Crank the Hank

The title of this post started as "All My Rowdy Friends", but my rowdy friends have definitely NOT settled down...so I'm dedicating this blog/song title to my friend Billy Reasons and you might notice that "Crank the Hank" is not playing on the playlist. Trust me...it is a real song and it started playing on country radio today!!! Call your local country radio station and request Billy's new single "Crank the Hank" and then crank your stereo cause it is a rockin' new tune, if that doesn't work, then hop over to www.billyreasons.net, and check out his stuff, that is of course, after you've read my blog... :-)

So, now onto the story...Granny and Alderman G originially asked us to attend the NASH-Car party at the Wildhorse with them but it was the week of VBS and I said sure without really paying attention to the conversation. As it turns out, this was a fundraiser for the Monroe Carroll Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt and our friend (and fellow Sunday School member) Billy Reasons was playing the event and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was a sponsor. That's right I said NASCAR...but more on that in a minute...Unfortunately, due to other circumstances, Granny and AG, could not attend the party. This is a few ROWDY friends who did attend. This is Billy....who gave me and Big T a shout out from the stage. This was his response after he asked "Any NASCAR fans out there?" and me and Big T screamed really, really, really loud..."Oh, yeah, they are, I know those two...they're in my Sunday School Class." Whoop - shout out for Mel from center stage at the Wildhorse.

Here are Billy and another fellow band member Mr. Cov...of course, he is also in our SS class...

Then, have you heard of a little show on CMT called "Can you Duet?" Well, the 2 finalists on the show, JB Rocket and Steel Magnolia joined Billy on stage. Which is how I got my second shout out from centerstage of the Wildhorse...Meghan Linsey of Steel Magnolia was singing Dwight Yoakam's "Fast As You" and of course I knew the words and I was standing center stage first row so I'm singing along...and at the end of the song as she's thanking the audience...she points directly at me and says "And Thank You for singing along with us!" Whoop - shout out number 2 for Mel from center stage. Here's me and Ryan and Meghan and Josh from Steel Magnolia.

Of course, I had to be politically correct and also get a pic with Brandon and Jonathan from JB Rocket...
And then my 3rd shout out of the evening was when some little kid from who knows where, comes up to me in the crowd and says "Hey Wonder Woman" and then runs off. Now, my peeps at TSC (and lots of Yo*T*be watchers) know that I played WW in VBS last week, but to get noticed in public in downtown Nashville as Wonder Woman...I thought I had gone to heaven...2 stage shout outs and then one WW recognition...Wow, can life get any better?...Oh, yes, it can...

Remember, I said that this was a fundraiser, and that NASCAR was involved...During Billy's show, there was a silent auction going on on the 3rd floor of the Wildhorse. We were having so much fun on the 1st floor that we never made it up there. But after Billy's show, there was a live auction. Some guy comes out on stage with Billy and starts auctioning off this amazing VIP Daytona weekend...and no one was bidding on it...until Big T and I started bidding...the weekend included tickets, pit passes, infield parking, meeting drivers (Did he just say meeting a driver?) All NASCAR things that we would have loved (and things that are apparently on Big T's bucket list) if they had been for the Sprint Cup series not the Truck series. So we kept bidding and throwing in stuff like "awe, can't you make it for the cup series, can't you promise that she can meet Kasey Kahne and I can meet Jeff Gordon, can't you make sure that we have garage passes...we've had pit passes and they don't get you into the garage..." Notice I said "some guy" was auctioning all of this off and was being a really good sport about Big T and I giving him a hard time while driving up the price/pieces of the package. About midpoint in the bidding process, Billy says something about "guy's" name being Stacy and Big T and I realize that we've been giving Stacy Compton driver of the #60 Camping World Truck series down the road. Oops!! We're sorry...we really are fans of the truck series...we knew who you were...we were just kidding....So the Dream Daytona weekend started getting in the thousands of dollars and JS and Ryan are staring at us from across the dance floor with their arms folded. Apparently they were having a discussion about which children we were going to sell to make the payment on our Dream Daytona package...and Big T and I had to bow out of the bidding gracefully. Weirdest part of the bidding - the couple that won...wanted to meet Kenny Wallace...Kenny Wallace...are you kidding me??? Don't get me wrong, Kenny is a super nice guy but you could probably meet him at his local North Carolina Walmart if you hung out long enough.

We were bummed but we went to our table and were wrapping up the evening, paying the tab, hugging necks, kissing babies, and Stacy Compton walks right by our table. So I decided to throw caution to the wind and say "Hey, Stacy, come over here for a sec."

And the conversation went something like this:

Me: So what would it take to get me and my friends in your pit box for Saturday night's race
Stacy: a donation to the children's hospital
Me: How much?
Stacy: Give me a number.
Me: $500
Stacy: Done
Bob M: (from out of the blue I might add) Make it $750 for the 6 of us and we'll go too.
Stacy: Done...(looks around)...Buzze (Buzze is Stacy's crew chief)...c'mere Buzze...get these guy's names, they are going to make a donation to the hospital and we're going to have them in the pits on Saturday evening...all access...the whole nine yards....

Me and Big T let out a big scream....got out our checkbooks and we are off to the race...Pics and highlights from our awesome race day coming in a day or two...

Melissa