Venice, FL Beach Weekend

My mom has a house on Venice Beach in Florida so when we want a relaxing weekend away from it all, we go and visit. She loves to cook and she cooks up a storm, making all of our favorite dishes, including lemon meringue pie (which we found out that Elani likes just as much as I do). So we eat, relax, stroll on the beach and relax some more while there.

Elani found a new best friend when we arrived on Friday, a baby turtle. Elani and mom made it a little bed in a shoe box, Elani fed it grass and they covered it up for the night time to keep in warm. Elani checked on the little turtle every day and would get it out to soak up some sun. Saturday afternoon the turtle decided to find its way back home. Elani was sad for a little while.

We visited a playground park nearby on the intercoastal and watched the sunset from the South Jetty. Elani quickly made friends with fishermen when they caught a fish!

Even though the air and water temperatures were not warm enough to be at the beach and in the water for a long time, we did make a visit before having dinner on Sunday at Sharkey's.

We dropped a tired Elani off at home on Sunday after a fun-filled, relaxing weekend with Great-Grandma and Grandpa Higel.

Pics from Daytona 500 Weekend

Jeff Wins 1st Gator Duel on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009

Cully, me and Rudy at our Campsite in Crazy Horse Campground

Cully and me along the fence on Race Day

Rudy & me in our seats on Race Day

JGN friends, Corrine and Anne.

Daytona 500 Weekend - Feb. 12-16, 2009

After picking Cully up at the airport at 6 pm on Wednesday evening, we headed to the CrazyHorse Campground in Daytona Beach, FL for the 51st running of the Daytona 500 and other events we had scheduled for the weekend. Rudy went ahead and got the RV set up and was waiting for us when we arrived with a light supper.
We had tickets for the Gator Duels so we headed to the Track around Noon to find our seats. We had a special parking pass because we had accepted an invitation to the "Dega Bash" that was being held in the Hospitality Tents after the Duels. We are ticket holders for Talladega and they were having an event to start the celebration for their 40th Anniversary.
Jeff Gordon won the first Duel after a very exciting, wreck-filled race. It was good to see these drivers pushing for position and racing side-by-side. Jeff will start third in the 500. Kyle Busch won the 2nd Duel race and he will start 4th in the 500.
When we arrived at the Hospitality Village, we were greeted with a welcome bag and name badge and there was food and drinks being served in the tent. Larry McReynolds, Donnie Allison, Mike Helton, Eli Gold and Barney from MRN were there along with the President of Talladega SuperSpeedway for a question and answer session, autographs and pictures. Before everyone left they had a door prize drawing. I won 4 can koozies and Rudy won a wind-breaker jacket.
Friday, was the day to visit the Flea Market and see if we could find some bargains on Driver merchandise and collectibles. I then volunteered a couple of hours with the NASCAR Foundation and sold NASCAR Day pins on the mid-way. We then met at the SPEED stage and watched the taping of NASCAR Performance and met up with a couple of friends from the Jeff Gordon Network before going to Our Deck Down Under for dinner.
We were invited by Janine and Heidi to come to their condo on the beach for Saturday, which is where you found us basking in the sun along side the pool and walking on the beach taking in the sounds of the surf.
It's finally Race Day in Daytona and we woke up to cloudy, gloomy and windy skies that didn't look very promising for a Race to happen. We took our shuttle to the Track and found our seats and dropped off some gear, before Cully & I headed to the Infield with ONMC for Driver Intros. There was a large crowd in the infield and we had to push our way through them all to get to the place where we were to stand as the Drivers of the 51st Daytona 500 came off the stage and walked past us. What an experience! I got a picture or two of each of the Drivers as they paraded by except for one (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) because he ran past everyone with his head down. Sad :-(
The Race was eventually rain-shortened to only 154 of the 200 laps to complete and when they took the Red Flag, # 17 Matt Kenseth was in the lead to take home the Trophy and all the glory!
Monday morning as Rudy headed home in the RV, Cully & I did our traditional thing and went to the 500 Experience to get our dog-tags made to commemorate the winner before heading to airport for Cully to fly home.
The time always goes by so fast, but we always have a great time! Our next Racing adventure will be to Bristol, TN for the March 22 weekend racing excitement! Hope to see you there.

See ya on the Road!

February 7, 2009

Blue Springs State Park - Manatee Watching
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and we had some friends visiting from Michigan that had never seen the Manatee in the wild at Blue Spring State Park, so we picked them up and took them for a ride. There were more Manatee in the Springs than I have ever seen, which is due to the cold temperatures that we've been experiencing here in Florida. We ever saw some with their calves. Of course, Elani had to have some time at the playground before we came home. She made some new friends there (which isn't hard for her at all). We should take lessons from this little one in the art of friend-making.

We will be leaving for Daytona Beach for the Daytona 500 and Gator Duels on Wednesday, Feb. 11, with the coach and we will be camping behind the Flea Market in Crazy Horse Campground (where we've been for the past 5 years). I'll have pictures and stories to tell, I am sure. I even have infield passes for the 500 to be down next to the Stage for Driver Intros. Can't wait.

Let's go Racin', Boys!!

See ya on the road. . . . .

Happy New Year - January - 2009

January 4, 2009

Rolex Testing in Daytona - just a little racing action to feed our need for SPEED. Even if they aren't NASCAR-type cars, they go fast and make noise, so we took a drive on a beautiful January Sunday to Daytona to visit the Track and watch the cars go around for a while.

Elani was with us and she was very excited. She talked to a driver (we are not sure who he is) and checked out the tires and the insides of the car (while in the Pits). A crew member gave her a lug nut, too. But, what she wanted to see most was the Start/Finish Line - so we took her up on the FanDeck and Rudy pointed out all the high points of the track to her. We watched the cars go around and past us, going in and out of the pit garages and then found seats on the hair pin turn in the infield and sat for an hour or so as they practiced. There was a nice breeze and the sun was hot. Elani got bored so she found a spot in the dirt to dig and play. Soon it was time for lunch so off we went to Rudy's favorite restaurant - Ruby Tuesday and then home for the rest of the afternoon.

December 30, 2008 - Christmas Past -

Another Christmas has come and gone, but I must say this was one of the best that I can recall. It was hectic, but relaxing too at times. Christmas Eve was spent with Travis and his family. We enjoyed a great dinner that Rosa prepared and a Christmas Celebration around the tree before Travis left for work. It is always so much fun watching kids open gifts and the looks on their faces is priceless. Later that evening we took the whole crew to Arabian Nights for the dinner show (where Travis was working). Christmas morning found us on the road by 8:15 a.m. to Venice, Florida for Christmas with Mom & Don. Again, we enjoyed a delicious dinner after Travis and family arrived and then another round of opening gifts. It was gorgeous in at the Beach House. Couldn't have asked for better weather with temps in the low 80's, sunny blue skies and a slight breeze.

Rudy, Elani and I stayed with Mom & Don for the rest of the weekend, with trips to a couple different Beaches in the area, the Jetty, the ice cream store, a little after-Christmas shopping and then some just plain relaxing.

Sunday, we left fairly early so that we could get back to Apopka to catch the bus with the Church Choir to sing at Epcot for the Candlelight Processional. It was a late night, but definitely worth the trip and time as we heard the story of Jesus' birth and sang the songs to minister to the 3,000 guests at each Show at Epcot.

Back to work this week for a short 3-day work week and before you know it 2009 will be upon us and we will be off and running again with all kinds of activities (already planned and scheduled).

We will be in Daytona for the "Roar Before the Rolex" in a few days and then to the Daytona Pre-Race Thunder FanFest later in the month. That should keep us tied over until NASCAR race season starts in February.

See ya on the Road!!!

November Pictures