Posted By: The Rookie
I will now recount to you all one of the most bizarre days of my entire life.
It all started last week when my dad sent me 4 tickets to the Daytona 500. I had always wanted to go to a NASCAR race, and I figured that since I live two hours away I should make an effort to go to the biggest NASCAR race of the year. My dad came through with 4 great tickets (34th row, DePalma Tower, Section I [near the entrance to pit row]). I invited a bunch of people to come but by the time race day came around I only had 2 other people coming with me, Richard who works with me and Rick Ross who is an apartment manager on the island and a friend of mine.
We were all geeked to go to the race, so we left really early to try and beat traffic and get a good tailgating spot. We were on the road at 6 and driving to Daytona through a thick fog. After grabbing some snacks and a full tank of gas we settled in for the ride and it was fairly uneventful. At least it was until we made it a little north of Melbourne around 8 am- that's when the fun started.
All of the gauges in the van I was driving died. I was moderately concerned but the car was still working fine so I just kept driving. Then the radio died. Rick asked if I had turned the radio off and after I assured him it wasn't me he suggested I take stock of what did work. The wipers were weak, the blinkers right and left did work but the lights were all fading on the dash. Then the accelerator quit. I moved over and got off on the side of the highway, and then the car just died. The battery light came on and the whole thing shut down. A few attempts to restart the vehicle failed. We were stranded on the side of 1-95, in a pea soup fog, without any idea what mile marker we were on.
Rick jumped to the rescue and brought out his platinum AAA card, but without any idea what mile marker we were at they weren't going to be able to come tow the van. So I started walking north down the highway (for those of you who haven't tried this I don't recommend it...especially in a thick fog). After a few minutes of walking I had reached the point where I couldn't see anything to the north of us nor could I see the van (it was really thick fog), so I decided that I should go back to the van and go south instead - believing that the closest marker was in that direction. I left the phone with the guys and began jogging south. Turns out the closer mile marker was to the north. I ended up running most of two miles in jeans through thick wet grass - leaving my feet completely soaked. When I got back to the van we were able to radio in our coordinates to AAA and they sent a flatbed to come get the van.
Meanwhile an air of defeat had settled in over us because we were beginning to resign ourselves to the fact that we probably weren't going to the race. Rick gallantly called his ex wife who lives a few minutes away to see if she would loan us her car, but she was closing on a house that morning. Last ditch I called my step-grandpa, Rich (from here on known as Darth (its a nickname within the family)) to tell him what had happened and to ask him what he wanted us to do with his van. To our great surprise he told us that he was on his way north with his Yukon XL and that he was going to meet us and go to the race with us (using our last ticket) even though he didn't want to. Our spirits were buoyed by this news and we had the flatbed driver take us to the next exit and drop us off while we waited for Darth to get there.
He dropped us off at a Waffle House - so we went inside and had a quick breakfast and I had a beer or two in the parking lot before Darth made his way to pick us up. This was around 10 am. We made it to Daytona without further incident, finding a great parking spot and settling into our seats for the race.
The race was fantastic (pics to be up soonish). Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley performed before Martina McBride sang the national anthem. Michael Bay and Josh Duhamel were there to say "Start your engines!" and the F-16 stunt team the "Thunderbirds" performed the fly by. The race was incredibly exciting - featuring a record amount of lead changes and Rick bought a handheld TV set that lets you listen into the drivers' frequencies - which really adds an added dimension to watching the race.
As the race reached its dramatic conclusion (as everyone knows by now it was won by a 20 year old after a crash near the end and a false start on the restart) Rick and I were really getting into the race. Richard and Darth were down lower near the stairs watching the race - and I guess Darth decided to leave early. As we were gearing for the final restart of the race a man came up to our seats and asked "Are you guys with a guy in a yellow shirt?" Rick and I both shook our heads and he said "Well they said he was sitting in these seats" (pointing to the ones that Richard and Darth had vacated). Believing he wanted to sit in those seats for the end of the race Rick and I both said "No they are coming back we are just holding their seats for them" Then the hammer dropped. "No, a guy in a yellow shirt just fell down the stairs". It hit Rick before it hit me. Darth was wearing a black shirt with yellow fish on it. Darth had fallen down the stairs.
We both rushed out of our seats and headed down to meet Richard, who was standing ashen faced at the landing of the stairs. Darth was at the bottom of the steps completely covered in blood. Apparently he had turned to go down the stairs early and had lost his step and fell. The EMT's were right on hand and insisted that they put him in a carry chair to take him to the emergency aid building. He didn't want to get in the chair and was furious when they dropped him (!) on the way down to the main level. He finally got to the emergency building while we trailed after him and we were able to watch the exciting finale of the race on the handheld that Rick had purchased.
We waited for an hour while the EMT's patched Darth up (he needed a bandage on his head and around his knee and 8 stitches in his pinkie). The whole time he was wearing his sunglasses and messing with the nurses (at one point he asked her "will I be able to play the piano?" "Yeah you will for sure!" "Oh that's great, because I wasn't able to before!"). Meanwhile if anyone thinks that people watching at the Daytona 500 is great (and it is) people watching in the waiting room of the emergency aide building of the Daytona 500 is incredible. At one point a woman came in and demanded a ride back to her car for no other reason than she had parked far away and didn't feel capable of walking that far. Another guy very gallantly offered his electrical cart to woman who had twisted her ankle, and then informed me that he was a former MMA fighter (keep in mind he was probably 300 pounds) and that while training to be a Muay Thai fighter his shins became as hard as rocks. Another guy came into the waiting room with a massive cut that was gushing blood on his hand. Later - a guy wearing homemade Daisy Dukes and a cut up flannel shirt came in and stood at the counter and asked (in a very high voice that emphasized his s's) "Is my friend in here? His name is Jake and he cut his hand? Will you please tell him that I am so sorry I cut his hand? I just feel awful about it." Just before we left I walked up to the counter to check on Darth (we could see into his room from the window) and I saw that he still had his glasses on and was playing with his phone so I let out a small laugh. A girl standing next to me (with her bra straps falling out of her shirt) looked at me with disgust emanating from her bleary eyes, and said "Ugh, are you serious?!" before grabbing a tissue and stumbling out the door while crying.
After Darth was released from the emergency room we all packed up our things and headed back home. When we got home we had to change Darth's dressings (he later developed two black eyes and had to have a CAT scan), my feet were all pruned and painful to walk on from being soaked by the run and we were completely exhausted. What seemed like a simple trip to a NASCAR race had ended in complete disaster but it sure makes for a heckuva story!
