Big houseboat groovin'

75 foot houseboat.
Marshall Steam Station sunset.

Larry.

We had the pleasure of going to a high school graduation party tonight on Lake Norman. Our friends, Larry and Claudia, had a houseboat party for their son's graduation. They are friends with one of the top NASCAR drivers and he was kind enough to lend them his awesome houseboat for the night. The great thing about living around all these racing fellers is that they all have cool stuff and most of them are nice enough to share with others. Often they are traveling around the country for their racing shows and they don't have enough time to use their cool stuff anyway. So on this night, we were able to go to a great graduation party. Plenty of super food from a new Italian restaurant, Portofinos, including linguine with clam sauce and mussels and, of course, some calimari. A great antipasto and some super desserts and kids having a great time celebrating their graduation and sliding off the sliding board on the back of the 75 foot houseboat. We rode through a storm and emerged to see an awesome sunset next to the power plant.

Goin' to the Race

Chillin' at the Race

We're here in racing country, stock car racing that is. About a 25 minute drive to Lowe's Motor Speedway when there isn't traffic. I don't like paying to see a race because it is usually not worth the money. So, over the last few years, I have figured a way to get into the Saturday night Nationwide (Busch) series race at Lowe's. We wait and leave the house a half hour before the race starts. When we get there, we pull right up and park in the VIP parking next to the track. This is because there is no traffic (everyone is inside) and nobody is running the parking lots. We then walk to the gate and buy tickets for five dollars that people are trying to get rid of. This beats paying $40.00 for a ticket and waiting in traffic and then walking a half mile to the track. Last night we did it a little differently. We had a social obligation and the race was delayed by rain, and we got there close to the halfway point. A couple of people who were leaving gave us their ticket stubs (good for re-admission) and we watched about 70 laps until the race was ended by another rain storm. Was worth every dime ! Ha !