Once in a lifetime...

So once in a lifetime, you have to try something different, right?

Well I'm one of those who usually doesn't shy away from trying something. As my 5th grade teacher once said, "try it, you might like it."

Last weekend (April 3rd), my friend, Julie, and I took an adventure and it turned out to be one of those "once in a lifetime" experiences. We went to a REAL NASCAR race. Now granted I had been to a NASCAR event before but it wasn't a true race for points event. So off we trekked early Sunday morning to Martinsville, Virginia!

The drive up was very scenic and not a hard drive at all from Raleigh (a little over two hours!). Once we crossed the state-line, you could tell who was going to the race based on the design of the car, their clothes, etc. The closer we got to Ridgeway, VA, where the track is located (anyone else think it's funny that the NASCAR tracks are RARELY in the city that the track is named after? hmmm) ... the traffic worsened. We elected to park as close as we could so we could walk back and forth from the car to the track & we did just that!

My first experience was finding the bathroom ... welllllll, this is where my adventure began. We couldn't go in the track and come back out without getting hand-stamped. So Julie convinced me to use a Port-a-John. I have NEVER in my life used one of those nasty places, but in dire situations, you've gotta do what you gotta do. I convinced myself that if I could use the "facilities" on a moving train or on a moving bus, I should be able to use this. Well, I did but I was terrified the whole time someone was gonna tip me over. Adventure # 1 complete (well make that several because I later visited one again!)

The entire NASCAR experience is an adventure of itself. The people are just a different breed altogether. But overall, they are good people. We enjoyed all the sights and sounds. I was excited to spend some money at the drivers' trailers buying from my favorites Tony Stewart & Denny Hamlin. The climb to our seats was a huge challenge as we were seated high in the sky. But it was fun and we had a birds-eye view of the entire track.


Martinsville proved to be a challenging race with several lead changes. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a terrific run and should've won the race, but I won't go on that rant now. Denny Hamlin did a good job but got way off-cycle on his pit-stops and fell back. And my poor Tony Stewart ... well let's not even go there but his pit crew did an amazing job replacing the rear-end gear and getting him back on the track so he didn't receive a DNF. But the best part, thank God, Jimmie Johnson did NOT win. Had he won that race, it would have been a very, very long ride home!

After the race, we mulled around the track for a bit before going back to our car. We sat in the car for awhile and eventually moved down the hill into the shade. Around the same time, the actual car haulers began their exit "train" from the track. What a unique experience to sit and watch all the haulers go past, tooting their horns, waving and throwing out things to the fans.

Soon after the "train" ended, we got in line and headed out of the speedway. Along our route home, somehow, Jeff Gordon's hauler managed to come us beside us and we followed it a little ways before we both went our separate ways -- him towards Charlotte, us towards Greensboro headed to Burlington to eat and finally back to good 'ole Wake County.

All in all, NASCAR is definitely a once in a lifetime experience that all should take. Even if you're not a NASCAR fan, it is something worthwhile. I think I'm a fan of the short-tracks more than the superspeedways though -- mainly because you can see the WHOLE track and know where every body is!

I hope to make it out to some more races in the near future, and maybe, just maybe, one of my boys will win and Jimmie Johnson won't!