The bus left the resort at 8am. Takes about an hour to get there, then you got to park. For some reason it seemed easier today just getting in to get the bus parked. We're suppose to be back at the bus one hour after the checker flag. Deborah Huff of Richmond International Speedway. Saturday she was at the Racetickets.com table at our resort where we picked up our ticket package. Denise told her how we didn't think 1 hour after checker being back on the bus would be enough time for us today. Victory Lane closes two hours after the checker flag. She made some calls and got us hooked up with Sabrina Gardner of ISC MotorSports to ride with her back to St Augustine on Sunday!! Thank you, ladies...
Now I didn't buy any souvies yesterday and I am starting to worry. I want to buy some Daytona 500 50th anniversary tees, but I am seeing some Sold Out signs. So we are walking everywhere. I wanted to go to Carl's merchandise trailer along the way, but the only one we see is setup in an hospitality area that we don't have access to. Okay I gotta focus on the Daytona tees. I did end up finding 4 tees in sizes I needed. My cousin wanted a Daytona 500 50th mug, but all I could find was a Daytona International Speedway mug, and I was glad to find that. Ok, now I can chill because that is done. Now off to the Daytona 500 Club, our home away from home.
Guess what, I saw someone I know in the Daytona 500 Club. We had just arrived, and I saw Lisa Shavatt, but my hands were full and I wanted to get our table set on the second floor. By the time I got settled and went back downstairs to find Lisa, who worked as Director of Corporate Event Sales at Richard Petty Driving Experience in Orlando when I worked there from 2000-2001, she was gone. I went downstairs several times throughout the day for food, but didn't see her again. Once I got home Monday night I checked the net. She's the Director of Sales at the Daytona 500 Experience there at the track. http://www.daytona500experience.com/ So I imagine she was pretty darn busy that weekend.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Denise was taking the elevator back from a food run when she found, Fabi L, the other ESPN grand prize winner besides myself. She and her husband, Danny, sat at our table for the race. Fabi said Saturday they sat in their seats in the grandstands. Denise and I never made it to our grandstand seats either day. We had to really think about it Sunday. The D500 Club is nice, has tvs, a/c, great food, bathrooms, beverages, start/finish line view, access to Victory Lane. The negatives is you have a limited view of the track. We even thought of going to our grandstand seats for the start of the race, then try to get a tram or walk forever to get back to the D500 Club knowing the seats/tables would probably be taken. So we both decided we wanted to stay at the D500 club.
Victory Lane was awesome. The confetti was gold colored mylar (like the balloons) with Daytona 500 50th stamped on it in black. I tried to get some good pictures. They let us go out there with about 20 laps to go. Once we were done there Sabrina had called so we met with her and another lady with her to head back to St Augustine. On the way back Sabrina got a call, bus #7 broke down on I-95 not that far outside of Daytona Beach. So we stopped by a convenience store for Sabrina to buy some cases of water. Thank goodness they had a ladies' room. Well thank goodness they had a men's room cuz the ladies' was outta order. I bought a Coke and some pretzels and jumped back into her Tahoe. Sabrina headed to the broken down bus. Good thing Denise and I are short as no one on the bus saw us sitting in that Tahoe. As soon as the#5 bus made it to St Augustine they had it turn back around and come and get these folks. Sabrina in the meantime had called the resort to make sure the Lounge would be open for food service for these folks once they made it back. She wanted to show the other lady riding with us her house, so we did a quick drive by. We made it to the resort a little back after the people on the bus. It was about midnight, I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. So as I head to the room, Denise heads to the lounge to grab something to eat. She never let on that we were in the Tahoe that brought them water.
I have to remind myself that I was one of two people in the nation that won this trip!!
PICTURES: http://picasaweb.google.com/thomtxt/Daytona50050thRunning?authkey=b1RGOAYi-LM
