I Thought I'd update you all on how my first time went.
1: IT WAS AWESOME!!!!
2: yes, no way I believe even in a week you can see it all. This place just oozes cool for literally miles.
3: I can not stress drinking enough water.....I sadly did not and ended my only day there early. Six bottles in 3.5 hours apparently was not enough. Yup, I dehydrated, with cool clammy skin, and red blotches until I somehow managed to get to the car for relief from the AC and more water. I had plenty in the trunk, just didn't bring enough with me walking. I had walked about 6 miles. This all kinda scared me so I pretty much called it a day unfortunately.
Six bottles of water may be my whole days intake while at work here on the east coast. I thought I was doing good for the short time period. I was wrong, you all warned me.
4: IT WAS AWESOME!!!!
5: The spectator cars were every bit as good as the race cars. I bet I took more pics of some serious traditional built hot rods than race cars there. I was blown away at some of the quality built stuff out there.
6: Did not realize you could drive around until I walked 6 miles of it. I never even got to the impound area, or made it to the starting line area (which looked a little confusing to get to). I missed looking at some killer cars because they were probably all at the start line as the trucks and trailers were pretty empty.
7: The racers were very nice. If you had questions about there cars, they were willing to answer them.
8: I bought lots of t-shirts, yet still not enough. You guys and gals have some really cool shirts made up.
9: IT WAS AWESOME!!!!
10: While this can be crossed off on my bucket list, I would like to return someday to spend at least two full days there. I am not sure if that will happen. I did some other pretty cool stuff (to me) in Utah while there, which is why I could not spend as much time at the flats.
11: I taped garbage bags to the floor of the rental, put the same duct tape on the pedal pads, on the bottoms of my shoes too, and i still spent some time vacuuming out the car. I also got it washed by whatever group I had heard about on here that was washing cars at the gas station off the exit. Seemed like a good cause so I donated, saved me from washing it. And I drove carefully to not try and fling that stuff everywhere. We rented down by my parents house in St George, so there was really no questions.
I think that is all. It really was an amazing time, I soooo wanted to see Danny Thompsons car and possibly a run, and I never did either. He ran the first run probably about the time I was in line paying to get in I figure. I missed alot of other amazing cars because I never got to the line (I certainly did not understand the myriad of cones in place that made the bend to the start line). I really hope someday I can make it back there. It is such an amazing place and a step back into and fowards into history all at the same time.
Thank You for all of the advice. I hope this also helps a newbie spectator in the future.