Gentlemen Start Your Engines!!!

This past weekend Andy and I went to Dallas to watch a NASCAR race. We went with my parents and several other people. We left on Friday after school and drove to Dallas with my dad. On Saturday we went to this famous bike shop called Strokers. It had a lot of custom bikes as well as biker gear and a restaurant. It was pretty cool.

 This is my future helmet, I thought the red skull would be perfect for me!

We had a good time looking at bikes! Andy really wants a bike but I keep telling him to hold off on that for a few years! After Strokers we went to the infamous Sam Moons! What woman does not like Sam Moons? It is definitely a womans dream...purses, jewelry, etc all under one roof! Andy and my dad weren't too excited about it. They mostly sat outside and waited on the women! They are such good sports! We also went to a store called IKEA. It is awesome! It is a home decor store. You walk through all of these rooms that are set up with actual merchandise. They have kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, kids rooms, etc.  You look at the set-ups then you can buy any of what you saw on the bottom level. I bought some place mats, green napkins, metal dividers for our cabinets, and a lid rack for our pots. It is very reasonable!! I wish we had one here! That night we went to dinner at Babe's Chicken. It was soo good, it reminds me of Monte Ne. You pick your meat and vegetables are served family style. Yum! Sunday morning was the day of the race. We got up really early to head to the track. It had been raining all night and morning but we still trucked out there. It was about an hour drive from our hotel. Once we got to the track we went to all the driver's trailers and looked at the merchandise. They also give out free stuff, there wasn't much good stuff this year but we did get a ton of Tums, suave shampoo, and Andy got enough dip to last him for a long time!! This is my mom's favorite part of the entire race...getting the free stuff. I took a picture of one of the driver's Clint Bowyer who was signing autographs at his trailer.

The race ended up getting postponed until Monday due to the weather. I was amazed at how many people were there, NASCAR is definitely a big deal. There were a ton of people there from all walks of life! It is one of the most diverse sporting events. I never thought I would like NASCAR but my dad use to race stock cars when I was younger and it really was fun to watch. NASCAR is different from dirt track but it is still fun! My favorite part about the whole race is when they say..."Gentlemen Start Your Engines". They have someone different announce that every race. It gets me really excited about the race! The race actually got postponed to Monday at 11:00 due to the rain. I wasn't too thrilled about that even though I had taken Monday off. I knew if we went we would be getting home really late. Andy really wanted to go so we stayed and went on Monday. My parents did not get to go to the race because my dad had to get back for work on Monday night. There were only 6 of us who stayed for the race on Monday. Even though we got home late I am glad we stayed. It was a great race and Andy really enjoyed it! Here are some pictures from the race.

This is Andy and I before the race started, it is so loud at the race that a lot of people wear headphones or ear plugs. We wore headphones because we had a scanner that we could use to listen to the broadcast or to the actual drivers during the race.

Fighter jets flying over the track as the national anthem is being sung by Charlie Pride.

With 12 laps to go there was a pretty intense crash right in front of us. Most of the drivers in this crash were leading or in the top 6 the entire race. It was sad to see them crash and not be able to finish the race. Some of the drivers that were in the crash were Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Joey Logano, Jeff Gordon, etc. The race ended shortly after the crash with Denny Hamlin winning! I had a great time and can't wait to go back!