I’m a homebody, and I don’t make any bones about it. It’s not that I need to lie around on the couch all day (though that would be nice); it’s just that I value the security and prefer the comfort of “my place.” Of course, if Jenna gets her way, that will soon mean a different address AND zip code, and me going broke (Let’s start the official idiom count right now: that’s “one”)

I am in the midst of a nine-week stretch where I am away from home every weekend and quite a bit of the week. The NHRA schedule did afford us three open weekends between the St. Louis and Norwalk races, but I managed to fill all of those in. The weekend between St. Louis and Bristol we all went to Delaware to visit Aunt Kathy (who is actually doing much better lately, though still far from out of the woods). (Sorry, quick pause for a colloquialism clarification: What the hell does having cancer have to do with being in a forested area, Jack?) Anyway, this Memorial Day weekend we all went out to Charlotte to see the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race. Though we unfortunately missed the race due to rain, we didn’t come away empty-handed (okay, technically that’s an idiom, # 2). We did get to do some pretty cool stuff while in Charlotte:

Before I get carried away (idiom # 3), the reason we were in North Carolina is that we were guests of Coca-Cola. Chris Lopez, who is the Full Throttle representative for Coke at the NHRA races (and a former “Valley Dude” himself), arranged all of this for us, and we are very grateful. Eddie and Annemarie Krawiec, Brandon and Tracey Bernstein, plus Jessi Combs from FTTV were all part of our group. Del and Connie Worsham also were out there for the festivities, as were Jason Line and Greg Anderson.

It was nice to know that some things stay predictable: Jason (my Jason, as I have no idea when Mr. Line sleeps) finally went to sleep at 1 a.m. Saturday morning… Pacific Time. Yep, that would be about four in the morning local time, and made for a really pleasant night of sleep (that’s just good-ole sarcasm there). That proverb, “The early bird catches the worm” really doesn’t apply to our family, which is okay, because I truly am not in need of any worms at this time. So, the Rip Van Beckman family headed over to the local Discovery Museum so Jason could have some fun. We then walked him through part of the NASCAR extravaganza on our way to my first assignment, and he was thoughtful enough to point out his dad’s name on the agenda banner… smart kid.

Eddie, Brandon, and I were interviewed by Jessi up on stage in the middle of the downtown fan fest. It was an enormous event and very impressive, featuring a Clint Black concert at the end of the evening. NASCAR really knows how to cover their bases for a race (another idiom, Jack). In between we were invited to a Coke “party” (I know that reads kind of odd, so let me say that it was a get-together put on by the makers of the Coca-Cola soft drink). This was probably the highlight of Jenna’s weekend, as she got her picture taken with Olympic gold medalist (yeah, I know… AND winner of this year’s Dancing with the Stars) Shawn Johnson. Shawn even held Jason for a photo (I have no idea how Jeff Burton snuck behind them and got in my photo), and Jenna had me take another with her camera so she could immediately send it to her mother. You wouldn’t believe the attention Ms. Johnson received during the two days that we saw her. Hell, she was more popular than pancakes at a fat farm (I made up that idiom… or colloquialism… or whatever it is). Why would someone get so excited just to have their picture taken with a celebrity? Besides, Jenna almost cut into my waiting time to have my photo taken with THE Bobby Allison… woo-hoo! Now, THAT’S exciting, I don’t care where you’re from. Eddie swore to me that his iPhone took great photos, but now I’m thinking that the folks at Apple may have just squeezed one of those cheap, disposable box cameras in there. Besides the obvious quality issues on this shot, I clearly am far better looking in person.

Sunday all of us but Jenna and Jason headed out for Lowe’s Motor Speedway in the a.m. to get credentialed (don’t worry, it wasn’t painful) and checked in. We were guests in Dan Farrell’s (a senior VP) office, which has a spectacular view of the track. We were able to walk down to the garage area and poke around the cars and crews. I didn’t see my buddies from team Hendricks (we took a tour of their shop while at the NHRA race last year), but most of the shop guys don’t go with the cars to the race. I did run in to Kirk Butterfield, who spent years working in the NHRA, as did his brother Kevin. Kirk has been doing the left turn deal for several years now, and he currently works on the M&M’s car of Kyle Busch. In fact, I just saw a photo on NHRA.com of several of us speaking with him in front of the garage area. It was very different from the preparation at an NHRA race, but I really can appreciate the effort and professionalism of all of the crew folks in each sport. Seeing the cars going through tech, looking at the pit carts and huge toolboxes these teams have, the corner scales in each garage area, the templates that are used to certify each body make, and the way the cars are “sealed” after tech so that they can’t be touched before the start of the race was very interesting to me. Fortunately, I was able to shoot photos pretty much wherever I wanted to (though I didn’t push my luck), so I hope it conveys some of the atmosphere to you guys as well. I haven’t been to a NASCAR Cup race since about 1976, and that was a road course race, so this all was really brand new for me. We got to walk around pit row and shoot photos there, and Eddie and I thought it would be funny to swap tires between a couple of teams (they had what looked to be 20 in each pit area), but we decided against it.

We were able to walk up behind the stage for the driver intros, and it was fun watching all of the stars come up and get ready for their introduction. I felt bad for the guy who followed Dale Jr. out onstage, as apparently “Little E” is more popular than Ben Gay in an old folk’s home (I made that up, too). The Army did some awesome stuff with artillery, helicopters, and troops. Eddie and I were thinking about hiding in those two little camouflaged sheds that they had set up in the infield, but we never got around to it. Good thing, as it turns out they were blown up in the pre-race Army demonstration. That would have been tough to explain to Don Schumacher! The Air Force did a flyover with several fighter planes, and you could feel the excitement starting to build. By this time we all were back in Dan’s office for the start of the race, and Jenna and Jason were ready as well.

Up until this point everything had gone wonderfully well. Then it rained. What a total letdown. I felt like the baton for the U.S. relay team at the Olympics (that was a reach, but pretty damn clever!). We came away empty-handed (thought I’d work in one more idiom to show off), as the race wasn’t run until Monday.

In case any of you didn’t notice, what with not having to go to work and all, Monday was Memorial Day, and it’s called that because of all of the heroic efforts that a few have done so that the many (hey, I sound kind of like Churchill talking about the Battle of Britain!) can live their lives in freedom. Thanks to all of our veterans and current military!

Even though the start time was four hours before our departure, there was no way we could chance missing our flight. That’s funny, because when we got to the airport we were told there weren’t any seats available… and we had reservations! Then we were told they would try to get the three of us seated together (yeah, go ahead and sit Jason in a different row and see how long that lasts!), before they finally ended the suspense and gave us the seats that we had paid for. Awesome to fly… I just can’t get enough airports, TSA, delays, and uncomfortable seats.

Speaking of all of the above, my flight leaves tomorrow (actually it now would be today, Wednesday) at 6 a.m., as I have an NHRA media tour to do Wednesday, then things really get busy for me on Thursday. I’m not allowed to tell you just yet, but I will fill you in as soon as I get back. Don’t worry, I’m not going to literary college or the University for Idioms (which is one letter away from where I should be), but I do plan on going to the winner’s circle.

Stay tuned!