An unexpected day off

The schedule had us beginning out set up on Tuesday, but the schedule was wrong. With this being a Saturday race (instead of the normal Sunday race), we were sent here a day early. The truck that we work out of, however; won't be parked until today (wednesday) and so we couldn't go to work.

So, instead, I walked around a bit and then worked on revamping the Just Fly website (a very overdue project).

A very very strange thing happened to me as I was walking around. As long as I can remember, I've had an incredible sense of direction. I always seem to know where I am in relation to other things. I remember as a child, my mom used to say that as long as I was with her, she could get anywhere she'd been before. To me, it's a simple thing - but over the years I've realized that it's not a built-in ability that other people have. It's not a concious thing, but I'm mostly always aware of directions (N,E,S,W) and I also view where I am from above - like a 3D map which is being drawn as I go. I also pay attention to what I see as I go somewhere - which is key to returning.

So, with this in mind, I walked a number of blocks away from the hotel and had lunch at a place I found along the way. Then I made a meandering walk back to the hotel - all the time thinking that I'd taken a path that I'd not been on before (so in my mind - everything should be new to me). I was walking along - mostly looking upward at the tops of the houses along the way because of their interesting rooflines. As I came to a corner I saw a building I instantly recognized -BUT it should not have been where it was. I was instantly so disoriented that it made me dizzy and I had to hold onto a tree to keep from falling down. It was an amazing feeling that has never happened to me - all because a 'piece of the puzzle' was fitting in the wrong place. I thought about it a lot and I figure that the way my mind registers this stuff - it expects to see (or expects NOT to see) certain things in certain places. It akin to rounding a corner in Richmond and seeing my house sitting there. It would not 'compute' correctly in my brain. This is what I figured happened in my head. Pretty weird stuff.

I met the rest of the crew for dinner and had a good time, then came back to the hotel and was in bed before 11. I'm looking forward to getting started at the racetrack today.