Heaven

Today I learned what heaven was and it is here on Earth, and it is at Daytona Beach Fla.
The woman and I made the 3 hour drive today from Spring Hill to Daytona (Her sister said it would be 2- 2 1/2 hours lol) we ended up getting there late (just shy of halfway in the first duel) We stopped at an info booth to ask where we buy tickets, the woman working the info booth pulled a pair of tickets out of the lanyard around her neck and said "Here take mine They were given to me, but since I'm workin I can't use them. Have fun". I was floored, I didnt know what to say or do. I tried giving her money she wouldnt take it.she said I didnt pay anything for them, I cant charge you for them. I didnt want to take them but she insisted.

The racing was pretty good in the first race, it didnt seem as good in the second till the very end. We had a blast, and I got a few pretty good pics I will post when we get home. Hopefully alot more pics on Sun. The thing that surprised me the most was the sheer size of the place, it is huge. was surprised too to learn the grandstands are made of wood, very oldschool. I am so looking forward to Sunday. its going to be a wild and crazy day. cant wait to meet jsw14

There are nice people in this world and yesterday your paths crossed. It restores your faith in humanity. Sounds like you are having a great time. We want to see photos.

Today I learned what heaven was and it is here on Earth, and it is at Daytona Beach Fla.
The woman and I made the 3 hour drive today from Spring Hill to Daytona (Her sister said it would be 2- 2 1/2 hours lol) we ended up getting there late (just shy of halfway in the first duel) We stopped at an info booth to ask where we buy tickets, the woman working the info booth pulled a pair of tickets out of the lanyard around her neck and said "Here take mine They were given to me, but since I'm workin I can't use them. Have fun". I was floored, I didnt know what to say or do. I tried giving her money she wouldnt take it.she said I didnt pay anything for them, I cant charge you for them. I didnt want to take them but she insisted.

The racing was pretty good in the first race, it didnt seem as good in the second till the very end. We had a blast, and I got a few pretty good pics I will post when we get home. Hopefully alot more pics on Sun. The thing that surprised me the most was the sheer size of the place, it is huge. was surprised too to learn the grandstands are made of wood, very oldschool. I am so looking forward to Sunday. its going to be a wild and crazy day. cant wait to meet jsw14

This was a fantastic "pass it on" type of favor people do. Perhaps you will do it yourself someday without thinking. You'll never forget who gave you the tickets and that is the best part.

from the highest of highs on thursday, to the lowest of lows on sunday. What was meant to be the highlight of our vacation was by far the low light.The people employed at daytona havent got a clue as to what is going on. We parked sunday morning in a big parkinglot behind the daytona airport and were bussed into the track on old school busses. the buses took us to the backstreatch of the speedway where our seats were located. We were kind of in a hurry to get to the Chevy stage where Ryan Newman was scheduled to do a question and answer interview at 9:10 a.m. So we went into the gate so everyone could use the bathroom, and then tried to make our way to the midway on the other side of the track. We stopped and asked a security guard how we get to the midway, he told us we had to use the tram but we would have to leave the track to do so and once you leave you can't get back in. So then we figured we would miss Ryan. We decided we should make our way to the Fanzone. We asked another guard how to get there. She told us we had to use the tram to the midway, and there would be people over there to tell us where to go from there. She then gave us a pass to re enter the track on the backstreatch, the thing the first guard said we could not do. So we went and hopped on the tram and to the Newman interview. We made it w/ a few minutes to spare. We watched the tail end of the Jeff Burton interview, and waited for Ryan. After Ryan's interview (I got a couple cool pics) we were off to find the Fanzone. On the way we stopped and thanked the info booth woman again for the tickets on Thursday and giving me the time of my life. She was so happy I had such a good time. We made our way into the fanzone through a tunnel under the track. We walked what felt like five miles around the infield trying to find the Bud Bistro. We stopped and asked where it was at another info booth and the guy didn't have a clue. So we walked some more and found it. The road they took us on to get there was rediculous, instead of taking us right there we had to walk around all kinds of campgrounds, and other b.s. Of course the Fanzone was busy, but I didn't really mind all that I mean after all these are my people lol. There was a stage w/ fans playing a game w/ Ms. Sprint Cup, and this guy made an announcement that the last tram to the backstreatch was at 12:40 so anyone w/ tickets for that area might want to consider leaving the fan zone by 12:20. So we made our way out onto the track and took some pics. The banking on the frontstreatch is amazing. It was so awesome to be standing there, although it was quite difficult cause I felt like I was gonna fall back down the banking lol. So about 12:10 or so we thought we should start making our way over to our seats. We tried to get back the way we came and could not do it. A guard stopped us and told us this area way for fans entering the track only, when asked how we got back to the Fanzone he had no answers. After walking around for a few minutes we discovered they were taking people out through openings in the fence going into the grandstands. So we made our way out and stopped by the Dale Earnhardt statue to snap a few pics. We made our way back to the tram and back to our seats. By this time the rain was coming down pretty good. We sat down just in time for Lenny Kravitz to go on stage (a concert we paid an extra $100.00 to watch on a jumbotron ) Then it was nothing but rain rain rain. We have great seats , can see half of the front streatch going into turn one and two, whole backstreatch going into turn three and four, but we lose from turn four to just after start finish. We sat in the rain for hours, and when they finally called the race at about 5:00 we made our way back to the busses to take us back to the car (getting back and fourth to the track was really the only part of the day that was easy) It took forever to get anywhere once we got onto International BLVD. The police took us all the way down the street infront of the track, just to turn us around and drive us all the way back down again. Took us like four hours to get home. The GPS took us one route that took 2 1/2 hours to get to the track and a completely differant way home that took over three hours to get home once we were finally out of race traffic. Guess it was just one of those days that anything that could go wrong did.

We are going to go back and try it all again tonight, if the rains continue and the race does not happen tonight we are done. There is no way we can go back to do it again tomorrow. So here is to hoping we get to see our first Daytona 500. It will be cool to see it under the lights, and it just might make all the nightmares of yesterday well worth it.

Good Luck cslonewolf, I hope all the aggravation is worth it. Unfortunately you cannot fix stupid people who careless about their jobs.

Congrat for making lemonade out of the lemons handed to you. You had a grand tour of the Daytona track and like you said you enjoyed what you did (well most of the time.) Watching on TV one would never guess how huge the track area really is. clonewolf, to make it all seem right just be glad you were not going to the first Kentucky race last year.

I have found at most tracks we have gone to, unless the people you talk to are in a booth saying "information"they usually don't know what they are talking about and instead of saying they don't know, they send you off in the opposite direction you want to go to. Sometimes in the program there is a map and info on where to go. I have found that printing off the Internet a map of the speedway is really,really helpful! Hope tonight it is not raining and there is an awesome race for you to watch. Things can only get better tonight! Let's go racing boys and Danica!!!!.......

I hope for your sake the race does start tonight at 7PM so you can be there to see it. While you had some aggravation, it will be worth it! After it's over, you'll have some interesting stories to tell your friends. Can't wait to see your pics... don't forget to post them in your Gallery.

I got my fingers & toes crossed for you & j... he is heading back this afternoon, too.

Looking at the radar, the worst of the rain appears to be gone... just a few small areas of showers, but they look like they will pass to the north of the track.

Gosh, I hope there's a race tonight. Sounds like you're having a heck of a time with highs and lows but a lot of us would trade places with you! LOL

Thanks for the reminder about just how much walking there is at the track. In Vegas it takes us 20 minutes just to walk into the stands and some people don't realize this. So if you have bad knees or a bad back, beware of the walking on concrete. We'll look for those Ryan pix. Hope you have a great time at the track today and SHR brings home a win for us all.

The GPS took us one route that took 2 1/2 hours to get to the track and a completely different way home that took over three hours to get home once we were finally out of race traffic. Guess it was just one of those days that anything that could go wrong did.

I'm on a GPS forum and it's amazing how often users post the same thing happening to them and asking - why? There has never been a good answer. It's buried in the software of the GPS and only the manufacturer knows the answer. Enjoy the scenic route.

Hey CS... First, congrats on the up & down time you're having, but it also sounds like you may be having the time of your life. Your trip ( hi's & lows ) are part of history! Thanks for documenting it so well for us here, too.

Secondly... Not only am I glad to hear that this trip actually happened for you ... but that you and the Mrs ( Hey Girl ) were able to work things out.. and work together to make this trip happen. Makes it a lil more special, eh?

Anyways, hope you're both having a great time and can't wait to see the pix!

They did it!!!!! They gave us our Daytona 500!!! It was awesome. I would have liked to see a little more side by side racing but for the most part I think all the drivers were playing it kind of safe. Well everyone except for Juan Pablo Montoya (what the f#$k was he thinking?) That guy has now officially wrecked everything.

Everyone had a great time (even the little woman) I think her brother in law might be hooked. I have created another NASHOLE HA HA HA!!!! Her sister and brother in law both had to work early this a.m. so when Juan and the jet dryer got into their little dust up we decided to leave. We all really thought that was going to be the end of the race. How amazing was that? I have never seen anything like that watching NASCAR, yet another first in my life lol. Thankfully a good friend of mine from work was able to stay awake and send me text updates for the rest of the race.

It was a bit of a letdown to see Ryan spin (he did it right in front of us, and to sit there the rest of the night and have his skid marks as a reminder kind of sucked ha ha) but I enjoyed watching him battle back from two laps down to regain a position on the lead lap. I was texted that he had made it up to 8th position, and although I haven't seen any good replays of the incident he also told me that it was once again Smoke that took Ryan out w/ four to go. Just like he did in the 500 and at Dega last year. Not too upset by it cause lets face it, it's a plate race and that kind of crap always happens to Ryan so it was kind of expected.

All in all it was a pretty good Night the weather was beautiful, our seats were amazing, everyone had a great time, and all the stupid little annoying parts from Sunday are all just a memory. I do wanna say on a negative note though..... Say what you will about the racing at Pocono, but from a fan standpoint Pocono is a far better track than Daytona. Everything is relatively close, so there is no where near as much walking. Pocono allows you so much better access to the drivers, and The guards actually know what they are talking about (I can say that cause I was one a couple times ha ha)

All in all it was a pretty great expierience, and a historic one at that. First rain delayed 500, first 500 under the lights, 3rd woman to start a 500, and te first time some knuckleheaded driver from Columbia takes out a friggin jet dryer lol. I would def come down here and do it again.

My whole vacation was awesome. Her family is wonderfull and made us feel right at home for the entire week. Sadly today is the last full day for tomorrow we hafta catch a plane home. I cannot wait to get home and see our Powder puff (our kitten) but other than that I wish we could stay. Anyway when we get home I will post all my pics, (and videos if I can figure out how) From Daytona, our boat trip on the Gulf, and the dolphin tour we went on. Got good video of a couple dolphins but was too slow on the trigger to get a good pic lol. So I will post as much of that as I can and Iwill see you all when we get home.

Great to hear this CS. Was glad your Monday made the trip worthwhile. We were "watching" it together in the chat room here and it got a little crazy since it was sooooo long, but really fun. It would have been a bummer if the guys/girls in the chat room weren't such fun. I wasn't sure what it would be like to actually be there with all the down time but you answered my question. Thanks for the posts re. your trip. They were interesting reads.

I am glad you had a wonderful time at the track.

Glad you had an adventure at Daytona... Thats part of the fun sometimes. I find that most security/info personnel are volnteers and have no knowledge of the track at all.

So how many Columbians does it take to delay the Daytona 500?
Just Juan... lol