Bristol Weekend Part One

I took off from 8/23/10 to 8/26/2010, and due to my shortened work week, I had 10 days in a row without work…I have not been out of the hospital for that much time since I started… I forgot what it felt like to be completely out of work mode…

Thursday evening, I dropped John with my cousin for the weekend and went home to pack- I was heading to my first NASCAR race. I got the tickets from Peg and Tony, as a 3rd anniversary gift for Rick… He was delighted. Lyle, his step-son, got tickets from Tony’s cousin, so he and his girlfriend Lindsey joined us for the weekend.

On August 20, we drove down to Bristol- and it was RV camper MADNESS- approximately 160,000 attend the race in what is usually a small town, so campers and RVs were parked in parking lots, fields, and along the grass at the side of the state roads. It was a huge crowd. Lindsey and Lyle stayed at our original destination- rooms in a house were Peg and Tony have rented for years, but due to Rick’s allergy to dogs, we could not stay. (There was debate as to if I asked about dogs when paying, so I let Rick deal with the individual to prevent me from going Bronx on him and telling him what I really thought of the situation- I did not want to sleep in the truck!)

The room we were shown next was behind a Southern Baptist Church, and it is where Church visitors (ie missionaries) stayed when visiting the church. The room was impeccably clean, the bed was comfortable, if a bit on the small side, it was a good 2 mile walk from the track, it had a closet toilet on the left, a closet shower stall on the right and a sink that faced the bed, on the wall to the left as you walked in.

The bed was against the right and back wall, and a small dresser was across from the bed on the door wall. There was less than a foot between the dresser and the bed and only about three feet from the end of the bed to the sink.

Did I mention the religious verses on the wall?

But it was air conditioned and dog free so we told Chris, another man with the company, who had driven us out to the Church, that Lindsey and Lyle would go back to the original house, and that Rick and I would make do in the backyard of the Baptist Church. And I told Chris outright that this was not what we paid for and clearly we would be due a refund of a portion of our fee, which he agreed to on the spot.

I wasn’t happy, but I understood we were lucky to find anything available at all on Race weekend. And clearly I have stayed in worse places. But I was disappointed. Happy Anniversary to us…

Chris said he would try and find us a better room and we settled in.

But not for long. Chris- a really good man- reached a gentleman who they had worked with in the past. He had two rooms already rented, but had a room empty- it just wasn’t prepped. He gave Rick the address and we were on the road again…

We ultimately found ourselves about two miles from the racetrack on the other side, in a lovely subdivision that clearly suffered with the housing decline. Many empty lots were dotted among the homes, which were lovely. We stayed in a large 5 bedroom house that was really big on wallpaper and faux painting, but lovely. Our room, easily 3 times the size of the Missionary bedroom, was nice, clean and well furnished. We were off to the races…