Another year older and another first

Well here it is again folks another year.......another birthday. I am a 34 year old man who on some days feels like he's 44 or even 54. As usual my folks celebrated my birthday by getting me a cake. As you will see it is a Chiefs cake....and for people who know me well....I am a Bears fan....not that I don't root for the chiefs....that's just my team.

Also my folks took me to this wonderful great authentic mexican restaurant in Parkville, MO called Agave mexican restaurant and cantina. Very good food for family owned place. If you go there you should try the spinach enchiladas and to top it off have a mexican cheesecake. It has a dry corn husk that is used as a bowl. Inside is a cream brulee with a carmel topping and some raspberry sauce on the side.......YummmmmmmmmY.

There happen to be another first in my life as I got to go see the Nascar time trials yesterday...Now, I'll admit before I went to the speedway I wasn't a big racing fan, but I never had been to the speedway or been in the infield until yesterday when I got to do both.

When I first got there and I went to the grandstand area....the first words that came out of my mouth was "Oh wow".

Then I headed over to infield, but to get there you have to head down some stairs into turn one. You go underneath a tunnel that is under the track and it lead you upstairs to the infield. You can see in the above picture where victory lane and the garages are located. Here is just a close up area of the garage where pit crews are fixing their cars to meet the right specifications and where fans can try to get an autograph of one of their favorite drivers.

I didn't see any drivers except for Jeff Gordon, but that was because he just finish using the restroom and waved to all the fans.

It's one thing when you see these cars on TV run on the tracks how fast they go, but when you see it in person it gives you more of appreciation of how hard these drivers have to concentrate when your going 175 miles per hour. It was actually a really neat experience and I would recommend anyone to try it just once. I may not always come out on top, but this birthday celebration and seeing the time trials made me feel like a true champion.

Signed

Tim "in victory lane" Crippen

PS: For ten dollars it was worth it