First week in Charlotte NC

We are here in Charlotte for our NASCAR Members club convention and the All Star Race.

On Wednesday our club went out to Petty's Victory Junction Gang Camp and stuffed "goodie bags" for the campers coming in June. This camp is a free camp for kids of particular disease, such as sickle cell anemia, cancer, etc. This is the 3rd year we have worked at the camp. The camp was built to honor Adam Petty, Richard Petty's grandson who was killed during a NASCAR practice. We were priveleged to meet Adam's brother, Austin (Kyle Petty's other son) at the camp. We had the picture taken with him. Wednesday evening we went to the Pit Crew Challenge, a timed event putting various pit crews against each other. The winning crew gets to choose their pit at the Allstar race. On Thursday we went to NASCAR Research and Development. This is one of the perks of the club because they don't do public tours. They have finished the seat requrements and next year all driver's seats must meet certain safety requirements. They are now doing experiments on the crushability of the roof of the car as well as side panels. They are trying to develop better ways of protecting drivers without greatly affecting th weight of the car.

Friday we met at the new Hall of Fame. It is a wonderful place with lots of cool memorabilia, as well as lots of exhibits explaining the hows and whys of the car and racing. Our picture is on what is called to "Glory road". It started our flat, with a car from the original Daytonna beach racing in the 50s and ended with one of Jimmie Johnson's cars on 33 degrees banking. Our picture is a little past midway on the road where the banking of probably 25% or so. Talledega track has 33 degrees banking on its curves.

It took a few hrs. to go through the 3 floors of stuff.

Saturday was and Allstar race. What a race - only 13 cars finished as there was a fairly large wreck towards the end of the race. Kurt Busch won the race.

Sunday after track church, we went to a Christian celebration put on the the Gibbs family called "Taylor's finish Line Festival". Taylor is Joe Gibbs grandson who had leukemia, was treated and now is cancer free. This festival was to celebrate this and raise funds for cancer treatment for kids who cannot afford the treatment that Taylor was able to receive. There were lots of NASCAR driver's running around the playing with the carnival stuff with kids. There was also a Christian concert by Toby Mac in the evening. We saw Michael Waltrip playing minature golf with kids. Joey Lagona and Bobby Labonte each played Wii racing with kids (go figure). Juan Pablo Montoya also played minature golf. The picture of me with Michael is especially for Sharon!

Monster Mile 2 + Joey Lagono

We had a great time at the Monster Mile track although the Monster never came out and there really weren't any huge wrecks.This concrete track is famous for becoming very slick after tire rubber gets laid down on a warm day and there usually are lots of big wrecks. Kyle Bush won 2 of the 3 races (Carolyn Korn should be happy) and Jimmy Johnson was speeding on pit row and lost the race for himself (he had the best car all day).

On Thursday night, before the races started we went to a famous seafood restaurant in Lipseic Delaware, famous for crabs. While we were there, Michael Waltrip came in and Ryan Newman came in to eat. Michael placed hand on Roy's shoulder, so he says he's never going to wash it again. I got Michael's autograph.

I forgot to write when we were in Darlington, we went to a Home Depot to meet Joey Lagano. He was all smiles and friendly. He spoke to everyone as he signed their hat, tshirt or whatever. You can see Roy's picture with Joey above and mine below. We are now headed for Charlotte North Carolina where we will spend two weeks.

The Monster Mile Post 1

We have arrived and are parked just outside the Monster Mile Track in Dover Delaware. Its raining which is not good for racing and practicing tomorrow. Hopefully this storm just moves straight on out to the ocean. Today the dogs got away from us and we chased 3 dogs around the field. I guess they are getting tired of being "cooped" up. Acres of grass are probably too tempting for Beagles who really want to chase the eastern squirrels. Tomorrow we plan to sit around a little and then head to Sambo's for fish and crab. This restaurant is suppossed to be famous among NASCAR fans in a little city called Leipsic (lip - sick) Delaware. We' ve heard them talk about this restaurant on Sirus 128 for years. We'll see if it lives up to itss reputation.
So - Hello from Delware!! :)

The Lady in Black

We spent the last week in Florence, South Carolina near Darlington International Speedway or the "Lady in Black", also nicknamed "the track too tough to tame". Living up to "her" name there were lots of cars with the "Darlington" stripe on their right side, due to scrapping the wall. There were also a fair number of wrecks, one taking Jimmie Johnson out of the race. We enjoy this track a lot and enjoy the KOA where we have stayed now for 3 years. Each year they BBQ a pig on Thursday and have a big picnic in the evening and provide breakfast on the weekend. We also enjoyed some great fresh tomatoes from a local market and had our traditional hot salsa. We left on Monday and drove a significant part of the Blue Ridge Parkway through the Blue Ridge mtns. in North Carolina and Virginia. Today we drove onto Maryland and will be in Dover Delaware, parked just outside the racetrack tomorrow. It has been raining in the northeast but supposed to be warm (80s) this weekend.

Richmond Races

Friday night we went to the Bubba Burger Nationalwide races. (Only in the south would they sell "Bubba burgers" - I kept thinking they must be purchased by Billy Bob). It was an exciting race won by Keselowski but Kyle Bush gave him a run for it. Saturday night we went to the Sprint Cup race. Even though it was a good race, we were dismayed when Kyle Bush won. Oh well! Our driver got hit by Bobby Labonte, lost a tire and had to pit, putting him 5 laps down. Such is racing. The Richmond speedway put in the a new sign board which you can see in the one picture. One picture shows a skydiver bringing in the U.S. flag (when I see this, I always think of Wally Benton bringing in the flag at the first BSU game in the new stadium. If you don't know what happened to him, email and ask me!). The last picture is the view from our seats. Sunday we went to Hanover Church of the Nazarene, a church slightly north of the racetrack. Monday we headed out and got to Florence, South Carolina near Darlington Speedway for the week. Its warm and nice and dry. With all the rain in Tennessee, we expected it to be wet. I guess we will have to wait and see - they say thunderstorms tonight and the clouds are rolling in.