Wrapping Up Charlotte Trip

We had a great time in Charlotte, as always and the Race was a good one even if Jeff got spun out and crashed early in the Race. I got great pictures of the whole thing and I think I broke my record for the most pictures taken at a race. I took over 1400 pictures just on race day alone.

Janine and I went on a ONMC Garage Tour - it wasn't the best tour I've been on, but we got to see the cars in the Garages and get our pictures by the Haulers so it was worth it. It was very warm that day and when we got finished we found the guys waiting for us in the shade sitting on the grass relaxing. Later we walked through the driver merchandise trailers and through all the vendor exhibits. We had a lot of time to kill before the race began. We headed to our seats around 3:30 and enjoyed the shade and light breeze as we watched all the pre-race demonstrations by several branches of the armed services, with fly-overs and soldiers dropping from helicopters, ground battle demonstrations and then the most spectacular demonstration of blowing up some buildings on the grassy infield. This is why the cars weren't on Pit Road like they always are before a race. We had great seats. We were almost right behind the Flag Stand and Driver Intro Stage. Jeff's Pit was in full view and so was Tony Stewart, Jr., and Robby Gordon's. With Casey Mears (# 25) winning this race, the Hendrick Teams have WON 9 of the 12 points races so far this year. Jeff has won 6 Poles and 3 Races. He is still in first place with the points, but Jimmie Johnson is looming close by!

This is our last race for awhile (unless we get surprised), so we will be heading off in other directions for some different scenery and adventures.

See ya on the Road!!

Third Edition - Charlotte

Good Morning - It's Race Day! I am ready and waiting for the others to get out of bed! Can you believe it???

Yesterday was another day with lots of windshield time. We drove again up to Welcome, NC which is about 20 miles south of Winston-Salem and 90 minutes from our hotel. We went to see the RCR Race Museum and Childress Racing Shop. They have the largest collection of Dale Earnhardt race cars in the world... From there were drove back to Huntersville to arrived an hour past Joe Gibbs Race Shop closing time, so we took a few pictures from the outside and decided that we might stop in before heading back on Monday morning.

RCR has a memory wall that they want visitors to sign, they gave us a silver Sharpie and we all signed. We got lots of great group photos along the way at every stop too!

After trying to get into Gibbs Race Shop, we drove to uptown Charlotte to SPEED STREET to see if there was something we missed and to also give Cully a chance to see all the action.

The others are getting around and up now. We hope to be out of here by 10:00 so that Janine and I can be on time for our Garage Tour with ONMC at Noon. That means that there will be more pictures to follow.

Watch for us on TV. See you at the Races!!

2nd Edition - Charlotte Trip

This morning we are on the road (again) heading towards Welcome, NC for a day trip to the RCR Racing Museum and Race Shop. After that we are going to go to Gibbs Racing Shop.
Yesterday, we went to Evernham's Fan Appreciation Day at the Race Shop and got some shots of Elliott Sadler, but we weren't there early enough to get wristbands for autographs. They had all kinds of vendors and we played all kinds of games and got all kinds of prizes. From there we went to Childress Winery for lunch and a Tour. It was getting late when we headed to Speed Street for a walk down the street. There were so many people on the streets. I got a couple of Sam Bass posters and he autographed them and I got my picture with him again for the 3rd year in a row!
Cully arrived around 10:00 p.m. and we finally shut the lights off at 12:30 a.m. I got up this morning at 8 am while the others slept, I went down to breakfast and at out at the pool. Very relaxing. Now we are on the road and getting close.
Updates coming soon!

Charlotte N.C, Here We Come

This is the fifth year that Janine and I have come to Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600. Rudy is with us this year and Wendy is not. It is a little sad to leave her behind this year, but with little Jake, she's got her hands full this year!! We left Apopka at 9:15 p.m. and drove until approximately 1:30 a.m. where we stopped in the SC Welcome Center to get some shut-eye. We woke up at 6:00 a.m. and continued out journey. We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel and upon our arrival in the Charlotte/Concord area were visited several Race Shops and then went to Qualifying at 6:00 p.m. before heading to our hotel! We finally crashed about 11:30 p.m. Oh yeah, almost forgot - Can you believe that we walked into Ruby Tuesday's for lunch and there sitting was the CREW for the 24 Team. I talked with them and wished them good luck and had my picture taken with them.

Now it is 8:15 and we are about to hit the road again, heading towards Statesville, NC to Evernham Motor Sports to see if we can catch a glimpse of Elliott Sadler and others. There are other stops on our agenda, but no one knows where we will end up. I'll try to keep you posted as we make our journey today!

The Weekend

Can you believe it is almost June already? The weekend was a good one. Lots got done and taken care of. I felt very productive and I even got time with little Elani. We have so much fun with her and she loves to come and stay at our house and go to church with us.

The weather was perfect in central Florida all weekend long, too!

Now I am counting the days until we leave for Charlotte, North Carolina for the Coca-Cola 600!

We are planning to leave Wednesday night after choir rehearsal and after Forest Lake Academy's End-of-the-Year Staff Party. Qualifying is Thursday evening and we are planning to be there for it! There is always so much to do in the area that weekend, we are constantly busy going here and there to Race Shops and Speed Street and of course at the Track!

See ya on the Road!! Travel Safe!

More Time with Elani, too

We haven't seen Elani in a few days, so Rudy picked her up on Tuesday night to come and play with. We had a ball. She wanted her picture taken in the chair and when we went outside to play on the swing, she asked me where the camera was???? So I went and got it and took pictures of her swinging and then Grandpa took her for a ride way up high in the bucket truck - she loved it and when it got time to go home she didn't want to go and cried really hard, so I promised her that she could come again on Friday. Yeah - it's definitely a promise I will keep with her. I want to spend time with her as much as she wants to be with us! It's the love of a grandchild just Grand?!!

Darlington Burnout!!

I just got a chance to actually look at some of the pictures I took in Darlington and order some prints and I am totally amazed at how good this burn-out picture turned out! Happy, happy, happy! I love it - going to blow it up to an 8 x 10 and frame it....

Mother's Day - NASCAR Race Day - 1st!

May 13 Sunday - Mother's Day 2007
The first time NASCAR has ever raced on Mother's Day and WE WERE THERE in Darlington, South Carolina. That's right - the Race was rained out for the Saturday night race date and time and had to be held on Sunday with a start time of 1:15 p.m. There were good things and bad things about the Rain Out that happened with the worst being that we got kind of wet waiting around for the Race to start and the best being that I got Robbie Gordon's autograph while on my way to check in for Driver Introductions. Let me tell you about it. I was walking past the tunnel entrance to the infield and I stopped before crossing the path of a golf cart heading my way and Robbie Gordon was on the cart - so I waved and said hello to him as he passed me and he waved and smiled back at me. The driver of the Cart stopped just a short ways from all from all of this and I noticed that Robbie was getting off, so I walked over to him and asked him for his autograph on my ticket. She smiled and reached for my ticket holder and held out his other hand for a Sharpie. I told him it was attached to the ticket holder and he thought that was pretty cool so he told me to walk with him and he signed my ticket holder as we walked to his merchandise hauler where he was scheduled to be and sign autographs for a long line of fans waiting for him. I got lucky! As I was walking to the meeting destination it started to get really gray and dark in the skies which led to a major downpour and the eventual postponement of the Race for the evening at 9:00 p.m. As the storm progressed as I was waiting with the other ONMC members we took cover under the ESPN tent and was later kicked out, so I made my way in a down pour to where Janine and Rudy were waiting out the rain under the grandstands near our section. Like I said earlier, we waiting there talking with new friends until the official announcement that the Race was postponed. As we walked back to the RV and campsite with our rain ponchos on - the rain stopped.

Sunday Morning - May 13 - RACE DAY in DARLINGTON

I decided that I was going to make every effort to be at the Driver Introductions so Janine and I headed to the Track around 9:30 so that we could be at the Gates when they opened at 10:00 a.m. The skies were still somewhat threatening, gray and it was windy. We got to the spot where we thought we would meet up with ONMC officials, but to our dismay all the tents were gone and there wasn't a sign of anyone from ONMC to be found. Several other members that were just as determined as were were to make it to Driver Intros started waiting with us, until we decided to take a chance and see if we could get through the tunnel donned in our official ONMC hats and I.D. wristbands. We made it and thanks to a very kind Track Security guard, we were able to be the only 25 (+-) people standing along side the Driver Introduction Stage as the Drivers came off the Stage after being introduced. It was so exciting and a awesome experience to be so close and shake hands with each and every driver that was driving in today's race. I got some great pictures of these drivers too!

After that experience, Janine and I made our way to our seats in Tyler Tower to watch the Race with Rudy who was waiting for us up there. Darlington isn't the most exciting race of the circuit, but it was a good race nonetheless with the best outcome I could ask for as a Jeff Gordon Fan, since he won the race and did a great celebratory burn-out right in front of us.

We pulled out of our campsite at 6 p.m. and crossed over the Georgia state line at 10:15 p.m. on our way home. Each one of us have to be to work on Monday morning so we are driving the complete distance (450+ miles) home.

We will be on the road again in a couple of weeks heading to Charlotte, North Carolina for the Coca-Cola 600.

More adventures to follow......

Race Day- Darlington

May 12

Darlington is known as the Track "that is too tough to tame". Well, its true. What a Track - it is nothing like we've ever seen before. It is right on the main road (SR 52) going through Darlington, nested between residential homes and business; surrounded by rolling hills and this weekend - campers everywhere.

We arrived Friday around 10:30, set up our camp and headed to the track to see what we could see and if there were any bargains at the various flea-type markets surrounding what is now the backstretch of the Track.

Around 2 p.m. Janine and I decided to purchase tickets to get in to watch the Cup Practice and Qualifying & Busch Qualifying and then the Final Practice for the Cup cars. We finally left the Track just about 8 p.m. as they were getting ready to start the Busch Race. But we'd been there for 5 hours and felt like we got our money's worth ($35.00 General Admission Ticket)! We caught the Tram to the backside of the Track to walk to our Campsite and arrived to Rudy's delicious dinner. After we took showers we settled in to watch some new nature videos ("Planet Earth"). If you haven't seen them, I highly recommend them, the video is amazing and so enlightening.

TODAY - I got up around 7 a.m. and walked around the Park Place Campground in the quiet of the morning as everyone was asleep. It was so peaceful. This is my time to enjoy the peace and stillness of the morning and take in all the beauty and blessing that God has given me. I love these quiet times of the day, when I can be all alone and receive a blessing.

Everyone finally got up and we had a delicious, nutritious breakfast prepared by Rudy (of course) and then I cleaned up and now we are just relaxing under the awning. It is going to be another sunny hot day here in Darlington, SC. The Race doesn't start until 7:30 p.m., but I have been selected to down into the in-field for Driver Introductions by ONMC so I have to be over at the Track by 5:00 p.m. and ready with camera in hand to take lots of pictures of the Driver's as they exit the Stage after introductions. I can't wait!!

More later. . . . . .

NorthBound to Darlington, SC

First Edition: 8:15 p.m. We just made our first stop at a rest area just before getting into Jacksonville, Florida. We left the house around 5:30 p.m. with our friend Janine with us this weekend as we head for Darlington, South Carolina for our first race at this Track! We are in the Coach and hoping to make it to at least to Savannah before we stop for some shut-eye tonight. The traffic getting out of the Apopka area at 5:30 was bumper to bumper and that slowed us down a bit, but we making good time now and really not too worried about it anyway.

I'd really like to be at the Track in our camping spot tomorrow, and all set up though so I can take a walk over to the Track and maybe get a peak and some pictures of some Cup practice time and maybe even some Qualifying of the Cup Cars! Time will tell and I will be keeping it all on record right here!

May 5 Weekend in Avon Park

On Friday, May 4th we hit the road again in the Coach and we took Elani with us for the weekend in Avon Park/Sebring area. We go once a month to our favorite hair salon and have Diane work her magic on us and then we spent the rest of the weekend with family in Avon Park just relaxing and enjoying each others company. Elani had so much fun because Uncle Don has a wagon that she loves to ride all over the yard in and they also have a dog, Taffy, that she plays with somewhat! But I think the thing that Elani likes the most is Aunt Judy's piano and Elani loves to play and sing for us throughout the day.

Saturday, my cousin, Cal arrived with his grand-daughter, Kahli who is about 6 months older than Elani. Those little girls had so much fun together, coloring, playing outside, playing the piano, taking a bath, eating cookies and just plain having fun!

Sunday we went to a Graduation Party for my cousin Shanta's youngest daughter, Alynn. Great food was served and we enjoyed the company, too!

We headed home around 2:30 p.m. and Elani slept the whole way in the bed in the coach. We arrived home to a strong thunderstorm and lots of rain so we hunkered down in the Coach until it subsided and we could go into the house and unload the RV.

It was a great weekend and of course it went by way to fast. Spending time with Elani is always so much fun. She lights up our lives and fills our days with so much joy!

We are heading North on Thursday, the 10th again - Destination - Darlington, South Carolina for another NASCAR RACE weekend - Keep checking in for more pictures and adventures as we travel in our Home on Wheels!