Well, CJ and Dyan had our first real NASCAR experience this Sunday. A big thank you goes to our friend Ron, who works for Ford and got us tickets to the Sprint Cup season finale down at Homestead! What was it like, you ask? One word--WOW! It was very cool! Watching on TV is great, but it doesn't do the experience justice. First of all, there's no replay, so you have to be paying attention all the time, because if something happens, you miss it! But most importantly, you cannot tell someone how LOUD the cars are until you hear it in person! We had a fly-by from F-16s to start the race, and I thought they were pretty loud until now! My ears will be ringing for a week, but it was worth it (yes, I did wear earplugs most of the time)! When we knew we got the tickets, we told CJ, and he was almost vibrating with excitement! We got to the track and there were lots of cool things to do, and lots of different booths to separate you and your money--ha, ha! But we got a bunch of cool little freebies, too! I guess I'll be putting some new posters up on Thanksgiving! :)
Unfortunately, Eric had to work, but we took along a family friend--that's Stew in a few of the pictures with CJ. We all had a blast! The pictures aren't in any particular order, but are some of the better ones--hope you enjoy them. I think we've created a monster--CJ is now talking about going to the 500 in February! Oh, boy! We even got to see some haulers on our way home--and waved at Jimmie Johnson's as we went by!--by the way, as of today, for all you NASCAR fans, only 82 days left without racing! LOL :)


Below is a view from our seats--you can see the donut marks Kyle Busch left after he won the Nationwide race (and the series) on Saturday.
Here's a Mark Martin pit stop--we really were hoping he could pull it off and win the championship, but I guess we will have to wait until next year to see what he does--go, Martin!
From the Ford displays--here's the Nationwide series Mustang beginning in 2010.



These guys get really close to the wall--here's Ryan Newman's car after scraping the wall.
CJ was so excited--the way the cars were lined up before the race, Jeff Gordon's #24 was parked right in front of our seats!




We could see all the cars come down pit road, but we couldn't see all the way to the front end, so we didn't get to see Jimmie's team in action.
We could see between turns 3 and 4 on the track.
Jeff Gordon as he pitted.

Denny Hamlin smoking the tires after his win--it's blurry, but it wasn't an easy picture to get!

Fly-over from F-16s--very cool!


We were pretty close to Elliot Sadler's pit--unfortunately, he blew up on pit road later and was out of the race.

Classic Mustang in the pre-race show--Buzz Aldrin in the passenger seat. Eric thought it was funny that they let him fly a spaceship but not drive a classic Mustang! :)




Again, blurry picture, but it's pretty hard to get a pic of the champion going by!

Always fun to see the Blimp--the flag was waving and looked really cool after dark.


OK, all you hard core fans--why is the #44 Petty Blue, but the #43 is white? :)
(No, not a trivia question; I really don't know!)

Sniff, sniff...this is the last race for Dewalt--guess Matt will have a new primary sponsor for 2010.

The fireworks after the race were pretty good--AND I finally found the setting on our camera that would take decent fireworks pictures! Yes, I should play around with it more often!

Well, everyone, Dyan is 40 now--ugh! But I got to have a special day for myself, courtesy of Walt Disney World--get in free on your birthday! Well, nevermind that my "free" admission cost me FOURTEEN dollars to park in their lot for the day! :) I did have a really nice time, though, and I went to Disney's Hollywood Studios, since they have my favorite ride in all the parks--the Rock-N-Roller Coaster! The parks have all their Christmas decorations up; the Osborne lights start next week--I only missed it by 5 days!

I decided I would go to the coaster first, and get at least one wait-free ride today. I got right on, and when we were through, a bunch of crazy people like me decided to get right back on! I think I need to have my head examined--but it was so cool!




After the coaster, I headed over to Pixar Place to see about all the hype for the newest ride at the park, "Toy Story Midway Mania". I had heard that, not only was the ride great, but the queue line had many cool things to see, as well, so I braved the 30 minute wait in the standby line. The Mr. Potato Head nearing the end of the queue was really cool--but I still didn't get to see him take off his ear--yes, he can really do that!





I had heard about this little guy, but he's new, too, so we haven't seen him in person yet. Luxo Jr. comes out of this little window every so often, and "dances" to the music. He's very cute!

After waiting the 30 minutes for Midway Mania (which is way cool, by the way--like the next generation of the Buzz Lightyear ride), I stopped next door at Narnia to get a look at Aslan's How. I know, you're all saying, "but you hated that movie!". Well, like a train wreck, I couldn't look away. I figured I was here anyway, might as well go in. There were no interactive things here like the witch giving her speech from the first movie, just a "replica" of what Aslan's How looked like in the movie. The Stone table was even there, too--but it was really small. I went away amazed at all the shooting locations and the preparations that went into the movie, but sad again at how many missed opportunities they had to make the movie better. BUT--not going to let it ruin my day, I went back over to the roller coaster, and got a Fastpass for later in the day. Hey, it's my birthday--I can do anything I want--ha, ha!!!! :)



I know that I'm a little old for the Muppets, but I love them anyway, so I headed over to see the show. I think one of my favorite lines is in the preshow where Sam Eagle (or maybe Scooter) has had enough and tells Gonzo, "Stop this foolishness!", and Gonzo says, "What kind of foolishness would you like?" I love Statler and Waldorf, too!

After the show, it was time for lunch, so I headed over to Pizza Planet. Then I realized I hadn't seen the Indiana Jones show for a long time, so I thought today would be nice to do so!




After the show, I was going to try to make some tracks and get to the Stunt car show, but I really didn't have enough time. I figured I would see the show if I could, but we saw it often in 2007, so it was ok. I wandered and shopped for a few minutes, then it was time for my Fastpass. I went back and enjoyed another 57 mph "blastoff" with Aerosmith, and by then, my day had just about come to a close. But I enjoyed it, and it was lots of fun--ta-da!