I would like to send out a great big THANK YOU to all who came out to the Night of Destruction rally.
We had 7 units total with 3 Airstream trailers 1 Airstream motor home, and 3 other than airstreams with about 21 people total. I think for a first time event that is pretty good all things considered.
The weather was just fine with a little
lite rain late Friday night into Sat morning.
The Track facility was in good shape and clean.
The parking lot that we were camped in was a nice grass field that was close enough to level I don't think anyone had to use more than one board to be level. I did not use any. We were at the top of the hill with no worry of standing water if the rain would have been worse.
Friday evening I arrived around 5:30 to find
BFred (Buck) in the Motor home sitting there waiting for us. We had a chat and decided that we would use a leftover pile of coals as home base and went to park. After a while the rest of the trailers rolled in and we were rallying.
Some time about 12:00 am we (well some of us) decided to go for a walk around the facility. We found open gate after open gate which led us out onto the track, then into the pits. We were able to get up close to all the cars and boats and busses that were going to be used for the main event. It was way cool!
Saturday morning was a little damp and foggy to start off but the sun did peak out and dried things up. During the night sometime the
Burtus monster truck
toter showed up and we were able to watch it get put together from our campsite. We did watch a few other junk cars roll in on trailers and wreckers. We knew we were in for a treat!
Around 10 or 11 am we went over to the track and put out our seat saving devices. We picked seats under the press box at the start finish line just in case it rained later (which it did not). Then some of us went over to the brand new 1/4 midget track and watched the kids 1/4 midget club run for a while. Man those go-kart are fast. We even saw a few of them flip on the side. But with a safety check, pep talk and a quick push from dad they were off again. I am glad to report that no one was hurt while we were there. The kids that were with us had a good time watching the
lil guys and gals race.
Some time between cheese balls and nacho chicken dip (and beers) the gang had wondered over to the ticket booth to pre buy tickets, so later we would not have to stand in line (which we also could watch from our campsite).
Around 6:15 or so we started over to the track, walked right past the ticket purchase line and into the entry line. Which was short until our group got there. We had a quick cooler check (for glass containers) when the gate official saw our two bags of pudding shots her comment was "Damn I am going to sit with you guys, cause you are going to have some fun!". And we sure did! I think most of our group took a free bus ride / race before waiting on the main event. I saw several of our group eating track food from Pizza to chicken baskets and fries. Some nachos and track dogs to frozen
m&
m's and strawberry ice cream. I know at the end of the night the cooler was a lot lighter going out than it was going in (or I had beer and bourbon muscles).
This years races were a little different than in years past, and sometimes there was a lull in the action while they set up for a new race. But the track had some dancing music to keep us old drunk fat guys busy so it wasn't too bad.
As a surprise to Erin and Grace, Buck and I sponsored some boats to be destroyed. So the track painted "Happy 45
th anniversary to Grace" and "Happy
16th Anniversary to Erin" on some boats for us. And I am proud to say that the
SS ERIN was mostly together at the end for us to get a picture. It sure fun for our group to have some things to root for. Even if it was $.99 worth of spray paint for $25.00.
After the fireworks display we went out on the track and walked in the rubble. Although this year there was a lot less than years past it still was fun.
We walked off the track into the pits to see all the stuff that was wrecked. We were just about 50 yards from our camp site. With the quick flick of a lighter we had the fire going and the chairs set up to watch the other 6000 or so people race for the gate. While we were ready to drink some more and just hang for a while.
I don't recall what time it was when we gave up, but I know it was late and fun.
Sunday morning came and we just put our stuff away and relaxed with no checkout time it was nice not hurrying to get out. We said our good by's and did a quick check to make sure we left it as clean as it was when we got there and we were off.
Thank again for another great weekend of friends and Airstreams.
Don't forget "ATTITUDE CHECK?!"