Get Your Motor Runnin'

Well, I FINALLY made it back from my trip. Needless to say, it was quite a fiasco to get home. But, let's start at the beginning of the trip! The four of us left out Wednesday afternoon for Atlanta and got there late that evening. We were staying about 1 mile from the airport, however our journey from the airport to the hotel took around 30 minutes...Good Times. You see, we went east instead of west or something like that-all I know is it was the wrong direction. But, we finally found the hotel and were ready to eat dinner! So, around 10 we decided to walk over to Mc Donald's across the street (I say street, however the cars were whizzing by at around 50 mph).....We walk across the street only to find that the dining area is locked and all that is available is the drive-thru. So, we walk BACK to the hotel and get the mini-van. Then, we drive back over to the restaurant. Since we are expensing the meal, we each needed different receipts. Well, we decided it would be smart to each buy a few bottles of water for the next day since the Speedway wouldn't have everything set-up as well as their drinks/food would be outrageous! First order, cheeseburger happy meal, diet coke, and 2 bottles of water. Second order, fish sandwich, 3 bottles of water. Third order, quarter pounder meal, dr.pepper, 2 bottles of water...at this point the lady is getting curious...Final order, double cheeseburger meal, dr. pepper, 2 bottles of water. Well, the lady couldn't resist. She said, "Man, someone is thirsty in that vehicle! I think they have a case of Cottonmouth!" We started cracking up. She was so tickled at us that she had trouble cashing out the orders when we pulled up to pay. Good times!
The next day we got up and went to our terminal to tour the facility and coordinate the container for delivery to the speedway. As each member of the terminal personnel handed us off to the next area, they would introduce us as the "NASCAR team"....well, we thought they understood that we were employees of their company just touring the facility, but it got worse and worse. By the next day, they were telling others that some big shots with NASCAR had come to see them! Little did they know, we were just fellow employees!
After the tour, we headed out to lunch before heading over to the speedway to start setting up our booth. We stopped and ate at Cracker Barrel-yummy! Then off to the speedway....this was the part that concerned me...trying to bring together 3 different chunks of one project in a foreign area. But, it all worked out just fine. The showcar showed up on time, the container was delivered as scheduled, and we found the booth location. The booth turned out AWESOME! When Todd brought the showcar to the area, he let me back it out of the trailer! It was such an awesome experience! Then, we started up the car-you should have seen the people jump! It was so loud! After a few hours of coordinating the booth setup and unwrapping hundreds of stress chairs, we were stressed out and ready to relax...so, we decided to meet up with Todd and Vic and hang out...we headed first to Buckhead, but change of plans made us backtrack past the hotel and towards the Speedway. All was well though, we ate at a Mexican restaurant and then headed to the club for a little fun. And a little more fun...and a little more fun! At 3 a.m. the club closed down and we had to turn in for the evening. Probably for the best because we had a busy day ahead of us! The booth went well Friday with Jason stopping by to sign autographs. That evening, we caught the truck race in our suite...SWEET!
By Saturday the booth was even busier! The weather was great as well-after a busy afternoon manning the booth, we closed down to catch the Busch race-Jason did AWESOME! We were so proud! Saturday night saw us a little confused on our evening plans. We were going to meet up with a couple of groups of people, however a fatality at the track and lack of vehicle prohibited everything coming together. No worries though...we just hung out and relaxed a little while infield. It definitely reminded me of hanging out at home....
Sunday however was very cold and rainy! The turnout wasn't as big as Saturday due to the weather, but we still had tons of people come by. By noon it was time to pack up and head to the airport...this is where the trip home got fun!
We head to the airport ready to fly out...our flight gets delayed. And delayed even more. We finally get to board the plane only to have to sit in the plane for an hour longer! While we wait on the tarmack, AA calls me and says that my connecting flight is canceled. Not cool! So, we knew it would be another night in a hotel even after we got off of the plane....
We got to Dallas and found our hotel. We were exhausted by then-a long weekend and a long trip home. We went over to Bennigan's to grab a bite to eat before dinner, but I think our appetites were shot from not being able to eat lunch the past few days!
We FINALLY flew home the next morning..wearing the same cute booth t-shirts and pants we had worn the previous day since we had no access to our luggage! We got off the plane and headed straight into the office looking oh so nice! NO MAKE-UP, YUCKY CLOTHES! GOOD TIMES, GOOD TIMES!!
All in all, it was a great, great trip!
Pictures to come!