Vroom!

“What did you do this weekend Paul?” you ask? I went to NASCAR in Las Vegas, that’s what I did! For those of you who are unfamiliar, NASCAR is where they drive cars really fast and turn left a lot. Boring? Sometimes, but there is still a lot of excitement in seeing those cars fly past at almost 200 mph.

My son-in-law Dave went with me for his first ever NASCAR experience. We left early on Saturday morning and took the long way through Death Valley. It was beautiful to see hundreds of thousands of flowers. The floor of the valley looked as though someone had poured yellow paint out. Amazing! Then we moved on to Pahrump, Nevada, which in name alone is just plain fun. The best part though was that we got gas for $1.69 a gallon. SCORE! When we arrived at the track we were again surprised by the complete lack of staff taking money to park. AMAZING!!!

The entire weekend was a series of unexpected events. Some good, some “not so much”. Both Saturday and Sunday races were won by people that I really don’t like much. It took almost as long to exit the parking lot on Sunday (a little under 3 hours) as it did to drive home from Las Vegas (about 3 1/2 hours)! There was a dust storm that partially occluded our view of the far side of the track. The USAF Thunderbirds did a fly-over. It was just a big mixture of things.

That’s the way recovery works too. Sometimes I get what I am looking for and sometimes I don’t. The trick is to mine the gold out of the experience. Sure I waited for hours in virtually stopped traffic, but I spent that time with Dave and we joked and laughed all the way through it. Sure “Rowdy” and Keselowski won the races, but I got to see the drivers I do like drive super fast. Sure it was a long drive, but I saw amazing flowers, lights, and a few things that can only be called “Vegas”…

Life is out there – go grab it!

-Rise Up!