Our Mission Statement

As a family of servants of God, we seek to Glorify Him by offering our lives as living sacrifices, being intentional about engaging people with Christ and the Gospel, and using the talents and training He has given us through grace to proclaim the Gospel of Grace to those near and far.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Boyz Weekend @ Talladega!

This past weekend, I (Jr) took Gideon on a 3-day, 2-night camping and racing excursion to Talladega Superspeedway. We met up with good friends Brian and his son Hudson Mosier. We lived close to them during our days in Florida and both of our families moved away from there around the same time. This was a perfect time for us men and boys to get back together again. Yes, I had finals this week and probably should have studied; as this is the end of my M.Div journey. But you know what? This opportunity was too good to pass up. Life is more than my degree, and I did fine. I graduate on Saturday! :)

What follows is a mini-journal of our time in Talladega. I've captioned most of the following pictures with a brief introduction, but I want the pictures to tell most of the story. What a great time!

After waking up at 4am on Friday morning, Gideon and I made the nearly 4-hour trip to Talladega. We met up with Brian and Hudson, found our camp site, built camp, and by 10:30am we were leaving camp and walking toward the track.

This is how far we camped from the track. See the front-stretch stands? This place was massive. It took us maybe 10 minutes to walk close enough.


Gideon and I together in the souvenir section. I had just purchased his new #88 hat. Go Junior!


Talladega Superspeedway had a free "Kidszone" area so we took advantage of that. Gideon and Hudson had a great time in the bouncy cages.


Here is Gideon in front of one of Junior's various trailers.


And another.


Here is Gideon and Hudson in the "Sprintzone" area where they had a car opened up so we could see what they looked like inside. In this area we also competed in a video racing event against 7 other competitors. Gideon and I were in first place entering turn 3 on the last lap but got rushed by an oncoming pack of cars. We finished fourth. It was tons of fun!


I just thought this was cool. Dale Earnhardt Sr. was how I got into racing back in the early 1990s. In the "Sprintzone" they were doing a giveaway for this guitar.


Sprint also had the Championship trophy on display. It was cool.


I told Gideon to pose like Danica and well... this is what he came up with.


The boys after a full day of walking around. It was Alabama hot!


Gideon in mid-sentence. We just talked. Good times.


Our full camp site from behind. And our 100,000 neighbors.


Gideon, being Gideon.



Camping just isn't like it used to be. Gideon stayed up for a while Friday night and watched a DVD on a player Brian had brought. Hey, life is tough. (Remember, Gideon and I had been up since 4am. He didn't fall asleep until almost midnight!)


Gideon was well warm as I woke him in the early hours of Saturday.


6:15am Saturday morning. Brian would heat up water for our morning coffee in a little metal pan. Yep, we were short on a few items. But hey, we made it work! It's camping!


 I started the #1 essential to a proper camping breakfast: Bacon. On a cast-iron skillet. Oh yes.


What you are about to see is the best breakfast camping has to offer; if I do say so myself!



Gideon loved it!


And here are Gideon and Hudson doing what they do. Girls flocking to our tent. They were gentlemen.


Please excuse my friend Brian from allowing his child to wear a RedSox hat. These Orioles fans do not approve.


Gideon wanted to get Naomi a gift. He said, "I'll get her the girl car." So there you go.


Danica Patrick came to the trailer to sign some autographs. The crowd was massive!


Not sure what Gideon is doing here, but both boys were excited as we entered the track for the Nationwide race on Saturday.


Next is a shot from the ramp into the track, down to the souvenir section outside the track. This is about 10% of all the attraction that was outside the track. The entire thing was absolutely massive.


I'm not really sure how to caption the next pic. Let's just say, it was a sight.


Gideon, ready for the Nationwide race.


Danica on track. We had great (and close!) seats.


Gideon, after eating some blue candy. Cheering on Danica and Junior. Brian had brought some racing scanners so we were able to listen in



Junior takes the lead with Danica right behind.


At night there would be hundreds of lanterns launched all throughout the complex. Visions of Tangled.

Sunday. The main event. Brian and Hudson ready for the green flag.


Likewise us!


There was a couple behind us who leaned over and gave Gideon and Hudson some new die-cast cars. He was psyched to add to his collection.


I can't describe how massive this place is. Pictures do not do it justice. It was a beautiful day (after some morning rain).


The man Junior! Again, our seats were close.


So there you go. It was a wonderful time together and I hope Gideon remembers it for the rest of his life. I intentionally wanted it to be a memory-maker. God in Christ is good to us. To Him be all the glory.

Grace be with you all -
Jr

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey JR & G, that is awesome! What a wonderful memory for the two of you.
Thanks for sharing. It is the next best thing to being there. The GBs enjoyed the show.

Brian Mosier said...

Nice work, brother! Thanks for the post!