Snap Shots

As I look through the pictures on my computer I keep finding some good ones that have a good story behind them. So, this entry will include some random pictures that have a story attached to them.

So, I am starting off with this one.

This is a great picture of the Crafts and myself. This was us at the table before or after dinner I believe. They had their wedding at Olde Beau in the mountains. It was a very beautiful place. I was best man and had to come up with a speech. I had a million different stories to tell but as luck would have it. I was able to tell the story of our morning round of golf.

Olde Beau has a golf course attached to it as most nice places do. It is a challenging course in the mountains. Here is a picture of one ravine.

As you can see, there were some pretty steep hills on the course. On the hole after this one, you go a pretty steep hill. We drove up the hill then saw that our balls were down the hill so we turned and started to go down. Bear in mind, this was a 60 degree slope and I started to lose control of the cart. We start flying down the hill towards a ravine and the cart began to spin and we did a 360. I got control for a second and then it started to spin out again. At this point, Craft bailed and being a good friend yelled "BEN, JUMP!" Taking his advice, I jumped out of the cart as well. We were both in tact. As soon as I jumped out; the cart rolled to a stop under a tree just before falling over the hill into some rocks. It was pretty exciting.

Everyone then of course had a good laugh, and I had my speech. It was a fun weekend. David Carmen still owes Ondrea Van Hoever for his room if you see him.

Our next couple of pictures take place at our annual turkey bowl football game. We have gotten together for the past 6 years and celebrated Thanksgiving with a Turkey Bowl football game. It is generally my friends vs. my brother's friends who are all 5 years younger. We usually win one game and then they win one once we are tired out.

This a group shot; I'll stop with the top row going left to right. The first person is Ryan Gunyan (Liz's brother). He once played for a National Championship in flag football. He is easily one of the best players on the field even though you might not expect it. The next person is Keshaun Walters. He is Brian Snipes roommate. Then there is some weird girl touching my brother. The red hat guy is my brother. He's got good looks but I have a bigger brain. 84 is Russell. He's pretty much a wimp. Girls beat him up all the time. That's Vince Young there in the middle. Wait, my mistake that's me. I wear a Young jersey because his game is almost as good as mine. Next is the Kipke brothers; Mike and Jamie. Mike is a stud in the Turkey bowl but he tends to fall apart for the Xmas bowl. Jamie is a big dude that most people get out of the way for. There on the end is Forest.

The lower row is: Mike Wiggins; he is Andrew's buddy that travels around and dates supermodels. He lives pretty well. Next to him is Sniper. He is a world renown pet enthusiast. The next guy is a douche. I don't know his name but I know that I don't like him. The next guy is Craft, you should no him now. Next is Peter Gunyan, Liz's other brother. He's 17 and his brain is mush right now according to all the books that I have read this summer. Next to him is little Wiggins and Jimmy Mullins. Jimmy was once quoted in the local news paper after beating Greensboro Day in high school lacrosse. He said "We don't like them public school types."

Below is an American Hero:

If you look closely you can see Tyler Hansbrough on the line getting ready to shoot some free throws. We went to Chapel Hill for New Year's Eve last year and we took in a game which was a lot of fun. We got to see the team beat Valpo. I love Tyler. He is my favorite UNC player of all time. I just hope that he can win at Duke again this year so that we can call it Hansbrough Indoor Stadium forever.

Roy will have a lot of pressure on himself this year to add to the arena.

Where we're going we don't need roads . . .

We are taking another trip this week. This time we are headed to Bristol, TN. If you don't know why Bristol is not a great town then you've never been there for a race. It's easily the best NASCAR race of the season mainly because there are a lot of wrecks. Everyone likes a good wreck as long as nobody gets hurts of course. So, I'll take you on our last trip to Bristol because I have some pictures which is key for everyone. Pictures make everything better unless you did something illegal.


I have taken 3 trips to Bristol. One with the Wizard, Drew, Dad, and myself which was a lot of fun and worked out very similar to the story you're about to be told except Russell is subbed in for the Wizard. The Wizard has his own page which I may try and link to this one if I can. Anyway, we went back a year later and got to go to the luxury suite; which Mom decided to go to because girls like luxury suites. It was also fun but we all decided that outside is better because you can hear the cars better which is really the coolest thing about the race.


So, the trip starts out at 8 AM leaving from G-town on the way over the Bristol. It takes about 3 hours maybe 3.5 but I can't remember. You try to get there around 11/12 so that you can park and hang out until a couple hours before race time. We always park at the same church because you can hang out in gym which has AC and play some hoops in their gym all for $10. It's very nice. It's also a good place to eat snacks which must include sweet nuts. This trip Russ and Dad thought that it would be a great idea to sell some Goodyear posters to people as we walked up.

As nice as they are; people don't want to carry around a poster so they donated them to the church.



It was a hot August day and we walked the mile up to the track to do some of the free tent stuff that is found around the track.

We were were walking around outside and were amazed to find out that they had created a monument to the Allison family. It is true that we are a great clan but this honor was unexpected. Here we are at the monument. It's nice to know that the people at Bristol Motor Speedway love us so much.



We then went in and experienced our first little hiccup with our seats. We thought that we were near the top which is where we sat the first time that we arrived. If you don't know, NASCAR seats are better the further away you are. The first few rows are called the "chicken bone" section because people throw their chicken bones on you from above.



So, we thought that we were sitting here. Nice high status area.

It turns out that we were wrong and were sitting here.

If you can't tell that's row 6. Yes, the heart of the "chicken bone" section. It turned out to be fine but I wasn't happy when we got there. You could actually see the whole track from these seats which was surprising as you normally can't see much this close. You get a different type of fan when you are this close though. One fan that we got to see a lot of was this guy.

He didn't really know where he was all night. I'm not sure where his tickets were actually but we were only with him during the opening ceremonies. He did pop up in every section throughout the night much like a whack a mole and constantly went back to the concourse.

Also, on this night, we broke a world-record. Bristol seats 230K I think. But we were part of the biggest fan participation event ever! This is Russ and our friend participating in that event. You are supposed to hold it like Russ not the other guy. Here is what it looked it.

Our friend there didn't quite understand how to do it.

This is just a cool parachute guy.

We stayed for the whole race which was nice. It ended about 11:30 and there weren't near as many wrecks as usual which was disappointing but it was still a good time.

On they way back, we found another problem with our seats. We were all hearing impaired. Andrew and I were not too bad because I got ear plugs. Dad however, could not hear a thing. I drove back and Andrew road upfront to keep me awake and Dad and Russ were in the back. We would keep talking about the race and other things and ask Dad what he thought . . . . . . . . . nothing. We would then laugh because he couldn't hear a word that we were saying and it became a joke the rest of the way.

One of us: Hey Dad . . . Nothing; We would laugh hysterically. Dad can still hear; the loss was just for the ride home and for a couple weeks after the race.

Good Times.

I asked Dad and Andrew to rate the experience.

Until Next time . . .

A Look Backwards

Greetings Everyone,

I imagine that this will be read by about 5 people until this blog gets up and running with a little more excitement to it. We currently have many folders full of previous exciting adventures that we have taken over the years so my first few blog entries will be a look back through the past.

The name of the blog comes to us courtesy of Chad Mitchell. He loved to combine our names when were dating much like the press did with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. So, that is where the name comes from. Yes, it is pretty corny so just live a little.

Anyway, Here is a look backwards to perhaps not the beginning but the first place that I have some good pictures of. It is the wonderful place called Hoboken, NJ. Now, won't you come along memory lane and view this great first home. The spacious 600 square foot apartment is the first stop on the tour. Below is our spacious bedroom.

This picture brings to memory the wonderful time that Michael Craft, Ryan, Liz, and I painted this room. It was a wonderful shade of pink. However, we decided to paint the whole apartment the weekend we moved in. Yes, the boxes were all over the place. I don't recommend painting as you move in if you can avoid it. If you didn't already know pink actually invokes more anger than any other color so we all started yelling at each other as we painted the room. "It was because the room is Pink!" I screamed. Luckily we turned it white before killing each other.

Above was our luxurious family room. Notice that we were able to squeeze a couch and two chairs in there along with that tiny TV. How did we live with that little TV? I guess because we were 4 feet away from it. This room served as a bedroom for many people. At one point we had 5 people sleep in that room in one night. Andrew and Russell slept there at the end of our stay in Hoboken. Micheal and Ryan stayed when we moved in. Kipke, Ondrea, and Krista all stayed in that room for New Year's which was a month or so away from this photo. How 5 people you say? Well, the next summer there was the big black out in the Northeast if you missed it. It was awesome baby. No lights, TV, or AC in July. Michael was visiting that weekend and his sister Lydia and husband Dan came over with the twins. Of course, the twins weren't born yet but they stayed on that pull-out because we actually got power back 2 days before the city did.

Our next picture is of our wonderful kitchen. Some people enjoyed sleeping on the nice hardwood floors. I never tried them out but Michael could tell you about that experience. I would really like to point out the cabinet below and left of the sink. Yes, below and left of the sink. It looks like a normal cabinet but it was not. It actually held our 5 gallon hot water heater. Yes, 5 gallons. It allowed just about 3 minutes of hot water.

We did have a great event at New Year's while in New York. Michael, Kipke, Ondrea, and Krista all came up to visit. We went to a party with Lindsay and Andrea at some apartment building in the city. We had a good time. I remember walking through Time's Square at 3 in the afternoon and people were already blocking off the streets and lining up to stand there until Midnight. We were all shocked. So, if you think that standing in Times Square for New Year's Eve is something that you want to do before you die then go ahead and kill that idea. Just watch it on TV unless you want to sit on the street sober; with no food or drink except what is in your hand or backpack; with no where to go the bathroom for 9 hours.

Instead, I highly recommend the Ben Tour if you visit NYC. If you didn't already know. I was laid off from my company in early July before we moved back to NC. My brother visited, and Melissa visited. I was able to take Melissa on the first Ben Tour. The tour started with a trip to the Empire State Building because that is best seen in the morning. There was also less of a line and you could enjoy the guided tour from Tony (who is the best audio tour guy on the planet; yes I'm talking to you Sears Tower). This was usually followed up with a trip to Yankee Stadium for an afternoon game. After the game, we would go to Times Square for a meal at the ESPNzone and Toys R Us to see the T-Rex and the Ferris Wheel. It is a must see. It did make the Ben Tour after all. After that, there was a trip to Ground zero and then a ferry ride back to Hoboken where you could see the Statue of Liberty. It isn't a bad one-day trip of NYC if you ask me.

During one 4th of July visit, I had the opportunity to do something that very few people have. I was able to sing in front of an audience at the New York Port Authority. Some may call it a scuzzy bar in a bus station but I beg to differ. Melissa, Leah, and I were stars that night as we sang Living on a Prayer for the patrons. We did receive a standing ovation from the other 6 people at the bar. Good Times . . .

Towards the end of our stay in Hoboken we took time each month to visit the sites that we had not seen before. This included a trip to the Statue of Liberty for Elizabeth. She had never been there before so we took the ride out one afternoon to see it. You would think that it was big but as you can tell from this picture is looks bigger on TV.

We spent a year up in NY. It was a different place. I did enjoy the public transit to and from work. It was nice to have that time to read a book. I read more that year than I ever have before. It was great to put on life's resume but I enjoy sweet tea too much. Good Bye and Have a safe trip!