Charlotte infield #2

So Friday, May 21st was forecast for 40% chance of rain. It was threatening all day and rained on and off but mostly on later in the afternoon. They did get most of the practices and most of the qualifying in. The truck race was supposed to start at 7:30 pm. A little after

7:30 they started drying the track with 5 dryers and 14 trucks driving around and around... for over 2 hours. The race started near 10...don't know for sure because we didn't stay up. Kyle Busch was the winner!

Saturday morning we found this mess. Our neighbor's site but our grass.

Door mat under water.

Floating mat. A passer -by retrieved it.
So I swept the water across the road and onto the uninhabited site. Was at it for probably an hour. I had to stop periodically to let the traffic go by. Mike Helton (The big wig of NASCAR, for those who don't know) stopped to ask me if I had ocean front property!


Doesn't this guy look like Earnhart, Jr? He was our neighbor.

JB offering directions again...

Dogs were not permitted in the infield. Look at this huge thing. How did they sneak him in?

Walking around.

Jim Beam advertising near the backstretch grandstand.

People started coming into the stands...five hours before the race.

I have to list all of the people that we saw go by our site Friday and Saturday. Had to write them down so I wouldn't forget. Are you ready?

Carl Edwards (#99) waved at JB

David Ragan (#6) threw us an autographed visor

Jimmy Johnson (#48) stopped to sign some autographs for some kids

Steve Byrnes, Jeff Hammond, Kenny Wallace and Larry McReynolds from SPEED TV

Jack Rousch (owner)- tipped his hat at JB

Jeff Gordon (#24) and his family (while JB was inside)

Ryan Newman (#39)- twice

Kurt Busch (#2)- twice

Kevin Harvick (#29)-twice

Jeff Burton (#31)-twice

Clint Bowyer (#33)

Earnhart, Jr (#88)

Chad Knauss (Johnson's crew chief)

2 of Tony's pit crew members-twice (I asked them where Tony was).

Joe Gibbs (owner)

Richard Petty (Hall of Fame inductee)

Pretty good, huh?

The Toyota sign was re-painted because of the action from the trucks the night before.

These rednecks (right behind us) brought their scaffolding and built a perch to watch the race.

Everyone needs an electric hoist on their Winnebago.

Some of the sites from Friday and Saturday....

Pretty custom paint job.

A rust bucket!

JB plugged the Fanview into the radio and got audio without the headphones.

We watched the race...listening to the Fanview, looking at the track between turns 3 and 4 and watching the TVs, inside and out.

It's almost time for the Showdown to begin but the stands are not full.

The across the street neighbor.

There is no way to get pics of these fast cars with our camera.

The guys just keep hitting that darn wall.

Well, the rain held off so the race was held as scheduled. Tony didn't do his best but ended up 5th. Kurt Busch won so it was a Busch brothers weekend.

Lots of differences here at this track...no campfires, no bicycles or beads! Glad we found the lady from Myrtle Beach who sold us this site. Her other two sites next to us never sold so we had some extra space to park the pick up.

Oh I forgot to tell the story about the placement of the coach on the site. The site was suppose to be 40 feet deep which would allow another spot behind us. If the front of the RV was lined up with the street, we thought there wouldn't be enough room for a person behind us so we pulled the RV out onto the street about three feet, with the approval of the security dudes. We soon found out that the street was a major thoroughfare, even for emergency vehicles. We had some firemen stop on Wednesday to warn us that we might have to move back three feet if the Fire Marshall said the word. Well, we never had to move but the one fireman always waved when he went by and was always friendly. On Saturday he stopped and chatted. He actually is with NASCAR track operations and is from Phoenix. A really nice guy. He told us we were the main topic of conversation on Wednesday. He figured we would have to move but wanted to give us a heads up. When we were so nice and understanding (he talked to me first) he went to bat for us and said that everyone could get around safely and it shouldn't be a big deal! That was nice of him.

Onto Tennessee today. Good bye North Carolina.

P.S. I forgot to add that I had my picture taken by someone to post on the internet. I was sitting in my chair watching the people go by and a lady came up to me and wanted a picture of me ...reading my book and drinking wine. It was going to get put on some website. Don't worry! I had my clothes on!