Where to start . . . we were excited for our trip so we decided to leave early. We left on Wednesday night instead of early Thursday morning. It is probably a good thing we did because we battled fog, snow, and slick roads for the first 3 or so hours of the trip. It was after midnight before we decided to stop and sleep for a few hours. We were just outside of SLC and found some hole in the wall motel. Neither Shawn nor I slept very well, so it felt like a waste of money. We were up early and on the move. We made it to Vegas about 1 o'clock their time. Since our tickets never showed up in the mail like they were suppose to we had to stop at the ticket office to pick up our tickets. It got us all excited being near the track around all the hoop la.
Next we headed to see if we could check in to our hotel room. We stayed at the Sahara. Our room wasn't ready for an hour and a half. We went to the Nascar Cafe for some food. It was crazy and extremely busy in there and took up all of the time we needed until our room was ready. After we checked in we looked over the brochures to see what shows were in town and took a little nap while waiting for Jason (brother-in-law) to fly in. His first flight had been delayed causing him to miss his connecting flight, but he finally arrived around 6:30. Let the party begin.
This picture was taken at the Nascar Cafe.
That night (Thursday night) we headed to the House of Blues to watch Hank the III play. Hank the III is Hank Williams Jr.'s son. Shawn enjoys his music very much and was ecstatic to see he was playing and for only $25 a person, which in Vegas is cheap. The first half of the concert was good he sings what they call cow punk, but the second half he sings more heavy metal like. I didn't care so much for that so we left early. My only other complaint was it was standing room only. After leaving the concert we started walking. We saw so much I am not sure if I can remember what night we saw what. But I do know that Thursday night we did go the Coyote Ugly, which was nothing like the one in the movie. It was small and dark, but we had fun anyway. We also went to I Love This Bar, it is owned by Toby Keith. Cowboy Troy of the Music Mafia was singing in their. Beyond that I can't remember the places we were that night. I do know that at about 1 in the morning I was starving and finally got the Terry brothers to stop at the McDonalds right there on the strip for dinner. After walking numerous miles that night I convinced the boys to catch a cab back to our hotel. Shawn & I ended up crawling into bed around 2:30, while Jason decided to go play some Black Jack.
4 1/2 hours later we found ourselves out of bed getting ready for our golf game. We had a tee time at 8:58 a.m. and we wanted to be there early, plus we did not know for sure how long it would take us to drive there. Jason never did make it to bed that night so we got him from the Black Jack table and made it to the golf course with time to spare. We played 18 holes and it was only the second time Shawn had played, but he did well. I hadn't played in a while and after a few holes I was starting to hit better and by the end I had a couple good holes. The weather was nice and we really had a lot of fun golfing.
Shawn relaxing in the cart.
Jason enjoying the game and me in the background concentrating hard on getting a good hit.
A couple of ducks that were visiting us while we teed off.
Shawn getting ready to hit the golf ball hard and far.
Me waiting to tee off.
Our next guest to join the party was Craig he is one of Jason's best friends. He flew in late that afternoon. So after golf we grabbed some Arby's and headed back to the hotel to wait for Craig to show. I got cleaned up while the boys played in the casino. We then headed to Margaritaville for some dinner. From there we walked many more miles and went to many more places. Once again crawling in to bed around 2:30 or so.
Saturday morning we slept in an hour more than Friday morning. We headed out to the track and were there by 9 or so. What an experience! We took in the sites and sounds of the track. We were even on speed tv. We bought some Jr. gear. I wore a tank top and shorts because it was suppose to be warm, however when the wind picked up and the sun was behind the clouds it was cold. Thank heavens I had my hoodie with me, but I was still cold. The race was awesome it was so loud and when the cars were passing you could feel it in the bleachers. We watched the pre-race show, the practice session for the Sprint Cup race, and of course Nationwide Race. We loved the experience and looked forward to the next day even more. Oh yeah our least favorite driver Kyle Busch wrecked on the 3rd lap. I could not have asked for more, except for it to happen again the next day. It was amazing the amount of cheers that went up when he did. Otherwise he is disliked by more than Shawn & I.
That night we were going to try to see the show of comedian, Ron White, but his show was sold out. So once again we put on our walking shoes to see the sites. We went to dinner at the buffet in Planet Hollywood. I can't recall the name right now, but it had great food and a lot to choose from. Another place we ended up at is the Dueling Piano Bar. That was an enjoyable experience, plus after waiting for about a half an hour we were able to sit at a table. By this time my feet had blisters and were hurting. Once again we found our bed at an early hour in the morning.
We arose early with excitement and anticipation for the Sprint Cup Nascar race. We had been told that traffic to and from the race could take hours so to be on the safe side we decided to leave early. It didn't take as long as everyone said, but we were at the track early enough to enjoy the pre-show and festivities. We enjoyed this race more then the first race. The race was sold out. Being big Nascar fans we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and are hooked. We would love to go to more races. Our favorite driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. actually had a pretty good race and car. Unfortunately things beyond his control left him in 10th place at the end of the race. The biggest and only disappointment of the race was that cry baby Kyle Busch won, but only because of luck. He was at the back of the race the whole time until some of the other drivers mistakes carried him to the front. He might have won, but the boos could be heard over any cheering that might have been going on. The day was much warmer and both Shawn & I sunburned our faces. Shawn had shorts on and also fried the top inside of his legs. The drive back to the hotel was not as horrendous as everyone made us believe.
Our ticket holder with the tickets in it. It was on a lanyard you could wear around your neck. If you left the main gate you had to be scanned in and out.
Pre-race activities-- all the cars were lined up on the track
The Flying ELVI- 10 skydiving Elvis impersonators, not a great picture but it was fun to watch
After the National Anthem was sung the military planes flew by in formation, as weird as it sounds this part is very cool and gave me goose bumps.
We took a picture of all these little helicopters. The heli-pad was right there by the track. We watched them come and go before and after the race. All of the drivers are flown to and away from the track. They are also for other big wigs I am sure. They were fun to watch. I can't remember which day it was but walking to the track one of the helicopters was so close over our heads my hat flew off. Shawn caught his before it did and chased mine down. Thanks baby!
Restart of the race after a caution.
If you look at the top of the hat you can see Dale Jr.'s car. These pictures were hard to get because the cars are going close to 200 mph. Plus, I was trying to take it over this guys head while he was standing.
This is how you know where your favorite or not favorite driver is starting, running, and finishes.
We made friends with the group behind us and they were willing to take a picture of us. Unfortunately I look like I just spent a whole day at the race track (I did by the way). Ya like the sun burnt faces?
I love this picture of Shawn. You can see how much fun we both had written all over his face. Also the smoke in the background is from the Kyle Busch burn out after the win.
Once we got back to the hotel we cleaned up and met up with Jason. Craig had flown out that afternoon. We went down to the Nascar Cafe for dinner, but before dinner Jason and I went on the Nascar Speed roller coaster. It was fun and fast. After dinner we hung out at a club, just enjoying the music and visiting. I do believe we made it to bed at our normal Vegas bedtime around 2 or so. Next morning we had breakfast before dropping Jason off at the airport. Sad that our trip was over we headed home. We made great time on the drive home. Shawn drove at first while I slept and then we switched I drove while Shawn slept. To say the least we were both exhausted. What a great trip with a lot of even better memories.
p.s. I carried the camera around with me the first two nights and never took any pictures. Then I never even brought it with me the next few nights, of course now I wish I would have taken at least a few pictures beyond golf & Nascar.
p.s.s. I am sure I forgot to mention a lot of things, but there was a lot of information to store in my sleep deprived brain.
