Saturday, August 30
One More Race Thing
A girl at work did this illustration of me after hearing me talk about going to the race! How cute is that?!
Bristol
Finally, I'm posting about last weekend. Okay, for all the non-race fans that read here let me just talk a little about Bristol and why the August race especially is such a big deal. Tickets to this race are the hardest to get all year. It's a night race under lights which is unusual. It's a short track, only a half-mile (Daytona is 2.5 miles for comparison), which means that there are lots of wrecks and hot tempers. It's in the area of the country where stock car racing began. Finally, tickets in NASCAR are not just put up on Ticketmaster every year. If you bought a ticket to a race at Bristol, for example, the previous year, the track will contact you for the next year and ask if you want the tickets again. If you do, you buy them. If not, the track will sell them. Well, at Bristol, everyone buys their tickets back. So, you basically have to know someone who has tickets but isn't using them to be able to go. One final thing, even though it's a small track/infield, this place is huge. It's the only track that is in a bowl...completely surrounded by seats! It's VERY LOUD!
Okay, now about my experience...try combining Bonnaroo, Mardi Gras, and the Wilson County Fair with 160,000 people and put it in a tiny mountain town in East Tennessee. There you go! It was quite the spectacle, and I had so much fun. We saw two great races, and we also stayed very entertained just people-watching. I got to see Paula Deen! She was the grand marshall of the Friday night race. "Hey Drivers! Y'all start those engines!" So cute! Here's a video of her (you can't see her but you can hear her!
Here are some pictures. They don't even come close to capturing what it was like, but they give you an idea!
This was just looking in one direction from the outside of the track. It was like this all the way around the track. Campers, merchandise trailers, sponsor booths, food vendors, etc.
A bunch of tires.
A giant shopping cart.
The warm-up to the Nationwide race on Friday. The Nationwide series runs on Friday nights or Saturdays usually. It's one step down from the Sprint Cup series which is the big Sunday race (but they ran on Saturday night in this case).
"The World's Fastest Half-Mile"
Dad, my racing buddy. We had such a great time on this trip, and I'm glad I got to experience it with him!
The pit crews during the opening prayer and national anthem.
The start of the Sharpie 500 on Saturday night.
Finally, here are a couple more videos. The first one is a pit stop during the Sprint Cup race on Saturday night. The second is after a wreck that was so bad they had to red flag the race, which means the drivers had to come to a stop, they couldn't even pit until they got the track cleaned up. There was gas and oil everywhere.
Okay, now about my experience...try combining Bonnaroo, Mardi Gras, and the Wilson County Fair with 160,000 people and put it in a tiny mountain town in East Tennessee. There you go! It was quite the spectacle, and I had so much fun. We saw two great races, and we also stayed very entertained just people-watching. I got to see Paula Deen! She was the grand marshall of the Friday night race. "Hey Drivers! Y'all start those engines!" So cute! Here's a video of her (you can't see her but you can hear her!
Here are some pictures. They don't even come close to capturing what it was like, but they give you an idea!
This was just looking in one direction from the outside of the track. It was like this all the way around the track. Campers, merchandise trailers, sponsor booths, food vendors, etc.
A bunch of tires.
A giant shopping cart.
The warm-up to the Nationwide race on Friday. The Nationwide series runs on Friday nights or Saturdays usually. It's one step down from the Sprint Cup series which is the big Sunday race (but they ran on Saturday night in this case).
"The World's Fastest Half-Mile"
Dad, my racing buddy. We had such a great time on this trip, and I'm glad I got to experience it with him!
The pit crews during the opening prayer and national anthem.
The start of the Sharpie 500 on Saturday night.
Finally, here are a couple more videos. The first one is a pit stop during the Sprint Cup race on Saturday night. The second is after a wreck that was so bad they had to red flag the race, which means the drivers had to come to a stop, they couldn't even pit until they got the track cleaned up. There was gas and oil everywhere.
Wednesday, August 27
Update Soon, I Promise
I will have an update here as soon as possible. I have pictures from Bristol to post and stories to tell, but I'm just finding it hard to get up in the mornings and that's really my only time to update here. Talk to everyone soon!
Thursday, August 21
Lazy Lucy
Here's a picture of Lucy that I took after we got home on Sunday. She's not rolling over. She's just laying like that. She does it a lot, and it's hilarious!
David read somewhere that cats only lay like this when they feel very safe and comfortable, but I think she's just crazy.
David read somewhere that cats only lay like this when they feel very safe and comfortable, but I think she's just crazy.
Wednesday, August 20
Why, Georgia, Why?
Sorry it's taken me so long to check in about our trip this past weekend. We had a wonderful visit with David's grandparents. They are typical grandparents in that they are so thrilled when we come visit. They were wonderful hosts and we truly felt at home.
For the second time, David and I visited Stone Mountain Park, and for the second time we were driven home by rain without seeing their favorite laser show. Oh, well...it was a nice day and we got to ride a duck. It's a WW2 era bus that drives on land with wheels and then drives down a boat ramp (very quickly, I might add) into the water and becomes a boat!
Here are a few pics from the day. They give you little duck bills to wear that make a quack noise. They were pretty fun. I gave mine to AbiLyn. I hope she's torturing her parents with it.
This is a one-lane covered bridge that was moved to Stone Mountain from Athens, GA. I thought it was cute, but the lighting wasn't quite right.
Next up on the month-o-traveling...Bristol. Dad and I are headed to race weekend in Bristol, TN on Friday morning! I can't wait!
For the second time, David and I visited Stone Mountain Park, and for the second time we were driven home by rain without seeing their favorite laser show. Oh, well...it was a nice day and we got to ride a duck. It's a WW2 era bus that drives on land with wheels and then drives down a boat ramp (very quickly, I might add) into the water and becomes a boat!
Here are a few pics from the day. They give you little duck bills to wear that make a quack noise. They were pretty fun. I gave mine to AbiLyn. I hope she's torturing her parents with it.
This is a one-lane covered bridge that was moved to Stone Mountain from Athens, GA. I thought it was cute, but the lighting wasn't quite right.
Next up on the month-o-traveling...Bristol. Dad and I are headed to race weekend in Bristol, TN on Friday morning! I can't wait!
Thursday, August 14
Hot-Lanta!
David and I are leaving for Atlanta tomorrow! We're going to visit his grandparents for the weekend, and I am so excited!
Expect pictures next week.
Expect pictures next week.
Wednesday, August 13
Little girls
Last night was my favorite Olympic event...the women's gymnastics team competition. I love watching this, and last night I experienced several emotions while doing so.
At the beginning one word came to mind...vomit. That is totally what I would do if I was one of these girls. The pressure is unbelievable when you realize that these girls have been training with this specific Olympics in mind for a large portion of their life.
The big contenders for the gold were the U.S. and China. With China's big push to beat the U.S. in the medal count, I really wanted to see the U.S. win gold...everyone did. Well, things went really well until the third apparatus...balance beam. The first girl up for the U.S. fell off. She looked destroyed. Then the next activity, and last, was the floor. The same girl fell on a tumbling pass and then stepped out of bounds. The look on her face when she came off the floor was so heartbreaking. The next two girls for the U.S. also stepped out of bounds. I couldn't watch anymore.
I did flip back over a few minutes later and experienced something strange. China was now on the floor and the girl they were showing was one they had been telling a personal story about before. The Chinese gymnasts are separated from their parents from the time they are about three years old. They only see them maybe once a year. This particular girl had called her parents at one point and told them she wanted to come home, and they said no. They knew she would have a much better life as a gymnast than as an ordinary girl in China. These girls from the U.S. will be absolutely fine...they'll go to college, have a family, and probably open a gym somewhere, but these girls from China have nothing but gymnastics. I haven't checked the news yet, but I'm pretty sure China won gold, and for those little girls' sakes...I'm actually glad.
At the beginning one word came to mind...vomit. That is totally what I would do if I was one of these girls. The pressure is unbelievable when you realize that these girls have been training with this specific Olympics in mind for a large portion of their life.
The big contenders for the gold were the U.S. and China. With China's big push to beat the U.S. in the medal count, I really wanted to see the U.S. win gold...everyone did. Well, things went really well until the third apparatus...balance beam. The first girl up for the U.S. fell off. She looked destroyed. Then the next activity, and last, was the floor. The same girl fell on a tumbling pass and then stepped out of bounds. The look on her face when she came off the floor was so heartbreaking. The next two girls for the U.S. also stepped out of bounds. I couldn't watch anymore.
I did flip back over a few minutes later and experienced something strange. China was now on the floor and the girl they were showing was one they had been telling a personal story about before. The Chinese gymnasts are separated from their parents from the time they are about three years old. They only see them maybe once a year. This particular girl had called her parents at one point and told them she wanted to come home, and they said no. They knew she would have a much better life as a gymnast than as an ordinary girl in China. These girls from the U.S. will be absolutely fine...they'll go to college, have a family, and probably open a gym somewhere, but these girls from China have nothing but gymnastics. I haven't checked the news yet, but I'm pretty sure China won gold, and for those little girls' sakes...I'm actually glad.
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