So the past weekend saw a trip down to Florence for everyone... I went to the Darlington races while Jessica went to a Sorority gig in Myrtle Beach. The twins hung out with Nanna and Papa.

I went down early on Friday and took the opportunity to meet Aunt Ashley for lunch in Lexington... and then did some quick shoppin for Mothers day. I then dodged the rain and watched Sprint Cup qualifying before meeting up with Papa and Uncle Wes for the Nationwide race. The race was uneventful, I must admit...


Saturday saw the twins heading to the lake with Nanna and Papa where I hear that both Ryles and I-Man caught fish, and rode the jetski's. I went to the track and met up with a guy from work. We then walked around the souvy trucks and got a chance to see some drivers... I was particularly excited to get to see David Pearson from relatively close range although he was kinda being mobbed. Pearson was my favorite driver growing up and if you look at the stats, Pearson won 105 races in less than half the amount of starts Richard Petty had... 105/400(Pearson) to 200/1000+(Petty) is pretty impressive. Notice the dude with no shirt... classy..(reference a previous post)... i thought about photoshoppin him out but figured you would miss out on the ambiance if I did... by the way, Pearson is the gentleman (right in middle of pic) looking obviously bothered by Mr no tshirt...

We then got a chance to see Mark Martin up close. I was stunned at how small he is. I honestly mistook him for a kid when I first saw him backstage because I was going to try to squeeze of a picture of him. I saw him but thought "that CAN'T be him... that's some kid that looks similar to Mark Martin"




We then reveled in more Americana at the NASCAR RACEDAY on SPEEDCHANNEL... I started to ponder at times if there were any black people at this event... (actually, I'm kidding. There were lot's o black people... still dont see many Hispanics or Asians though...) but not many rebel flags anymore... used to be I'd see a bunch of them but, as I have often said, that crowd and ilk is slowly phasing out. Its till exists, but eventually it will be somewhat a footnote... or at least I hope so... Anyways, I hope I can get some people to go to a race later this year. Maybe the Charlotte race or Atlanta race in the fall...

The race saw us in the usual seats Papa has every year that I am fortunate that he lets me have. These seats are virtually perfect... at the top of the bottom section where you can see most of the track, but close enough to feel the ground shake when they go by... and at the end of the row... with the concessions stands right behind us... and the bathrooms right beside them...

Anyways... Sunday was Mothers's Day and Ryles and I-Man got Jessica a card (I-Man made his) and a couple of Cd's she had been wanting... We hung out in Florence for a while before heading to Lexington where we met up with Uncle Wes/Aunt Ashley/Aunt Ellen and cousin Madison for Ice Cream with Nanna for Mother's Day. She got a Kindle from her kids, which is about as cool a gift you can get if you think about the advance in technology that will be seen as in 300 years or so...

We then went and watched Cousin Madison get some more experience riding her bicycle without training wheels... a few crash and burns, but that is to be expected...

Finally, we headed back up the highway, stopping off at Grandma's house to see her for Mother's Day. We hung out there for about 45 minutes before heading back to TRY to miss the budding T-Storms I could see off in the distance. we ended up getting caught in one super heavy storm, which serves to clean my car nicely...

And now we are into this week... work/school/soccer/lessons/homework/PASS testing/Soccer Tourney...