The thrill of Victory and the agony of Defeat(part 3)

As the boys approached my husband could see I was a little troubled and this always means trouble for him. Of course my first question was where the hell have you been?

This perhaps, was my husbands greats mistake of the entire vacation. He told me, he told me the Truth. I was expecting him to tell me this terrible tale of how he had to walk around the whole track to get back in, or B was insistent on going back to see the race cars or a wild bear had attacked him, something, something other then what he said.

He said he had been waiting for me for the last hour, yes the last hour right there, he pointed.....30feet up the track from the FINISH LINE....!!!!! Not on the finish line, not 30 feet down the track where we sat to watch the parade, not near the stage so B could see the drivers, just 30 feet up the track.

With this I became past angry. How could he mess this up, Why would you sit someplace not even remotely where we had discussed. That is like saying lets meet on the track and then he goes to the car. What! Of course I was beyond words, but I was sure to find a few to be so as he understood his mistake. Again I ask him what we had talked about and he said "We were going to meet on the finish line"! Still very puzzled I ask, "o.k. I was there why weren't you"? His explanation was, he thought he would see me walk by when I reentered the field.

WHAT!!!. The infield had approximately 10 thousand people in it, most of them had crowded the stage area by now. I had not even entered from a gate that would have put me in a place to walk by him on the field. With 50 different entrances all over the bleachers what would make him think I would enter from the one that would make me walk past him.

A PLAN IS A PLAN!!!!!!!

Why would you change it in the middle, especially when you can't contact the person you have entered into the plan with.

By this time all the prime spots to watch the driver intro's were long taken over by adoring fans. As we marched across the field trying to find any opening I was sure to verbalize all the thoughts I had created while looking and waiting for them in the last hour. Every time I stopped and looked at my poor husband I felt the need to lash out a few more evil comments, all indications of my disapproval and disappointment. In an effort to keep his promise of having a good time and be a good sport he would smile and say it was o.k., no harm done.

Are you kidding, no harm done, did he not realize I had a vision on how the day was to go. Did he not realize my biggest pet peeve is to change a plan and not to get a memo on the changes! Was he kidding, nothing in the universe was going to be ALRIGHT now!

In my younger days I was much more free, less structured, more, go with the flow, what ever happens happens! In my younger days! I am not sure what happened to that mindset. When my husband and I started dating he was very structured. He did not like to get into the car unless he knew directions to where we were going. I would say "I sort of know where to go." This would make him crazy, probably because as we were passing the street we were to turn on I would say oh, turn left. He would say where and I would say we just passed it. He would have to turn around find a way to cross back over the street to get back to where we were to turn. Most of the time I would be distracted and forget I was giving directions and by the time we were lost I would realize Shawn was waiting for me to tell him where to go.
As the years have passed I have taken on the structured, planned mentality and Shawn has become far more relaxed with the attitude of, it will be o.K.!

We finally found a very small space at the end of Pit Road to watch the trucks with the drivers go speeding by. Needless to say the pictures are a bit blurry. For the umpteenth time my husband tried to resurrect the moment. I just wasn't ready to relieve him of his blundering mistake. It didn't matter he had supported me with the mom situation, it didn't matter he had carried, entertained and cared for our son for the past 4 hours. Nothing, I mean nothing could save him now.

After about the 5oth tongue lashing I spued at him he looked at me and said. GET OVER IT! Are you going to let this ruin the entire day(we still had a 4hour race to watch) At this point folks around us were noticing we were not quite getting along. Poor B was incredibly quite. Looking back all we needed were a few Budweiser's to have become the classic redneck family having a fun day out at the races. If we had really wanted to become the classic NASCAR cliche someone could have thrown a fist and the security guard would have escorted someone out, and off to jail.

At this point I realized I was wrong, yes Shawn created a plan in his own mind which did screw up the plan we made together, but maybe all the good should out weigh the bad. With driver intro's over we started to make our way back to the other side of the world to our seats. I must say it was much easier going that direction then coming over.

Buy the time we reached our seats the sun was setting and the Star Spangled Banner was being played. The Navy jets took off from the airport behind the stands and preformed on cure with a stunning fly over. Fireworks were everywhere and the anticipation of the race was heavy in the air. Having replayed the comment from my husband(get over it) I found a spirit of adventure and fun again. Looking at B's little face as the cars approached was as they say in the commercial Priceless. It was not just watching your favorite driver on T.V., it was not just seeing the car he would drive, it was the real thing. Yes race fans that is the #24 DuPont Chevrolet and yes race fans that is the Jeff Gordon driving.

We were all on our feet as the cars passed two more times to get up to speed for the green flag. This will never get old for me. Of course we are excited to see THE JG, but right next to him is THE, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and THE, David Ruietmann, and THE, Michael Waltrip and so on and so on.

The final lap of warm up, the pace car pulled off the track and with an explosion of cheering from the stands the green flag dropped and we were racing!