAR Wives" -- I'm thinking we need to follow Carl Edwards around the planet.