I just can't believe we are back home already.  The trip went by too fast.  We had such a good time and although we missed the kids, we also loved just being a couple.  EO is already making plans for us, next year. 

OK, so how did I do?  Well, thankfully, Steph had been helping me to workout and build up my strength.  So I had that going for me. 

The day we left we drove straight through to Louisville KY.  We stopped to sleep a couple hours and continued on.  We wanted to go through KY in the daylight... go thing we did.  I had us take a wrong turn and we ended up going through the mountains.  Which actually was FABULOUS!  We went through the Pine top & Black mountains.  It was wild! 

Interesting thing about the people who live in the mountains there.... NO YARDS!  the carve a spot in the rock and back in a trailer.  The oldest trailers in the world can be found there.  If there is a yard, it is full of broken down vehicles.  It is actually really sad.  I couldn't even bear to take a picture.  Old broken down barns, old broken down bridges, old broken down trailers.  In some areas, there is more money, and the trailers and houses are newer and maintained.  And there is usually one maybe two very nice houses. 

One site that was fun to see, was the fog in the mountains.  Various little pockets of fog, it was pretty.  Northern KY was more rolling hills and very pretty.  We didn't go into Virgina very far, just enough to see it was much like KY.  We also didn't go very far into TN, but there was clearly more money in the area we were in.  I would have liked to have seen more of it and we talked about going into N. Carolina, but time was an issue for us. 

Race day.  It did rain in the morning, and was a light sprinkle by the time we got there and about an hour later it stopped and the sun started to come out.  We had no idea where our seats would place us but it turns out we were in the shade the whole day, we were so glad, otherwise we would have cooked.  We got a little red, but not burned at all.  We did have fun at the race.  We knew there would be a lot of people there, but to actually see it is another matter.  The tents and rigs selling every drivers souvenirs.  The food... no THE FOOD!!! There was every sort of food you can think of, and some you can't think of.  It smelled so amazing.  There was an ocean of RVs & campers.  The one thing, we thought it would be rowdy and people would be obnoxious.  In the section we were sitting, there was one guy who yelled out, something, (I forget what) another guy answered and the first guy yelled a couple more times, and that was it. Everyone just ignored the guy and nothing came of anything he said.  Kind of funny actually.  The other thing, we knew it would be loud at the track, but boy am I glad we had ear protection... cause WOW WOW WOW it was loud.  It was loud before the cars got up to speed, but when they started racing... I could scream at the top of my lungs and i couldn't hear myself.  We saw a few people who didn't have ear protection, I felt bad for them, because I know they were going to be deaf for a few days.  We also knew we wouldn't be getting out of the parking lot anytime soon after the race, so we just took our time and looked around.  When we did go back to the car, there was still a line, so we mapped out our plan for going back home and then started our way back to the hotel. 

We actually went to Applebees after the race for dinner.  The first night we went to Bonanza and that was good.  We didn't try to many different types of places, but a couple.  We did some shopping and just enjoyed ourselves.  It has been a long time since we just had fun like that together.

The night after the race, we went back to the hotel in Wise, and slept so well.  The trip back home was nice too.  Although Monday, I was so tired, I had a really hard time thinking.  Navigating was really tough.  EO said my reaction time was so slow.  We slept in Champagne and it was Paradise.   OK, we stayed at the Best Western Paradise Inn, in Champagne Illinois.  But it is more fun to say we slept in champagne.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and I look forward to next year.. if we take another trip next year.  I will be posting some pics on my picture gallery page.