Horrible Day but God is good!

Two days ago, while we were driving, Roy chipped his front tooth.   Then, the bearings on our trailer started smoking.   Roy pulled over and they were gone, so while taking off the wheel, he lost his cell phone.   We limped on into Salem Tire Center (Salem, Illinois).   While all this was taking place, my dogs jumped on my purse, sitting on the chair and my IPOD fell in their water bowl.   What a day.
Yesterday, the Tire center spent the day trying to locate parts for the trailer. We think that the whole rear axle is maybe going to have to be replaced.   Anyway, we have to be home, so I'm sitting now in St. Louis airport, getting ready to fly to Boise.   Roy is in the RV with 3 dogs, driving home, pulling a rented car carrier and our trailer is staying in Salem until we can get back in July to pick it up after it is repaired.   Please pray for Roy as he drives alone with 3 dogs.  After sitting, and drying for 2 days, my IPOD seems to work.     We did go to a Verizon store and replace his cell phone, which he could care less about but I wanted him to have for safety reasons.  

Last week in Charlotte

Drove up to Randleman, N.C. (where R. Petty lives) and went to his personal museum.   Here's the winged car (superbird) he drove in the early 70s

 Here's another view of the world's largest tv screen (back of it).   Note its size compared to the cars below.   It was incredible to watch parts of the race and repeats of the wrecks on this screen as well as interviews with drivers and crew chiefs. Each of those levels are a story  (100 feet to stop - screen is 80 X 200 HD)

Went to Michael Waltrip's fan days, had him sign his book "In the Blink of an Eye" about him becoming a race driver, as well as what happened to him after Dale Srs. death.

Stood in line at Bass Pro shop for Ryan Newman's signature on his NASCAR Pets book and on a race card.

Went to Rousch's Fan Days.   Chocolate (Danny Myers) was broadcasting with Sirius Radio Show.   He is a regular with "Trading Paint".   He was Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s gasman for many years, including 6 of his championships.

Saw Marcus Ambrose at Petty Fan Days.   Chatted with him about Tasmania, where he is from.

View of Charlotte Motor speedway turn 3 and four from our seats.   What a race Sunday evening.   Our guy (Dale Earnhardt. Jr.) was leading on final lap and ran out of gas on the last turn.  Ended up 7th.   It was sure exciting finish.

Sunday morning church at the track.   Paul Menard's (#27) right rear tire changer and pit crew trainer gave his testimony at church.   The older, shorter guy is Joe Lewis, a pastor we have come to know quite well.  

We are now headed home.   Had a trying, tough day yesterday (Memorial day).   Roy chipped his tooth, the wheel bearings on our trailer went out, Roy lost his cell phone searching for some parts that came off the trailer, and the dogs knocked my IPOD into the dog dish and now its trash.   Days like that tax our patience to the maximum.   We are in St. Louis, waiting to see how long it will take to fix the trailer (they are trying to order parts at the moment).   We'll make it home, but don't know when.

This will be the last trip blog for now.   Will hopefully start another next week.

A week in Charlotte

We drove from Dover DE to northern North Carolina.   On Monday we visited Harvick's race shop (he fields both Nationwide cars and trucks).   We have spent the rest of the week in Charlotte NC camped outside turn 4 of the racetrack.  .   Wednesday we went to the Victory Junction Gang camp.   This camp will hold 9 different "disease" camps this summer.   Each week children under 16 come that all have the same disorder and experience a week of camp free.   Our NASCAR members club works every year doing a project for the camp as a part of our annual convention   This year we put bed bug covers on all of the children and staff beds.   They fed us lunch and gave us a tour of the camp.   The newest addition was an ampitheater donated by the Dale Jr. Foundation.   There are pictures of us making beds and  the new ampitheater (I'm standing on the stage).   Then the members club went to the carting speedpark and raced each other.   Thursday we went to Earnhardt-Gnassi racing shop for a private tour through the shop and then to NASCAR Research and Development.   Friday we met at the NASCAR Hall of Fame and then had a tailgate party with the members out at the track.   Friday night we went to the truck race.   Saturday we went to track church, a member's breakfast, a club track tour (picture of us in front of Dale Jr's car)  and then just sat around watching Indy qualifying before attending the All-Star race. At the All star race we helped set two World Records.   One was watching the world's larged HD TV Screen (200 feet by 80 feet - bigger than the one at Dallas Cowboy stadium) and second was Everyready battery setting a record with the most people holding/using a battery.    Sunday has truly been a day of rest.  

Picture from Dover

First picture is some crazy window salesmen in the fan zone.   I did end up with one of the colorful Lais.   Picture two Roy took on the frontstretch of the track.   You can see how sloped the track is even on the straight aways of the cement track of Dover.   The third picture is me in front of the Dover Monster.   At the bottom of the monster, there are plaques, honoring the winners of the races back many years.   The last is Chris and Roy on the Speed stage ---ok so its a fake picture but we did get free t-shirts too!

Maryland and back

Spent a day trying to find someone in the Dover area that could work on a Cummins diesel engine.   Finally found someone Tuesday afternoon over in Maryland.   Got up at 6:15 a.m. and drove to Maryland.   They took a day to diagnose that the fuel pump was not working properly (and probably hadn't been working correct for a while).   It was finally failing enough that we were having trouble maintaining speed and sometimes would completely cut out (like on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge).   They needed to order the part from Baltimore, so we spent the night in Maryland.   The good thing is we found a restaurant called Suicde Bridge Restaurant that had incredible seafood (great crab and shrimp!). The bridge got its name from the fact that numerous people have committed suicide by jumping off it, including a man the day after the bridge was opened.  

 The next morning (Wed.)  they installed the new fuel pump.   Turned out the fuel pump problem was under warranty so the cost was mainly frustration.   Headed back to Dover about 1 p.m. and we parked back at the track about 4 p.m.   Today we went to the truck race.   Good race.   Tomorrow is the Nationwide Race.   Sunday we will go to the Raceway ministry service in the campground and then to the race.   We are just hoping that there is no rain.   Rain is predicted for tomorrow and Sunday.

Made it to Dover barely

We left on Monday and headed toward Dover Delaware, intending to spend the night about 150 miles out of Dover.   Our RV engine started acting weird, sputtering and we ended up in the middle of a bridge with a motor that wouldn't stay started.   Had to be towed part of the way off the bridge before we got it started.   We decided to drive late and get to Dover so that we could search for someone to take a look at the deisel engine.   It was an interesting drive.   After talking to a few deisel people, they think one of the control chips has gone bad.   We have an appointment tomorrow.   We are parked at the racetrack but will pack everything up and travel to the repair shop and spend tomorrow waiting for it to be fixed.   Fun!!!

The Lady in Black or the track "too tough to tame"

Friday it rained and rained, but then about 3 it stopped. They dried the track, ran cup qualifying and we went to the Nationwide Race.   Saturday, we showed up at the track about 1 p.m., sat in the sun in our lawn chairs for about 3 hrs in the beautiful sun (about 80 degrees), read, and enjoyed the afternoon.   The race was very exciting.   As usual, during the last 100 laps there were a fair numbers of wrecks, but Regan Smith, from a one team garage won the race (his first cup race).   His win was somewhat overshadowed by the behind the scenes drama.   There was a wreck involving Kyle Busch and 2 RCR drivers, Bowyer and Harvick.   Bowyer ended up hitting the wall and Harvick continued on, apparently very upset with Busch.   At the end of the race, Harvick pulled into the pits and Kyle pulled in behind him.   Harvick jumped out of his car and it looked like he threw a punch into Kyle in his car.   Kyle pealed out, pushing Harvick's empty car into the pit wall.   Afterward, both driver's ended up in the NASCAR hauler (like the principal's office).   We will find out Tuesday if either or both of them get fined, warned or put on suspension.  

One of the exhibits we went to on Saturday allowed Roy to picture himself as a NASCAR driver (see pic)

South Carolina and Myrtle Beach

Arrvied in Florence, South Carolina RV park on Monday afternoon.   This is close to the famous Darlington Racetrack - the track "too tough to tame".   Today (Wednesday) we drove over to Myrtle beach and spent  the day.   One of our beagles, Sally, was scared of the ocean.   The other two dogs thought nothing of it.   Somehow the waves of water was not something Sally found friendly at all.   Tomorrow is Roy's birthday,   Going to a BBQ (pulled pork) at the RV park and a hauler parade in the big downtown of Darlington.  

Richmond International Speedway

Sad to hear about Tuscaloosa, we traveled through Tuscaloosa on our way here last Monday.   Now the town is basically gone.   Pray for them as well as all the other tornado victims!  Pray also for our friend Betty and sister Debi who have had cancerous growths removed.

  

(Top Joey Lagono and Michael Waltrip, Bottom Tony Steward)

Thursday we went to a driver's Q&A at the track. The driver's were there to participate in the Denny Hamlin charity race that evening.   Proceeds went to children's charities and to the tornado victims.  The driver's were in a pretty jovial mood.   Chris asked Michael Waltrip what it was like to drive at 200 mph at Talladega pushing another car and not being able to see.   He responded he better not say because some of the driver's involved in his wreck were sitting there.  Everyone laughed.  
Friday we went to the Nationwide Race.   Saturday we had a pit tour (from our NASCAR members club)

Here's Chris in front of Dale Jr.s hauler inside the track.   Go Amp.   Jr. didn't have a great race, which dropped him to 4th overall in points.   Doing great overall!

Here's a picture of turn 1 at the Richmond (3/4 mile track) early in the race Saturday evening.   We are moving on to South Carolina tomorrow.  We are having a relaxing time but miss everyone.

Today we went to Appomattox, where Lee surrendered to Grant to officially end the civil war.   The surrender was signed in the McLean House, which burned later.   It has been restored (the outer brick portion is still original) to look like it originally did.   The signing was in the done in McLean's parlor, with each General sitting at a different small table.  The one pictured above is Lee's table.  

We also drove to Hollywood cemetary, a cemetary where the southern president Jefferson Davis is bured.   The picture is of his grave,   His wife and adult children are also buried in the circular area.   This year is the 150 year celebration of the start of the civil war.   Many celebrations are planned by the southern states.

Richmond, Virginia

Arrived at Richmond yesterday.   Spent today cleaning the RV and doing wash.   The weather has gone from 91 and humid, to cool and raining.   We see the storms are going to get worse the next couple of days before it clears again.   Seems like it always rains/storms while we are in Richmond.   Dogs got away from us this morning and had the run of the RV park with a couple of others chasing them too.   Nice that they are back...they should sleep well tonight.

A week in Nashville

Wednesday night at Grand Ole Opry was great with Randy Atkins (pic) and Craig Morgan.   Of course there were others, but these two were the biggest hits.  Chris drug Roy all over Nashville to listen to country western music, including Bluebird where beginners are singing (some good and some not so good).   We also went to a songwriters night, where songwriters sing their own songs, some of which have been sold to famous artists.   As you can see Roy is becoming quite a country fan!!

On Friday night we went to a NASCAR truck race, Saturday there was a Nationwide NASCAR race.   Roy's neice Margaret came to the race with us (she's in school at Bowling Green, Kentucky a little over an hr. away.)   We then went out to have some good BBQ.  

Sunday we went to the Cowboy Church, where they did a play of the Last Supper - very moving.  After church we headed out towards Virginia.   Tonight we are in a Walmart parking lot about 300 miles away from Richmond Virginia.   We will be in Richmond all next week (races next weekend in Richmond)

Nashville

Monday we drove to Nashville and are parked in a KOA next to the Grand Ole Opry. Monday night we went to the Bluebird Cafe open mic - a place where people try to get noticed in country music.  Tuesday night we went to the Opry and saw Jesse McReynold, Kim Richey, Bill Andersopn, Rodney Atkins, Craig Morgan and the forever young Little Jimmy Dickens.   It was a great night.   Last night we went for BBQ at the Wildhorse and listened to Phil McNaught.   Friday and Saturday there is more NASCAR at Nashville International Speedway.  Margaret STringer (neice) is meeting us there on Saturday afternoon.

Talladega racing

As you can see from the RV, we are decorated for racing (we are part of the Dale, Jr. Nation!!).  
It was a good weekend at Talladega, except for Friday night when we were under a tornado watch.   Lots of rain, wind and lightning, but no funnel clouds near the campgrounds (Thank you Lord!).   Sunday morning after church with Alabama Raceway Ministries, we headed for the track all decked out in Earnhardt gear.  It was a gorgeous day and we saw a very exciting race.   Tomorrow (Monday) we will head to Nashville TN and spend Easter week in Nashville.  

Raining in Talladega

Started out nice today.   Went to racetrack for Nationwide qualifying.   Afterward, during cup practice it started raining about 2 p.m.  It's after 5 and still raining.   Had to cancel the ARCA race tonight.   Supposedly tomorrow is going to be clear and sunny.   Glad we are in an RV and not a tent as there has been lightning pretty close!

Talladega finally

We are parked outside the track at Talladega.   This late afternoon we went inside the track to a "renewal" party (for those who renewed their tickets).   First time we have been in the infield of Talladega.   Roy won a set of Talladega glasses and their were a couple of drivers present for signatures.   Weather is about 80 so it is perfect.  My back is happy we are done traveling for a few days.  

Texas is sooooo big!

Spent almost the whole day driving across TX and we are still in TX.   Tomorrow should leave TX and get close to AL.   We will be in AL on Wed.   It is warm in TX.   Loving it!

On the way

We left Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. and drove to Las Vegas.   Got up early and headed to Phoenix.   We arrived in warm Phoenix at 2 p.m.   Planning on getting some Mexican food with LaVerne Roberts.

Talladega we are coming!

The goal is to leave Friday morning for Talledega with a stop in Phoenix to see a friend. We should be in Alabama by next Tuesday. OHHHHHHH warm weather we are coming! Racing is coming. Go Earnhardt Jr. He is doing great this year so far!!!