Bear with me, I've been lazy (recuperating) and dealing with shitty problems....literally...the septic in the house has backed up. When given a choice between working with raw sewage or catching up on my blog, the blog will win every time!
I could take the easy way out and do a race recap with just one photo:
But that wouldn't be very interesting for a reader. Let's be honest here...this is the only thing that matters when I attend a race.
JIMMIE JOHNSON WINS!!
In fact the Daytona 500 was very boring until the last 10 laps. I did have an amazing weekend with some great friends, a lot of laughs and a lot of alcohol. I'll tell you all the good stuff along the way, but just remember
JIMMIE JOHNSON WINS!!
If you've ever tried to find accommodations in Daytona Beach during "Speedweeks" you know the whole rigamarole.
KOA campground: $125.00 per night, 5 night minimum
Hotels nearby: PRICELESS, most 5 night minimum
All accommodations booked a year in advance.
We are fortunate enough to live 2 hours away, so we can always drive over just for the race and drive back home.
Daytona International Speedway seats 170,000 people. That makes for horrendous traffic, at night, when you're exhausted. UGH!
By the time we decided to attend the race, our only option was to stay at Brown's Speedweeks Campground.
Brown's "campground" is a cow pasture most of the year. When NASCAR comes to town, the cows are sent across the road and their land becomes our resort.
Cow patties and all!
Translation: No power, no water, no cable, pay-to-use showers and port-a-johns.
(Not actual Brown's port-a-john, but one that I do frequent when I'm at the mudhole...Classy, I know)
I don't mind dry camping. We tent camped for many years, we now have an RV fully equipped to handle it and we have a generator.
For me, I think it's psychological. When I'm told I have to plan a schedule for bathroom breaks, showers and my small allotment of electric, I want all of it NOW.
Brown's is only $40 a night and it's only 3 nights. Not only is Jimmie Johnson in Daytona, but so are two of our closest friends, Tony & Genia.
I really wanted to attend the first race of the season.....
Brown's here I come!
On Friday the 24th of February, Trevor and I loaded up the RV. We had our bikes, the generator, the food I had pre-cooked and most importantly, beer. Nathen stayed home and dog-sat for Mason. A cow pasture is no place for my furry friend.
We arrived at the cow pasture about 2 & 1/2 hours later.
Great curb appeal.
We got backed in and set up quickly. Tony & Genia were there saving a spot for us and to help us get set up.
Genia was doing a science experiment
Sweet-tarts and Nerd candies, soaking in 190 proof Everclear.
You've never tried that?
DON'T!!!
It was terrible. Burned all the way to your toes.
While our concoction was brewing, we relaxed around the field.
It was a beautiful day
The Goodyear blimp was flying overhead
And Direct TV blimp was right behind it.
Genia did some burnouts in the field
We then toasted to racing and good friends
I forgot to mention that my friend Donnie was also meeting us in Daytona for the weekend, but as usual, he was late.
While we waited for Donnie so we could all go out and eat, we toasted to many other things and were treated to a beautiful sunset.
I immediately recited something my father always used to say:
"Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning"
I'm not completely sure if that's true, and the sky was more pink, than red, but it felt good at the time.
By the time Donnie arrived in the area, he texted me to tell us to meet him at the Wing House. Uhhhh, that ain't happening! We had been celebrating....er...toasting, for hours. Either he was coming to pick us up or the 4 of us would be staggering over to the "State-fair-like-concession stand" that was parked at the front of the pasture, for corn dogs.
Donnie decided to come and get us.
We made it to the Wing House and sat outside where we could see the Truck race that was going on.
Donnie IS in this photo. See the hands on the cell phone on the left?
Donnie is ALWAYS on his phone!
We had a great meal, a couple pitchers of beer and then made our way back to the pasture.
Donnie and I went to bed by 10:00 pm. (NOT together, but on opposite ends of the RV)
The next morning, after a stroll to the port-a-john, I found Tony cleaning his outdoor rug, in his jammie pants.
A man must be very comfortable in his masculinity to not only be outside sweeping, but to be doing it in his Angry Birds jammies.
Way to go, Tony!
Donnie strolled out of bed and was ready for some breakfast.
Kidding!!
I warmed up biscuits and gravy that I had prepped the day before.
We ended up spending a couple of hours walking around the market. The thing about flea markets is, they have some neat stuff, but they pretty much all have the same stuff. After 2 hours of browsing, I came home with a cup of boiled peanuts.
Shopping is not really my thing, but eating is, and those nuts were delicious!
Back at the pasture, we strolled up to the concession area where they also had a merchandise tent. Basically selling the same stuff they were selling at the flea market. Go figure.
I did manage to find Trevor and I both, a new Jimmie t-shirt to wear to the race.
We had both brought sweatshirts and on this day it was 87 degrees and sunny. Sunday's race forecast was calling for a bit cooler but probably not cool enough for a hoodie.
Tony and Genia were kind enough to plan a country boil on Saturday night for all of us, so Tony got that going while we all relaxed and caught up.
Trevor put a 10 lb. block of ice in our 5 lb. cooler
In doing so, he punctured a can of orange soda, so I made him shot-gun it. Good times!
The men prepared supper while Genia and I drank beer. Donnie returned and we celebrated his birthday a couple weeks early.
Dinner is served!
Absolutely, delicious!! Thanks Tony!
During dinner, we discussed our plans for the race on Sunday. The weather was calling for some rain, which could be a complete disaster. We all decided to leave for the track early and tour the midway before the rains came. If it did rain a bit, we could come back to camp, relax, and wait to see if the race would be delayed.
Our best bet was to hit the hay at a decent hour so we could get moving in the morning with minimal moaning and groaning (or hangovers)
Donnie left for Orlando where he had to move his rental RV and the four of us called it a night.
RACE DAY!
We had a great breakfast of burritos I had pre-made and frozen for the trip. Tortillas filled with hash browns, eggs, cheese, peppers and onions and shaved steak. We tossed those bad boys on the grill, splattered some hot sauce on them and chowed down.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and this was an important day!
Around 9:00 am, we loaded up our race essentials and trekked across the street to Lot 10 to catch one of the school buses that transport you to the track. Believe it or not, the first bus that we came to was a handicapped bus. Since it was early in the morning, we were able to hop on.
Tony got the booster seat.
The sky didn't look so good from my seat on the bus and it was much cooler than the weather man had predicted (Or my sailor's rhyme).
We all got comfortable and headed out.
Just a short ride down the road and we're here!
Neither grey skies nor gusty winds could contain our excitement.
We trammed over to the midway to check out the merchandise trailers and all the other things going on.
Notice my head is crotch level...not that there's anything wrong with that.
Big tractor
Tiny tractor
The beautiful Budweiser horses
Some great country music, courtesy of Justin Moore
He can't even bait a hook
He can't even skin a buck
He don't know who Jack Daniels is
He ain't ever drove a truck
Knows how to throw out a line
But not the kind in a Field & Stream book
No darlin' I ain't even worried, you'll come runnin' back
He can't even bait a hook.
There were quite a few people gathered around in the midway. As time passed it got more crowded and harder to navigate. I was glad we had gotten there early and were almost done.
Toyota's drag car
We had all picked out what we wanted to go back and purchase on our way out, so we headed back towards the trailers.
If you have never seen the television show Duck Dynasty on A&E, I suggest you do so...quickly! A great reality show featuring a sweet, loving, duck-hunting, southern family. I had seen a few episodes but never in my wildest dreams knew just how big they had become. They had their own trailer set up that you couldn't even get close enough to take a picture of.
Lucky for me, one of the things I wanted to buy was a tank top at the RealTree camo trailer, where John Godwin had moved over to, so I did get his picture.
John is just a family friend who has worked for Duck Commander since 2002.
I'm not even kidding, take 30 minutes out of your busy day and watch this show. Since it was 30 degrees in Florida this past weekend, we stayed in the house and watched the whole first season on dvd. Season 2 dvd comes out tomorrow and we will be buying it, while also watching season 3 that just started on A&E.
It's really that good.
I want to spend a weekend with the Robertson family!
With another failed shopping expedition. (The smallest tank they had was a 2 XL) we went back to the grandstands to find our seats.
Tony & Genia had to reprogram their radios, so Trevor and I sat on the ground and ate cinnamon coated almonds while I texted with my Dad.
Imagine, I'm at the Daytona 500. Jimmie is just feet away (somewhere in his hauler, I'm sure) and the pre-show band that was to perform was the Zac Brown Band.
Life is good.
The only thing standing in our way was the weather. It was gloomy, chilly and windy as all hell!!
So chilly that Trevor and I had to cover up with my child sized PINK rain poncho! (Another man secure in his masculinity) There were no blimps out today and no flyover by the jets after the national anthem.
There was a small clearing in the sky, far away, so we still had high hopes that the race would start on time.
Did I mention that Duck Dynasty is HUGE? In case I didn't get my point across, check this out...
Duck Dynasty pontoon boat IN Lake Lloyd!
Zac Brown Band gave a great performance as usual, and Clay Cook sang the national anthem, beautifully.
Here is Zac's crotch and Clay's arm, on the jumbo tron.
Finally, right on time, the festivities began.
Then the drivers rode by. Keep in mind that vehicles need to run at about 60 mph to go through the high banks of the track without sliding down. Those speeds make for difficult picture taking! I had Trevor manning the binoculars to let me know when Jimmie was headed our way.
I caught a couple of other drivers as "practice shots"
2011 champ Tony Stewart
2012 champ Brad Kezelowski
2006-2010 - Five time champ, Jimmie Johnson!
Once the drivers got belted in, the excitement was building and they finally came around the track for the first race of 2013
There's nothing like the sound of 43 cars roaring past you on a 2 & 1/2 mile track. It rumbles you to the core. It was extra special to me this time as I had just run a 5K on this track, 3 weeks prior.
About halfway through the race the skies cleared up and we got our dueling blimps back.
The race itself was pretty boring. The new Gen 6 cars made it near impossible to pass and none of the drivers really knew what to expect from these cars. The food vendors and the beer stands made a fortune because the race was pretty stagnant. I even started in on beer to numb the boredom. By the time I popped the second one, Jimmie was in 2nd place, on the bottom of the track, with no opportunity to move....until he beat Brad Kez to the finish line, right before a caution was thrown. That meant Jimmie got to choose which lane he would take for the restart. We all knew he would take the outside lane, which made his chance of winning MUCH greater!
With 2 laps to go, I popped a 3rd beer to calm my nerves. My heart was pounding, I was standing on Trevor's seat holding on to him for both moral support and balance (remember, 3 consecutive beers)
Within seconds of me wetting my pants, Jimmie crossed the finish line!!
As Phil Robertson would say, "I was Hap-pay, Hap-pay, Hap-pay!"
We bolted out of the grandstands to catch a bus ahead of the crowds and I may or may not have, gloated a bit. My phone blew up with texts from friends and family, knowing how excited I would be.
Genia took that picture above and this one of Trevor, while giving him the middle finger.
What we could all agree on was that we beat the masses out of the grandstands!
The bus line behind us
We finished up the evening back at the pasture, in a lawn chair, enjoying our final night with our friends.
Even without water, cable or electric hook-ups, we had a fantastic weekend!
When you're surrounded by good people, it really doesn't matter where you are.
Nooooo! Not the septic! I would do anything I could to avoid cleaning that up too. You made the right choice.
ReplyDeleteGreat report! Good times with great friends and your favorite driver won too. Sounds like the perfect weekend. I can't wait until we are down south so we can spend a few with you too!
Thanks Lisa!
ReplyDeleteHope you head south soon too!