[ClaymoreZ28]

I brought my son down for the fest for some father and son time and it did not work out as expected but will be truly memorable in many ways

1. I learned how much of the music that I listen to is on his ipod and how some of the stuff that he listens to is actually pretty cool.
We listened to everything from Scottish folk music to Iron Maiden, Johnny Cash, 80s New wave and "Viking Rock"....

2. We got some quality time to talk to each other about an amazing range of stuff which day to day you dont get time to talk about

3. We shared the experience of duct taping the frontend of my car together in the dark after hitting a tire "gator" on I95 and then jointly made the call on heading down the rest of the way to the fest

4. He helped me stay focused when I was frankly in a rather depressed state and got me to at least clean the bugs and tire residue from the front of the car and make it look as good as it could do for the fest

5. My son now knows way more about cars/performance tweaks and drag racing than he ever had before and was genuinely pulled into the spirit of the event by the folks we met. He was amazed at how cool the real life people behind the online avatars were

6. The GM folks let him hold the world car award which blew us away. He was also amazed at how I knew some of the GM leaders on sight and how cool and natural Scott and Cheryl were to talk to

7. He ate his first T-bone steak on the trip ;-)

8. He told me how much of his outlook on life, music and values came from me and how much he appreciated that we have so much in common

It was worth getting the frontend smacked up for all of this alone - and made priceless by meeting all of you guys.