The Burkett Family: Charlotte Camping Trip May 2013

We went on our annual Charlotte camping trip at the track! This year was a little different than years past. There wasn't much going on at the shops like there was last year. We got to Charlotte on Tuesday evening. Of course it rained during the day so it was a little wet and muddy when we got there to set up. Tuesday evening we didn't do much since we got there around 8pm. Wednesday morning we watched the Nationwide Haulers come in to the track. After breakfast we went to Kasey Kahne Racing, JR Motorsports, and Joe Gibbs Racing. After we left Gibbs, we went to Northlake Mall to eat lunch and let the kids play in the play area for a little bit. Then it was back to the trailer to rest from being on the go all day!

Thursday morning the Cup Haulers came into the track so we took the kids down to watch them come in! The rest of the family came in Thursday morning. Once they got all set up, we went to Camping World in Statesville. After Camping World we went to Kyle Busch Motorsports, Penske and Hendrick race shops. Once we got back to the trailers, we walked up to the gate at the track and let the kids see and hear the race cars since they were qualifying. The kids loved seeing the cars on the track and hearing them! Ashton got to see his car qualify!

On Friday we went walking around the souvenir trailers. There wasn't that much open yet since there wasn't any track activity going on. When we were walking towards the souvenirs, we ran into Jimmy Spencer. He stopped and talked to us for a few and took a picture with the kids.We also saw Miss Sprint Cup Kim Coon. Since there wasn't much opened yet, we headed back to the camper. When we were heading back, a golf cart stopped us asking if we were going to the Nationwide Race Saturday night. We said we were but we didn't have tickets yet, so they gave us 10 free tickets. We had a little get together Friday night with some friends. We played cornhole pretty much all night!! I finally got to see my best friend from middle school and high school that i havent seen in 2 years!

Saturday was race day for us! We didn't have tickets to the Cup race, but since we got free tickets to the Nationwide race, Kevin's sister and brother-in-law watched the kids for us so we could go. We went with some out of town friends, our niece Allison and Kevin's dad friend. Our seats were right near the start finish line! Unfortunately our racecar driver that we were all rooting for, Brian Vickers, didn't win the race. It ended up being a pretty boring race considering Kyle Busch dominated the whole race and led pretty much every lap! After the race was over, we all just hung out at the camper and played more cornhole.

Sunday morning our friends Chris, Angela and their 2 boys Hunter and Cameron came to the campground and had breakfast with us. After breakfast, they went back home and we went back up to the souvenir haulers. We were looking for a yellow Dollar General Matt Kenseth shirt for Ashton. We never found one, but we did get the girls Kasey Kahne shirts! When we were walking around, David Ragan was at the Speed stage with Monica Palumbo (former Miss Sprint Cup) . We waited until they were done with their Q&A and we asked Monica if we could get a picture with her and the kids. 2 years ago at the Red Bull Fan Day she was there and took a picture with them so it was cool to see the difference two years later. After we got done walking around, we went back to the camper so Allie could get ready to go to the race. When we got back, my best friend Jenni was there again! She hung out with us Sunday night during the race and had dinner with us. We took the kids up to the gate again before the start of the race so they could see all of the cars on the track at the same time. We didn't stay up there too long because we didn't have any ear protection. When we left the track, the kids through a fit because they wanted to see more race cars.