Shops: Day Three

Let's cut to the chase. My pics from today are here. Edited and captioned.

Today's plan: Roush, Petty, and MWR.
Today's actual route: Roush, Petty, Earnhardt Ganassi with Felix Sabates, and RaceWorld (aka: MWR or Mikey's shop).

We hit Roush first (but not without a not-minor scuffle between Mom and her GPS). I scored another Christmas present (my first Christmas present was some Kyle Busch pajama pants) in the form of a Carl Edwards Aflac jacket. After hitting the gift shop, we hit the museum and talked to some of the Roush employees. We managed to meet one from Lawrence, KS (home of KU - BOO!!!), and we asked her what was going on today. We'd noticed that people were sitting in chairs outside, which puzzled us since Roush's fan appreciation day isn't until tomorrow. It ends up that people were ALREADY lining up and preparing to camp out in the autograph line; the autographing begins at noon tomorrow, and we had arrived around 10:30 a.m. this morning. We decided we wouldn't want to sign things for the people who were sitting in the sun all day today and all morning tomorrow.

Then he hit Petty, which is directly next door to Roush - as in you don't even have to leave the driveway. Roush and Petty share a gift shop, so in the Petty building, you just browse the lobby to grab some pictures and hero cards. The End.

On to EGR, which we hadn't planned on going to (my NASCAR friends will understand why, even though they host my beloved James), but we found out that they were mere minutes from the Roush/Petty campus. On to EGR. The gift shop is... odd. You walk in and James' stuff is on the left and JPM's stuff is on the right. There's a great divide in the middle, and that's it. And, really, there isn't that much stuff. Mom and I were both pretty surprised. Even from the visitor's lookout deck, there wasn't much going on in the shop. It was... odd. And the atmosphere there was just weird. Sterile, almost.

Finally, on to the FanFest at Mikey's shop. If you ever get a chance to go to a FanFest at MWR, GO. Make plans, do not change them, do not reconsider, do not let anyone talk you out of it. Part of it was like a mini-hospitality village - SO many free give-aways. There were moon bounces and air slides for kids, there were animals from local shelters (to be adopted, but also there for kids to adore and pet), a silent auction, and OH MY GOSH - the food and the raffles. But before I get ahead of myself, I was in fact able to print out my email affirming that I won an autograph wristband, and we claimed our prize. We wandered the silent auction, and I went NUTS when I saw that one of the prizes was a guitar autographed by Michael Jackson and his band, including Slash.

I got my autograph hat autographed by Trevor Bayne, David Reutimann, Michael Waltrip, Tim Brown, Ryan Truex, Martin Truex, Jr., and Michael Waltrip. The first session was Trevor and David, and I mentioned to them that I had flown in from Philadelphia to watch them race. David asked me where their cheesesteaks were. I said, "Well, I didn't know how you'd like them. Onions, mushrooms, peppers?" Trevor said, "Onions are good," and David said, "That all sounds good to me!" and I told them that next time I came down, I'd come bearing cheesesteaks.

The food to be bought was Cold Stone Creamery ice cream; cotton candy; and some other random fairground types of food. And for supper: barbecued pork sandwiches or hot dogs that came with macaroni and cheese or coleslaw, a bag or chips, and a beverage - all for five bucks. The best part was when I asked what kind of meat the hot dogs were made of (since I don't eat pork). "I don't know. I think it's standard hot dog meat." So I just opted for mac and cheese. She gave me a HUGE serving of pasta and just charged three bucks for it.

By that time, it was time to move to the stage area for the announcement of the raffle prize winners. There had been four boxes in the RaceWorld lobby: a Race Day experience, an Aaron's prize, a TireMonkey.com prize, and a $100 gift certificate to the RaceWorld shop. Each box said you could enter only once per person and you HAD to be present to win. So Mom and I dutifully filled out four slips, put one in each box, and hoped for the best, although we had no idea what any of the prizes except the gift certificate were.

By the time we got our meals, and found a seat, they had JUST started to call out the winner's names. They started by giving out some stuffed Lucky Dog's, and I was disappointed that I had missed an opportunity to enter a drawing for a free Lucky Dog. Then they started giving out some other random prizes, and Mom and I finally figured out that we HAD entered for these prizes, and they WEREN'T just drawing one person from each of the four aforementioned boxes. So we settled in for awhile.

Some really cool, kick-ass prizes went by, and Mom and I figured it was okay since we'd been pretty lucky so far. I'd won the Driver Intro passes (although we didn't use them), I'd won the autograph passes to Mikey's FanFest tonight, and really - how greedy can one family get? Then they called Mom's name (or some mangled variation of it) for a $100 gift certificate to Mikey's gift shop. It was the last of five such certificates they were giving away; I yelled at Mom, "THAT'S YOU!" (you know, just in case she had forgotten her name). After that, I settled back in because I figured after THAT kick-ass prize, really - just how greedy can one family get? I mean, seriously??? And then they announced the biggest prize of the night: a Race Day experience. Tickets to a future race, a meet-and-greet with Martin Truex, Jr., and some other race day perks that I don't remember (it's kind of a blur). And THEN. THEY. ANNOUNCED. MY. NAME.

I'll admit it. I screamed. And ran like hell to the stage. I got a card from the Director of Fan Relations with instructions to email him, and he'll email me back with a list of the 8-10 races from which I can choose to go to and claim my prize. In that email, he'll also outline all of the perks of the prize. I am SO psyched!!!!!

Then we went to the gift shop because we found out that Mom had to redeem her gift certificate tonight. So... shopping spree time! Here's the haul (the Trevor Bayne shirt was a gift for me; he's the newest member of my Harem):