The Road

Well I promised I would talk about Tim and the road.

Tim works for a NASCAR Sprint Cup team. For those not into the spot, the series he works for is the big leagues. His driver every week races against the top dogs of Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, and Kevin Harvick. I am sure you have heard about those people. 

(If not crawl out from the rock you are hiding under and google them LOL)

The NASCAR season is long. I believe it is the longest sports season of any sport. Our season starts the second week of February and stretches until he last Sunday before Thanksgiving. A total of 36 races span that time. On any given week Tim will leave on Thursday and come home on Sunday. And I am not talking Sunday morning, usually its late Sunday night or even early Monday morning. And this schedule is a perfect scenario. Those familiar with the sport know that there is no such thing as a perfect weekend. There is always the risk of weather impacting the schedule. If its raining, there is a delay. If there is a delay then guess what, his time frame of returning home has been pushed back. 

Early in the season there is something called the West Coast Swing. It is when the teams travel to Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles for three weeks. (Yes you read that right THREE WEEKS). Tim didn't come home at all this year, there were quite a few teams who didn't come home at all. That means he was gone from me for the entire time. Here we were a newly married couple and my husband was about to be gone for three full weeks. Yes we had done long distance for a year and a half, but let me tell you something, it is a million times different when it is your husband you are away from and you have only been married a month a half. By no means were these three weeks easy, but in all reality they weren't awful. We talked on the phone every day, we texted when we could. The time difference didn't help at all, but then again that was a normal thing for us. I want to say that this West Coast Swing strengthened us and made us stronger going into the season.

Let me get something straight. I am not a wife you nags, nit picks, or demands attention. I am actually a pretty chill wife. I don't expect to talk to Tim on the phone every day when he is gone. I don't expect his attention to be on me the entire time. I know that he is traveling for work, so work comes first and I come second. I am not saying by any means that I am a perfect wife at all. No way no how. I get sad when I don't get to talk to him, or when I find out he went to dinner and got drinks instead of having a phone date. But I understand and I don't ever get mad at him for it.

 I am lucky that I do get to go to a few races throughout the year. I love seeing his team work together and all do their individual jobs to make the team whole. I love seeing Tim in his element. Trust me, this is his element and we will be in the world of racing for a very long time. I end up helping in some way or another. Last year it was cooking in Martinsville, this year it was getting lunch in Daytona. I take whatever job they ask me to do and I help, because I am grateful they let me come a few times a year and watch an amazing sport from a place very few get to watch from. 

Every week before Tim heads out on the road, I send him an email. Inside that email I write a love note. I make sure he knows that he is loved, cared about, and already missed. I miss some weeks yes, but its the thought that counts and its the love behind the letters.

Not ever couple is like us. Some may have an easier time with being apart and some couple may have a much harder time with being apart. But as wives in this sport we understand the commitment our husbands make, and we support our husbands. I understand that 10 months out of the year I am not number one in my husbands eyes well Thursday thru Sunday at least. His job and his life on the road are actually the reason we had to get married in December. Its the off season for our sport. There are tons of marriages that happened during the two month off season. We all end up having anniversaries around the same time.