It had been a few years since I had been to a drag race but as soon as the first race ran I knew it had been too long...
Being an only child and a girl, I have always been drawn to cars and racing at the guidance of my dad. Dad never misses a NHRA race in Indy, so when he mentioned that he was going and I was starving to spend time with him, so I jumped at the chance to go.
The days before, Dad had been lacking sleep so when I woke up at 7am, I got ready and hesitated before calling to wake him up. At 8:30 I was super excited and couldn't wait another minute to "hit the road". I called him and we were on the road 9am. On the way there we talked and laughed about everything. We stopped at Cracker Barrel in Louisville, the very day of the Louisville vs UK football game...lots of red in the house.Halfway to the raceway I noticed a Coach store and Dad unhesitantly stopped. I got a wristlet for $50. When the cashier asked if I needed a gift box, I said "no", Dad said "is it free, yes she'll take one"....now you know where I got my "cheapness" from. In the outlet's parking lot there was camper dealership so he insisted that we look at a camper. He proceeded to chat forEVER with the salesmen...keep in mind that we're late for the race...I had to walk away and call for him to hurry up...he's always been a window shopper (knowing that he had no interest in that camper) another trait that I inherited.
We get to the raceway...scalpers every few miles. The first tickets available were general admission for $40 pp. He said that was what he bought last year and the seats were first come, first seated and wasn't what he wanted. We talked to several other scalpers and finally we found the seats that he wanted, included lunch and desserts :) We didn't buy them immediatley of course, but after pondering and more "shopping" we went back and offered the scalper what we thought they were worth. The scalper looked down at the time on the truck radio (which was an hour off because of the time difference) and said, "it's too late for the meal so I'll sell the tickets for $120". Dad paid for the tickets and parked about a mile away in a dusty horse farm (where he said he parks every year because the people are nice). After we realized that it wasn't too late for the meal that our tickets included, I insisted that we run to make it. We made it in time for the lunch which consisted of of chicken, sausage, corn, green beans, pasta and salad. While we were eating Dad randomally laughed at how persistant I was for the meal...:) I do love food. We ate outside even though there was an awesome tent setup with bigscreen tvs, I assume would be used if it rained however there were a couple of people setting and watching the screen instead of watching the racing "in person"....I couldn't figure that out because when the cars take off and you feel the vibration of the wind...it's unexplainable...
We left the track running at about 11pm our time, and half way home we were too tired to drive so we pulled over at a rest area, locked the door and napped. We got to my house at about 1am.
I love my dad and cherish every moment that we spend together. If you read this, I may have conned you into reading by insinuating that it was a vacation/getaway but like every other vacation, there was another agenda.
