Well, I…am…exhausted. We left the house a little after eleven this morning and just moments ago – 10PM- got back. My son convinced me to go on a little adventure. The NASCAR race at Darlington, South Carolina. What was I thinking? Oh yeah, taking advantage of my grown son wanting to spend time with me, doing stuff he enjoys.
The ride down wasn’t bad. Even though I forgot my sunglasses, my cap and the mask that was required to get inside. When my son stopped to get a couple bottles of water he paid a whole fifty cent to get me a single use mask. I think the voice on his phone got a little annoyed sounding when he went the way he wanted to at times, ignoring her suggestions. He wasn’t thrilled when we arrived and where he wanted to park was closed off. So he drove by the speedway and turned around. He chose a lot fairly close, we paid the $20 and parked in a safe looking spot.
WE then walked across the street and what felt like most of the way around the speedway. As we reached the gate to go inside, I had put on the mask but he had forgotten. She made him put his on before she would check his tickets. Once inside we climbed what felt like the same amount of steps I climb on the mountain, only these had handrails.It only took a few minutes to find out seats. They were a little over half way up and thankfully on the end of the row. Almost immediately it felt as if a ton of dust had blown into my eye and under my contact. I had at least remembered to bring eye drops. I made my way back to a ladies room and managed to get my contact cleaned and back in my eye. It took a couple tries because the way I was having to attempt it was awkward and risky. I was really afraid of dropping the thing-but I didn’t. I made my way back to the seat only to walk by where I needed to go. I remembered where my son had told me the section markers were, finding that I was able to find my son who was wearing a very bright green shirt. I ended up wearing my son’s cap. The wind was blowing and kept blowing my hair across my face which was highly annoying.
Finally, actually not long after our arrival and settling in, the event began. There was a fly over, some songs were sung, a prayer was offered up, another song and then the main event was set in motion.
On the sixth lap, the first driver hit the wall. Not long after, another driver hit almost the exact same spot. At one point there was a meeting of the metal that caused issues with a car that caused it to ignite in flames. Right in front of where we were. The driver was fine, annoyed that his day ended early but he wasn’t injured to my knowledge.
Then, everyone seemed to find their groove, there were no more accidents and cars just went round and round and round. Let me rephrase that, there were no more accidents on the track. There was a guy who tried to step over a row of seats to join people he knew, who were sitting on the same row we were but on the other end. He somehow stepped wrong, tripped, tried to fly, I don’t know. Either way, he ended up falling onto the row of seats in front them with the back of the seats striking him square in the middle of his chest. I’m sure he’ll feel that when he sobers up.
As the cars continued to go in circles, I was beginning to get sleepy. I didn’t sleep well at all last night and it was catching up with me.Then, I saw my son get more animated. It appeared as if someone was going to pass the guy in front..but no.
As soon as he finished smoking up the place doing his burnout, my son was motioning for me to go. Joining the mass exodus, we made our way down the rows of seats, across to the steps and down to the ground. At one point I wasn’t paying enough attention and yes, I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. Okay, so in my defense, it was a raised crack. Thankfully my son was close enough to grab his arm and keep me from ending up flat on my face.
We stopped at a souvenir trailer and he purchased an over priced tank top for me. He took a photo of me in the stands and one on the way out next to a sign but those are on his phone. As we reached the road the police were helping people get across this time. Letting enough people get to the roadway then stopping traffic so we could get across.
As we started across, I accidentally bumped into a guy as I tried to walk past him. I did apologize, to which he responded in a very inebriated voice, “That’s okay baby” I hurried up to my son’s side. I didn’t want the guy thinking I deliberately bumped into him. My son, laughed until I told him what the guy said. Then, even though he made a joke about it, he also hurried up a notch to get to the car.
The worse thing about the drive back, was thanks to catching nearly every red light between there and here, it slowed up down somewhat. All in all, we were gone eleven hours. I used sun screen, but I still feel as if I have a bit of sunburn. But the dogs have been fed, a pizza has been baked, I did manage to get this written and my exhausted self is ready to go say hello to my pillow.
Words from The Dirt Road 