Martinsville Speedway

The Marquise and I went out to Martinsville Speedway for the NASCAR race last Sunday. I have to say it was an adventure. We left the Marquise's place Sunday morning about 630a so that we could get up there by about 9 - 930a (which we made with plenty of time to spare). When we got to the parking lot, we took a quick "power" nap to rejuvenate and the headed out to the midway. I know that is a carnival term, but it fits better than anything else. On the way out there we had to walk past all the camping spaces. That should not have been a problem except that it had rained the past 4 days there. The entire place was one big mudpit. I mean one BIG mud pit. Considering we had about a mile or so to walk, it was not a pleasant experience. The midway was packed with people. All of the drivers had their own semi-truck ( some had several) full of stuff for people to buy. The Marquise kept muttering stuff about capitalism, Marxism and other -isms. I didn't quite follow it all. About 12p we decided to head to our seats, thinking the race started at 1p. It actually started at 2p. We ended up sitting there from 12p to 6p. A really long time. Once the race got going, it was actually OK. It took me about 100 laps to get used to watching the cars and figuring out who is who. I kept trying to look directly in front of me. Bad Idea. They move to fast. I finally figured out to look to my left and up to the turns. I think we were sitting by turn 3, maybe? After that, things got about as clear as they are gonna get for this Non-NASCAR person. The Marquise brought a notepad and we exchanged notes all through the race. Talking was out of the question.... we were on row 4. I have told her she has to post the notes on her blog, with as little editing as possible. They are a hoot.

My overall impression: this will probably be my one and only race. The reason will probably surprise you...... NASCAR fans are pigs. They do not pick up any of their trash and they don't even try to keep it contained. Beer cans, wrappers, bags were blowing everywhere. I actually could have put up with that, however, if that was all. The real killer was the ashes that kept blowing on me for 6 hours from people smoking nearby. The smoke didn't bother me, it was the ashes. I felt like I was sitting in one big ashtray. Unless there is a (large)non-smoking section, its gonna take a whole lotta persuasion to get me to go again.

Beer and NASCAR

I have to say "God Bless the Marquise". She is my beer brewing buddy lately and (I'm not sure how this happened) we have been getting together on Sundays to drink our beer or brew our beer. For those of you who have not seen her blog, let me tell you one thing about her. She LOVES NASCAR. She is about as fanatical as one can be without getting scary. For those of you who have not yet experienced the joy that is home brewing, I'll give you one little insight, it takes a while. It is not a process that you can complete in an hour. I'm not even talking about the fermenting. There is quite a bit of prep work involved and a little longer "wait" time, just sitting around waiting for the wort to cool of enough to add the yeast. So, since we happen to be brewing on a Sunday AND we have all this extra time, the Marquise has been patiently explaining the weirdness that is NASCAR to me. Every time I think I'm getting a handle on the rules, mores, lingo, you name it, she throws something else at me that screws up my understanding of this phenomenon. She is trying, though. Trying really hard. The good thing about having the Marquise explain anything to you is that you get the full unabridged version. No Cliff notes for her. Not only did I get the recent events, I received instruction in the past glories, rivalries, wrecks and fisticuffs that had occurred over the past 20 years or so. I had to stop her when she started into everyone's wives, children and possible sexual orientation (OK, I didn't stop her on that one) . So far I have learned that the pit crew cannot let the tires go bouncing away, that there are no "passing" rules (it always looked to me like someone would just get out of the way all of a sudden). I'm still trying to figure out how they determine who is in 1st (especially after a major pit stop). Which I guess is really the most important part of the whole damn thing, isn't it? I'm still working on it though. The cars go round and round and round and round and...........