Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!!

Saturday I took the boys to the Nationwide race in Fort Worth. We had a lot of fun. Who did we go with...one guess...yup...Nita!!

There was lots of good stuff going on that day. We went into the "interactive" Army area. Yeah, you could climb a rock wall or play rock star or was it guitar hero? I can't remember. It was kind of cute...kind of..when they kept talking to us like we didn't know anything about the Army. I do realize that they are gearing the whole area as a recruiting tool but if I tell you that I've already served and my husband is in his 19th year as a Soldier, do you think that might clue you in a bit? I had to giggle at the girl who was telling me all about how I could get my very own authentic dog tag...with my name and everything!! Yeah, it was not authentic, but it did come with my name on it, along with the statement Army Strong. That's it. Good thing I already have a set of my very own authentic dog tags courtesy of Army Basic Combat Training in 1994! As we wandered around the area, I almost had to leave because the anxiety of wanting to tell the Soldiers how ate up their uniforms were was overwhelming! I was very nice though and kept my thoughts to myself, or at least between Nita and I. There was a group of Soldiers out of Fort Carson, CO. I cannot for the life of me remember their group name but I will just say that I hope they are better Soldiers than performers! I don't think the group Alabama would be happy with their rendition of one of their biggest hits! But I give them props for trying! And they did have to compete with the noise of the cars practicing on the track behind them. After that group performed, the Old Guard Drill Team came out and they were GREAT!!! The kids were completely mesmerized. The kids got their picture taken with them and Neil said he thought he would drop the gun and cut his hand, lol. Shortly after that we ventured on over to the track to watch the final practice runs to get a glimpse of our fave cars. The kids were having a great time.

After grabbing some seriously overpriced grub, we got settled in our seats for the start of the race. I will say I was happy with the performance of the National Anthem and the presenting of the colors (they were presented by U.S. Army Drill Sergeants). The person who said the famous words, "Gentlemen...start your engines!" was weak!

I think overall the kids had a good time but out of the three boys, Neil is gonna be our true Nascar fan, so he may be the only one we take back. He was so cute getting into it. Thanks Nita for answering his questions!

Now the plan is to get Kevin home on R&R around the time of the spring race, do you think the Army can accommodate that??

Anyway, it was plenty exciting. People behaved this time so there aren't any real exciting stories to tell. Well there is one involving lights on the rental car but since it would involve humiliating myself, that will be left into the memories of those who know the story!!!