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BizB
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Race day at MIS
2006-06-15 |
Okay, let's start out where we left off on the last post. I didn't realize that Bubbles took pictures on the regular camera when the girls were visiting.
GRRRRRR!
The plan for Sunday morning was to get on the road by 8:30. We wanted to give plenty of time to shop the various outlets and experience all of the displays and demonstrations. Bubbles had been to a NASCAR race at MIS before, but the other two had not. They're not strangers to racing, though. Sig has taken them to bump-day at Indy. So, they kind of knew what to expect.
We also wanted to save some money by eating at the car, rather than buying food inside the speedway. We packed stuff for grilled cheese sandwiches before the race, and grilled chicken after the race.
The first parking lot that we came upon seemed rather empty. Though, to be fair, we were there about 45 minutes after the gates opened and we didn't hit any traffic until we were 1/4 mile from the gates.
We parked in the same lot where Bubbles and I parked last August. It was pretty empty, too. Next on the list to-do was find the will-call window and pick up our tickets. The online map showed that it was near the south end of the campus. Not so. We ended up walking all the way around to the start-finish line area to get our tickets. Way farther than we had anticipated.
On the way to get the tickets, we had to cross the road that goes into the tunnel and provides access to the infield. They stopped a golf-cart so that we could cross. In that golf cart was the Lifelock 400 pole sitter, Brian Vickers. I had just told Sig's son that he should keep his eyes out for people in the golf-carts because they were likely officials and drivers etc.
After we crossed the road, Sig said, "Hey, isn't that Brian Vickers?"
I turned and looked at the cart still waiting for pedestrians to finish crossing. Sure enough, it was Brian. Sig lifted her cell phone to snap a picture. At the moment, she pressed the button, a woman stuck her head in front of them and Sig ended up with a nice picture of the back of her daughter's head - who had moved over to avoid a picture of the back of the other woman's head.
I pressed the button on my regular camera, but didn't hold it long enough and it didn't snap a picture. As they were driving away, I snapped one. That's Brian... there.
The first stop was at the US Air Force car on display. We do love looking at these cars.
We started to wait in line for some free stuff that was being given away at that display, but we decided that it was taking too long and we wanted to go get our tickets. The original plan, before we realized how far we had to walk to get the tickets, was to return to the car, eat lunch and then go do the fun stuff. Now that we'd already walke so far, we had to alter our plan. So, we got our tickets and then went across to the non-official merchandise sales area. The girls wanted to get tee shirts making fun of Carl Edwards - sort of like this one.
Then, we came back to do the fun stuff resolved to the fact that we were going to have to buy food rather than go back to the car and tailgate for lunch.
We found our seats during the driver introductions and we were in place to cheer for our favorite drivers as they went by.
Not convinced that the economy in Michigan is bad? Here's a shot of the $45-$65 seats to our right and across the way in turn one.
The national anthem included some fireworks at "...the rockets red glare" followed by a fly-over by Toledo based F16s. They didn't make a second pass this year. I was disappointed.
At about lap 65, I decided to go get the kids some frozen lemonade. Of course, that was the time when they brought out a caution and a subsequent double-file restart. I missed it. No big deal, though. The look on Bubbles' face in this picture made it all worth it. I should hold a "What's she thinking?" contest with this picture.
Ahh.. that's more like it. Our kids were well behaved and thoroughly enjoyed the race. I was a bit worried that Sig's girl wouldn't be into it, but she really did enjoy herself. This, despite that none of the kids' favorite drivers were dominating the race like Jimmy Johnson was.
The brats in front of us, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the race. At one point, they climbed up behind their parents and went to take some of Bubbles' french fries! I put my hand between the child and the food and gave him a stern look. That was enough to repel him once. About 15 minutes later, the same kid tried it again. This time, I grabbed his wrist and turned him around. Then, I tapped his mother on the shoulder and informed her what her boy had done. She smacked his hand and made him sit down.
Later, Bubbles said, "The people in front of us expect those little kids to sit through a 3 hour race but they didn't bring anything to keep them occupied. All they do is yell at them to sit back down." I sure hope she remembers stuff like that when she's a parent. Actually, I have no doubt that she will. She's got a good example at her mom's house.
The boys a couple of rows up from us had the right idea.
After the race, we stood for a few minutes along the road to the helicopter pad. We saw Dale Jr. drive past, but that was the only one we could really see. There were lots of motor-coaches going past, but you couldn't tell who might be inside.
The tailgating was a blast. While I cooked, Sig and the kids tossed around a Nerf football. This is one of the reasons I love Sig so much. Just look at the smiles!
This one, I titled, "Look the ball into your hands."
Bellies full and all warn out from a day in the sun, the kids chilled out in the back of the car while we cleaned up our area before heading home.
On the way home, we saw... well, 4 out of 5 of us saw the car haulers for 3 out of 4 of the Hendrix cars. The 5-car of Mark Martin was the race winner, but they didn't let his hauler have the lead on the way back. I don't know why.
We're planning to go back in August and spend a couple more dollars on better tickets and maybe some pre-race pit passes. |
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