September Ninth; Looking Back to Sunday and Race Day at the Track Too Tough To Be Tamed, part one

I don’t think the ‘no pain no gain’ comment fits here. But…maybe..

I really do like my son’s camper. I really do NOT like the bed in that camper. It isn’t so much the fact that I’m accustomed to a larger bed and one that doesn’t have a ceiling inches from my face. It isn’t so much that the bunks are more like boxes that resemble coffins with a small opening to escape from. It is that so called mattress placed on a board that really offered no cushioning. My back is just now, days later, beginning to forgive me. The fact is, that is honestly the only thing I have to complain about so I have no complaints.

My son and I had gone to our perspective slabs to sleep Saturday night with the plan of getting up Sunday morning, and hiking to the store he found for breakfast and more gas for the generator. Sunday morning though he told me that he still had plenty of gas for the generator so we would only be going for breakfast. Dressed and ready we headed off on our hike.

He had to make a brief stop and while I waited I took my somewhat infamous photo of me being outstanding in my field.

I could go ahead and share that to my social media as it showed no location and didn’t give away that I was not home. I also had a moment to look around and see the cars already arriving and how many campers were parked in the surrounding sites.

On arrival at the store my son ordered our breakfast while I wandered around. There are times when my son is soft spoken like his dad was. When he placed the order, the lady didn’t hear him and thought he only ordered one. I’m glad he checked. As he looked I noticed the receipt and showed him that she hadn’t heard. Getting my breakfast we then headed back to the camper to eat. Did I mention that this was a hike that was over a mile one way? It definitely helped get the kinks out of my back.

Along the way back we were discussing the many signs people had in the yards for parking. I wish that I had photographed the one sign that offered parking for 10.000, or the sign that had parking for what should have read 10.00 but the 1 was all blurred making it appear like a filled in 0 making parking 00.00. My son made note of all the canopy tents that were popping up among the cars in the field. I was slightly curious but not enough to wander over and visit with the tailgaters.

When time came we headed down toward the track for the truck race. My son all the while telling me that this race wouldn’t take too terribly long and we would go back to the camper until the big race. We had different seats for this race. We went up a flight of steps, and up and up and up and up. I was beginning to wonder if we were on the stairway to heaven (sorry) when we finally stepped out onto the landing that would take up out onto the stands and our seat. If I haven’t mentioned in the past, I’ll let it be known now. I am very uncomfortable with heights. My son made sure that I made it to our seats without tumbling down to the track all that far below. I will say that the seats were  amazing with the view we had of the track. The bad that came with the good? The seats were nowhere near as comfortable as the seats we had for Saturday’s race. Cushions are in order.

This was the first truck race I had been to so my son was pointing out trucks and drivers. Again telling me the race wouldn’t be that long. It was. With the cautions that came out, it was long. We were sitting in a different grandstand so the sun was hitting us differently. I was burned from the day before as was my son, even with the sunscreen. I kept applying it Sunday but it definitely wasn’t meant for me, as it didn’t work all that well.

After the race my son walked back to the camper with me as it was going to be several hours before the big race. He fired up the generator and then hurried back to the track to try to catch an interview one of the drivers was giving. When he got back, since we had nowhere near enough cell signal to accomplish anything, we wandered over to where road side tents were set up selling anything from shirts to models to food. We briefly visited with people there and he ended up buying me another shirt while he got an ice cream. It was funny watching him try to eat that before it melted and ran down his arm.

Back at the camper we rested up, smothered our sunburns with Aloe and snacked on cookies and pretzels. It was going to be a long evening. My son had kept warning me that this was one of the longest races. We had the same seats as we did for the truck race. It was not going to be comfortable, but, even though I could have purchased cushions from the roadside tents, I really didn’t want to pay an exorbitant amount I was sure they were asking. I’ll get a generic one from somewhere that won’t break the bank any more than it already was. This evening, I was going to get to spend time with my son, doing something he really enjoys, and have a bit of fun myself. Even if it was on uncomfortable seats. No pain no gain…right?