First Snow Of The Year...Sorta

It's been really cold here lately, with hard frosts down in the 20's and 30's that have killed a lot of my plants already. So what better way to enjoy the cold than go even farther north. Saturday morning we got up and got on the road, first making a pit stop at one of our shuttle sites so James could do a surprise inspection of the tractors and trailers. It was in the 30's so I stayed in the truck this time and just watched. We headed to the North Carolina mountains, where it had snowed Friday night. We got to see some of the snow still left on the ground. So, technically, we did get to see snow!!

We had tickets to a show at Harrah's on Saturday night, and no this isn't a country music singer, it's Larry the Cable Guy! He just ended his show with a very brief guitar-picking session. He was extremely funny, more funny than I expected, and we had really great seats right down front. Harrah's has recently undergone a massive expansion, which is still in progress. They built a new theater (the old theater is now part of the casino), and now that they serve alcohol, they are bringing in big names. Mostly country singers, but current hot singers, not just old has-beens!!

Sunday morning it was up early and back on the road south, to get to the Falcons/Buccaneers game. This is the one game of the year where I don't cheer for Atlanta, but instead throw on my Tampa Bay gear and scream for my homeboys. You can take me out of Florida, but you can't take the Florida out of me. It makes it hard, with both Atlanta and TB being in the same division, but I am okay being a Falcons fan for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, my Bucs lost 27-21, after blowing a chance on the 1 yard line to score on a 4th down with just a few minutes left in the game. They should have won 28-27!!

James and I ended the afternoon with coffee and people-watching at the CNN center, which I still find very cool no matter how many times we go there. As the football game was letting out, the Hawks (basketball team) were getting ready to play an hour later so fans were showing up for that game. We waited awhile before heading down to the train, to let the crowds die down. Thank goodness for the Starbucks kiosk!!

How We Spend Halloween In The South

I promised myself I was going to start back on the blog regularly, so what better way than to talk about the weekend. James and I always buck the norm and do our own thing, and Halloween was no different. Instead of hanging ghosts in the trees and setting up fake headstones in the front yard, we hopped in the car Sunday morning and headed across the state line to Talladega Superspeedway for the NASCAR race! I didn't realize we lived so close by, but it was only 90 miles away.



We love NASCAR, but usually don't get to the races very often. Our main man is Tony Stewart! I am not sure why James pulls for him, but I do because he's so sexy. We had to stop by the trailer and load up on Tony Stewart gear.



James scored free tickets for us, down on the 5th or 6th row. While that might be the best seats at a Justin Bieber concert, at a NASCAR race you really want to sit up high so you can see the whole track. We could only see the cars heading out of the last turn and coming down the straightaway right in front of us- and then they were a complete blur. And we were sitting right in front of Tony's pit stall! But, it was actually pretty awesome to sit down there, and when the cars would go by at almost 200 miles an hour, the "breeze" was so strong it was knocking baseball caps off everyone. Not to mention we ended up covered in black tire dust. I opted not to wear earplugs, and if you have never heard one of these vehicles up close and personal, it is louder than a jet engine!



Unfortunately for Tony, he had a tire go down in the very early moments of the race, and stayed 1 to 2 laps behind for almost the entire race. It made it a bit less exciting for us, since he was never able to catch up. James, who rented headsets and a scanner (below), was able to listen to the pit crews and drivers talking to each other, as well as the PRN broadcast. Tony finally got back on the lead lap at the end of the race, only to get caught up in a big wreck on the last lap.



And of course, we can never go anywhere without being reminded of work! We had a number of trailers dropped at Talladega, with food for the race track. No complaints, as "work" is the only reason we can enjoy the lifestyle that we do!

I will blog more very soon!