NASCAR MANIA!

We finally arrived in Michigan on June1 after an uneventful drive north on US-127 into the Irish Hills of Michigan. This is home for Don, where he grew up (if that has actually occurred). The Irish Hills are so named because the area reminded Irish settlers of their homeland. The area is full of gentle rolling hills, many lakes and is a lush green at this time of year.

As we looked for a place to plug in our electrical and water supply lines, we quickly found that Memorial Day wasn't the only weekend that the RV parks in southern Michigan are booked solid! In 1968, Michigan International Speedway (MIS) came into being and Brooklyn, Michigan ended up on the NASCAR map. MIS covers 1,400 acres and has a modern 2 mile speedway. Over the years the grandstands have grown from approximately 12,000 fans and now can seat close to 120,000 fans with another 60,000 or so in the pit areas. Local farms were purchased and became parking/camping areas overnight. This year MIS has added suites to the pit area. $60,000 will get you a suite that has accommodations for up to 24 of your closest friends and covers the entire racing season, both weekends of it. There is a race in June and another in August and NASCAR is through with MIS for 2010. The speedway is available to host other functions, however, anytime other than racing week. By the way, if you drop $60,000 for a suite you'll be amazed at just how many 'friends' you have!

We found an RV park close to MIS but had to leave this morning, June 11, as the June race is June 11-13 and the park was sold out for those dates! We enjoyed the proximity to Brooklyn and Don's old friends, classmates and family. One reason for our trip east was Don's 50th high school reunion. Fun was had by all, or at least we hope so. During the week leading up to this morning we have been amazed at the influx of racing teams, vendors, fans and media types who have come to Brooklyn by the thousands for this spectacular event. Roads for miles around have hundreds of traffic control cones ready and waiting to direct the hordes of fans as they all try to leave the speedway at the same time after the race on Sunday. They say traffic moves rather smoothly for such a large crowd but it moves for several hours! We're happy we won't be part of that chaos. Check out the MIS web site as they have lots of pictures and we don't! http://www.mispeedway.com.