Racing at Talledega - Nationals

We had a fun day of racing in Talledega at the National Race. It was exciting with a huge wreck that took out about 10 cars. About 14 cars finished on the lead lap and maybe 20 cars finished the race. Tony Stewart won. We sat in the sun for 7 hrs. and both got a little too much sun on our legs. It's about 80 degrees here and pretty humid. It's the south!

Nashville and more Nashville

We've been here in Nashville since Thursday 4/16. On the 17th we drove out to Franklin TN (45 minutes s. of Nashville) and went to the Carter House, the site of the front line of the Battle of Franklin. Some 7000 wounded and 2000 plus died at this house. It was the beginning of the end of the Civil War. The house still has bullet holes (lots of them in it - see picture). We went also to the Carnton Plantation that was used as a Confederate hospital. Blood stains are still in the wood floors upstairs where the surgeon operated. On Friday we went to Stone River National Monument, another civil war site. Friday evening we had 2nd row seats at the Grand Ole Opry - saw Little Jimmy Dickens, Suzy Boggus and Diamond Rio as well as others. It was a blast. Saturday the 19th it was raining, so we threw the dogs in the car and drove around to country western stars homes - Waylong Jennings, Martina McBide, Leanne Rimes, Clint Black, Vince Gill, Tim McGraw/Faith Hill and Dolly Partons. On Sunday morning we went to the Cowboy Church, with Pastor Yates. His wife sang, Mrs. Cash-Yates (Johnny Cash's sister). It was a very inspirational service with a strong gospel message. Sunday afternoon we went out to Loretta Lynn's 6000 acre ranch. Sunday evening we went to Grace Chruch of the Nazarene. Today we went to Andrew Jackson's estate (7th President). Planned on spending an hour or so there and ended up spending 3 1/2 hrs. It was quite an estate. Picture of his house above with white columns. We've been busy!

Arch, Baseball and on to Nashville

We visited the arch, even rode up to the top of it and looked out over St. Louis. Afterward, we went to Cardinal Vs. Brewers at the Edward Jones Baseball Dome. The view out the stadium from home plate looks at the Arch. This morning we drove to Nashville TN where we will be until next Thursday. We visited Trevecca Nazarene last year when we were here, but missed the Grand Ole Opry. We have tickets this time for Friday night at the Opry and Diamond Rio is supposed to be there.

St. Louis MO

We've arrived in St. Louis where the Mississippi is running REALLY full. We decided to stay a couple of days. We'll get to Nashville Thursday afternoon sometime. Tomorrow the arch and a baseball game hopefully.

Country Wedding

Saturday we attended Josh and Ashley Allen's wedding. It was definitely a country western theme for a country western couple. The pictures are of Josh (Chris's nephew) and Ashley cutting cake and Josh's Mom and Dad (Nancy and Don Allen of Boise). Nancy is one of Chris's two sisters. Tomorrow we head to Nashville TN (hoping to arrive Wed or Thur).

Nebraska & Rain

We arrived in Lincoln Wed afternoon. It has rained every since we got here. Hmmm. Are we bringing bad weather with us? I hear it is nice in Boise Valley. Chris's Mom and stepdad are arriving today and will be staying with us in the RV until Sunday. The wedding is Saturday and then Roy and I are heading to Nashville either on Sunday or Monday. Next NASCAR race for us is at the end of April in Talledega, Alabama.

Racing and on to Oklahoma

Time trials for the Sprint race had one of the scariest wrecks I've ever seen. Number 00 McDowell lost control of his car, hit the wall and flipped many times (we counted 9). He then walked away from the car. It was unbelievable. They spent an hour repairing the wall where he hit. The race itself was somewhat boring, not a lot of passing going on. Monday we headed to Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit Roy's neice Tiffany Korn. She works at a paper factory (Kimberly-Clark) that makes t.p., paper towels, etc. Today we walked through the factory with her. She's a chemical engineering student doing an internship at this factory.
Tomorrow we head to Lincoln Nebraska for Josh Allen's (Chris's nephew) wedding.

Rain, Racing and Tornados

Got to Texas Motor Speedway yesterday afternoon. We soon found that the weather was going to get interesting. There were tornado watches through about 4 a.m. We got a lot of rain and some hail overnight and woke up this morning to about 3 inches of water outside our RV. But in Texas the sun shines big and the wind blows strong, so most of the rain went away by this afternoon. Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for the race Sunday afternoon, so we're happy!

On to Texas

After 14 long hours, the road finally opened. We heard over 1000 trucks were waiting with us to get on the road. Apparently a large wreck occurred and a semi burned. We say what was left of the semi truck and there wasn't much except a frame of the cab. We drove on through Denver and stayed the night at Raton New Mexico. Today we ventured onto to Wichita Falls, TX. We are only 100 miles from Texas Motor Speedway, our first goal. On the way to Wichita Falls, we stopped in Groom TX. We stopped at a 10 story steel cross that also had life size bronze statues of the 14 stations of the cross. It was quite moving. Tomorrow we move in for 4 days at the speedway.