Every now and then, we like to get the gang together for a field trip. This time around, we decided to try out Music City Indoor Karting, a go-karting facility downtown near LP Field. Though #Snowbama Part Deux wanted to keep us away, we still made it over to the track for three races.

Located in a giant warehouse behind some train tracks near LP Field, the place could have just as easily been a set for some shady drug deal on the hyper-realistic ABC drama Nashville, but the only shady characters to be found were Austin and Aaron sneaking around in the head socks the facility provides you with to protect you from God knows what is inside your helmet.

If you’ve never been indoor karting, it’s important to know these aren’t like the go-karts you drove as a kid on family trips to the beach. They’re a lot faster, more difficult to steer, and come with a lot more rules. One of the most important rules is “don’t hit each other,” which is one that Amy and I broke almost right off the bat (I blame her – she’s always been out to get me). Everyone else, for the most part, remained pretty accident free, because we at ST8MNT are one big family (minus Amy, of course).

Apparently the track draws some serious racers on the weekends, with league participants clocking in crazy fast times like 35.117 seconds per lap (for reference, one of my laps was a cool 106 seconds because I grew fearful of the attendants yelling at me for hitting things). Our grand prize winner was Alan Knox (aka Ryan Gosling), with a fastest lap time of 38.56 seconds.

Lucky for Bethany and Josh, no injuries were incurred and ST8MNT outings will live to see another day. And who knows, maybe you’ll see some of us out on a Saturday night hustling some veteran racers with our newfound skillz.