How disappointing it was to see Carl lead all those laps, then to see those 2 cars behind him start to creep up…then suddenly fly by him…you could tell something went bad wrong with Carl’s car…and we heard him on the radio, talking with Bob and Bobby about it, and he said “Well, maybe the fans will vote us in…” We’re sorry, Carl, we tried!!! Talk about Mad Edheads…I LIKE Kenny Wallace, but I dislike anyone being voted in by a huge campaign, or simply a huge fan base (Like Dale Jr in the “Most Popular Driver” voting, or Martin Truex Jr a couple of years back in the All-Star voting, when all the Dale Jr fans ganged up to vote him in…you just know you really have no chance, even when you try your best…fan vote things annoy me because of that, because you can generally pick, not far into the voting, who’s going to get it).
Then it was time, and they herded us down to the driver intro stage…literally…I mean, we tried to get pics of the cars we were passing, lined up and on display, but this was for TV, they had to have us in place before the intros started…very frustrating, they did the same thing on the way out, some guy yelling at us “Come on, hurry up, we’ve got 4 minutes to TV…” Well, there’s only so fast you can go when there are hundreds of people in front of you….
But being down there was SOOO awesome…and I figured out something. You’d think they’d get new uniforms for something like that…you can’t see it on TV, but in person, the 8 and 11 crews especially have faded uniforms, presumably from sun exposure…we noticed it at the PCC, too. It doesn’t show up on TV, though….
I knew based on the campaign they had going on that Kenny was going to get voted in, despite our best efforts, but a little part of me had me holding my breath when they made the announcement…then my heart fell to my toes. Same feeling I get when Carl gets wrecked on the track…
So now we’re back in the stands watching the All-Star race, which was rather uneventful…the only problem we really had was, knowing Carl was going to be a pit reporter, we tuned our scanners in to the TV frequency, but found that it kept cutting out…I ended up having to hold it straight up by my shoulder to get a good signal…the things we do to hear Carl during a race!! LOL But Fox needs to work on that, I have NEVER had that problem at a race track before.
After the race, we thought we might go out for a drink, but the race traffic put the kybosh on that idea…so Smitty fired up the grill, and we had some more burgers, brats and dogs…YUMMY!!!
Before we knew it, traffic had thinned, and it was 1am, so we each headed for our warm beds, pleasantly tired as you can only be after a race weekend that you have squeezed all the fun out of it that’s possible.
Sunday, after seeing Paige off at the airport, Maureen, Jen and I went to see Shrek 3, which I personally laughed my butt off through, then having a few more hours of sunlight, we headed back out to Roush to see if anything was open…it wasn’t, so after snapping a few more pics of the haulers, back in their berths behind the shop, we decided to head up to Lake Norman and hang out.
We relaxed in Jetton Park, watching the boats go by, wishing we were out there, just chatting and relaxing…a lovely afternoon. I know each of us wondered at least once if any of the boats going by or just floating out there contained any familiar faces, because the weather was perfect, and I KNOW some of the drivers, crews etc. had to be out there enjoying it, on a well-deserved Sunday off.
After a bite to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings, where we kicked butt in trivia, it was off to bed…even MORE tired, but not wanting to miss anything. We’ve pretty much decided whoever wins their millions first has to buy a house on Lake Norman, and we’ll hold Edfest THERE every year!
Sadly, I was too tired that night, and couldn’t get to sleep…leading to me waking up Monday morning to the sun shining through the window. This was bad because my flight time was 8:05am, and I had planned to head to the airport at 6am.
Yup. 8:30 am. UGH!! I have NEVER slept through a flight before!!!!
After a phone call to Delta, I had myself booked on a later flight, thankfully, because Tuesday it’s back to the grind.
We boarded our plane basically on time…only to sit there for 2 steaming hours…steaming because we were sitting in a tin can with wings on a tarmac in 90 degree heat, with no air conditioning!! It seems the plane needed a jump start, and their jump starter didn’t work. Neither did the next 2 they borrowed…finally the third worked, because the passengers were steaming physically AND mentally by the time we finally got rolling…
I was just thankful that I still would have an hour between flights at my layover, many missed their connecting flights because of the delay…but GEEZ, that was ridiculous. I know they had no idea it was going to take that long, which was why they didn’t let us get off the plane and relax in the air conditioned terminal, but it was just crazy.
Oh, and yes, being on a plane that has ANYTHING on it that doesn’t work DOES tend to make me a mite trepidatious about flying on that plane. LOL
By the time I got off that plane, I looked like I should be in a hip hop video…my cotton pants stretched out because I sat in them on those vinyl seats (yup, it was an OLD plane with vinyl seats) and sweated…they were so baggy, I was worried I was going to lose them…and me without a belt available! LOL
I tell you, that cold Budweiser at Cincinnati airport never tasted so good…if I’m going to sweat that much, I prefer it to be because I’m on pit lane in 90 + degree heat!! UGH!
I came home to see if the cats had survived without me for the week…they did fine, but the apartment was a MESS!!! It took me an hour of sweeping, vacuuming and mopping to get the kitty litter mess cleaned up from 2 cats left alone for almost a week…oh, well.
Well, back home in Lala Land again…I’ll get through the rest of my pics as soon as I can. As I mentioned to those at Edfest, if you want copies, pm me your address, and when I get them done, I’ll send you a CD…oh, and Jamie Jo, I forgot to pay you for the coozie from Harley…I’ll include that with yours.
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