Nuts for Nascar!

This weekend Lee and I had the pleasure of heading to Charlotte for the Lowes Motor Speedway Dollar General 500! One of Lee's friends got tickets for us! It's been really awesome getting to know Jeff and Alisha. They have been very good friends to us. They are hilarious and we always have a good time with them. They also recently got us the VA TECH tickets a few months ago!
Lee had never been to a race before so I was very excited! I knew he would love it. I hate watching it on TV but going to a race is completely different! We left on Friday after I got off work to head down for some camping. The race wasnt until Sat nite. After a horrible traffic Jam we made it to the campsite a little after nine. We decided to head over to the track for the Busch race. For all you non-nascar fans, the busch race is always the day before the actually Nascar race. Its a lot of younger guys trying to work their way into the Nascar race and actually a few of the Nascar drivers run in that race too. The look on Lee's face was priceless when he saw those cars take off!
I was so happy to be there with him. We pretty much caught the tail end of that race since we got there a little late but it was still fun. We headed back over to the campsite and alisha and Jeff made a few steaks before they headed off to bed. I wasnt hungry and rather exhausted so I excused my self for some seepy nite nite. The next morning we woke up and the place was packed. There were miles and miles of campsites, RV's tents and what not. It was the biggest tailgating party I'd ever seen! People had huge TV's outside their RVs and there were bonfires and even a few stages set up with some toe tappin' bluegrass performances. very cool! We took a walk through the outside of the stadium where there were all sorts of booths and fun things to check out. It was like a carnival times a million. People were hoarding around bags of free stuff that they were given. We got tshirts, magnets, food, even deoderant from the Old Spice guys! we twisted through miles and miles of fun little side shows and bars and music. You could spend the whole day there having a great time and not even see the race if you wanted! Plus the weather was perfect the entire time! It was awesome. We then headed back to the campsite for a few beers and some snacks. Lee and I were going to leave for the race a little early to catch what else? the Jessica Simpson concert!! I was so excited! I love her! We had to walk like 2 miles to get to our seats and we didn't get quite as close as I had hoped. We asked if you could walk down to the infield to see the concert and the woman told us that we couldnt. HOWEVER, we found out later that we could have...she was an idiot! OH well..I got some decent pics and I love her. Plus Lee paid 50 dollars so we could get the headset. It helped keep the noise of the cars out (you usually have to wear earplugs) and it came with a little TV so that we could see everything! It was pretty awesome..and worth the money!
After Jessica they introduced the drivers! That was really cool..and then they brought out all the cars and lined them up. Jessica Simpson sang the national anthem and then the famous phrase..."Gentlemen, Start your engines!!" I think the start of the race is the most exciting! A truck will lead them around the track a few laps at a slower place..probably 60 or 70mph just to get the cars warmed up. Then the truck pulls into pit row and off the go like the speed of light!! Its amazing! The track was a mile and 1/4..and we calculated the cars going around the whole track in about 28 seconds! It was soooo much fun! It was a little long but we had great seats right at the start/finish line and in front of pit row..about 30 rows up just enough so we could see the entire track! Perfect seats! It was a night race so I worried that the weather would be cold but it turned out to be perfect and I had a blast! Jeff Burton (a virginia driver!!) won the race! Afterwards we headed back to the campsite..it was a long day..I was exhausted (i feel like im 50 sometimes) and Lee and Jeff and Alisha had some more drinks and hung out with the neighbors. I DID however get to witness Alisha dancing. I pretty much about peed my pants watching her. She was too funny!
The next day we got up early and headed off to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and got some fun Christmas decorations for the apartment. We also each picked out or own christmas ornaments for our tree and an ornament for each of the kitties :) Lee is so excited about going to get a live tree this year! We got home around 3 o'clock and decided it was too pretty to do anything but ride the motorcycle. We quickly unpacked and then headed off to get a pumpkin carving kit, some wine, and some scary movies for the night! Then we rode up on the parkway to see all the pretty fall foliage! We also picked up some christmas lights for the windows and had some long awaited chinese for our first chinese sunday in what seemed like years. We came home and hung out for a bit and then crashed. We decided to hold off on the pumpkin carving till another night..and the scary movies.
It was a great weekend! Next weekend Lee's mom and boyfriend are coming up to Roanoke where hopefully I'll be able to entertain them while Lee goes hunting! I love it when Lees mom comes! She already feels like a mother to me! :) She's amazing! and im very much looking forward to meeting Craig!
Well thats our weekend in a nutshell...yay!