Hey Scott

[imported_pctech]

Tell us about your day at the track

[scottpc]

I've gone to Watkins Glen for the NASCAR race for the last four years running. We've got grandstand seats in the "90" and if you're familiar with the track, it's the first turn (90 degrees) off the front straight after the start / finish line.

Thursday night we head down to the hotel in a little one-horse town called Penn-Yan, NY. I personally love it there - and I find myself there on business about a half dozen times a year anyway. That's the vacation home-base from which we can walk to a half-dozen really good restaurant / bars.

Friday we usually go watch practice at the track, and then check out the towns around the track. They all do street fair / festival type events in order to drive up t-shirt sales. It's still a great time though.

Saturday is a BUSH regional race - not even televised in most cases. It's kind of a let down, because the inexperienced drivers on Saturday make for more mayhem than the professional Sunday drivers. As you might imagine, the big race on Sunday was much cleaner than the carnage of Saturday. That's why you have to go see it!

My future parents-in-law, Jenny, and I go together. Jenny and I have another couple that we've known for years that go with us. When we get there, her aunt and uncle, twin cousins, and their almost-husbands are already there. I love her family, but it feels more and more like there are two separate family vacations crashing into eachother.

So aside from the early morning ra-ra about "let's get there early so we can park less than two miles from the track" it's a great time. We camp out in the ocean of cars, tailgate, make friends with your neighbors... It's like woodstock only with better facilities.

Last year was the real kicker. We got to the track Sunday morning, and it had been raining for weeks. It was dry enough to race, but the parking lots were a mess. Both Jenny's dad and myself got our vans stuck deep in the mud - we've got pictures of one right behind the other. Because there was nothing we could do, I started drinking in order to provide comic relief. It worked! I got plowed in the process though. The farm tractor got us out just in time to see the green flag drop. When we got home, it took me a week to get all that mud out from under the van. As you might imagine, I traded that van in after we got back.

If you've never been to a race, I highly recommend it.

[AMD_Robert]

i prefer amsterdam. the "coffee" is great at the blue dolphin cafe :lol: