Here’s how today was supposed to go: I would go for my bike ride, Miranda would work on her bead superheroes (watch this space!), Ian would work on his Lego Ferrari, and Tammy would patiently pick me up and look after us all. ❤️
Here’s what really happened: I got up, wondering if my bike ride was cancelled, because this weekend is the Tour de Bowness. It turned out it wasn’t. But that got me thinking about going and watching the bike racing as a family. Which led me to thinking about going to drag races, and isn’t it a pity that Race City closed down years ago. Which led me to Googling for “drag racing near Calgary”. Which brought up the Medicine Hat Drag Racing Association. And their big NHRA drag racing meet this weekend…
So I posed the question to a still-sleeping-in Tammy at 7:50 this morning: “How soon do you suppose we could all leave the house?” I went on to explain further, and it might have ended there, but the kids showed interest. So at 8:55, we were out the door like Bilbo Baggins, without a handkerchief.
Tammy was also interested in just going for the trip, because other than Drumheller and Nakiska, she hasn’t been many places around here. The experience of driving on the prairies is just weird to left-coasters like us.
We weren’t quite sure what we would find when we got there, but as it turned out, there was plenty of parking, and we backed right up to the fence overlooking the 1/8th mile mark on the racetrack. Folding chairs and a hatchback later, we were pretty comfortable.
We had a pretty good view, and could easily make out the Christmas tree. Our chairs and the shade from the hatch were more welcoming than the metal bleachers in the sun.
But the fact was that it got up to about 32 degrees while we were there. There was a breeze, but Ian was the first to fade, and then Miranda. Eventually, they were in the car in the shade, playing Minecraft. Oh well. Tammy and I had fun. She even suggested that we could go back in September to see the big motorcycle drag meet.
Here’s a video clip of one of the drag races, to give you a feel for what we could see.
It wasn’t a bad day considering…
Actually, Simon didn’t mention my first reaction when he woke me this morning. Normally people don’t wake unless there’s chaos and calamity, so my first thought (which I asked) was: Is the cat dead? 😀
Looks like a great adventure. Nice looking drag strip. What happened to the Calgary one???It used to be a big meet.. How far is Medicine Hat from your place? To bad it was so hot it can drag down the kids pretty fast. Grandpa and Nana.
Yes, Race City used to be a pretty big racing complex, but development overtook it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_City_Motorsport_Park
Medicine Hat is about 300 km away. It took about three hours to drive each way. No sense in speeding, the police were out in force ticketing people. It was a bit of a dress rehearsal for our trip to the coast. Before and after, I spoke to the kids about what they would want to bring with them on a long trip like that, and they had lots of ideas afterwards.