The Dirty Dirty South

Springfield Mo Raceway:
Before leaving for St. Louis I had a chance to spend some time with my parents and sister in Springfield.  I love spending time with my family and was glad to be home after a hard summer of work in Nebraska.  One can only stand so much dirty cat pee drenched carpet (obligatory Stanley Steemer reference).  I left my job in Nebraska a couple of weeks early to enjoy the wonders of Springfield MO.  I this was a good idea because who knows how much time off I will get as the year progresses with Americorps.  Anyway...  My dad really enjoys going to see these amateur dirt track stock car races that take place just outside town and he invited me to go along.  It was a nice night despite the rain sprinkling off and on throughout the race.  What would have been a two hour experience turned into a four.  Other than the drizzle, it was a great night for racing (the announcer made that blatantly obvious every several minutes).  It was a pretty cool experience watching the cars duke it out around the track at breakneck speeds.  There were several crashes throughout the race. One particularly bad resulted in a full sized car flying end over end down the home stretch across the finish line (the driver was OK).  Having your eardrums blasted out by the roaring engines as the dirt from the track swirled around blinding the crowed at every turn added to the experience.  Despite my temporary loss of hearing and slight sogginess I had a great time and will definitely go to see something like this again.