I was going to write this last night when we got home, but since it was 1:30 in the morning (and we live less than 1.5 hours from the speedway) I was a little tired. :lookaroun
First of all, no cameras, so no pictures.
We'll start out with the weather, which was dreadful early on. I left work at 2 pm so we'd have plenty of time to get there for the red carpet, which was supposed to start around 6:30. At 6:30, we were stuck in traffic on Highway 29. We were playing back and forth with several black Lincolns with dark windows and one white stretch. I told my husband, "wouldn't it be something if those were the stars and they were late like us." But we decided that they were just limo renters wanting to look big at the premiere, because the stars would have already been there. We drove my little bug with the license plate BUG LIFE, so I thought if by chance it was maybe Disney or Pixar people, they might see my tag.
Anyway, we finally got to the speedway around 7 pm. The rain had almost stopped! Yea! Parked and started walking around to find our gate. We happened upon the red carpet on our way there, and much to our surprise, there were the Lincolns we'd "raced" back on 29!!! Somehow we got right up to the fence, so we were able to see them all! I can't remember the exact order, and when I looked in my bag for a pen to write everything down and for autographs, I realized I didn't have one! So, here's the stars we saw arrive:
Bonnie Hunt was one of the first ones. She looked nice. Jeans and a blazer. They had umbrellas waiting for all of the stars and their families.
The King Richard Petty was also one of the early ones. He looked just like he always does - tall with a big black cowboy hat. All smiles.
John Lassiter was in the early group too. It was sad because there were very few yells for him. I don't think people knew who he was...
Oh, how could I forget, Larry the Cable Guy was I think before Bonnie. He really worked the crowd. So funny! Dressed in that same brown plaid shirt. He had a camo cap on with the CARS logo on it. I looked for one to buy, but they only had solid black ones. Larry was the MC for the evening.
Other stars that you know you know, but then you have to wait till they introduce them until you remember their name were Paul Dooley, Jenifer Lewis, and Edie McClurg.
Then Cheech came out. He looked shorter than I thought he would be, though I'd never really thought about it. Just one of those, hmmm, I thought he'd be taller, sort of moments.
And, whew, Paul Newman. He looked great. Definitely not like Cool Hand Luke, but time has been very kind to him.
It looked like the stands were getting full, and since our tickets only guaranteed the section we were in, not our seats, we decided to move on in. We were not so thrilled when we saw that our section, which looked to be in the center on the map, was not directly in view of one of those 11 story wide screens (which weren't even up!) However, when we sat down we realized we were front and center for the live stage!
They were drying the track when we sat down. It was really loud, but we were able to hear the announcer as he announce all of the arrivals. They were showing on large screens around turn 2 so we could all see the stars arrive. We saw Owen Wilson (who I'd heard wasn't too friendly with any of the press this week except the Hollywood Foreign Press), Tony Shaloub, Darrell Waltrip, John Ratzenberger and Katherine Helmond arrive. Never did see Robert Iger arrive, and I was bummed. I had wanted to see him and I figured he just wasn't going to be there. Hunger was setting in...
So, I headed to the pretzel stand, which in true Disney fashion, was $3 per pretzel. I did notice you could not buy beer at this event. Just Coke products. After a pretzel, I turned to the souvenir stand hoping to get some goodies. All they had were t-shirts (two designs), a cap, and a single pin style. I bought the kids a shirt, ok and me too, and two pins. The shirts were $15 for kids sizes and $22 for adults, and they didn't even have the Disney tag - they were Fruit of the Loom. However the pins were reasonable at $6 each. No one in my family wears caps, so we skipped it, though it was a nice one. Black with the logo on the front and "World Premiere" on the side. Hubby didn't want a souvenir. (I've taken pics of the stuff, but for some reason my printer isn't wanting to talk to the computer this morning, so I can't upload them. When I can, I'll put them here.)
First of all, no cameras, so no pictures.
We'll start out with the weather, which was dreadful early on. I left work at 2 pm so we'd have plenty of time to get there for the red carpet, which was supposed to start around 6:30. At 6:30, we were stuck in traffic on Highway 29. We were playing back and forth with several black Lincolns with dark windows and one white stretch. I told my husband, "wouldn't it be something if those were the stars and they were late like us." But we decided that they were just limo renters wanting to look big at the premiere, because the stars would have already been there. We drove my little bug with the license plate BUG LIFE, so I thought if by chance it was maybe Disney or Pixar people, they might see my tag.
Anyway, we finally got to the speedway around 7 pm. The rain had almost stopped! Yea! Parked and started walking around to find our gate. We happened upon the red carpet on our way there, and much to our surprise, there were the Lincolns we'd "raced" back on 29!!! Somehow we got right up to the fence, so we were able to see them all! I can't remember the exact order, and when I looked in my bag for a pen to write everything down and for autographs, I realized I didn't have one! So, here's the stars we saw arrive:
Bonnie Hunt was one of the first ones. She looked nice. Jeans and a blazer. They had umbrellas waiting for all of the stars and their families.
The King Richard Petty was also one of the early ones. He looked just like he always does - tall with a big black cowboy hat. All smiles.
John Lassiter was in the early group too. It was sad because there were very few yells for him. I don't think people knew who he was...
Oh, how could I forget, Larry the Cable Guy was I think before Bonnie. He really worked the crowd. So funny! Dressed in that same brown plaid shirt. He had a camo cap on with the CARS logo on it. I looked for one to buy, but they only had solid black ones. Larry was the MC for the evening.
Other stars that you know you know, but then you have to wait till they introduce them until you remember their name were Paul Dooley, Jenifer Lewis, and Edie McClurg.
Then Cheech came out. He looked shorter than I thought he would be, though I'd never really thought about it. Just one of those, hmmm, I thought he'd be taller, sort of moments.
And, whew, Paul Newman. He looked great. Definitely not like Cool Hand Luke, but time has been very kind to him.
It looked like the stands were getting full, and since our tickets only guaranteed the section we were in, not our seats, we decided to move on in. We were not so thrilled when we saw that our section, which looked to be in the center on the map, was not directly in view of one of those 11 story wide screens (which weren't even up!) However, when we sat down we realized we were front and center for the live stage!
They were drying the track when we sat down. It was really loud, but we were able to hear the announcer as he announce all of the arrivals. They were showing on large screens around turn 2 so we could all see the stars arrive. We saw Owen Wilson (who I'd heard wasn't too friendly with any of the press this week except the Hollywood Foreign Press), Tony Shaloub, Darrell Waltrip, John Ratzenberger and Katherine Helmond arrive. Never did see Robert Iger arrive, and I was bummed. I had wanted to see him and I figured he just wasn't going to be there. Hunger was setting in...
So, I headed to the pretzel stand, which in true Disney fashion, was $3 per pretzel. I did notice you could not buy beer at this event. Just Coke products. After a pretzel, I turned to the souvenir stand hoping to get some goodies. All they had were t-shirts (two designs), a cap, and a single pin style. I bought the kids a shirt, ok and me too, and two pins. The shirts were $15 for kids sizes and $22 for adults, and they didn't even have the Disney tag - they were Fruit of the Loom. However the pins were reasonable at $6 each. No one in my family wears caps, so we skipped it, though it was a nice one. Black with the logo on the front and "World Premiere" on the side. Hubby didn't want a souvenir. (I've taken pics of the stuff, but for some reason my printer isn't wanting to talk to the computer this morning, so I can't upload them. When I can, I'll put them here.)
).