We left for Charlotte, NC on Wednesday, May 26th around 2:30. Ashley Skinner rode with us. We had a great trip and really made good time. We checked into the hotel around 10:30 p.m. and called it a night. We planned to get up early to start our collection of NASCAR Driver Autographs.
I made an Itinerary with addresses to Race Shops and when/where the Drivers were going to be, so we had a plan.
Thursday morning we got up early and was standing in line at Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing at 7:45 a.m. with a couple hundred other fans of Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray to get their autographs. By 9:30 a.m. we were on the road to other Race Shops. We went to Hendrick Motorsports and spent a little time at Roush Fenway's open house. We didn't get autographs there, but we got pictures of Jack Roush being interviewed on Sirius Radio by Chocolate Myers.
We also stopped at Richard Petty got a piece of pizza and a cold drink as we strolled through the show cars and vendor trailers that they had on their property for their Fan Event.
Cully and Janine arrived around 8:30 p.m. so we met them at the Olive Garden for dinner near our hotel.
Friday morning at 6:00 a.m. Rudy and I were at the Office Depot parking lot just around the corner from our hotel waiting in line with 300 other people to get a wristband for an autograph signing later on Friday with TONY STEWART! Ashley and Janine came to stand in line with us around 7:30 and Cully showed up around 8 when the line started to move toward the door. We got our wristbands and went back to the hotel for breakfast and showers! Later we went to Michael Waltrip Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing before heading down to SPEED STREET where 4 RED BULL DRIVERS were going to be to sign autographs. By this time in the afternoon it was getting warm! We found the EpiCenter in Downtown Charlotte and eventually found the merchandise hauler where the guys were going to sign. We were among the first 50 people in line and I was glad for that. We got Brian Vickers, Casey Mears, Scott Speed and Cole Whit's autographs and pictures, too.
From there we rushed back to get in line again to get TONY STEWART's autograph at the Office Depot. We got some pics of him too. He was really nice and actually carried on a conversation with Rudy as he signed his hat! It started to rain while we were driving to go and visit our friends at their new camper (Dale and Diane).
No Rushing on Saturday morning to get up, so we all took are time getting around and having breakfast. We then left for our appointed time to visit the NASCAR Hall of Fame Museum in downtown Charlotte. What an experience! This place was awesome. We were there for over 3 hours taking in all the exhibits and inter-active stations, movies and cars.
RACE DAY finally arrived and we were ready to head to the track around Noon or so. It was a very warm sunny day and the race was great. The pre-race show was exceptional and we took lots of pics that I will share in a post later.
We headed south to return home on Monday morning arriving around 4:00 p.m. With everything unpacked and put away we settled in to relax before heading back to work on Tuesday morning bright and early! It was a great weekend with our Racing Friends. We couldn't have asked for better weather or better company! (We even purchased our tickets for 2011 Coca-Cola 600). We'll be back next year!
See ya on the road!
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