As I type we are on our way.\u00a0 Now I trust Marlo\u2019s driving\u2026\u00a0 mostly\u2026\u00a0 she is driving so that I can write\u2026\u00a0 I just told her that I get to drive just as aggressively as she does\u2026 fair is fair\u2026 it did not slow her down :>
\nSo, the Garmin 768WT rocks.\u00a0 It has traffic, and lane assist and multiple routes, and, and , and \u2026\u00a0 Marlo wants to keep it.\u00a0 That is one of the reasons I am not leaving it with her.\u00a0 It is coming on my trek.\u00a0 It has walking mode\u2026\u00a0 three gps\u2019s, a computer, and a cell phone.\u00a0 I should be fine\u2026\u00a0 actually Linda mentioned something about seeing 20 alligators in a 5 mile stretch last week\u2026 hmmmm note to self.\u00a0 Get a large walking stick :>
\nThe vehicles in Florida are interesting.\u00a0 You have the extreme redneck special and the wretch excess models.\u00a0 Marlo spotted a Maybach yester day.\u00a0 It goes for about 500k, yep half a million dollars\u2026\u00a0 then there was the uber-redneck truck.\u00a0 Big, jacked-up duely 4X4.\u00a0 It looked like it could tow Rhode Island!\u00a0 I took a picture, but that was not enough.\u00a0 Marlo had to take a picture with her phone.\u00a0 Her phone has no zoom, so she sped up to get RIGHT behind it\u2026
\n—-
\nSunday, Sunday, Sunday, it\u2019s race day.\u00a0 Ok, we did it well!!!!\u00a0 For a last minute, spur of the moment event we could not have done it better.\u00a0\u00a0 Our journey began with a cruise across the lovely state of Florida for about 3 hours.\u00a0 We had little idea of what to expect.\u00a0 We did have a little insight for a man Marlo refers to as Tire Boy.\u00a0 He is an ex-boyfriend from long ago that she still keeps in touch with.\u00a0\u00a0 He said that we should get scalped tickets when we get there.\u00a0 Now this is not my best thought, but I go with it\u2026 so after the long drive that was actually quite pleasant we arrive.\u00a0 Marlo and I travel very well together, whether it be by plane, car, boat or anything so the three hours fly by.\u00a0\u00a0 We keep waiting to encounter the hoards of\u2026. Those NASCAR people\u2026.\u00a0 Well we are 5 miles from the place and there is no sigh.\u00a0 We had to get within 2 miles before we saw any sign of the place.\u00a0 Then things backed up pretty fast.\u00a0 We see the first scalper on the side of the road with a sign.\u00a0 Now when I think about scalpers I think of them selling tickets right outside the gate, not 2 miles away.\u00a0 We process this new information.\u00a0 We pass one more.\u00a0 Then we both decide to talk to the next guy and get the low-down.\u00a0\u00a0 Well the next guy not only had it all going on he had everything we wanted and more.\u00a0 He had tickets in the sprint tower AND tickets to the Verizon hospitality tent and what not\u2026\u00a0 he wanted 300 a piece for them at first.\u00a0 Now these are 350 tickets so that is not bad, but Marlo and I were thinking $200 a piece.\u00a0 We could have gotten cheaper tickets, but we wanted to be in the tower and it\u2019s not like we ever plan on doing it again, so hey!\u00a0 We talk him down to our price.\u00a0 Actually I think Marlo telling him, no several time and that is all we have, did the trick.\u00a0 So now we have tickets.\u00a0 The next hurdle is parking.\u00a0 This is actually very tricky as we have already passed the park and ride and many of the lots are already full\u2026\u00a0 we decide to try to get into one of the media gates.\u00a0 Now what made us think that could happen?\u00a0 Well, we had these official Verizon looking passes that I really hoped were real.\u00a0 Well we forged ahead.\u00a0 We got to the gate and Marlo leans out my window and claims that we are with the EMTs and asks where we should park.\u00a0 We Mr. gate minder simply tells us to come on in drive around to gate eight and park.\u00a0 We are in!!! I can\u2019t believe it.\u00a0 I keep waiting for someone to stop us and ask us for a pass or something.\u00a0 Nope!\u00a0 I did make sure I maintained my, \u201cI belong here\u201d face the whole time.\u00a0 We found a lovely spot RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE GATE!!!\u00a0 I kid you not, we are talking feet here!\u00a0 We quickly park, abandon the car and HOPE that it will be here when we come back out several hours later.
\nNow we have our tickets and a backpack with clothes, sunscreen, camera, binoculars, etc.\u00a0 They did not even look at my bag.\u00a0 Apparently you can bring anything you want in this place!\u00a0 I mean anything.\u00a0 We found our seats and they rocked!\u00a0 We read our passes and the \u201cFrontstrech\u201d thing closes when the flag drops so we go to check it out.\u00a0 We go in and everything in the place is free, we get food and drink and they will even give you several to bring into the place with you.\u00a0 Again, passing up free beer!!!! Arg!!!\u00a0 We it is just about race time so we go back to our seats.\u00a0 We get there and chat with the man next to us and he fills us in about some of the way things go.\u00a0 They announce the drivers, the jets fly overhead.\u00a0 We are actually very excited about all this!\u00a0 They we get the \u201cGentleman, start your engines.\u201d\u00a0 40 some cars roar to life!\u00a0 They make the place rumble.\u00a0 The pace car drops off (driven by Tom Cruise) and the race is on!\u00a0 At this point my goal has been accomplished, I am happy.\u00a0 By this time a group of guys sit down next to us.\u00a0 They brought their 30 pack in a garbage bag with ice in it.\u00a0 We thought we were in for something.\u00a0 It turns out this guy is wearing a Rolex (fakeness not confirmed) and is holding a $300 Nascar monitoring TV device that gives you gobs of information and video from the cars and every other angle and real-time stats and what not.\u00a0 We decide that the 350 seat rednecks are ok.\u00a0 He did have his chew though.\u00a0 He was very nice and was keeping Marlo informed as to the goings ons.
\nWe got out of our seats to attempt to find Marlo\u2019s friends and bam!\u00a0 An accident right in front of where we were sitting!\u00a0 Drat!\u00a0 There was another big pile up just after we left.\u00a0 That\u2019s ok, we did not come for the crashes\u2026 ok, and maybe a little\u2026 we left at lap 120 and beat the rain and the crowds.
\nT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I type we are on our way.\u00a0 Now I trust Marlo\u2019s driving\u2026\u00a0 mostly\u2026\u00a0 she is driving so that I can write\u2026\u00a0 I just told her that I get to drive just as aggressively as she does\u2026 fair is fair\u2026 it did not slow her down :> So, the Garmin 768WT rocks.\u00a0 It has traffic, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-florida-2009"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7vq9N-2A","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatup.brantct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}