diary of an Endorphin Junkie

So apparently I am the local starbucks franchise. Let's explain:

1. There's a bunch of us in Nashville, TN in the same hotel
2. They have wireless internet, but only I was able to get it working reliably on two laptops.
3. Nashville loves their local grown Maxwell House coffee (puke)

So Edie and Hal went to the store and bought a coffee machine and some starbucks coffe.

I have music playing in my room, and two laptops set up for walk-up internet access

I am Starbucks :-)

Okay, after 3 days on non-stop country music, folks and phenomenon, most of the teenagers are going bonkers. Rachel pretty much breaks down in tears. After watching them fall down dead due to lack of useful input, I promise to take them out to a club. But due to random gaps in generations, everyone at this reunion is either 8-16, 33-39, or 52+. They're all 14-16 years old.

After a lot of searching, we find the perfect place. A short road trip later, and we find that there is one sane block of Cool Places To Be right beside the local Vanderbilt University. Nice little cluther of alternative clubs and shops.

Unfortunately, the club which advertised "All Ages" actually meant "All ages above 18". But after I made the doorman feel guilty for locking out three very pretty young ladies, he remembers a local coffee shop. Coffee shop? Turns out to be a two-room, two-DJ plus a live band thing. They sell specialty coffee drinks in addition to beer and wine. Works out nicely.

Not only did Rachel smile for the first time this trip, but we actually heard her voice! Lauren was vastly amused as well. The funny part is that our smack-talking Samantha actually got embarrassed and wouldn't leave the table or look anyone in the eye. We all had good fun teasing her...

Sadly, I gave up my sleeping period to take them to the club. So I got home at 1:30am and crashed. My alarm goes off at 3:30am and I drive down to Birmingham, AL to visit the Barber Motorsports park.

I drove 3 hours south of Nashville today to Birmingham, Alamba. Why even farther south? For a racetrack, naturally!

Barber is a modern, wide, flowing racetrack. It's sweeeeeeet. It was even more fun flying around it than I had expected, and my expectations were pretty high.
( lots of blabbering details about riding the piss out of my ex500 are behind the cut )