Skip2MySue
02-29-2012, 04:18 PM
So after all these years I finally decided to go to The Race. My friend Wayne and I make plans to attend I'm sure I now owe many people an apology for ruining their race weekend because my luck in life continued with the fiasco of the past weekend.
We leave Sunday morning @ 5:45 am on the bus for the trip to Daytona which got screwed up right from the beginning because the bus was late picking us up @ Walmart. As there are 2 Walmarts in the vicinity
and the bus wasn't there on time we dashed over to the other Walmart which is about 10 miles away and not a bus was to be found. Then my phone rings and it's the bus driver wondering where we are because he's
at the original Walmart waiting for us. He had gotten a late start and was picking up various groups along the way and that's why he wasn't on time. So we race back to the 1st Walmart and board the bus. Everything
goes well from that point on until we get to the track @8:30 am and watch the rain showers. But we're here so that's a start. We go inside the track and do a Fan Zone freelance tour and see Darrell Jarrett signing autographs and walk on pit
road and also go and climb the track at the start finish line. (note to self....there goes $48) Then the rain comes back again so we head back to the bus to sit around. It's now 11:30 am. We hear the jet driers in the distance and there is still
hope. So @ 4:00 pm we head back to the stands and make the long climb up to row 39 in the Lockhart tower and sit down to await the start of the race @ 5:00 pm. Mr. Rain then returns and soaks the track and myself and I slosh back to the
bus as the announcement is made that the race is cancelled. We then head home and arrive @ 10:00 pm. But during that time the bus company says they will make a return trip on Monday if enough people want to go so we're hooked and arrange for the trip back on Monday. This time they make it a little easier on us as the pickup time is now 7:45 am and we've already figured out the Walmart pickup so we're all set. Of course the GPS radar
shows 80% chance of rain but we're not giving up. Same ride to the track and we arrive @ 10:00 am. Soon the announcement comes across that the race will start @ 7:00 pm that night. Oh goody, another 9 hours of sitting around
in the bus and watching the rain fall. Finally around 12:30 the rain finally does stop and the new GPS info is that it's clearing up. But we've still got lots of time to kill and I just couldn't bring myself to go back into the Fan Zone once again so I napped and read until it was race time. 6:00 pm arrived and back to the long climb up to my seat (not hip replacement friendly) and now another sit and wait until the start. Finally!!!!!!!!! the race was on and no rain was in sight. It went by pretty quickly until the crash with 40 laps to go when the jet drier was crashed in the 3rd turn igniting a huge ball of burning jet fuel. This event was another one checked off of Juan Montoya's Bucket List because during his career as a NASCAR driver he's crashed into almost everything that's moved. There we sat there for 2 hours waiting for the race to restart. Now on the radio they keep saying their not sure that the race will be restarted as a weather front is moving in slowly which could wipe out the completion of the race and it would finish with the current driver positions prior to the red flag. So I sit and wait for the restart and just before the 2 hour point the rain starts to fall lightly. Now after listening to all the warnings about another rain front coming thru and being a fairly educated person I figured the best move for me was to climb back down these 39 rows of steps before they became rain soaked (not a good scene for someone with make believe hips) and scurry back to the comfort of the bus. But I have headphones so I can listen to all the comings and goings back at the track. As you may have guessed by now.......the rain stopped and never amounted to anything but a light shower. I'm meanwhile sitting snuggly in the bus about 2 miles away and 39 rows lower to the ground. And that's how I finished my Daytona 500 trip by sitting on the bus and listening to the finish of the race on my headphones. So the race is over and now everyone wants to go home at the same time. That makes for some fun traffic patterns and the blissful noise of blaring horns and 1 finger salutes by many of my new found friends but we finally get out of the track and headed home. Arrival home time was 4:00 am as we staggered into the house. Now you all may think I'm making this up but I've probably skipped over some of the other weird stuff that happened because I'm old and the memory isn't as good as it used to be.
So anytime you're planning a vacation or special event and you might want to invite me I'd give it a second thought before sending that invitation.
Skip 2
P.S. Golf is a lot easier
We leave Sunday morning @ 5:45 am on the bus for the trip to Daytona which got screwed up right from the beginning because the bus was late picking us up @ Walmart. As there are 2 Walmarts in the vicinity
and the bus wasn't there on time we dashed over to the other Walmart which is about 10 miles away and not a bus was to be found. Then my phone rings and it's the bus driver wondering where we are because he's
at the original Walmart waiting for us. He had gotten a late start and was picking up various groups along the way and that's why he wasn't on time. So we race back to the 1st Walmart and board the bus. Everything
goes well from that point on until we get to the track @8:30 am and watch the rain showers. But we're here so that's a start. We go inside the track and do a Fan Zone freelance tour and see Darrell Jarrett signing autographs and walk on pit
road and also go and climb the track at the start finish line. (note to self....there goes $48) Then the rain comes back again so we head back to the bus to sit around. It's now 11:30 am. We hear the jet driers in the distance and there is still
hope. So @ 4:00 pm we head back to the stands and make the long climb up to row 39 in the Lockhart tower and sit down to await the start of the race @ 5:00 pm. Mr. Rain then returns and soaks the track and myself and I slosh back to the
bus as the announcement is made that the race is cancelled. We then head home and arrive @ 10:00 pm. But during that time the bus company says they will make a return trip on Monday if enough people want to go so we're hooked and arrange for the trip back on Monday. This time they make it a little easier on us as the pickup time is now 7:45 am and we've already figured out the Walmart pickup so we're all set. Of course the GPS radar
shows 80% chance of rain but we're not giving up. Same ride to the track and we arrive @ 10:00 am. Soon the announcement comes across that the race will start @ 7:00 pm that night. Oh goody, another 9 hours of sitting around
in the bus and watching the rain fall. Finally around 12:30 the rain finally does stop and the new GPS info is that it's clearing up. But we've still got lots of time to kill and I just couldn't bring myself to go back into the Fan Zone once again so I napped and read until it was race time. 6:00 pm arrived and back to the long climb up to my seat (not hip replacement friendly) and now another sit and wait until the start. Finally!!!!!!!!! the race was on and no rain was in sight. It went by pretty quickly until the crash with 40 laps to go when the jet drier was crashed in the 3rd turn igniting a huge ball of burning jet fuel. This event was another one checked off of Juan Montoya's Bucket List because during his career as a NASCAR driver he's crashed into almost everything that's moved. There we sat there for 2 hours waiting for the race to restart. Now on the radio they keep saying their not sure that the race will be restarted as a weather front is moving in slowly which could wipe out the completion of the race and it would finish with the current driver positions prior to the red flag. So I sit and wait for the restart and just before the 2 hour point the rain starts to fall lightly. Now after listening to all the warnings about another rain front coming thru and being a fairly educated person I figured the best move for me was to climb back down these 39 rows of steps before they became rain soaked (not a good scene for someone with make believe hips) and scurry back to the comfort of the bus. But I have headphones so I can listen to all the comings and goings back at the track. As you may have guessed by now.......the rain stopped and never amounted to anything but a light shower. I'm meanwhile sitting snuggly in the bus about 2 miles away and 39 rows lower to the ground. And that's how I finished my Daytona 500 trip by sitting on the bus and listening to the finish of the race on my headphones. So the race is over and now everyone wants to go home at the same time. That makes for some fun traffic patterns and the blissful noise of blaring horns and 1 finger salutes by many of my new found friends but we finally get out of the track and headed home. Arrival home time was 4:00 am as we staggered into the house. Now you all may think I'm making this up but I've probably skipped over some of the other weird stuff that happened because I'm old and the memory isn't as good as it used to be.
So anytime you're planning a vacation or special event and you might want to invite me I'd give it a second thought before sending that invitation.
Skip 2
P.S. Golf is a lot easier