Wednesday morning, I got up early because I wanted to get in on the hotel’s hot breakfast before we hit the road for the track. Jeff was just barely dragging himself out of bed when I headed down to the lobby, he didn’t feel like having breakfast. But a quick check outside revealed foggy and misty conditions, so my rush was over. Our hotel was literally minutes from the track, and this heavy weather was going to take time to burn off.
These wonderful southern ladies were serving the breakfast, I just love their accents! There was a pot of this curious looking white mush that I asked them about. “That’s gree-its. Haven’t y'all ever had gree-its?” “Well, no I’m from Minnesota and I’ve never had grits but I did see them in the movie My Cousin Vinny.” I’m not usually particularly adventurous when it comes to strange new foods, but I figured on drag week, with a hurricane bearing down on us, and the talking heads telling us that we were going to be swept out to sea, or blown into the air like Dorothy’s house, or stranded on a small island of land with no food, no water, and no fuel, if I was ever going to try grits, now is the time. And you know what? They were really good! Especially with a lot of butter slathered over them.
20 minutes later we were on our way to the world-famous Z-Max Dragway, arriving at 7:30 sharp. We quickly switched the car over from street mode to track mode.