Spin Out

Last night was my Wednesday night outing (er date) which included my son. I chose to go to Craigs Cruisers for "Wristband Wednesday". Was actually a really good thing to bring my son (as competition buffer) since said date races cars all summer long!

The weather was for crap last night. I delightfully managed to not only slide down the small downward slope of my driveway, I managed to slide so much that I was parallel (yes parallel/ON TOP OF - because I really AM THAT GOOD) with the sidewalk! Of course my gut instinct, first racing thought beyond the expletives was to just drive ON the sidewalk until the next block! Deciding that wasn't the most brilliant of ideas, especially with my most influential son in the backseat, I did my best attempt to turn the car 90 degrees and attempt to drive back UP the driveway to straighten the car out! Fortunately, I was successful and only managed to continue to destroy a small part (aka another of my own lawn jobs) of my yard, again.

GPS on, navigated to date's house, off we went. Not far, about another block, I managed to slide through the street that my quickly irritating new best friend Susie GPS advised to turn. At this point, I was ready to bag the whole date idea, return back to the comfort of my home - if I managed to get up the driveway - and hibernate under several tie blankets hoping none of them happened to tie themselves around my neck. Ok, it wasn't THAT bad, yet.

Susie GPS continued to navigate me, me sliding every which way possible another handful of times, over the next mile span. I could only hope that leaving the county would prove better road conditions. Hope. Quickly I found myself at a light behind 20 or so cars, all turning left. One, two lights later and advancing one car, I decided to turn around and put Ms. Susie to the test.

Other than going straight through a couple more recommended turns, we did make it to date's house a little less than 10 minutes late. In my mind (can't he read it?) I was thinking we should just stay at his house and play air hockey and pool and hangout. He had another idea and was in the driveway waiting on us, shoveling and playing with his girls (I mean dogs). The largest dog was so excited to see a car that I almost hit her, repeatedly. That would have been a great continuation of the night! So I stopped the car to avoid hitting her, although I likely wouldn't have (date wasn't concerned - but he clearly doesn't know my SKILLS well enough!). In stopping the car, I managed to get the car stuck. T laughed and seriously thought that I was stuck, so I turned back on the car to prove I really wasn't, that time.

The drive with the four of us (yes, Susie GPS is officially a member of my car) we headed en route to Wyoming/Grand Rapids. We had one minor detour as the road was blocked by a police car in attempt to get to the entrance of the highway. So back roads, we continued on because clearly I ain't no wimp.

We did make it there, about 40 minutes later than I had initially planned. In the parking lot I managed to pick a spot in front of a parking lamp and almost slid into it, fortunately I had about 4cm to spare (did I mention - I'm good like that?).

Due to the weather, Craigs Cruisers wasn't busy at all. We continuously got back in line for the go karts without having to wait, so that was super cool. The first race I crushed. Ok, so it was really all about THE CAR. But, I'm OK with that. The second race, some female driver smashed into the wall - it really wasn't any of my doing - and then my car inched along and the employees apologized repeatedly. I seriously felt like I was trapped in the twilight zone of the elderly as others flew by me. Like a time warp of sorts.

We had a great night. We did the bumper cars, the obstacle ropes course and two games of laser tag. Other than the fact that my son repeatedly called my date by the wrong name, I would say it went very well and we had a blast!

Icing on the cake...the last race we were all congested and so I was messing around with another driver and we managed to wedge ourselves against the wall and needed "rescuing". I had caused one race to stop by spinning someone out, T had caused the race to stop by being spun out, now it was my turn. I was all good with it. On the last lap, I managed to catch my date and spun him out into the wall! It was classic. So I might be just a little competitive!

The ride home was pretty uneventful, although I managed to almost get stuck in the parking lot. I was able to get out of it, which was good as we were all pretty cold from the impromptu snowball fight while clearing off the car! Ah, the bonuses of winter...