BRISTOL, BABY!

I might be getting way to lazy to monkey with this, or something has changed and it has become obnoxious to deal with, but I can't seem to get pictures where I want them. They are out of sequence with my story!

We got up way too early on Sunday morning to drive the 80 or so minutes up to Bristol TN. I tried taking some pictures of the countryside while we were driving, but it wasn't quite light enough for them to be any good.

This first one is on the edge of this beautiful little town. You drive in past homes and a couple of businesses and


BAM! All of a sudden there is the track. Right in the middle of town. Other tracks we have been to are always out of way, so this seemed really strange.

Another thing that was different, is that there is very little parking on the track property. We have never had to pay to park before, but almost all of the parking here is private.

We paid ten dollars and we parked on a hillside about a 1/2 mile from the track and walked over. These people were camped
in a business's parking lot right along the
sidewalk.

We crossed over a pretty little creek that was named after Rick.

If you weren't willing to walk, and had money to waste, you could park right across the street.

These folks were making bank charging $40.00 a pop and parking people on their lawns. If your property was good sized you could make a grand or so for the day. There are 3 major races a Bristol every year and most of them are 3 day events. Not a bad little side business that is unreported, untaxed income!

Other places we have gone to, you give them your

ticket and inside the track you find vendors and

the interactive experiences. Here, all the vendors

outside the track. They were everywhere. Most

tracks have control over who can come in and sell

stuff, here it was a free for all!

One of the cutest things we saw was this guy

selling home made ice cream. He had over-

sized ice cream makers and has attached them

to these cool antique motors that were

powering the ice cream makers. Rick's dad has

a half a dozen or so of similar motors.

Finally, this is what it's all about!

BRISTOL, BABY!

Bristol is a 1/2 mile track. That is only 2 times

as big as the track around a high school football

field. Imagine 43 cars driving around that.

Keep in mind that the infield is wider than the

football field, so the space it takes is not much

different.

The seating is very intimate, and very steep. At most tracks you want to be as high in the stands as possible to get a view of the whole track. At Bristol, they like to brag that there is not a bad seat in the house. We talked to some people that sat on the third row and they could see the whole

track. The only argument you would get would

be from these guys.

They came in and found themselve right smack behind a huge steel support beam. It's hard to tell from the angle I had, but the kid with the long hair is literally right behind it. He couldn't see anything. I would have spit nails if I had paid over $100.00 and that was my seat. I would have been down at the ticket office so fast you wouldn't have even seem me go, but he sat there and giggled, took a picture and sent it to someone, giggled some more. They didn't move until there had been several laps run and someone behind them pointed out that there were some empty seats. Then they moved up a row and over some.

The race was sponsored by Food City, a grocery store chain. It's kind of hard to see, but this giant shopping cart has 2 people sitting up where the kids ride in a regular shopping cart. There in a motor on the bottom and they drove it around the track.

There are some BIG racing fans in the south, and not too many bigger than the guy right in front of me. His tummy was so big and so solid that he looks like he is leaning back the whole time. He just simply couldn't sit straight up. A lady a few rows down was so big on the back end, that she couldn't lean back in her seat. Her bottom got in the way. Those folks love their fried foods!

Walking back to the car after the race there was just a sea of people. These folks were all behind us.

We could see that there was going to be no rush to try and get out of there, so we just mosied along. This fellow was not convinced that he should just chill out and wait a while. He tried backing out of his parking spot, and as soon as his tires got off the grass, the would spin and dig in to the gravel. We watched him do this for about half and hour. If he had been willing to wait, he could have eventually just pulled forward and driven out, but he was hell bent on being in line. He pulled forward several times, but everytime he looked like he might make it he would hesitate, and just bog down in the gravel again. Eventually

he got himself wedged to where he couldn't pull

forward without running over another guy's tent.

It was hysterical to watch. He did eventually get himself out, and then didn't move an inch for over 2 hours! We drove out only a couple of dozen cars behind him.

We just chilled, talked to people and waited.

Our trip home did not go quite as smoothly as the trip over. Our flight was at 5:40 in the moring, so Rick set the alarm on his phone for 4am. At 4:15am he woke up and said, "the alarm didn't go off!" We jumped up, threw on clothes, I wet my

hair down and we ran out of the room. We didn't

have printed directions back to the airport, but we figured if we back tracked we would get there.

We were wrong. We drove about 15 miles down the freeway the wrong direction before we could turn around and go back, eventually getting there. We raced in, checked in, got a boarding pass. Thankfully, it is a really small airport and there was not a line at security. We got to the gate, and were lucky enough to get seats, and basically walked right on to the airplane.

We were not so lucky in Charlotte. Even though we were going to be the first ones to get seats, there were no seats to be had. Everything was sold out, and over sold with all kinds people wanting to get on. We went down to the passenger service counter and had them do some creative looking for us.
We ended up going from Charlotte to Orlando where we were going to wait for several hours to go on to Phoenix, but the possibility looked good. I have learned that it is wise to get myself to a city that is also served by Southwest. That way I have more options,and it was an option we decided to exercise. We got on a Southwest flight that left a little earlier than the US Airways flight. Of course, it cost us some money but it was worth knowing that we would get home at a decent hour since we had to go to work the next day.

It was another, short, action-packed trip. They are never restful, but that is what a beach vacation is for. Beach vacation anyone?