I can successfully cross another item off my "must do before I die" list...NASCAR. Thanks to Uncle Mike, who while down in Texas doing business was able to win tickets to the Samsung 500, Natasha and I were able to go. (Uncle Mike conveniently lives in Oregon).

This being a first for both Natasha and me, I contact my good buddy and nascar guru, Josh for some words of advice. His family frequents these events and is a wealth of knowledge on all things country. "Don't wear cut-off jeans...and it may cost you $50 - $75 but rent a scanner so you can hear the control tower, drivers, pit-crews, etc. The headsphones from the scanner will serve as your earplugs as well, eventhough Texas [Motor Speedway] is so big, you prolly won't need'um".

We leave the house about 10AM, Sunday morning for the 45min drive out to Roanoke, TX to the Texas Motor Speedway. About 6-7 miles from the track traffic comes to a dead stop on a 2 lane highway. 30 mins later we arrive at the mecca of the Nascar Nation. We promptly find our parking space nearest our entrance and start unfolding the chairs to do a little pre-race tailgating. I don't think we ever even got the chairs set up before we had the back of the 4Runner laid flat and we were huddled inside. The 30+ mph winds and temps in the 50's were not ideal for such leisurely enjoyment. Not able to hold it any longer, we were forced to exit our cozy cave and brave the cold so I could use the restroom. This accomplished, we find our seats, which I must say were more than steller...3rd row on the backside stretch. While probably not the most desirable seats in the place, they were perfect for us. We were out among our people...the commoners, thus able to relax and have a good ol' time.

After about 5 minutes of teeth chattering manliness, I breakdown and go on a search for sleeves (I was wearing a cut-off sleeved shirt...forgive me for thinking it would be warm in Dallas in the middle of April on a perfectly sunny day!). The cheapest thing I could find was an enviable Texas Motor Speedway sweatshirt. Best $35 I've ever spent.

The race starts...well, the cars start and are taking their first lap. Natasha's comment "Wow!...those cars sure are going fast!". It is at this point I inform her this is simply the warm-up lap (60mph or so I would guess) and to just wait till the race starts. I must say, it truely was incredible and more than even I had expected, when those cars came around the track for the first time at full throttle...30' away from 50 cars going 200mph will wake you up in a hurry.

Josh's prediction that earplugs would not be necessary was far from correct. By about the 3rd lap we are fervently stuffing papertowels in our ears to ease the pain. It was about lap 60 that the gentleman beside us offered us earplugs. "You mean to tell me you've had an extra set of 'earplugs' this whole time?!" "Yeah, we're at a NASCAR race!" (Dumb and Dumber reference...just had to throw it in)

So the race is fairly uneventful. Probably the most entertaining part was the gentleman infront of us that would follow his car the entire length of the back stretch with his finger then "sling" it around the rest of the way as if the force of his finger were propelling his car that much faster...I don't know. He did it every time his car came around and it was hilarious. This is the same gentleman that ultimatly offered me a beer about 3/4 of the way through the race eventhough we had not exchanged a single word or glance...nothin. He just reached in his cooler and turned around and handed me one. Guess he thought I wasn't having a good enough time. Not wanting to be rude, I politly accepted and that was the extent of our relationship. Nicest people in the world I tell ya.

We left with several laps to go. Got our picture on the way out. I've heard some people will stay an extra night out at the track just to avoid traffic.

Thanks again to Uncle Mike for sending us the tickets. We had a blast.