Feeding the Obsession - Need for Speed!

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

My Birthday Weekend in Daytona

What a weekend! It was so relaxing and fun-filled at the same time. Rudy and soaked up the sun at the pool and on the beach, we walked in the twilight, ate good food, went to Daytona USA and as a gift from Rudy we took part in the Petty Driving Experience with three laps around the high-banks of Daytona International Speedway on Sunday morning in a Car of Tomorrow! It was awesome! Going 165 miles per hour is such a rush! We also took a drive up to Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and walked through through the museum which included the 203 circular-step trip up to the top of the Lighthouse to see the Atlantic ocean for 25 miles! It was spectacular and I highly recommend it to anyone in that area. Just follow A1A north as far as you can go and you will see the signs. On our way home we stopped and did a little shopping at the mall and dinner at Don Pablos before heading home to reality and back to work! It was a great weekend and one I'll not soon forget!

Heading to Venice, FL for the 4th of July on Friday (june 29) for a look at the Gulf Beaches. See ya on the Road!

Father's Day Celebration - 2007

Our Father's Day celebrations lasted all weekend long. It started with a visit to a local State Park on Friday with Elani (Wekiva Springs State Park) for an evening walk in the out of doors.

Then Saturday night we met Travis and Rosa for dinner. Sunday, Rudy chose to spend his Father's Day on the Bike, so we left the house around 9 a.m. and headed north to Clermont to an Arts & Crafts Exhibit at Lakeridge Winery. We also took a tour of the Winery and learned how Florida wines are made and what grapes they use. It was very interesting and a beautiful day for a ride. We arrived home just in time to watch the NASCAR Race from Michigan. Afterwards Travis and Rosa and the kids stopped by again to present Rudy with more cards gifts of love. It was a great weekend, the weather was perfect and we enjoyed being out and about in the Florida sunshine!

Thursday we are on the road again heading towards Daytona Beach for a nice long weekend on the Beach soaking up the sun by the pool and ocean side!

See ya on the Road!

June 13, 2007

He folks! It's been really quiet at our house and we've been staying home for a change (for awhile anyway). We've had some very nice relaxing weekends at home and at the beach lately, so it's been quite nice to get a few things done around the house. We've been to the beach each Sunday and then home to watch the NASCAR race in the afternoon. And of course we've had little Elani with us for some days during these past couple of weeks. Pictures??? Of course I have pictures! I've even gotten some scrapbook pages completed during this time of rest and relaxing at home.
Today is an exciting day, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is expected to announce that he is joining Hendrick Motor Sports in 2008 which will make him a team mate to Jeff Gordon...... I am not sure what I think about it yet so I will reserve my opinion for now......
This weekend will be Father's Day, so I've invited Rudy, Travis, Rosa and the kids to go to dinner to celebrate. Don't tell the guys, but last night Elani and I put her handprints on a t-shirt for her grandpa and papa and today Rosa is going to add Lenix's prints so that they will be dry and ready to wrap before Sunday! So Cute. (I'll share pictures after Sunday).

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!