By now, I’ve told you stories about a Christmas tree bonfire, a magical fairy, a blue-bellied lizard and a house with eyes. Now I’m going to tell you the story of how I ended up at NASCAR.
In March, I persuaded my roommate and my little sister to come with me to the Integratron near Joshua Tree National Park. The Integratron is sound chamber in the middle of the desert built in 1954 by George van Tassel, who claims to have received the plans from aliens. Today, the public can attend 30-minute sound baths at the Integratron, in which quartz crystal singing bowls are played to deliver healing and rejuvenation to the energy centers of the body. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. It’s a trip.
We got on the road early Sunday morning so we could attend a sound bath at noon and be back before family dinner. We were making good time until the freeway we were on was shut down due to a car wreck. Since we were stuck, we got out of our car to walk around. The people in the car next to us were having a tailgate party and offered us a beverage. Nothing like a cold beer at 10:30 in the morning. They were getting off at the next exit to go the the NASCAR race and obviously came prepared.
My roommate wandered off to use the restroom on a nearby tour bus. As she was walking back, the highway patrol announced that the freeway was about to reopen.
By the time we got back in the car and restarted the engine, we were behind schedule and in serious danger of missing our sound bath. So we changed our plans. We went to NASCAR instead. We drank beer and ate hotdogs. It was loud, and the cars were fast. We huddled together in the stands, trying to keep warm under threatening rain clouds. We soaked in the sound bath created by race car engines roaring around the track at 170-180 miles per hour.
The race ended early because it started to rain. We drove home during the torrential downpour that followed, a heavy rain that sent tidal waves over the freeway divider from oncoming traffic. Needless to say, we were relieved to get home safety. We got back in time for family dinner.
In the end, despite a few unexpected challenges, we got our sound bath. And then we lived to tell about it.
