"Free" Tickets ...

Oh, my - what a rainy day it was yesterday! The perfect day to stay in and scrapbook (which I did some, mostly working on the Valentine Day cards for the grandkids). But, I also had to go redeem our Stater Bros. grocery receipts for two 'free' tickets to the Nascar race at Fontana in two weeks. For every $75 you spent on groceries (in a single visit), you got one free ticket. (Not the expensive good seats like I bought in 2006, but tickets to the race nonetheless). Anyway, you had to pick the tickets up at the auto speedway office in Fontana. I called ahead to make sure they still had some before taking off in the pouring down rain... It was really coming down when I left and I thought I had to be crazy to do this, but ... thankfully, when I got to Fontana (about 20 miles away), there was a break in the weather and though it was very cold and windy, there were blue skies overhead. Good thing, too, because I had to stand in line outside for an hour! It was so cold, and the wind just cut right through you - but I had gloves and a hood on my jacket, so it wasn't too bad. The time in line went by pretty quickly because there's this camaraderie with Nascar fans - it's like one big family. Everyone was talking about their favorite driver, and what it was like the last time they were at the track, and who won the pole for the first race next weekend. It was actually fun. The guy behind me had enough receipts to take his three grandchildren. The funny thing is, he said he bought extra laundry soap - $20 bottles of Tide not the less expensive Stater Bros. brand he usually buys, and extra dog food to spend enough to get the receipts for the 'free' tickets. The thing is the tickets are the $55 tickets - he could have just spent the $55 on the ticket and skipped the extra laundry detergent and dog food! (But, people hear the word 'free' and don't really count the cost of 'free.' Too funny!) I told him we have two teenage boys at home, not a problem to spend $150 on groceries, for us it's a matter of can we spend that much today? You had to purchase the tickets between February 4 and February 10, I think. Anyway, I got our tickets and parking pass. So, boogity, boogity, boogity boys - we're going to the races!