The First NASCAR Race Weekend

Probably one of the best Valentine's Day gifts we have had. Heading to our first race of the year, the Daytona 500. We arrived in Orlando on Thursday at Westgate Resort. We had a VIP party where we received our Daytona 500 tickets. 

We were excited about this race. The first race of the season and a fresh start to the 2024 race season. Friday we made our way to Disney Springs. Christie has mentioned that she wished that we had gone and had seafood when we were there in October. So we made our way to The Boathouse, where we enjoyed some seafood and being on Disney property. After dinner we walked around Disney Springs and watched a concert, while Christie enjoyed her churro. 

Saturday was kind of a wet day. Just enough rain to not want to do something, but just enough to do want to get out and do something. We drove around and made our way to Icon Park where we at at Gordon Ramsay's Fish & Chips. afterwards we walked around Icon Park and went to one of the 300 outlet malls in Orlando and then back to Disney Springs. 

Sunday was definitely a long day. They Postponed the Daytona 500 and with all the rain we decided to just stay in the room and watch movies. 

Monday we woke up and got ready to head to Daytona for the first race of the season. Even though it was a day later is was definitely worth the wait. Once we got to Daytona we parked at the Volusia Mall and broke out the Blackstone.  After eating we made our way to the track. We walked around to check out some of the stuff going on and made our way inside. This track is not like any other that we have been to. They have an escalator that takes you up to the corridor. For free seats we had a real good view. We sat in the 400 section coming out of turn 4. Six laps in the first wreck of the season took place right in front of us. Along with all the sights and sounds of being at the racetrack this was memorable. You don't realize the good times that you can have with your spouse and how magical of a moment it is to spend time with them. Don't ever take it for granted. These moments are what Christie and I have made for our bucket list. These moments I will always cherish.

    

   

Our Disney Getaway

It all started back in March 2023. It was time to start planning Christie's 50th birthday. What would be something that she has always wanted to do? So I called a friend of mine at Adventure Dreams Travel to help me out. Christie has never been to Disney World, so why not book a vacation to Orlando? As we set the plans for our getaway in October Christie had no idea about what I was doing. Everyone knew about the trip but her. One day in September I got a welcome packet from Disney in the mail, not knowing what else was being sent I decided to tell her we were going. The look on her face when I handed her the packet was something that I will never forget. Her reply was "We're going to Disney!". As the days got closer we started to plan our trip down to Orlando. Sixteen years ago we were in Savannah and purchased our wedding bands. Since that time my band had broke and was stolen in February of this year. So Christie decided that we stop in Savannah and go back to the store we bought them at and purchase a new set. So we took the long way down to Orlando. We left on Friday and drove to Savannah. When we got there we checked in and then made our way to River St. The first place we stopped was Cassandras Jewelry we told to staff our story about how we purchased our original rings and we needed a new set. The staff was very helpful with helping us make our decision. After we purchased the rings we took a walk down River St and watched a couple of Barge's one leaving and the other coming into Port. Then went and had dinner. 

The next morning we got ready to head out for Orlando. Not sure who was more excited Christie or me. We made our way down I-95 going through Brunswick and Waverly. As we made it to the Florida state line, Christie has always told me that when she was a kid traveling to Florida they would stop at the Welcome Center for their free cup of Orange Juice. So why not relive that memory and stop at the Welcome Center? 

After our free cup of Florida Orange Juice, we kept down I-95 through Jacksonville and made a quick little stop at Buc-ee's in St. Augustine. Continuing on our trip we finally made it to Walt Disney World. 

We got checked into our room at Pop Century Resort and made our way to Disney Springs to kick off Christie's Birthday week. We walked around Disney Springs and had a nice dinner at Raglan Road Irish Pub. 
The next morning started our Disney Adventure, the first stop was Animal Kingdom. 

My first stop was Starbucks, someone needed coffee and I needed a cinnamon roll. After getting our breakfast we made our way to Kilimanjaro Safaris to go visit our animal friends. We hit up a few shows and looked at some of the sites. It was October 9th and Christie would turn 50 the next day so we took advantage of our Park Hopper pass and headed over to Magic Kingdom. I wanted her to experience Magic Kingdom before she was 50. We time it out pretty well because as soon as we got to Magic Kingdom, a parade was about to start. 
We watched to parade on Main Street USA and made our way down to Cinderella's Castle. 

Then headed over to Tomorrow Land and rode the People Mover. Then a quick little stop at Magic Kingdom and I wanted Christie to experience the Monorail. So we headed out of Magic Kingdom to the monorail to Epcot. The plan was to go to Epcot and get on the Skyliner back to Pop Century. Poor planning on my part I didn't realize that the Monorail was on one side of Epcot and the the Skyliner was located on the opposite side. So we walked through Epcot got a couple of pictures and made our way to the Skyliner. After that, we headed to Pop Century and relaxed. 
The next day we made our way back to Epcot and made a day out of it. We rode a Spaceship Earth and from there we went to The Seas with Nemo and friends, after that, we went and hung out with Crush. At 1 o'clock I got the Virtual Queue for Guardians of the Galaxy, Unfortunately, we had to wait until almost 8 pm to ride that ride. We walked through the World Showcase and stopped in Germany before getting bratwurst I noticed a sign. The sign said Würzburg. For those that don't know that is one of the cities that I lived in when I was a kid. 

They also had Würzburg Hofbräu, the only brewery in Würzburg, Germany. I found that pretty interesting. It was also the first time that I had seen that since 1989. We also went to the Disney and Pixar Small Film Festival. On the way in we noticed that Minnie and Mickey were inside the building taking pictures with guests. 

So why not get a picture with them? 
After the short film, we headed towards Test Track. We built our car and got to test drive it.

Finally, around 7:30, we got the notification for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. After waiting almost 6 hours we got to the ride and they told us the ride was down and that we would have to wait roughly thirty more minutes. We decided to grab a bite to eat and then headed back to the ride. I will have to say that this is by far the best ride I've ever been on. 

Wednesday was our day at Magic Kingdom it was everyone's day at Magic Kingdom. 7 am I got on the Virtual Queue for Tron and got Group 6 which means we had to get to the park pretty quick. We made Rope Drop and headed directly to Tron. Hardly any wait for the queue. We rode Tron. Also another great ride. 

When we left Tron we made our way to Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean. Christie looked at me and said, "I'm Exhausted, can we go back to the room." I didn't have a problem with that plan. We went back to the resort and took a much-needed nap. Around 5 pm we made our way back to Magic Kingdom to get ready to watch Happily Ever After Firework. It began to rain and we made the best of it. The best part was it stopped before the fireworks. 

Thursday was our last day to visit a park. Hollywood Studios was that park and we made the best of it. We watched the Indiana Jones Stunt show. Rode the Star Wars rides along with Rock N Rollercoaster. 

Although it was a long 4 days I couldn't have thought of any better way to spend Christie's 50th birthday. I know that there is a lot that we missed, but here gives us an excuse to go back. 

Friday morning came we loaded up the truck to head home. Christie had mentioned to me that she has never been to St. Augustine which gave me an idea. We are now going to visit St Augustine. As we headed up I-4 I had to make one little stop, at Daytona International Speedway. We toured the track and then made our way up north to St. Augustine. We got checked in and went to grab a bite to eat at Osteen's. 

After dinner, we made our way to  St. George St and walked and enjoyed the historic town. The next morning we went to tour the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument and walked the streets of St. Augustine before heading to The Fountain of Youth. 

Christie and I hadn't been on a "real" vacation in a while. But we have decided that we need to do it more often. 

To see all the photos from our Disney trip you can view them on Google Photos

AMS Summer Night Race

The weekend is finally here for The Quaker State 400 at AMS. Going to be a little different for us this time. We've never been to a night race at AMS. We are really looking forward to it. It will definitely be a lot warmer than the last time we were in Atlanta for a race. 

The Race weekend was great. Two of my cousins come up from South Georgia. We had the weekend all planned out. Starting of with the Alsco Uniforms 250 Xfinity race. We were pulling for #21 Austin Hill. Great racing all night long. Austin was doing well and with three laps left in the race Parker Klingerman spun out Austin denying him from a 3-peat at Atlanta Motor Speedway. 

Sunday we got to the track about 12:30pm and set up our first (hopefully annually) tailgate at AMS. Got the tent set up then the grill and chairs. We went and walked around The Fan Zone. Got to see Corey LaJoie signing autographs. Christie and I got Tickets to Daytona or Las Vegas. After heading back to the truck we decided that it was time to get cooking. Noel opened the tote realizing he left the foil and the seasoning for the steaks in his truck, still parked at the hotel. We asked the security in reserved parking and asked if we could leave and come back because someone had made a party foul. The security lady was super sweet and allowed us to leave so we could go to the backup plan at Lovejoy's Walmart. After heading back to the track we were ready to get cooking. Noel brought some shrimp that was in the ocean on Thursday and on the griddle Sunday.  Along with the shrimp we had steak. 

After eating we head into the track. The prerace concert had Andy Grammer performing. Then we got had the Driver intros. Before the National Anthem three skydivers were coming out of the clouds one with a 4ever Harvick flag, one with a Georgia flag, and one with and American Flag. The 4ever Harvick skydiver landed first then the Georgia flag and the skydiver with the American flag landed during the national anthem. They gave the command for Start Your Engines was done by Richard Childress who was sitting in the #29 car Harvick drove in The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 on March 11,2001 at Atlanta Motor Speedway Race where Harvick won just weeks after Dale Earnhardt was tragically killed in the Daytona 500. Richard Childress lead the pace for two laps while Harvick in the #4 pulled up and the two drove side by side. I'm pretty sure that there wasn't a dry eye at the track during that moment. The race began and the driver's battled all the way until the end of the rain shortened race. Chastain got involved in a wreck on lap 123 and pretty much finished Ross's day. Suarez finished in 2nd and had a good run most of the night. Lightning stuck and AMS asked everyone to leave the stands. As we were heading down the race was called with William Byron being the winner. All in all a great weekend. Now we wait for September and head to Bristol. 

The Beginning of the Bucket List in Atlanta

**This post will be updated throughout the weekend. 

-(7am  3/18/23) The Bucket lishas officially started.  Today we start with the FR208 Nascar Craftsman Truck series followed by the Raptor 250 Xfinity series race. It's gonna be cold. The high today is 52 degrees, we'll reach that at 5pm this afternoon. Looking forward sto see the races from the stands. Usually when we are at AMS we are working security or shooting off fireworks. This is the first year that Christie and I will be actual fans. 

Saturday at AMS! 🏁

9 a.m. - Fan Zone Opens

11 a.m. - Gates Open

11:35 a.m. - Cup Series Qualifying

1:30 p.m. - Fr8208 Driver Intros

2:00 p.m. - Fr8208 Green Flag

4:30 p.m. - RAPTOR250 Driver Intros

5:00 p.m. - RAPTOR250 Green Flag

8:00 p.m. - Peach Pit Party

Saturday Driver Appearances ⬇️

https://llo.to/t/LbPup

-(11pm 3/18/23) The racing was great. Very cold out when the sun was behind the clouds. Our seats were perfect. Here are some Pictures from Truck and Xfinity race . The first race was the FR8 208 Nascar Craftsman Truck series. The winner of that race was Christian Eckes #19. After that was the Xfinity series RAPTOR KING OF TOUGH 250. Austin Hill from Winston, Ga was the winner of that. 

3/19/2023. IT’S #AMBETTER400 RACEDAY! 🏁

9 a.m. - Fan Zone Opens

11 a.m. - Gates Open

11:30 a.m. - Pre-Race Access Opens

1:15 p.m. - Parmalee Pre-Race Concert

2:30 p.m. - Driver Introductions

3 p.m. - Ambetter Health 400 Green Flag

Sunday Driver Appearances

https://llo.to/t/XDIJV

10am (3/19/23) Very cold this morning. We arrived at the track and walked around the Fan Zone. Ross Chastain and his brother Chad were at the Georgia Highway Safety tent. We met up with Susan Chastain (Ross's Mom) and had a nice little talk with her while Ross & Chad were singing autographs. 

1230 (3 /19/23) We headed into the track to our seats and got ready for the pre race concert with Parmalee. 

3pm (3/19/23) After driver intros the race got underway and 10 laps in Bubba Wallace spun out on the backstretch. Stage one came to an end with 22 Lagono getting the stage points. Stage two went green for all 100 laps. Stage 3 also 100 laps was the final of 260 laps with Lagono coming to the checked flag. The race itself was awesome. Not a big fan of the new pitroad entrance.  Now we wait a month and a few days from now we I'll be at 'Dega. Looking forward to seeing some fast racing. 

Wreaths Across America 2022

Christie & I began volunteering with Wreaths Across America in 2019. Let's back track a little on how we got started. On December 15, 2018 my father attended the opening ceremony at Sunset Memorial Gardens Cemetery. After the hour-long ceremony my father made his way to Pineview Memorial Gardens where he is in charge of the wreath laying at that cemetery. As they began the laying of the wreaths my father reached over his trailer and collapsed. He was having a heart attack. Other members of the American Legion Post 71 North Augusta were also on site. They saw my dad collapse and sprung into action beginning CPR until Aiken County EMS arrived. My dad died seven times on the way to the hospital brought back every time. You can read more about his story here. He was in a medically induced coma for a week. When he came out of the coma I made a promise to him that I would be at every Wreaths Across America event with him from here on out.

2022 was our third year involved with this event. We left our house on Thursday night and drove half way. On Friday morning we arrived at my parents house at 11:30am and quickly jumped into my dad's truck and headed to Wade Hampton Veterans Memorial Park.

This will be the beginning of our weekend. The event at Wade Hampton Veterans Memorial Park was a short event. Post 71 laid a Wreath for all the military branches. After the ceremony we went to Monterreys Mexican Restaurant with my parents and the Wreaths Across America director for North Augusta Tony and his wife. After eating we talked telling old stories about past wreath layings and other things. I found out why Tony got involved with Wreaths Across America and it was because of his son. I don't know before this if Tony had any children or not but being retired military I figured he did, and I was right. Tony's son Anthony died while in Afghanistan. Hearing Tony tell his son's story made me understand even more of why I drive 210 miles to my parents every third week of December.

Saturday morning while we were at the opening ceremony at Sunset Memorial Gardens, Tony said something in his speech that stuck with me. "When you lay a wreath remember the name, go home and Google it. That person has a story." After the ceremony at Sunset Memorial, Christie, Dad, and myself headed over to Pineview Memorial Gardens. We laid out wreaths on the fallen veterans headstones, said their names out loud, and thanked them for their service. The sad part of the whole event, which is funded by donations,is that we don't have enough wreaths for all the headstones of fallen veterans. After we finished up at Pineview we went to Sunset Hill Cemetery where my mom is in charge of that location for laying out wreaths. There is so much time invested in this event and so many volunteers every year.

While planning my visit to South Carolina this year, I asked my parents if it would be possible to visit Ft. Jackson while on my visit. Before going onto the actual base my mom wanted to visit Ft Jackson National Cemetery to view all the wreaths that had been laid out the day before. 

It's such a beautiful view with all the wreaths laid out. Just knowing that these men and women are the reason for our freedom. 

I haven't been to Ft Jackson since 2000. This is my first visit in twenty-two years. First time in thirty-six years I've been on this base with my parents. So many memories jumped into my mind. This is the first time that I get to show Christie one of the places where I grew up. Naturally things have changed a little since the last time I was here. The house I lived in, the elementary school, and the baseball field I played on have all been torn down.

Even though all those places are torn down, the memories will always be there. Just walking on the baseball field where as a kid I was one of the top players in Columbia,SC. I could hear the parents cheering us on, I could see all my teammates in the dugout, I could hear the bats hitting the ball. It's just a great moment for me to be able to share this with my wife. 

Down Syndrome

   I've never met anybody with more love for people than a person with Down Syndrome, I believe the first person I met with Downs was when I lived in Germany. His name was Ben. I remember him with his three wheeled bike. He would ride in the parking lot of the Skyline Housing Area in Würzburg, Germany. Ben always had a smile on his face, I don't think I ever saw him upset. Years after I moved back to the states I heard Ben passed away.

Fast forward to 2003, I met a guy who was a year younger than me. His name was Jon. He was a funny guy, always trying to make you laugh. To him, he didn't have an extra chromosome, to him he was just like you. Little did I know at the time, but he was going to change my life forever. He was going to be my brother-in-law. I added the in-law, but he was really more of a brother to me. Jon and I would do everything together. We participated in Special Olympics Bowling and Golf. We bowled in a league on Wednesday nights for years. We went on vacations together. We would take our Saturday's and drive around and go different places. To Jon, he was hanging out with his best bud. We enjoyed spending so much time together. November of 2020, we started to notice Jon was becoming forgetful. Which to us was very strange. He began to forget where he was, what his name was, what our names were. Things just didn't seem right. To us, that was strange because Jon used to be able to tell us when a certain TV show would be coming on and what channel. You could give Jon a number of a NASCAR car and he could tell you the driver's name. Jon wasn't dumb, he was very smart. That's where people don't know. They figure since he looks different and is slower than a "normal" person that they are dumb….WRONG! Back to November 2020, things weren't right, so Christie left her job and began to be his caretaker. Hoping and praying things would get better. Maybe it's just a phase. Well, it wasn't. Things continued to deteriorate. Jon wasn't getting better. I'd take him on rides around town and he didn't know where we were. He would talk about playing golf and look at me and ask if I played golf. He wouldn't remember us playing. It was sad to watch. Things just kept getting worse. In November 2021 Jon had his first ever seizure. He was taken to RMC and released four days later. They didn't do anything to help him because we didn't want to put him in a nursing home 30 minutes away from our house when we have one directly across from where we live. Three days after he was released from RMC, he had an episode and this time we took him to Tanner. I never knew that two hospitals could be so different. The staff at Tanner was so much more helpful and caring. Jon stayed in the hospital for a week. We got him approved to become a resident in the nursing home across from us. He went back to Tanner two more times. His mind wasn't getting better,, but it was definitely getting worse. On August 9, 2022, Jon passed away, and that's when I had a hole placed in my heart. Jon is in Heaven and not in any pain anymore. I miss him daily and think of him all the time. Down Syndrome is just a thing that someone has. It has become a part of my life. 

Christie and I have friends named Christy and Brian. They have a son named Matthew. Yep, you guessed it, Matthew has Downs. I met Matthew in 2012. We have been friends ever since. Matthew was nonverbal for a long time and his only way of communicating was signing. When we would visit, I always had to have Matthew sign to his mom and have her translate for me. Today Matthew speaks and sometimes I struggle to understand what it is he is saying, but he will spell it out by signing to me. We visited Brian, Christy and Matthew quite a bit. Usually when we go to a festival or event Christie, Brian,Christy walk around and Matthew and I do our own thing. Matthew always tries to joke with me. One thing he does is he will look at me and say, "Steve, watch." He will lean over to Christie and kiss her on the cheek. He then goes into a big laugh and I stare him down and say to him, "You kissing on my girl?" His reply is "Yeah." It's little things like that that make me love all these guys. You see, downs may be an extra chromosome but that extra chromosome is an unconditional love chromosome.

More Coming Soon!

I've realized that I haven't done much on here. When I have down time I have these thoughts. Instead of having these thoughts and forgetting them about thirty minutes later I guess I need to write them down. I'll be adding them to the site as time progress. I will try to go thru the stuff I did this summer and put it on here.