the Kid and I Were Disappointed

If you have been Counting Along With Me, you will probably remember the Roar Before The 24 over at Daytona International Speedway that the Kid and I attended a couple weeks ago. As we always seem to do, we had a blast. Visited the pits, the garages, Fan Zone, went out and watched some hot practice laps. All for ten bucks. Total Blast and a great few hours spent with my growing into a man nephew. He even let me drive his CJ5 and he took my oleragtop out to the track. Thanks Kid, still Sorry I Broke It.

So anyway, I heard about the Preseason Thunder to mark the beginnings of the NASCAR season down in these here parts. Remembering the fun had at the Roar, I talked to thesungoddess earlier in the week to make sure she would be okay with the Kid going with me. Since he was off school on Friday for a teacher planning day and was able to get his voluminous amount of homework completed and he was off on Monday for MLK Day, she approved this request. As he was in the shower at that moment, she would have him call me back. And he did and we went to the Preseason Thunder that Saturday.

Now, I had previously come across this coupon for $5.00 a ticket off some where so, instead of paying the $15 admission, it would $10 each, as it was for that fun trip to the Roar. Well, silly a*s me did not realize the discounted tickets needed to be purchased prior to the event's first day. Now as I picked this up locally somewhere, not to many out of towners would know about it or be here early enough to qualify for the discount status, so I just can't figure out this early purchase requirement. Oh well, next time maybe I should put on my dollar store reading glasses and examine the fine print.

Originally we had planned to meet at the track, me in the olestationbus and him in his CJ5. Well, the previous evening the Kid blew a return from a fishing trip curfew and thesungoddess invoked her motherly rights to revoke the Kid's Jeep driving privileges. He called me on Saturday morning and I picked up the Kid in my olestationbus and we set off. We talked about the error of his ways and as every 16 year old does, johnjohn, I was only 15 minutes late. No excuse, Kid. I then had to tell about the error of my ways and he mentioned, "All's Good, at least we get to go." I think this must be a new term for him as he has used it alot the past few times I have seen him. I like it.

So we arrive at the track, get into the infield and pull up near the FanZone. I probably have told you about this place before, but just in case. The France family, owner of the corporation that owns this track and several others, completely renovated the garage area of DIS 3 or 4 years ago. They built the garages on an angle so you can view inside the garages without having access to the garage area itself. The common area of the FanZone includes areas for historic race cars to be displayed, a bar/restaurant area, a big stage and a souvenir shop, plus a few other things like room for concession trailers and restrooms. It is quite nice and they did a jam up job on it. You can even get on the roofs of the garages and view the road to pit lane.

So we got parked and paid that da*n $15 to get in and walked around a bit. Mark Martin was up on stage with a couple other drivers

talking to those dudes from SpeedTV about how he didn't mind not being able to practice at Daytona this year

as NASCAR had cancelled all practice in a cost conserving move, and has Mark pointed out, all the drivers on this year's circuit had raced here several times before. Does that mean there will be no rookies this year? Might very well be the case as there aren't enough rides to go around anyway. Hold it, that dude taking Tony Stewart's place might qualify.

The audience at this forum was filled with NASCAR themed jacket wearers everywhere. Those things run between $75-100 and they were proliferous.

I had forgotten about the cancellation of practice. We did hear the Richard Petty Driving Experience cars, the NotSoLilJim family and I saw last summer, zooming around the track but they don't even pass each other.

We walked around a short while, gathering up all the swag we could. A couple posters, a hand towel, t-shirts, and other misc. crap. Just to offset the cost of admission.

the Kid took an image of me in front of, what is probably, my favorite Daytona Prototype.

They also had this show car on display.

Here is the poster we got. the Kid stuck it on the roof of thejeepjunkie's garage. Other than the swag, it was kind of a bust. All it was, really, was a glorified autograph session and neither the Kid nor myself really care about getting autographs.

So as we were leaving, I asked the security dude, "Can we get back in on these ticket stubs?" "Yes sir" was the response. Cool. As we walked on, the Kid looked over at me, "Are we coming back, johnjohn?" My response, "Remember how we got those tickets to the Amelia Island Concours?" "Oh, johnjohn, I get it. Hear is my stub." So on our trek back to the olestationbus, I asked pretty much anyone who looked cool if they needed tickets. These two guys, obviously of European origin replied they did. "Admission is $15 each, I'll sell you these two stubs, each good for one readmission, for $20." They looked at each other, one pulled a twenty out and he asked me was I sure they were good. I told him "I specifically asked security and the response was yes. Besides, if I am going to hell, it is going to be for alot more than riping you off for $20." We all started laughing and parted ways.

So, the Kid and I got to see that abbreviated show for $5 each. But if I had only read the fine print, it would have been free. But ya know what? It's okay. Another, cheap and fun filled time with the Kid.

So as we were heading out in the olestationbus, since he didn't need to be home for a couple more hours, I asked him what he wanted to do? johnjohn, can we go look at those jetskiers? I had a feeling that one was coming. After a quick stop at the red haired girl's burger shop, we got down on the beach. I put the Kid behind the wheel of my olestationbus for the first time and he did great.

I didn't get any additional images on that blustery, windy beach, but there were around 300 or so jetskiers down there. the Kid was almost overwhelmed with all that was going on and the Xtreme jetskiing going on in that rough surf. We walked down that portion of the closed off beach about 3/4 of mile and turned around and headed into that chilly, northerly wind and for the first time since I can remember my ears were so cold they were tingling.

We headed back to the Kid's house to find thejeepjunkie putting those highly desirable donut style hubcaps we picked up on ebay on the front of the Kid's CJ5.

And I have to agree with thejeepjunkie, they complete the period look on the Kid's CJ5.

Don't you agree?

And, even with the minor disappointments, cold winds and tingling ears, it is with good times with the Kid, reselling our tickets and yes, even donut hubcaps, that we

Celebrate Life.