With the first week of school complete , everyone is scrolling through their photo albums and looking at all the fun they had this summer and wishing it would come back. Trust me, I'm doing it too and I can't help but share some of my favorite things I did.
Summer started off at the racetrack. NASCAR announced that there would be certain drivers testing at Richmond International Raceway and of course I couldn't resist going. So I hopped into the car with some of my closest friends and family and we headed down to Richmond. I also was fortunate to get a brand new camera and got some pretty fun pictures.
A few weeks later, I headed to the home state of racing, Charlotte, North Carolina. I spent a weekend with my family touring the NASCAR Hall of Fame and different race shops. We started the weekend at the Hall of Fame. Then moved on to the shops. Now if you are a huge NASCAR fan like I am and you have never toured the race shops. You gotta do it. We went to Penske, Joe Gibbs, Hendrick, Micheal Waltrip Racing. All the shops are super nice and fun to go to and if you're lucky you can even see drivers. I was lucky enough to see David Ragan who is such a super guy!
Exactly a week after I got home, I left with my youth group to go on our annual mission trip and this year we went to Charleston, West Virginia. It was definitely a humbling and wonderful experience. I got to work with some amazing people and grow a lot in my faith.
Towards the end of the summer I got the opportunity to see one of my best friends that lives in Tennessee that I was fortunate to meet over Twitter. We had skyped and texted for months before actually getting to see each other in person. Katelyn was visiting family and then they made a stop near my home and we couldn't help being so close and not seeing each other.
Now I am fortunate to have two best friends that share my love for racing and other things. After seeing Katelyn we had a whole new surprise in the works. NASCAR was heading to Bristol for their night race where Katelyn and my other best friend, Seanna had tickets. When seeing Katelyn we learned they had an extra ticket for Bristol and with a few conditions it had my name on it. During the two week period before the race, Katelyn and I kept it a secret from Seanna that I would be in Bristol.
Finally it was time for the Bristol race and I was reunited with Katelyn for a week of racing.
We arrived at Bristol Motor Speedway on a rainy Tuesday morning and after we were all set up we headed up to the track for some fun. Now let me say Bristol is one of the most beautiful tracks I've ever seen. It just is. But on Tuesday there was only one series at the track but we still loved seeing some great people and yes Seanna still didn't know I was there and it was hard to not post on any social media.
(From left to right: Dalton Sargeant, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez)
Finally Wednesday came around which was the day Seanna got her surprise. The day started off as just me and Katelyn though. We got to see a very good friend in the beginning of the day after some rain and watching practice.
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| Ryan Blaney |
Fast forward through the day and we got to surprise Seanna. It was probably one of the best surprises I have ever pulled off. But finally after a few months of us talking and the three of us becoming best friends, we were together.
The rest of the week was pretty fun. Katelyn, Seanna, and I spent as much time together as we could through the races though. We did get to see some other drivers and friends too but nothing topped being with Katelyn and Seanna. It was really one of the best weeks of my life. Being with your bets friends is pretty great and its really nice when you all like the same thing too. Below are some of the other pictures of us and the trip.
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| Chase Elliott |
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| Samantha Busch |
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| Emma Blaney |
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| Clint Bowyer |
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| Seanna, Katelyn, and I |
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| Seanna, Jordan Fish, Katelyn, and I |
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| Joey Logano |
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| Katelyn, Seanna, and I |
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| Katelyn, Seanna, and I |
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| Seanna, Katelyn, Daniel Suarez, and I |
So over all it was an awesome summer. Doesn't mean I'm happy to back in school but at least I have some fun memories to look back on.
As always thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post!
- Megan