Today I left Chicago, a day before my trip's planned start, for a shakedown cruise, as it were. ... check out the truck, listen for rattles, etc. Knoxville on Sunday was to be my first stop.
I pull in into Elk Rock State Park (just outside of Knoxville) thinking to find a walkup campsite for the day, as my reservation here isn't until tomorrow. The park is pretty well packed. Being a noob at this, I ask some folks how the walkup system works. They explain it and say I may have a hard time finding a spot " 'cuz of the race".
"What race?" I ask.
Knoxville, Iowa is a town of about 4500 people. It is the home of The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame. It also, for one week every year, hosts the National Sprint Car Championship and its 200,000 fans.
Today is the last day.
As luck would have it, I find a site, fill out my reservation envelope, put my $20 in, deposit it in the payment envelope box and head to town to buy groceries.
The sea of humanity is awe-inspiring! ...tens of thousands of people. Thousands of motorhomes the size of semi trucks are parked everywhere. Traffic, a lot of it, is limited to one main street.
None of this would be here tomorrow.
I find the local grocery store and provision up. ...coke, steaks, eggs, bread, butter, bacon, beer... . My body is a temple.
I put it all in my cooler. The beer is warm. The store can't keep it on the shelves long enough to get cold, and a beer sounds pretty good at the moment. So I drive down the street and stop at the 1st Turn Tavern for a cold one.
Being last race day, the place is jammed and hopping. I get my beer and start writing this blog. Needing a bit more background for the story, I strike up a conversation with Billy and Penny, local folks who are more than happy to help me fill in the blanks.
Everyone is having a ball. Penny introduces me to Shana, who points out that everyone in the place knows one another. They come from all over to meet for race week, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, and have been doing so for years.
There's Billy, Bob, aka, Double Bubble, Nina, Calvin, Roy, ...all in all about twenty five or so folks just letting it all hang out, playing pool, singing with the jukebox, having a great time. It's infectious.
Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline starts up from the jukebox and literally everyone, including the bartenders, start singing along at the top of their lungs! This is, apparently, their anthem and I can't help but to join in this raucous display of happy.
I end up being invited (to the point, Penny says to me, "You're coming back to eat with us.") to their camp (two huge fifth-wheel camper trailers) for barbecue and games of bean bag.
Good first day. The truck ran fine.
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