Between Bristol & Galax, the signs warn if you are over 35’ do not attempt, since we are no longer towing, we are only 27’ so we thought there would be no problems. What should have only taken us about 3 hours to get to the track, instead took us over 6 hours. The weather had little to do with our delay, what really made the difference was the road we traveled. Much of the drive consisted of going only 15 to 30 mph around the curves, climbing and descending the mountain and just when we thought it was over, it began all over again.
The only warning signs between Hillsville and Martinsville states that all trucks over 65’ will need a special permit, not once was there any warning about the 9% grade down off the mountain. To add to the grade, it was rainy and foggy and at one time we felt that the fog was actually the clouds since we were at the top of the mountain with the wildest curves we have been through. After speaking to some fellow fans at the track they said we were lucky we couldn’t see because the edge didn’t have any guard rails and it was a long way down.
It was still a steady rain when we finally arrived at the track and we had not heard back from our last email about any available work at the track so we paid for our camping. We were cold, wet and our rig was leaking everywhere, so we did what we usually do, we began our pity party, whining, crying, asking ourselves if we would have to once again give up on our dream and wondering if dreams really do come true. Unlike all the other times when we got to this point, this time we decided we would not sink into the black abyss, instead we both woke up with a new attitude and we got busy.
The rain had slowed so we went out and began setting up our site, we knew with all the rain, we couldn’t fully set up but we did need to put our awning, chairs and a few other items out. We introduced ourselves to our neighbors, they were apologetic about leaving their generator running until wee hours of the morning, and we explained that we were immune to the sound since we do many of these tracks. They wanted to hear more of our story, so we all chatted for a while. They asked where we would be sitting for the events and we explained that we did not have our tickets yet and were still deciding which events we would be attending. A few moments later, they presented us both with tickets for all three of the events. They explained that wives had not been able to make it and they had the extra tickets and wanted us to be able to enjoy the events.
Again, we need to reiterate that NASCAR fans are the best damn fans in the world and also once you get yourself out of feeling sorry for yourself and just move forward, good things begin to happen.
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