VROOM! VROOM!

This past weekend, Chris, Bean, and I left Gracie at home with Nana and went camping with Cub Scouts.  Out of all the camping we have done so far, this might have been my favorite.  We camped in the middle of the Daytona Speedway! Like, right there in the center of the race track!

We had never been to a NASCAR event before, so this was a lot of first-times for our family (one of the things I love about Scouts!).  I worried that since we weren’t racing fans, it might not be fun for us, but that was definitely not true.  The speedway had a lot of events and activities for kids and families, and they were all included in our camping tickets.  We basically got to roam the event and go where we wanted.  It was pretty great.

(There is no child abuse happening in this picture. Technically.)

There were activities all day on Saturday, from meeting drivers and seeing cars to visiting the pits and garages where the crews worked.  By the time of the four o’clock race, we were all caught up on the sport of racing!  And thanks to his M&M race car, I think Bean is a new Kyle Busch fan.  🙂

There was a race at 4:00 and another one at 8:00.  The races were to determine starting order for the Daytona 500, which is next weekend.  For the 4:00 race, some of our pack went into the grand stands to watch, but we decided to hang out at our campsite and watch from there.  We were on Turn 4, and were SO CLOSE to the track!

At one point, I looked over and Bean had a family-sized bag of Doritos, a football in his hands, headphones on, sitting in the back of a pick up truck watching cars race.  It was like every one of his dreams coming true at once!  Junk food!  Loud noise!  Sports!  Cars!  He was in heaven!  We sat in the back of the truck and had a blast watching the race.  At some points, Bean and his buddies got a little wiggly and bored and would wander off for a while, but they always came back to see more.  I was amazed at how much the race kept their attention, actually. Though, it’s hard not to pay attention when something is SO LOUD!!!!

After the 4:00 race, we ate pizza at the campsite and then a small group of us headed to the grand stand to watch the late race from the stands.  It started raining when we got to there, though, and so we ended up poking around the arena for a while, waiting for the rain to stop.  By 9:00, the race officials decided to postpone the race to the following morning, and so we sludged back to our tent and called it a night.

Good thing, too, because it rained for the next four hours!  And then it stopped until about four in the morning before REALLY raining hard for another hour!  Thankfully, our tent held up really good and we didn’t get wet, but some of our Scouts didn’t fair as well.  It was a pretty soggy night for some.  This morning as we packed up was pretty soggy for all of us, actually.  I love camping, but the breaking down and packing up of the campsite is not my favorite.  Add to it that everything you are packing is soaking wet and muddy and getting shoved into your clean minivan and it’s just gross.  I just kept reminding myself that this is what we got the minivan for and that everything eventually dries out, but still…  gross.

We missed Gracie Girl while we were gone.  It doesn’t feel right to be doing fun stuff without her!  She would really not have liked camping there.  She loves being outside and camping and getting dirty, but I think she really would have hated the noise from the cars.  AND THE PORTAPOTTIES.  Oh, man.  As one of the only females on our camping trip, let me just tell you how horrible portapotties are.

I was in them on our first night there, hovering over the toilet seat, trying not to touch anything, look at anything, or breathe in anything.  As I am all leaned over, hovering and concentrating, I flicked my hair out of my way and noticed it was wet.  Turns out, there are URNALS in the portapotties and they are right on the side, about where a girl’s hair will hang when she is hovering over the toilet seat trying not to catch a disease.

Yes, friends.  I stuck my hair in a portapotty urnal.  I almost threw up.  And the worst part was that there were no showers at the speedway, which meant I couldn’t wash my hair until two days later.

You.  Guys.

I have never known disgusting before.  Anything else in my life where I have THOUGHT I might have seen something disgusting?  No.  Absolutely not.  This was the worst.  I have taken three showers since I got home today.

So you know if I say it was one of my favorite camping trips after that ordeal, then you know it must have been fun.

But still.

Send shampoo.