Nascar Weekend

I'm feeling a little run down after a busy weekend. I took a half day off last Friday and Kimberly and I went to the State Fair for lunch. They have a great bargain where you pay $5 to get in after noon and if you leave before 2pm you get your $5 back. We use that oportunity each year to look at all of the craft, flower, agricultural and home improvement displays. We can also get our fair food fix without kid interference. The kids get really bored with the agriculture/competition stuff and are always wanting to go on the rides. We'll be taking them to the Fair on Wednesday.

Saturday I went to the Bank of America 500 Nascar race in Charlotte, NC. It's hard to explain the alure of a Nascar race to someone who hasn't been to one before but it's a whole lot of fun even if you're not a big motorhead. It's a cross between the State Fair, major sporting event and tailgate cook out. I bought tickets through work (Mars sponsors the #18 car driven by Kyle Busch) and our plant manager rented a bus for us to ride up in. A friend of a friend works for Time Warner Cable; he also won 4 tickets to the race but in the Time Warner luxury suite!! We took the company bus to the track and met them there. He had 2 extra tickets so we promptly scalped our tickets and took the ones in the luxury suite. It had an open bar and a buffet. The highlight was the pumpkin cheesecake! Being the Time Warner suite there was not only the race to watch but other TVs set up to watch college football and also the Red Sox/Rays game! It was about as good as it could get for 3 hours! Here's a few pictures of the view from the TWC suite.

I was in the doghouse for a little bit for spending so much money on the tickets before having buyers for them, and when it looked like we might eat the cost of 2 of them I was really in hot water. I sold the other 2 on eBay last week. When the auction closed there wasn't enough time to mail the tickets out so I told the winner that I would meet him at the track and he can pay me and I'll deliver the tickets just before the race. I didn't realize that he lived in Indiana! He and his wife rented a car left at 4:00am to get to the track at 3:00pm! They did all of this on my word that I would meet them and deliver the tickets. When I finally met them I was amazed that they did all of that just trusting that I would hold up my end of the bargain. That my friend, is trust in your fellow man! Long story short, I was able to get out of the doghouse because after selling all of the tickets I had and getting the free one to the Time Warner suite, I ended up spending $60 to go to the race! What a bargain!