I never thought I’d be caught in such a place, but today, I found myself severely out of my element while I walked around looking at toy tractors with my dad.

Dad flew into Columbus today and spent a few hours with Carla and I before his friend came to pick him up to take him to another part of Ohio for meetings. The first situation that arose was that apparently everyone who flew today decided to wear a plaid shirt so it was practically impossible to scout for him in the terminal. Not only was it Plaid Shirt Day in the airport, but Carla has bad vision so she thought that everyone was her father.

On our way out to the vehicle, Dad sent me into bursts of laughter when he announced that he had a Bloody Mary on the plane. I doubt that my father has ever had a drop of alcohol in his life, which was why I started laughing. Of course, I discovered that his was a virgin BM, but still, funny. Apparently, he sat beside “a nice Catholic Christian who has three children, a wife, works at a John Deere store in Waterloo, Iowa and is on his way to Germany for business” (all of which information is completely irrelevant) who, after hearing Dad order his non-alcoholic Bloody Mary, said, “Oh, why not? I’ll try one too!” So Dad and his row companion both tried their drinks and decided they did not like them.

We gave Dad several options of things to do for the next few hours. One was dancing, which Carla and I thought was the best. (Dad did not agree.) We also suggested midget go-cart racing, a few other things, and our last resort was a toy tractor show. Of course, he chose the toy tractor show. Even in the parking lot, everyone was staring at Carla and I, as we did not look the part of the surroundings. You can only imagine what it was like once we actually got inside. All in all, it was a very educational experience though, as we learned how valuable all those little toy tractors are that Dad has stacked around his office. We wondered why he never gave us tractors! We could be selling them for big money.

We also made it to the midget go-cart racing. It was the best. I was disappointed there were no midgets, but, still entertaining. It was the national quarter finals for kids racing. I was scared when I saw those little 5 year olds racing their miniature race cars around the track and high speeds, but it was definitely a good time, a randomly good time. I could not believe how many race cars were there!!! It was out of control.

Now, all my clothes smell like gas and car fumes. I’m off to do laundry.