First things first was the flight. On the second leg of our trip Randy insisted on the window seat. Not a problem…for me.
Randy’s view…..of the engine. Poor guy! Luckily this was a quick flight because it was loud.
Our rental car which was lovingly named, the roller skate. Our luggage for our six day trip….yep, those are backpacks. Randy said they were in the picture for size comparison. It was a little car, but managed the mountains just fine.
I’ll skip the hotel ordeal other than saying (according to Holiday Inn) we were not entitle to a non-smoking room because we booked through Hotwire and they do not guarantee non-smoking rooms. Three hours later we were in a non-smoking room in the Holiday Inn (at no extra charge), but it was a little more stress than we needed at the beginning of our trip.
Early Saturday morning we met for our charity track walk for Susan G. Komen and The Nascar Foundation. It was rainy and cold, but being on the track is AMAZING. It’s 1 1/2 miles around the track and approximately 2 1/2 around the outside (don’t quote me). We did a lap around the outside of the track before the track walk (warm up).
Doesn’t that just make you tear up a bit?
After the track walk we had approximately 9 hours to kill before the race started and the gates to the track wouldn’t even open for another 4 hours. However, the parking lots were already starting to fill up and incoming traffic was starting to line up.
So, we went through the trailers (which I should have gotten a picture of). “Nascar fans” is such a broad term that encompasses such a aray of people. I’ll stop there. It was educational to say the least.
We bought mom Ryan Newman’s book Pit Road Pets as a thank you for watching our animals while we were gone, and a Lowe’s Motor Speedway koozie for a guy I work with. We grabbed a piece of over price, mediocre pizza and split a coke before heading back to the track. We walked and walked and walked around that track.
We had to pre-register for dinner that night in the Lowe’s tent, so we hopped in a rapidly growing line. A half hour later we were singed up and able to go about our business.
By the time the gates opened and we found our seats we realized the Toby Mac and Mercy Me concert was about to start. When we asked where it was and how to get there we realized it was over 2 miles to the entrace and the concert started in about 5-10 minutes. We were tired by then from walking 6+ miles around and around the track (inside and out) and opted out.
Instead we found a concert nearby in the Coors Light section. We missed the first act, but watched Paper Tongue, Candy Coburn, and the grand finale……ERIC CHURCH. Sigh!
Eric Church deserves a post all his own. Check back later for the rest of our NC vacation!
Have a wonderful day!
A Simple Prairie Life 