NASCAR Weekend

This is a picture-less post, as I forgot my camera....can't believe I did that....but on the 21st of September, John came up to visit in Philly.

We'd both planned on running the ING Philadelphia Distance Run, but I hurt a hamstring a few weeks before the race. I was SO upset that I couldn't run with John, but fortunately, he was still able to do the race. It's a great run, all through the downtown historic part of Philly, and then out along the banks of the Schuylkill River. Remember the scenes in Rocky when he was pulling Mickey behind him? Yeah, that's on the Schuylkill (by the way, that's skoo-kull). It's probably an Indian name, but I haven't had the motivation to look it up.

The night John arrived, me, Tanya, and John went to Monk's Cafe for dinner. Monk's is a very cool Belgian themed "beer bar" here in Philly. We had a great dinner of mussels and other assorted goodies and Tanya and I proceeded to enjoy the great beers. John had a couple, but he did have to run the next day! After getting home, we tortured him with a late night game of scrabble while Tanya and I had a martini and a couple drams of Scotch. We ended the game soon and finally let John get some rest!

The next morning, John did the race and I lamely waited with coffee in hand as he finished with a damn good time. I believe is was 2:04, correct John?

After that, we headed down to Dover, DE. All of the people I work with (the "experts") said that it would take HOURS and we'd be in traffic forever and we'd never make the start!!! We left at about 1100 and were walking to our seats at about 1230 - and that's after we stopped at the Sunoco hospitality tent for some free food and schwag.

We hit the stands and proceeded to watch a great race. Thanks again to John for springing for the radios that allow you to hear the pits and drivers talk to each other - one of the coolest things at these races.

Now, as we were sitting there we discussed what it would be like if Holly had been there. This led to us laughing quite frequently. There is a certain awareness of humanity that you can only get at NASCAR races. Not all races - some are pretty posh. However, the track in Dover makes you feel like you're smack in the middle of the movie Raising Arizona. The best part is that as we were walking down the swaying, flimsy metal steps under the flimsy metal bleachers at the end of the race; we were getting rained on by God only knows what kinds of fluids.

In any case, it was a great time. Once again, we largely beat traffic on the way home and had another good dinner and good beers at The Belgian Cafe (same owners as Monk's, but it's a block and a half from where I live).

Great times!! John - when are we doing this again!!!???