Katie's Thoughts: What a Weekend!

Well first off I should say, the birthday dinner went off great! He loved the meal and the cake. I have to say the cake was pretty good. Only bad thing is that I got a big fat nail in my tire on Thursday and had to wait for the pouring down rain to stop so I could get it fixed. Or should I say Chris got it fixed. He pretty much takes care of all that stuff.

So Friday we left for Chicago for an NMRA/NMCA Drag Race. They actually call it the superbowl of drag racing. Chris's motor is still being worked on so unfortunately he didn't get to enter, but at least he was there to watch for his birthday. Never in my 25 years would I have figured that I would get into drag racing, but it's really fun to watch! Here is a picture of the track we were at. It is called the Route 66 Speedway at Chicagoland. This was taken with my iPhone too...I'm surprised how clear it turned out!

As you can see it was cloudy. It never rained but OMG it was cold. Had to buy a sweatshirt there. The only kind of shoes I brought were flip flops so my feet were freezing. The first night we were there it was just qualifying. Guys (and some gals!) were making passes trying to qualify the best spot possible. Then once the qualifying rounds are over they move into elimination. The way they pair the racers is a lot like a bracket in basketball. The lowest races the highest, etc... Well here is the most amazing story! Chris has a friend who used to drag race but since then has retired and has gotten his son (who is 17 by the way) to start running his car. He qualified in last place and so come elimination time he of course had to race number 1. The 17 year old kid took out the number one qualifier!!!! Everyone was so happy. Unfortunately after that he went out in round two, but he did such a good job. He hasn't been racing that long and this was his first NMRA race. He definitely got his name out there! Chris's other friend lost his motor during the last round of qualifying....it literally exploded. Which brings me to another point, I saw a lot of cars go up in flames this weekend, and near crashes. This is the part I don't like!!

While we were there we stayed at the luxurious Red Roof Inn (HA!) that had paper thin walls and you could hear all of the sounds of Chicago in our room. Saturday night some wild racers who were staying next door to us were outside our door in the middle of the night just talking loud and being crazy, and then invited some girls up there with them. We hated to be party poopers, but we called the front desk to complain. Apparently we weren't the first ones to call and complain either! They quieted down after that. Actually the next day when we checked out the lady asked Chris if we enjoyed our stay, and he jokingly mentioned the noisy Saturday night and she took 20 bucks off the night! Here is a picture of Chris and I during the final elimination rounds on Sunday.

I look really pale. Maybe it's because I was so cold! Anyway we finished up watching the final rounds and started to head home about 6:30p.m. We thought we could make it the whole way home but around St. Louis and 11:30 we thought it would be safer to sleep in a cheap motel and get up and drive the rest of the way today. But before we stopped we went to McDonald's for dinner. Now for those of you who know me, I don't eat fast food as much as possible so I wanted to be reallllllly cautious about what I ate so I decided to get a happy meal. Well, in this happy meal came a toy that was a mini beanie baby. Did you guys know these were making a comeback? Anyway the beanie baby I got was Pico a Chihuahua with pink fur around her neck. She was born on June 10, 2007 and she was most of the entertainment for the ride home today (Monday). Here is where she spent most of her time riding.

Yep, right there on Chris's shoulder. He can't deny it, they have a special bond. That is until he put her in time out and made her stick her nose in the corner. (I think we were delirious at this point!)

So all in all, it was a great trip. I got to experience something I had never seen before, spend some time with Chris and celebrate his birthday. One thing that I just had to take a picture of was the sunset when we started our drive home Sunday night. Here is a picture.