N: NASCAR or How to survive a NASCAR race for newbies

Not really the Highway to Hell

Last Saturday was the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.  We headed out on a somewhat rainy day to get some racing in.  This is only my second race but I learned quickly how to survive NASCAR after last year.   Here are my 8 Rules of Survival at the races:

Are we going to the race or hunting?

Rules:

1. NASCAR is very Camo-Friendly.  My Junior hat is actually camo as you can see.   My friend 'Cornbeard"  (obviously not her given name, it's a long story, funny, but long) said she had never seen so much camo in her life.  I told her she needs to go to Bass Pro and then come hunting with the boys.You don't have to have camo but expect to see a lot of it. 

2. If you get offended easily, NASCAR isn't the place for you.   There are all ages, races, and genders who enjoy the race but the parking lot is usually full of one kind of fan.   The drunk kind. Simply put, anyone can and probably will say or do something offensive or disgusting at some point.  It isn't a big deal unless you make it one.

Rule 2 1/2:  I am not giving this it's own rule but check the venue before you go.  Texas Motor Speedway lets you bring in a small cooler which means we brought our own drinks.  Do you know how much beer and soda is at the race?  It saves a ton of money when you can bring your own!

Let the rain stop and the party start!

3. There is another do or die rule.  If you are going to use the port-a-potty, bring toilet paper and paper towels with you when you go.  Seriously, see the 2nd rule, drunk people miss and the potties are disgusting.  I have been to many port-a-potties on Opening Day and these are worse, if that is possible.  I mean, you don't touch nothing!

The race started 2 hours late due to wet track

4. You can't root for all the drivers.  Seriously, some of them are just jerks.  Pick a driver or at least a team.  We were all Jeff Gordon fans but he retired so Hubs stuck with the 24 car and he is pulling for Chase Elliot.  I stuck with Hendrick's Racing but moved on to Dale Junior (because he drives the 88 car and I graduated HS that year) although I also like Jimmy Johnson and will root for any Hendrick's driver if they are winning. (Have you noticed I understand team concept well? HMMM). The kid in her 'women rule' mindset is a Danica Patrick fan.  Pick a driver just don't pick the Busch brothers.  They are just jerks.

Hey, he almost smiled!

5. Prepare to eat like crap that day.   The food is fried.  It is NASCAR, what are you expecting?  We had hot dogs, corny dogs, nachos with some mystery beef on them. The kid had fried cheese and chicken on a stick, hubs also had fries and chicken fingers.  They sold out of Funnel Cake which probably ended up being a blessing!  I can't believe we ate all that, even if we were out there until 1am.

Family shot...kinda

6. Plan on spending several hours, at least two, in the court outside the race.  You get tons of free stuff.   We got several packets of sunflower seeds that I am going to plant and give to my chickens as a tasty treat later in the year, Texas shaped pasta, a bunch of fig bars (yuck but the kid loves them) a free sample of snuff (okay that wasn't me!), coffee cups and Louisiana info to take a vaca, and a bunch of posters for the kid from NASA.   It was like free shopping.  They had more stuff but I don't need Cigarillos and I never cook rice so I decided to pass.  I am sure we passed on other stuff too.  There is a ton and my husband was all like "Move it along lady.  Keep walking!  This isn't the mall."  Yes, it is!  Only this sh*t is free!  (I may have a problem but free!)

I take my Rangers wherever I go!

7. Come early but expect to stay late.  We got there at noon for a 6pm race and we ended up missing all the Duck Dynasty cast this year.   I was sad because I wanted to see Phil and Miss Kay.  We met the rest of the group last year.  It didn't work out but don't worry, I plan on a trip to West Monroe one of these days. Keep in mind there is usually a smaller race the day before and the track has a camp ground so people head out early in the week and spend the week camping out the motor speedway. For reals.  If it rains they are going to try and get that race in so expect delays.  It takes a while to dry the track.  Our race was delayed 2 hours for big trucks pulling hair dryers to get that puppy race ready.

This was my favorite car from the race the night before! #33 Texas Rangers!

8.. Plan to spend about $75 on headsets.  

Yes, it is highway robbery that you have to rent those suckers and they are so darned expensive but it is totally worth it.  The cars are really loud and they go really, really fast.  Besides, if you rent them you can hear your favorite drivers talking to their crew chiefs.  If you can't shell out that on the race then bring some form of ear plugs or at least a good headset that covers your ears.   My video doesn't do it justice but imagine the sound below only magnified about 100 times.

Lunch with Uncle Si plus Baseball and NASCAR

Texas Rangers

Baseball beauty!

It was a busy weekend.  Friday started off early for me, getting ready for the Texas Rangers Opening day.  There was of course, the required trip to get tailgate supplies.

Ready to leave 

I tried to find a new shirt to wear because I always like to start Opening Day off fresh.

All blinged up 

I had my baseball bling all working for me and Don't tell my husband but the reason I insisted on a blue diamond was that it went with all my Texas Rangers swag.  Yes, I, a 44 year old woman used the term swag!

At the most beautiful place for baseball

Happily, after driving around in my season coupon lot forever, I found a spot and we were able to hike over to see my friend Travis and play for a little while....

Travis playing his bagpipes 

Make that watch him play.   Opening Day is like a corn hole party that doesn't stop.   Everything is shiney and bright and the season is new.

Tailgaiting with my beautiful friend 

Trish and I went in together on a mini-plan this season for a lot of reasons, we both got married last September and our lives have become a lot crazier more filled with blessings.   We both knew getting to a ton of baseball wasn't as possible as when we were single but we didn't want to miss out.   Sometimes the husbands will come with us, and sometimes, they won't.   Still, baseball friends are a good thing to have and Trish and Jan (who I saw on Saturday at the race but I forgot to get a picture with her)  are great and supportive friends both at the park and in life. 

Rangers Royalty...yes we have them. 

The ceremony for Opening Day was perfect as always.

Proud Americans 

Check out that grass.  How can anything be more beautiful than a sunny day at the ballpark?

Flyover 

And remind you of your blessings?  Freedom.

Think we were boring the guys behind us!

We had a great time with the Rangers and while I had a lot of other friends at the game, I didn't manage to see them for one reason or another (yet, but I will soon).   Mostly because I forgot to turn the brightness down on my phone and my charge was out by around the 2nd inning so I couldn't text anyone to go say 'hi'. (Also why my photos stop at the start of the game.)

My schedule collection from Opening days 

Every year on Opening Day the Rangers give away a magnetic schedule.   My fridge is full of all the Opening Day's I have been to.   I am happy to say this was my 6th year in row at Opening Day.  I even have one (see the one that says LITE in the bottom right hand corner?) from the 1st Opening Day ever at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (then just The Ballpark in Arlington).  I have been to many games both in the old Arlington Stadium and Rangers Ballpark and have a lot of great memories.

Here are a few baseball favorite Memories over the years, most from Opening Day. 

I have made several 'Baseball Buddy' friends over time and spending Opening Day seeing everyone (when your phone doesn't die in the 2nd inning) is always a blast.  Oh by the way that picture 2nd from the right top is me with Chuck Morgan the Rangers PA guy.  That was a tailgate I went to a few years ago with some Rangers fan site. I don't recall which.   I met my friends Micah and Lacy that day, both had come in from other states. (Iowa and California respectively)  I am pretty sure that is one of my favorite memories....Chuy's with the girls and Colton our cute, young waiter begging me for my cupcakes.  (I made cupcakes people, what were you thinking?)

But this is my favorite memory ever, my honey asked me to marry him last Opening Day 3/31/14
I said yes! 

But nothing will compare to last year because I got engaged.   Hubby even remembered our "anniversary of sorts" this opening day.   :)

Duck Commander 500

Hubs and I-he is always so happy!

Saturday was my first NASCAR ever.   Okay truth time, take everything you think you know about NASCAR, if it was me then it was basically Taladaga Nights.... and throw it out the window.   It isn't all rednecks and most of the fans actually have teeth. I only saw one chubby guy without a shirt and not one pair of Daisy Dukes...sorry guys.   In fact, if you had taken the Jimmy Johnson/Jeff Gordon/Junior  hats and shirts off and put baseball shirts on I would have sworn I was at the ballpark....right up until the race starts and then OMG are those cars loud.

Hubs and kid

Texas Motor Speedway where the Duck Commander 500 was happening.   It is a nice racetrack with so much parking you wouldn't believe.

Texas Motor Speedway

Junior's Car

You walk around a lot...for hours actually and they let you bring a cooler in with ANY beverages you want.   Oh and you get to sit in race cars and meet your favorite driver.

Jeff and hubs

Okay, sort of meet your favorite driver. If Jeff Gordon actually walks around like that I would be tempted to pull some music out from the King and I and make him dance!

Finally he is smiling!

My family had a great time and everyone was all smiles.  We even decided that we will keep the 11 year old wearing the Danica Patrick shirt despite her questionable taste in drivers.

Gordon Shirt and Junior hat 

I changed about halfway through the day from my Rangers stuff (which there was plenty of at the TMS) to my Jeff Gordon T-shirt I got at the TMS and the Junior hat.  I have always been a fan of Gordon because I consider him a Indiana boy.  Okay, so his family moved there when he was a teen because of racing but that's good enough for me.    I picked Junior for the wise reason that, I graduated high school in 1988.  LOL that's logic.



Duck Commander

Willie Robertson 

So being the Duck Commander 500 means that your favorite Redneck family the Robertsons from Duck Dynasty were in full effect.   That's as close as I got to Willie, Korie, and Jessica (that's Jessica's head, Korie was to Willie's left).  We did however manage to get some autographs. 

Martin, Godwin, Si, Jase, and Reed 

Martin, Godwin, Si, Jase and Reed Robertson all signed my cap which I forgot to upload a photo of but I will include it later in my Favorite Things blog this week.

Reed, Jase, Si, and Godwin 

This is Si actually signing my cap...believe it or not.

The kid and Si 

This is Si posing with my kid.  We stood in line for over an hour and ate turkey roll ups waiting to meet Si and Jase!

Jase who is my favorite, except Miss Kay

And Jase who was really quiet.  Actually they were all really quiet except for Godwin and Martin who were very funny.

Gentlemen start your engines 

And then the race started...

The track is amazing 

I have video for this but the cloud is not wanting to import anything so you know, technology bites.

The long and short of it it, NASCAR is amazing.  Yes, there is a period of time in the middle where you feel like you are watching cars go around and around because, well let's face it you are.   The cool part is watching them pit and seeing who gets out first.  There is actually more to racing than having a fast car and that is something I learned by being there live

The other thing I learned is that it is a big party.   There are parties in the parkinglot that make Opening Day look tame.  There are bands playing all day both outside the concourse and in.   They have an opening act and everything, like a music concert.  Our opening act was The Casey Donahue Band which is probably right since it was a Texas race and a Texas Band.   They have these trucks full of souveniers and then there are all the give aways.  You would  NOT believe the free stuff you get at the races.   Truck loads of stuff from anti-perspirant to, BBQ sauce to spray caulk.  I am not even kidding.  I made the kid get me some free caulk.  That stuff is always useful!  

Okay, that's 2/3 of my weekend.  Sunday was relatively boring with me running erands and working in the yard.    I planted herbs in pots and I am really excited about that but that isn't as fun as baseball and NASCAR.

I would love to know if you have ever experienced something like NASCAR that wasn't what you thought it was going to be but was so fun you can't wait to go again?

Easter Weekend Happiness!

What a weekend!  Kentucky lost!  The Lady Irish are on the way to the National Championship, and BASEBALL is back!  Greatness!!!  Aside from that.....

Old and tired 

I swear I didn't stop all weekend.   Between a marathon shopping spree at Walmart Saturday morning.  (Rant Alert: I hate shopping at Walmart.  It is such a beating.  I do not understand why they can't put the same floor plan in all stores.  Why must each be different.  It drives me crazy! I promise you it does not encourage me to shop more it just makes me a bitter, angry shopper),  catfishing on Lake Lavon all day Saturday afternoon (the fish weren't biting but that didn't stop the Easter miracle. We threw back the two we caught and they have a 2nd chance at life as we know it!) and beginning the refinishing of my old table Saturday night.

This is just a peek.  The legs are already color 2 and the top is being "distressed"

This table actually belongs to my husband pre-me and it has 6 matching chairs but I am not hand painting those bad boys.   The paint sprayer will be in full effect for that.  Once I finish the table, I will decide on what color I want to do the chairs but right now I am leaning toward a black chair with light distressing.  Anyhow, this table caused me a few problems.   First, it is veneer.  Second, I did not know it was veneer.  (It was hubs table from his 1st marriage and he doesn't have a memory of important stuff like that but I bet he can tell you all about the pig he shot 20 years ago! XO)   I should have known but they did a good job of faking it.  Even underneath they made it look like it is solid wood.  SIGH!   Anyway, I have something awesome planned...I just wanted to give you a peek.

Easter at our new neighbors 

Easter Sunday while I worked on the table some more, hubs got ready for a party at the neighbors.  My mom had some tragic home improvement problems and so there was no Easter at her house and while we could have done it at mine, the neices and nephews were scattered at odd ex-spouses houses so it was just one of those years where everyone did their own thing.  In a side note, my nephew won his baseball championship this weekend!  So proud of the big guy.  He is becoming quite a young man.  

This was the kid race

So we took fish, hush puppies, and french fries to the neighbors and they had a variety of Mexican goodness including this amazing chicken I am still thinking about and which they confided, I can get at the Mexican meat market 5 miles down the road.   I have been there before but now I know what to get.  Winning!!  I totally believe in learning about different cultures and experiencing the best of all of them and sharing them.  My family is Hungarian and German.  We have certain foods we traditionally make from those cultures.  Where would we be without spaghetti and tortillas and brats? I am so grateful to my neighbors for sharing thier amazing food traditions and for warning me not to put too much of the red sauce on my fajitas.  I was already afraid.  LOL

And this is my kid

Aside from amazing food they were incredibly welcoming and it was so much fun to see a big family celebrate together.   They had all these games and kids running around and it reminded me of my family life when I was a kid and we would go to Thanksgiving at my Aunt Peg and Uncle Walter's. Families are awesome!

Getting ready for the egg toss

Oh and my big and little kid had a great time!

Somehow the egg broke all over hubs face. LOL

I feel so blessed to have been able to spend the holiday with new neighbors and learn so much!   I am so grateful for my family and the fact we are all healthy and things are going pretty well.  I am blessed with just a bunch of positive and I focusing on the blessings.   It is so easy to get bogged down with the trials of life but my hubs looked at me the other day and said something about how things are going in the right direction lately and I said that yes, we are finally getting things in place.  When you sell a house, marry, and buy a house in a month it takes a while to feel at peace.  We are 7 months in now and we are finally getting a routine in place and feeling our way in our home.  Is everything perfect?  No!  He would have rather I spent Saturday night unpacking and tossing stuff out of boxes in the spare bedroom than refinishing that table, I am sure.   I, on the other hand, prefer having things around me look pretty so I can then focus on the hidden fugly! :)

Apparently 3 legs are not better than 2

Did I forget to mention the neighbors invited us to go with them to Monterey?   They are from there and go often and they couldn't believe I have never been to Mexico so they want take hubs and me and show off Mexico.  We are totally on board with this.  It sounds like so much fun!  

This week is full of softball with the kiddo, me picking up a fantastic new project to redo when I finish my table (it's a surprise),  Rangers home opener for me Friday and it looks like the Duck Commander 500 is happening Saturday.   This will be my 1st NASCAR and I am so excited.  First of all, I love Duck Dynasty.   Second, I love Jeff Gordon and it is his last  year.    OMG!  

Happy Opening Day to all my Texas Rangers fans.   

So, how was your Easter?  Did you receive any blessings?