The earmuffs were certainly worth it. The camera setting I discovered was great, too. The only thing I could have done without, though, is the major sunburn, and consequently, the great windburn I endured at the track. NASCAR fans are the most loyal, however, braving whatever inclement issue that is thrown their way. Mine were once again, a shockingly cold cool front, and winds that topped out at nearly 30 mph, making the temp dip lower into the 40's. Unusual in Texas for April.
My dad and I made a weekend of it, camping out at a local state park, which we knew very well. Saturday, we took our time getting up there; it's almost 300 miles. We moseyed around in Carrollton, and Aubrey, our old stomping grounds. We finally made it up to the state park. We pitched camp, and then went to the Denton Fuddruckers for dinner. After that we went to a movie: "Knowing." It started off good, but as the movie went on, there were some parts that didn't fit. It wound up spoiling the whole movie. Of course, I had to have a seizure on the way back. Being up 19-20 hours is no piece of cake, and that seizure wasn't either. We retired for a shower, and lights out. Now, when we hit the sack, it was warm, and their was a light breeze out over the lake, and through the trees. And then at about 1 a.m. a very cold front moved in, and I had to fight the side of my tent for possession of my sleeping bag, even though it kept trying to oust me all night. I was a little less than amused when I awoke, weary from battle. My dad and I were going to eat out for all of our meals, so my dad beat me to the car that morning. I was taking my medicine, and doctoring the holes in my foot. Anyway, we had breakfast just after dawn at Cracker Barrel. I really stacked up on the protein I knew I was going to need for the day. We got to the racetrack, surprisingly without much traffic, and we got a very, really, good parking spot. We got out, rode the tram around the track, and found the merchandise aisles. There were lots of lanes of goodies, but we were only able to go down one, in order to make the race on time, and still do lunch. We ran into a couple of friends who just happened to get free tickets. One of those friends was the one I wrote about in, "The Denton Chronicles." So, we went on our way with my friends, and saw some of the sights that awaited us, such as a couple of demo cars, merchandise, and an arcade-18-wheeler. We eventually had to leave my friends, as they sat in seats across the track from us, and return to the car for lunch. After a quick repast, we made final preperations for the race. We took our seats, test-tryed our ear-muffs, and waited for the race to begin. We listened to a 12-year-old prodigy play a piano version of the "Star-Spangled-Banner," had prayer, and the drivers got those four most famous words in racing history: "Drivers! Start your engines!" After some warm-up laps, it was time for DW's famous line: "Boogity, boogity, boogity!" Then, I took "center-stage" with my camera. I really put it through a workout, taking 1100 pictures.That's the most it's ever taken in one shooting since I got it. Each one of them turned out to be a work of art (if I don't say so myself) through four-hours of sitting on hard benches, and being close enough to the track so that we got tire-dust all over us. Although no crashes happened per se, we did have a few accidents, like running into walls, engines blowing and the like. The eventual winner was Jeff Gordon, who had never won at Texas before. Now the only track he has yet to conquer is Homestead-Miami. Now we were anticipating 1-2 hours getting out of the parking lot, but were pleasently surprised when we exited in under 20 minutes. It was about 4:30-5p.m. and the race had worn me down, so we headed North to a Mexican restaurant we had frequented when we had lived in Aubrey. Before we got there, we moved our camp to a more sheltered area. When done there, we moved on to Raphael's, afterwhich making tracks for the campsite after a very, long, day. The good thing about that night is that I got a good night's sleep, plus the tent wall didn't try to collapse on me. We left late the next morning taking extra time to make sure camp was taken down properly, and quickly as possible. On the drive back, I had to work on keeping myself awake, and not just dad. The exhaustion, the sun, and windburn had got me out of the house for a bit, and here it is, exactly a week later, and I've still got all the ailments I had when I started out plus a few gained in action at the track. Ah, well, the price we pay for a full, round weekend spent with your dad, friends, cameras, and one of the South's best friends, NASCAR.
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