Brickyard 400 2009

Where to begin??? The day started normal enough even though it was early for a Saturday. I got ready and drove to Kohl’s in Speedway to meet Brooke and Levi. We had tickets and a parking pass, so were just taking one car in. That’s pretty much where things went south. Holy cow Jamie, what went wrong? Ok, I’ll try to explain. 1st it was a cold rainy day, not the best for qualifying at a Nascar event. Now, Brooke and I are experienced crowd/car/driver watchers. We have a certain place we like to stand to get a good view of the action. That was the 1st place we took Levi. I think he thought we were nuts at the beginning, but soon came around. Once the rain really started we decided to head towards the Speedway Hall of Fame. There’s always stuff to do, plus there’s an INdoor snack shop. (out of the rain) After having an Indy Dog and a diet coke we set out to see some of the activities going on. I had noticed there was a blood drive going on and decided to donate. Bawk, bawk,bawk……that’s for Brooke ;)  Sorry, had to do it. Levi wanted to test drive the 2010 Camaro at the Chevy test drive, so I told them to go on that I would call them when I was done, then meet them. So, I sit patiently under a canvas tent waiting my turn, glad to be out of the rain. They finally call my # and I head for the Red Cross bus. I was lead into a room that barely fit the interviewer and myself that was also at about 34 degrees F!!! Shivering I answered the questionaire and had my finger poked for Hemoglobin level, my blood pressure taken, etc. Then they take me out to the chair/recliner where the lady decides to use my left arm instead of the right. I only mention this because there were no lefty beds open. At this point it’s been well over an hour since Brooke and Levi went their own way. Eventually, after the pass-out girl came to, I got to the lefty bed which I had to try to jump into. Not exactly made for someone 4’10”! Next came the easy part, the blood draw. Seriously people, it’s a piece of cake and saves lives everyday. Little Stellan’s had several transfusions, what if nobody had donated, where would he be? OK, OK, I’ll jump down from the box. So, I donate the blood and grab the offered diet coke and lorna doone cookies, and exit the bus. I find a low wall and start to go through my camera bag that was doubling as a purse. Rifle,rifle,rifle,rifle, panic,panic,panic,panic………….NO PHONE!!! I had left it in the car. Holy Crap!!! How do you find 2 people in a crowd like that??? The answer is….you DON’T. You walk the entire infield a time or two. You go back to the favorite viewing place. You go to the bleachers, wander aimlessly, staring at everyone. You get teary eyed and try asking for the yellow and black clad security guards what to do. They by the way, tell you they don’t know what to tell you. Thanks buddy, big help. Then you go back to the fav spot again, praying, hoping, begging, trying not to cry. NOT THERE, AGAIN! So, you head to a pay phone to call your mom and ask her to call Brooke’s mom to ask her to call Brooke. See, I don’t know anyones cell#. It just magically pops up Brooke Cell on my phone. I don’t know anyones # anymore! Pitiful. I told mom to tell Jodi to tell Brooke that I’d wait on the North side of the Pagoda. (in the shade since it is now sunny and warm) I’ll wait there for a while then head to the car. WHY didn’t I go to the car in the 1st place you’re thinking to yourself. OK, I’ll tell you. The ticket said no pass-outs, no reentries. I didn’t really want to spend the day in the car and miss seeing Dale Jr. whom I have a thing for even though he’s racing awful this year. I’m also a Cubs fan, Illini fan, and Jamaica Cardinals fan. I’m not a fair weather fan. I stick!   Sorry, side tracked again. Brooke and Levi are no where in sight, so I give up and head to the car. (I did see Jr) When I make it back, there’s my phone safely in the car. I have like 8 missed calls, and many texts. Turns out they HAD gone to the favorite place and waited and waited and waited. We figure we were 20 yards apart for about 2 hours. How NOT funny is that? 20 yards at a Nascar race is huge people, huge. They had eventually went back to the car, waited some more, then took a cab back to their car. I sank into my steamy sauna of a car and pick up the phone to let them know I’m ok. They had also made a trip to the infield care center in case I’d passed out. I apologized again and again, then headed for home.   A short time later, I realized that I hadn’t had anything to eat since the hot dog before the blood thing. It’d been MANY hours, and I wasn’t feeling too great. Then I remembered little Stellan and his not great is WAAAYYY worse than mine, so I tried to stop whining. And, since that’s one of my best skills, it wasn’t easy. So, I stopped and got a turkey sandwich and a water and made it home. I did get some pictures. Here are a few of them. Hope you had a great weekend.

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