Our trip to Florida and the Daytona 500 plus other stuff

Yes, I'm perfectly aware that this is being posted shortly after the conclusion of the California race. What can I say? I'm a procrastinator.

We got back from a little mini-vacation in Florida a few days ago. While there we went to the Daytona 500. It was the first NASCAR race we've been to outside of Atlanta. We had a lot of fun ... here are some pictures. Unfortunately, all the pictures I got were pre-race. Our seats were "good" in the sense that they were close to the track, but the downside was that we really couldn't see much of the track. You could feel the air turbulence from the cars as they whizzed by but they were pretty much a blur. Next time I'm definitely going to make sure we're farther back and up in the stands.


The weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was in the mid 70s with just a few wispy clouds. The place was packed. The pre-race pictures we took were from going to "Fan Zone" which was an extra-cost thing. I doubt I would pay for it again, but to do once, it was pretty cool. We got to stroll through the pit areas and walk on the tracks. Donna wrote a "Go Jeff"-type message on the wall in Gordon's pit stall on behalf of her parents. She also wrote one on Mikey's wall. The one for Gordon worked, apparently. ;)

We hated to see Mikey's engine give out. It looked like he had the win within his grasp. That disappointing finish made today's California finish even harder to take. Two blown engines in a row? DEI seems to really be struggling. Dale Jr. finished pretty strong in the Daytona race but then he had that weird problem today with the left front tire and dropped 11 spots in the driver's standings. Of course, Hendricks had its fare share of problems too. Lots of cars with Hendricks engines had problems, too -- including Jeff Gordon. At least Jimmy Johnson's car held out for a 2nd place finish. If the race had been one lap longer, either his engine would have blown up too, or he would have won. :)

Well, I shall keep this entry rather brief. Mainly wanted to get a quick entry up and post the pictures from our little Florida getaway before yet another weekend managed to slip past.