Day 13: The Weekend I Knew

I have always heard that there was a point in time in every relationship in which you know that you are going to spend the rest of your life with someone and until May 13, 2007 I had never realized what that feeling was like. My lovely wife and I had known each other for about a year and a half before we took a weekend trip to Darlington, South Carolina to watch the NASCAR race. It was Thursday night when we had planned on leaving and with the race being Saturday night it would give us all day on Sunday to travel back. While it would have been ideal to leave right after work for the 5 hour drive, one of her best friends Monica was having her graduation party from dental hygiene school and we didn't want to miss that. We actually ended up leaving Roanoke about 10:30PM and set out for our destination. Even though it was late it was actually a great trip down there as we laughed pretty much the whole time about stupid stuff. The only problem was after driving almost 5 hours we were within a few miles of the campground when we had to stop for a train. Little did we know that this train was loading at a plant and it was going to have the road blocked for the next hour. Everytime we thought it was leaving it was just pulling forward to fill another car. Needless to say it was quite frustrating. When we finally arrived to the campground it was about 4:30am we just stayed at the front and slept for about 2 hours as we didn't know where our spot was. When we finally got to our spot we set everything up then went inside and took a nap.

For those of you that have never been to a NASCAR race, the major part of the experience is the tailgaiting before or for us, camping for the weekend. We meet great people from all walks of life and have a great time regardless of who we are next to. When we got up around noon, like we always do, we walked around to see all of the vendors and just get a "lay of the land". By necessity we had to purchase an outdoor rug as we learned all about red ants as they were rampant there in the sandy soil in which we were camped on and loved to bite. That evening we went to the Busch race at what was one of NASCAR's toughest track. We met a father that was taking his son to his first race and we let him use one of our scanners so he could here the drivers talk with their crew. It was just great to see his face light up as he could not only watch but also hear what they were saying.

Saturday morning was race day and after going for a run in the morning we hung around the camper all day and chatted with our neighbors. I was having an absolutely wonderful time with this woman and was amazed about how well we were together and at ease we were with one another. I started thinking that things could be much more than what they were. As race time drew closer I got a call from Steve who is a friend that I worked with. Steve is also an avid race fan and we often had met up at races but he was staying with a buddy of his in Myrtle Beach and he wanted to meet up for a little bit just before the race started. Just before we were going to go in the skies got really dark and we decided to wait to see what it was going to do. Then the rains came!!! and came!!!! and came!!! I drove down to the track to pick up Steve and brought him back to the campsite in which we started a great night. Under the camper awning the "neighbors" brought over a guitar and we just sat outside and enjoyed a few drinks while listening to music as the rains continued and the night went on. They ran the race the next day and as we watched truck after truck and camper after camper get buried trying to get out of there we were pretty much stuck to where we weren't able to leave until the next day. Believe it or not I was thrilled as that was just another night I could spend away with the woman that I knew was someone special!!!

While it is so hard to put into words, it was a weekend in which I look back on and know that is when I truly fell in love with this amazing woman!!! The collage for her on Day 13 highlights this weekend of May 13, 2007 which was turned out to be the first of the rest of our lives!!

DAY 13: THE WEEKEND I KNEW

July 19, 2009

27 to go.....