May
Posted on 28th May 2009
It has been an action-packed past few days full of flying, running-around, and eating foods that have undergone some sort of frying process or another. I have upped my crunch regimen from 50 to 55 a day to help get myself back on top.
This past Friday, I woke up at 4:30am after two hours of post-Dave Hill Explosion sleep to fly to sunny Charlotte, North Carolina to cover the lead-up to a NASCAR-based event called the Coca-Cola 600, which- as best I can tell- involved driving around a track 600 times or for 600 miles, whichever comes first, and then there are signs for delicious Coca-Cola everywhere. Personally, I don’t get it. I mean, I’m sure it’s fun for the drivers, but I can’t figure out why someone wants to watch a bunch of cars drive around in circles while sitting in the hot sun and- statistically speaking- being about 40 pounds overweight. But as long as everyone is having a good time, I fully support it. Go (insert the number of your favorite NASCAR driver here)!
I was in Charlotte covering the event for Cinemax, the popular premium cable television that shows boobs sometimes. It was a lot of fun. For starters, I got to finally see the Oscar Mayer weinermobile up close, which was just as thrilling as I thought it would be. That’s a photo of me above checking off another one of my life goals from the list. It was a great, great day.
After I got up close to the weinermobile, I headed over to a little race track they had set up for something called the Lil’ 600, which was a go-cart race track sponsored by Kyle Busch, the popular NASCAR driver whom I had never heard of before that day but I’m told is pretty much the Michael Jordan or NASCAR or something. I got to suit up and drive one of the go-carts, which was a lot of fun even though I wasn’t very good at it and I was feeling pretty much ready to puke after sleeping only two hours, flying to Charlotte, and eating a big breakfast at the Omni hotel breakfast buffet just an hour before. Fortunately for me and whoever has to clean up the go-carts at the end of the day though, I kept my breakfast down like a non-puking champ.
Another highlight of my trip to Charlotte was interviewing Kyle Busch, mentioned earlier. That is a photo of a cardboard cutout of him above. I always forget to get pictures with actual people when I meet them. One day, when I am an old man and try to tell future generations of my exploits they will probably just think I am a crazy old guy telling tall tales (while really drunk). Anyway, Kyle Busch was a really nice guy and I had a lot of fun talking to him. He’s just 24 years old and already at the top of his game. Pretty wild. He also gets free M&Ms, which I thought was pretty cool too.
The rest of my day in Charlotte was spent walking around interviewing folks and trying to figure out what was under that tarp in the photo above. I never did get to the bottom of that one. By the end of the day, I had narrowed it down to either “a pile of something” or “a bunch of stuff.” Time for a coin toss.
Other excitement in Charlotte included interviewing two Hooters girls, who were probably the most Hooters-y Hooters girls I had ever met, and also trying to make the most of this impressive line of port-a-johns. My goal was to use every one of them by the end of the day, but in the end I maybe took down five or six. Next time, Charlotte. Next time. Always believe in the power of your dreams.
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