Pocono Recap

Finally I can post this damn post!

Sunday we woke up bright and early and hit the highway to Pocono. It's really only about 2 and a half hours from home, which is less than what I thought.

The track is located in the lovely Pocono Mountains of PA. There's all kinds of good stuff up there, not just the track. And it's lovely this time of year. All pretty & green. You get off the highway, then take a smaller road to the track. Infield parkers get to go thru the woods to the track:

More woods:

Until you come out of the forest and see this:

The entrance to the infield parking area. Which is cool because here you go via a tunnel underneath the track. There would be pictures, but I was too busy going "HOLY CRAP!! WHEE!! LOOK AT THAT!!" (I'm such a goober)

We got parked (only two checkpoints for that) and went to get to our seating area. Thanks to Obbie's contacts, we got to be in "Club Pocono" which entitled us to free food and free drinks all day. Also pit and paddock passes. I still am not sure what the paddock entails (means horse racing to me) but the pit passes let us walk thru pit road. The pit crews were setting up for the race, and for some odd reason, fans were flocking around them for autographs. Also, it was a big deal to pose on the wall in front of the pit box. Dale, Jr, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewarts pits were always full of people, but I managed to get this pic of Tony's. Ignore the woman on the wall, she was there posing for a long time.

The Main straightaway, soon all those seats would be full.

Pit Road:

Pit road with no cars is kind of boring, so we went out in the infield to have a look around. The Speed Channel was taping it's pre-race show with Jimmy Spencer, Kenny Wallace and a couple other guys. Allegedly, Tony Stewart was going to be there to be interviewed, so we hung out there awhile. The Speed Channel guys were whipping the crowd into a frenzy for the promos they run, and making everyone hoot and cheer and carry on. The Speed Channel 'Hos were giving away orange hard hats from Home Depot in support of Tony Stewart, and also throwing various other things into the crowd. Such carrying on from grown people for little crappy gifts! But it was really fun to be in the crowd and yelling for the TV camera.

These two folks came over and stood next to us. They were both rather intoxicated for it being only noon. They were friendly enough, and told us all kinds of drunken stories. Her name was Lisa Marie (of course) and his was Ed or Earl or something.

This guy is Jimmy. He's a cutie pie isn't he? (I've got shoes older than this guy) He gave me some Speed Channel beads that he caught. He didn't really want any of the giveaways. He had a tee shirt in his pocket that was signed by Dale Earnhardt, Sr., and his great wish was to have Jr. sign it too. I told him I'd put him here because he was a nice guy. So here ya go, Jimmy! I hope you got your Jr. sig!

After all that, I was freaking PARCHED, and ready for some refreshments. We made our way back to our seats for a cold beer and the pre-race chow.

Turn Three from our seats:

The race started and frankly, I was so excited I didn't take any pictures. It did get kind of boring after awhile, because Pocono is a 2.5 mile tri-oval track, you don't see the cars all the time. But oh hell yeah, when they go by! Wah hoo!! I love me some horsepower!!

After awhile, we got bored and moved up to the top of the bleachers, where we could see all the track: (really, it's the garage and track)

We watched the race up there for awhile, but since that little butthead Kurt Busch was way ahead of everyone, it was kind of boring. We stood around and took in the sights for awhile more, then decided to beat the traffic and leave. (Me & Obbie being touristy goobs:)