Delaware is one of those states that people forget about. It's understandable. The state is only about 40 miles across at it's widest point. That four-zero miles, folks. The KC metro area is wider than that.
It's about 90 miles long, so driving from one end to the other along the single major highway is like driving from KC to Topeka. Still, it's a quaint a pretty state. And, as the residents I talked to were quick to remind me, it was the first state to ratify the Constitution.
My business travels took me to Dover International Speedway, home of the Monster Mile and NASCAR's Neighborhood of Excellence 400. This gave me a chance to see about 100,000 white people with red necks sit in the sun watching custom-made mega-gas-guzzling cars drive around in circles for four hours.During a sun-stroke induced trance, I looked for some meaning to the pattern of numbers. The race was 400 miles long, roughly 4 times the length of the state. And there were about 100,000 people watching the race, about one eighth the population.
It seemed a bit too neat and coincidental to me. I thought there must be a Dan Brown novel in there somewhere.
As for the NASCAR race itself, it was a first for me. As you can imagine, the rednek factor was pretty high. But I did get a tour of the infield/pit area including some up-close and personal time with the cars. Amazing machines, though I suspect they don't do much for the price of gasoline.
Anyway, it's back to NY tomorrow for a couple of days.
tagged: travel, Delaware, NASCAR, Dover, race, New York
Wow, how long you stayin in my neck of the woods? Going to Delaware, speaking of the constitution (Independence Hall/Square is in Philli, if you're interested...but it's the quirky spots that are the best and it's the quirky spots tourists don't know about)and stayin in New York, a city I love.
ReplyDeleteAnyway...I just say my neck of the woods b/c I am 30 to 40 minutes from DE depending on where I am (I use to go down to UOD to get my figure skating stuff and Kev use to play hockey there) and speaking of the constitution- it all went down in Philli- they just built a new constitution center to house the Liberty Bell-someone gave it a good whack with a sledge hammer a while back,(how hilarious was that?) I guess they figured it needed a better home.
My Bf's family is from Manhatten too and his sister lives on Long Island...so my neck of the woods is pretty big, eh? Anyway, it's late, I'm bored and I am rambling.
Hope your trip is good.
Echele, I thought about trying to contact you but then decided you probably wouldn't be too keen on meeting up with an anonymous Internet stranger.
ReplyDeletePlus, it’s just been crazy busy. I flew to NY last Wednesday night, train to Wilmington, Del., early Saturday AM, drive down to Lewes, back up to Dover then hotel in Lewes saturday nite. Back to Dover Sunday morning, then drove to Reston, VA., Sunday nite. Tuesday AM, back to NY by train, then wednesday nite fly back to KC.
I'm ready to go home.
It sounds like you had a memorable trip! A damn busy one at that but I hope it was fun as well!
ReplyDeleteWith any trip, it's always great to go back home.
Happy and safe travelling!