May 20 - 26, 2009
Wednesday, May 20: We picked up Janine and Ashley at the dorm and left heading north to our final destination of Charlotte, NC for the Coca-Cola 600 to be run on Sunday, May 24th at 7:15 p.m. We drove all night (Rudy & Ashley drove all night) and arrived at Roush Racing at 4:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 21st. We were about the 75th, 76th, 77th & 78th persons in line to get Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and David Ragan's autograph tickets for a signing later that morning. It was a very long 4 hours on the hard concrete and rocky area where we waited with another 200 people or more, only to have to return at 10:00 a.m. to actually get our items autographed. Some even had blankets, pillows, mattresses & chairs because they had been there since 9:00 p.m. the night before. After receiving our tickets we went to a nearby Cracker Barrel for breakfast and some caffeine. Returning to Roush we joined others in another line to wait for our turn to chat with the drivers and get their autograph. Carl was super nice and chatted awhile with us about his experience last December with Elani at the ESPN Club. From Roush we headed to Stewart-Haas Racing to see the new shop and get Rudy a # 14 Tony Stewart shirt or two! By this time we were all ready to check into our hotel and get a hot shower and a change of clothes before heading to the Track for Qualifying. After Qualifying we found a good place for another hot meal.
Friday, May 22, 2009: Rudy and I had a Meet & Greet Fan Event with JEFF GORDON at Hendrick Motor Sports, so we let the girls take the car with free rein to do as they pleased. Rudy and I had a great time and met some new friends, had some lunch, tasted some new Schwan's ice cream and finally got to get up close with JEFF GORDON. Rudy got my Pepsi replica Hood personalized and autographed by JEFF for me and I had a scrapbook page from last year for JEFF to autograph. I told him that it was now tradition and we couldn't break tradition for me to give him a kiss on the cheek when I see him at these events and he willingly obliged.
We had a great time. It was in my eyes the perfect place to spend a Friday afternoon. We had scheduled an "inside" tour of Joe Gibbs Racing with the receptionist that we met there last year for 4 p.m., so we made our way there. Paige was great and we saw a lot of behind the scenes areas at JGR. We also found out that Joey Lagano was going to be at a local Home Depot so we made our way there and waited in line for 1 1/2 hours to get his and Matt Kenseth's autographs and pictures. By the time we made it to Michael Waltrip Racing it was 5 p.m. and closed. That place will definitely be on the agenda for next year.
Saturday, May 23, 2009: We all slept in a little and then spent some quality time relaxing by the pool. We did a fun thing while down at the pool. Each of us girls had our iPods with our favorite Christian music, so we each picked out a song that we wanted the others to hear and after listening to them, we told each other why that was one of our favorite songs and what it meant to us personally. It was a great sharing experience and I am sure we will do it again on our next trip. Later that afternoon we took a drive to Lexington, NC where we found the Childress Winery. Janine and Ashley had never been so we took a tour and learned how they harvest the grapes and make their wine. We then had lunch in the Bistro overlooking the vineyards. It was a perfect afternoon. The Nationwide Race was that night, so we went for a little while, but it got rained out and we got soaking wet.
Sunday, May 24 - RACE DAY: We took our time getting ready and just kind of hung out at the hotel until Noon because the Race wouldn't start until 3 p.m. We got to the Track and the skies were not looking good. It was hot and muggy, so we didn't spend much time around the merchandise trailers or vendor areas, just went straight to our seats. I was glad we did, because the rain held off and we saw a great pre-race show honoring all the veterans and those currently serving in the Armed Forces.
After several attempts to start and run the race, it was called due to rain and more rain coming for the evening. It was announced that it would run on Monday at 11:00 a.m.
Monday, May 25, 2009: The Race started without much pre-race happenings and it wasn't long before you could see the rain moving in over Turn 2. It rained hard, too. Then it quit and the sun tried to shine, then it would rain again. Fortunately for the #00 Aaron's Dream Machine car of David Reuttiman the Race was stopped after 227 laps in intervals of 30-40 laps which made it past 1/2 way and he just happened to be leading at the time. We left at 4:00 p.m. before it was officially announced that # 00 was the winner and the Race was considered complete. We are happy that we left when we did, we missed a lot of bad traffic this way. Again Rudy & Ashley drove all night and we arrived at home at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 26th. where we unloaded the car and crashed and called it an early night.
We had a great time despite the continued rain and we were happy to return home to the sunny blue skies of Florida.
Another NASCAR Race under our belts with lots of great experiences and stories to tell by all
See ya on the Road. . . . .
