Oh yeah, the traffic was a nightmare but we had to pack up camp so just had to get back to the campground. Because of Les's leg, he couldn't walk from the campground to the stands but we borrowed a handicap placard from a friend so he wouldn't have to walk so far. He really, really needs to get one! They took him to Gate 1 instead of Turn 1 on the golf cart so he still had to walk a long, long way to the stands. We walked over to where he was and I wasn't sure I'd make it. I had a backpack cooler with 9 20 oz waters on my back, another cooler with 15 cans of pop on a shoulder and he was leaning on my shoulder. He made it but it was iffy there for a while. After the race, we got back to the campsite around 7 pm and then had to pack up to come home. I'm guessing we left around 9 pm since we got home around 11:30 and it's about 85 miles for us. Traffic wasn't bad by that time.
OOooooooo, I'm soooo jealous! I'd love to have gotten to meet Ryan! Another friend was supposed to go with us. He used to work on Joel Kauffman's team when he was racing here in Indiana. A few years go, he was asked to work on one of the pit crews but I can't remember which driver. He knows a lot of the pit teams and some of the drivers and has some letters of intent from Jack Roush. The plan was he was going to either get us in to see Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman or get them over to our site. Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen issues with his step-son, his family was unable to go with us.