Our first visitors

My dad & brother are HUGE NASCAR fans! In fact, they had already booked plane tickets to visit us in Orlando before we had even moved. Keep in mind my dad has only flown twice before this & had sworn off doing it again after the first one (when he flew down to San Antonio to drive back with me when I was moving back to St. Louis). The 2nd flight he took was to visit us in Mobile, AL and he said that one went much much better.

So my dad/brother came down for the Daytona 500, which is about an hour away from where we live on non-race weekends with crappy traffic. I had never even watched a whole race on TV before, but here I am going to the 50th running of the Daytona! I had heard more 'you might be a redneck' jokes about NASCAR than I knew drivers.

I LOVED LOVED it!!!! The only caveat is to say, I loved it minus the horrible traffic bumper to bumper stop & go on the interstate for a few hours on both the way there & the way back. I loved it minus the waiting in line for a shuttle bus back to the parking lot afterwards for an hour. I loved it minus the 'fight for your butt space' version of a bench we were on in the stands (man - buck up another $50 bucks to have assigned butt space! will do it next time I promise!!). I loved it minus the people sitting on the other side of us that thought they should drink beer the whole entire race, which is fine if you are wearing a Depends....not fine if you are climbing over me every 5 seconds to relieve yourself!

BUT....having said all of that - there was so much absolutely awesome about the day/weekend. I loved having my brother & dad here. Just spending time with them & relaxing & talking while sitting outside by the pool in FEBRUARY while Jim - the best griller ever - was making us some fabulous meat to eat! We ate like pigs - literally - compliments of Jim - we had racks of ribs, a HUGE pork butt, and bacon-wrapped filets, oh and some pork tenderloin grilled on the menu for the weekend. We really ate well.

The race day was so fun - we drove in that morning (probably should have left a bit earlier, although I think traffic is just destined to be terrible on race weekend). We parked the car, busted out the camping grill/burner & had ourselves the best tailgate in the world - ribs, beans, chips. We then went on into the race & enjoyed watching the pre-race. Jim & I rented a scanner & headphones which added a cool dimension to the race. It was really really cool to hear the driver talk to his pit crew, spotter, etc. The race wouldn't have been the same experience without renting that - very very cool. Then after the race (i'll skip more grumbling about getting back to the parking lot) - we busted out the grill again & had smoked pork sandwiches - HEAVENLY. After waiting there for traffic to clear & just sitting around talking for a couple of hours, we braved getting on the road, sat in SOME traffic but not too bad & made it home. Both dad & my brother konked out in the back, I was fighting sleep so hard to stay awake to keep JIM awake, but I probably annoyed him more than anything!! I was just saying random things to be talking to keep both of us awake, but he wasn't much in the mood for talking :) We both just wanted to get home!

Will I ever go back to Daytona for a race? Maybe not - the logistics are just kinda stinky. But - I will definitely go back to another race!!!