Charlotte Journals
I know these are so late but things have been kind of crazy in my world ever since I got back from my vacation in North Carolina. However, here they are now for you to read and enjoy. :) Pictures will be coming soon. :)
5-23-07
Got up early and headed to the Holiday Inn to catch the bus to the airport. The first bus driver was kind of rude, which was kind of odd since most of the bus drivers I’ve encountered. I also met a really cool woman named Jill on the second bus, who was also headed to Charlotte as she has family in NASCAR. When I finally got to Charlotte, I got my suitcase and also my rental car before heading on my way to Concord to meet up with Christy at Bass Pro Shops for Martin Truex Jr.’s signing. When I got there, I found Christy fairly easily. We didn’t have to wait too long before Katie and Jyl joined us before the signing began. Once Martin arrived and the signing began, the line moved fairly quickly and we got our things signed. I felt so bad for him once I found out that he was sick. We hung out for a bit once we had gotten through the line to take some pictures. Once we were finished there, we decided to head to the Discount Tire to David Ragan’s signing. We went to the one in Concord first only to find out that it was the one located in Kannapolis. So we headed out to the one in Kannapolis and met David. I felt bad for him as he looked a bit bored since the turnout was rather lackluster, at least at the time that we were there. He was nice though, which was really cool. After finishing up at Discount Tire, we headed over to Christy’s brother Scott’s store that was located in Kannapolis for a bit. After taking care of business there, we headed back to Concord to meet up with Jyl & Katie once more, this time at Dave & Buster’s for drinks and food. We hung out there for awhile and Jyl & Katie bowled while we all hung out, just having a great time. After the girls finished bowling, we walked around the mall for a bit and also checked out the NASCAR Speedpark that was located in the mall. When we finally left the mall, we drove past LMS & the Dirt Track at LMS before going to Christy’s friend Teresa’s place for the night.
5-24-07
Happy Birthday to me! What a fantastic birthday I had today in NC. Christy and I got up this morning and headed out, ran a couple errands before finally heading over to the track for Pole Day. We headed in to watch Busch & Cup practice and Cup qualifying. After Busch practice, I went and checked out some of the haulers. Got my TRB shirt and then headed back to watch Cup practice. After Cup practice, I went to the ONMC booth to check and see if they had an space left in the Garage tour they had at 5:30. I got lucky as they ended up with a couple of open spaces. We went down to infield and before we headed into the garage, we saw Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, and Ray Evernham go past on golf carts as well as Kale Kahne go by not once but twice. We went into the garage and walked around, getting to see cars going through different portions of pre-qualifying inspection, which was really cool. While we were walking around the garage, we saw Kasey Kahne, Kyle Petty, Jack Roush, Martha Nmecheck, and Greg Zippadelli. As we were leaving the garage area, we saw Ray Evernham walking back into the garage area. We saw some crews working on the cars in the bays before going through inspection and we also saw some cars just sitting in an open area in the garage, presumably because they had gone through tech already. After the garage tour, I went back to the stands and joined Christy in the midst of Busch practice. After awhile, Cup qualifying finally got underway. It was kind of crazy to watch as several cars spun out and wrecked during Qualifying. Esad held the pole for a bit before ending up 3rd, which was fantastic. After Qualifying was complete, we stuck around to watch the SCCA event since Kasey was running. It was different to say the least but really cool at the same time. Kasey ended up 6th, which really good. Once the SCCA event was complete, we headed to Concord Mills to meet up with Teresa and see Pirates, which turned out to be an awesome movie. I really loved it. After the movie, we headed out to EMS in preparation for Fan Day.
5-25-07
We attempted to get a couple of hours of sleep in the car before Fan Day but were unsuccessful. At about 6:30, we joined Mike and a number of other people who had been holding our spots in the line for bracelets for Kasey. At 7:30, they handed out the bracelets for the signings and we managed to get one for each of the signings, which was awesome. After we had our bracelets, we walked around for a bit and checked things out as well as getting some of the free stuff before we got in line for the first of the signings. The first group of signings was Kasey, Elliott, and Boris. They were all really nice and I managed to get pics with Elliott and Boris, which was really cool. In the second grouping was Ray and Scott and Scott was an absolute sweetheart. I also got the chance to meet Tammy for the first time and she was very sweet to say the least. I got a picture with her and Christy and I talked with her a little (Christy talked more than I did, I mostly stood and listened while they talked). When we finished up at EMS, we headed off to Chip Ganassi next since Christy and Mike had wristbands for the signing there. Got some free stuff there and looked around while Christy and Mike went through the line. There wasn’t much to see in their shops unlike at EMS, which made it kind of blah to say the least. Once we finished up there, we headed back to Concord and grabbed some food before going back to Teresa’s and crashing from exhaustion.
5-26-07
KASEY WINS!!!
Oh my gosh! What a day today turned out to be. We got to the track at a decent time and sat around for a while before we finally headed up to the track for the day. Brian and AJ did an appearance on the Toyota stage and I got pictures and video. After watching Brian and AJ, we headed into the stands to take our seats. We watched Busch Qualifying and Cup Happy Hour all before the Busch race. Then finally Driver intros and everything for the Busch race. Diamond Rio did the anthem today, which was really cool as well. What a great race it turned out to be. When Kasey took the lead for good, I was so excited. I was so happy to see him finally win a race even though a race. A win is a win no matter what and I was so excited to finally see him win.
5-27-07
This morning, we got to the track fairly early. I went over to the TRB hauler and snagged passes for AJ & Brian’s signings that afternoon before relaxing for awhile. Christy and I went to see if Paul was still signing, which he wasn’t presumably since he hadn’t made the show, which was a tad disappointing. We went back to the car and relaxed for awhile before finally making the trek towards the track once more. I headed over to the TRB hauler for AJ & Brian’s signings. Met them and both of them turned out to be really nice guys and AJ cheesed for a pic for me. Once the signings were done, I headed into the stands to relax and watch the pre-race festivities before the race. The pre-race stuff was amazing. The race itself was rather crazy. Jeff Gordon wrecked/got wrecked nearly in front of us, JPM got into the back of Kasey when he had stopped his car after a wreck happened in front of him. Kasey would have been fine then had JPM not gotten into him. Kasey also got into the wall with help from another drive but he managed to finish 23rd despite everything. Scott managed a T-20, which was amazing. The top 5 at the end of the race was interesting to say the least with Casey Mears getting his first Cup win, JJ Yeley finishing 2nd, Kyle Petty 3rd, Reed Sorenson 4th, and Brian Vickers 5th.
5-28-07
Got up and drove to Welcome, to Christy’s family’s house. We dropped our stuff off before heading off to Christy’s work. I ended up buying a bunch of stuff at her work to do pages from my vacation on. After she was done at work, we drove to the grocery store and got some stuff before driving past Richard Childress’ property, which was just massive to say the least. I was a bit shocked and amazed by the sheer size of his entire property.
5-29-07
This morning, I went with Christy’s mom to drop Christy off at work and then went back to her brother’s store in Welcome with her mom. I hung out there for awhile before going over to RCR and checking things out. I went through the museum and took a bunch of pictures. I got to see a lot of cars, including a car Junior drove to a Busch victory. I also a bunch of Senior’s cars as well as Clint Bowyer’s destroyed car from this year’s Daytona 500. Needless to say, that car is definitely a testament to all of the safety that exists in NASCAR in this day and age. Once I finished at RCR, I headed to the airport and was on my way back home. I was sad to see my NC vacation end but I have to say that I highly doubt that it will end up being my last.
5-23-07
Got up early and headed to the Holiday Inn to catch the bus to the airport. The first bus driver was kind of rude, which was kind of odd since most of the bus drivers I’ve encountered. I also met a really cool woman named Jill on the second bus, who was also headed to Charlotte as she has family in NASCAR. When I finally got to Charlotte, I got my suitcase and also my rental car before heading on my way to Concord to meet up with Christy at Bass Pro Shops for Martin Truex Jr.’s signing. When I got there, I found Christy fairly easily. We didn’t have to wait too long before Katie and Jyl joined us before the signing began. Once Martin arrived and the signing began, the line moved fairly quickly and we got our things signed. I felt so bad for him once I found out that he was sick. We hung out for a bit once we had gotten through the line to take some pictures. Once we were finished there, we decided to head to the Discount Tire to David Ragan’s signing. We went to the one in Concord first only to find out that it was the one located in Kannapolis. So we headed out to the one in Kannapolis and met David. I felt bad for him as he looked a bit bored since the turnout was rather lackluster, at least at the time that we were there. He was nice though, which was really cool. After finishing up at Discount Tire, we headed over to Christy’s brother Scott’s store that was located in Kannapolis for a bit. After taking care of business there, we headed back to Concord to meet up with Jyl & Katie once more, this time at Dave & Buster’s for drinks and food. We hung out there for awhile and Jyl & Katie bowled while we all hung out, just having a great time. After the girls finished bowling, we walked around the mall for a bit and also checked out the NASCAR Speedpark that was located in the mall. When we finally left the mall, we drove past LMS & the Dirt Track at LMS before going to Christy’s friend Teresa’s place for the night.
5-24-07
Happy Birthday to me! What a fantastic birthday I had today in NC. Christy and I got up this morning and headed out, ran a couple errands before finally heading over to the track for Pole Day. We headed in to watch Busch & Cup practice and Cup qualifying. After Busch practice, I went and checked out some of the haulers. Got my TRB shirt and then headed back to watch Cup practice. After Cup practice, I went to the ONMC booth to check and see if they had an space left in the Garage tour they had at 5:30. I got lucky as they ended up with a couple of open spaces. We went down to infield and before we headed into the garage, we saw Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, and Ray Evernham go past on golf carts as well as Kale Kahne go by not once but twice. We went into the garage and walked around, getting to see cars going through different portions of pre-qualifying inspection, which was really cool. While we were walking around the garage, we saw Kasey Kahne, Kyle Petty, Jack Roush, Martha Nmecheck, and Greg Zippadelli. As we were leaving the garage area, we saw Ray Evernham walking back into the garage area. We saw some crews working on the cars in the bays before going through inspection and we also saw some cars just sitting in an open area in the garage, presumably because they had gone through tech already. After the garage tour, I went back to the stands and joined Christy in the midst of Busch practice. After awhile, Cup qualifying finally got underway. It was kind of crazy to watch as several cars spun out and wrecked during Qualifying. Esad held the pole for a bit before ending up 3rd, which was fantastic. After Qualifying was complete, we stuck around to watch the SCCA event since Kasey was running. It was different to say the least but really cool at the same time. Kasey ended up 6th, which really good. Once the SCCA event was complete, we headed to Concord Mills to meet up with Teresa and see Pirates, which turned out to be an awesome movie. I really loved it. After the movie, we headed out to EMS in preparation for Fan Day.
5-25-07
We attempted to get a couple of hours of sleep in the car before Fan Day but were unsuccessful. At about 6:30, we joined Mike and a number of other people who had been holding our spots in the line for bracelets for Kasey. At 7:30, they handed out the bracelets for the signings and we managed to get one for each of the signings, which was awesome. After we had our bracelets, we walked around for a bit and checked things out as well as getting some of the free stuff before we got in line for the first of the signings. The first group of signings was Kasey, Elliott, and Boris. They were all really nice and I managed to get pics with Elliott and Boris, which was really cool. In the second grouping was Ray and Scott and Scott was an absolute sweetheart. I also got the chance to meet Tammy for the first time and she was very sweet to say the least. I got a picture with her and Christy and I talked with her a little (Christy talked more than I did, I mostly stood and listened while they talked). When we finished up at EMS, we headed off to Chip Ganassi next since Christy and Mike had wristbands for the signing there. Got some free stuff there and looked around while Christy and Mike went through the line. There wasn’t much to see in their shops unlike at EMS, which made it kind of blah to say the least. Once we finished up there, we headed back to Concord and grabbed some food before going back to Teresa’s and crashing from exhaustion.
5-26-07
KASEY WINS!!!
Oh my gosh! What a day today turned out to be. We got to the track at a decent time and sat around for a while before we finally headed up to the track for the day. Brian and AJ did an appearance on the Toyota stage and I got pictures and video. After watching Brian and AJ, we headed into the stands to take our seats. We watched Busch Qualifying and Cup Happy Hour all before the Busch race. Then finally Driver intros and everything for the Busch race. Diamond Rio did the anthem today, which was really cool as well. What a great race it turned out to be. When Kasey took the lead for good, I was so excited. I was so happy to see him finally win a race even though a race. A win is a win no matter what and I was so excited to finally see him win.
5-27-07
This morning, we got to the track fairly early. I went over to the TRB hauler and snagged passes for AJ & Brian’s signings that afternoon before relaxing for awhile. Christy and I went to see if Paul was still signing, which he wasn’t presumably since he hadn’t made the show, which was a tad disappointing. We went back to the car and relaxed for awhile before finally making the trek towards the track once more. I headed over to the TRB hauler for AJ & Brian’s signings. Met them and both of them turned out to be really nice guys and AJ cheesed for a pic for me. Once the signings were done, I headed into the stands to relax and watch the pre-race festivities before the race. The pre-race stuff was amazing. The race itself was rather crazy. Jeff Gordon wrecked/got wrecked nearly in front of us, JPM got into the back of Kasey when he had stopped his car after a wreck happened in front of him. Kasey would have been fine then had JPM not gotten into him. Kasey also got into the wall with help from another drive but he managed to finish 23rd despite everything. Scott managed a T-20, which was amazing. The top 5 at the end of the race was interesting to say the least with Casey Mears getting his first Cup win, JJ Yeley finishing 2nd, Kyle Petty 3rd, Reed Sorenson 4th, and Brian Vickers 5th.
5-28-07
Got up and drove to Welcome, to Christy’s family’s house. We dropped our stuff off before heading off to Christy’s work. I ended up buying a bunch of stuff at her work to do pages from my vacation on. After she was done at work, we drove to the grocery store and got some stuff before driving past Richard Childress’ property, which was just massive to say the least. I was a bit shocked and amazed by the sheer size of his entire property.
5-29-07
This morning, I went with Christy’s mom to drop Christy off at work and then went back to her brother’s store in Welcome with her mom. I hung out there for awhile before going over to RCR and checking things out. I went through the museum and took a bunch of pictures. I got to see a lot of cars, including a car Junior drove to a Busch victory. I also a bunch of Senior’s cars as well as Clint Bowyer’s destroyed car from this year’s Daytona 500. Needless to say, that car is definitely a testament to all of the safety that exists in NASCAR in this day and age. Once I finished at RCR, I headed to the airport and was on my way back home. I was sad to see my NC vacation end but I have to say that I highly doubt that it will end up being my last.