Phoenix

Took a couple of days of driving, but we are in Phoenix AZ for our last races and a NFL game. We are parked at the racetrack which is a little different in the desert. Basically we are parked in the dry, dusty dirt. Nothing too romantic about that but the dogs don't seem to care! We have met with some of the snowbirds from McCall here in Phoenix. We had dinner last night with LaVerne and Harold Roberts and Jan and Ken Watson. It was fun to see friends from home. We have races here now for three days. The track is a 1 mile track and should be fun.

Vicksburg and on to Texas Motor Speedway

We spent two days in Vicksburg Mississippi. Tuesday we drove the Vicksburg Civil War battle trail. This was a 16-mile driving trail that covered Grant's attack and seige of Vicksburg. This town, once conquered by Grant, allowed the Union/Federal to control the Mississippi. There was a museum there of the warship Cairo, an ironclad civil war ship that sunk in the Mississippi in 1864. They raised the ship in 1964 (yep, a 100- years later!) and they have put it back together. It was quite amazing. The ship had 175 men on it and went down after being hit by mines place in the river by the Confederates. It sank in 12 minutes but no men died. The pictures hardly do it justice. Afterward, we drove into downtown Vicksburg to visit the pharmacy/soda fountain that first bottled Coca Cola. The owner of this pharmacy sold so much Coca Cola at his soda fountain back in the 1800s that he figured people living out in the country would like a Coke also. So he invented a way to bottle Coke and talked the formula owners in Atlanta to sell him the bottling rights for $1. Bet he made a bundle on his bottled Coke. This morning (Wed) we drove to Dallas and are now sitting in the RV park at the speedway. Everyone's RV is decorated with Halloween lights. Our dogs are going crazy!!

Atlanta and beyond

Thursday in Atlanta we visited the World of Coke. Coca Cola started in a pharmacy in Atlanta and this is their world headquarters. Friday it rained and rained and rained so no qualifying. The wind also blew and rocked our mobile home. Friday night late a elderly man backed into our RV and broke a number of back lights. Such fun, dealing with a small wreck away from home. The poor guy was really embarrassed. Saturday was warm and sunny and we attended the truck race. It was an exciting race with Ryan Newman winning (first time he ever drove a truck race). Sunday was a little cooler, but still nice and sunny in the stands. "Cousin" Carl Edwards won and Jr. finished 11th after being bumped getting out of the pits. We left Monday, heading towards TX. We are spending the night in Vicksburg Mississippi. We may spend another day here looking at Civil War sites. Then on to Texas for another big race.

Chattanooga and on to Atlanta GA

We spent two days in Chattanooga TN (and I couldn't quit thinking about the Chattanooga Choo Choo song!). We drove around for about 4 hours looking at civil war battle sites. The battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga (the battle above the clouds on Lookout Mtn) were fought in this important railroad area. We rode on the steepest passenger railroad which has a 72.7% grade towards the top. We then went to visit Ruby Falls on Lookout Mtns. We rode an elevator 360 feet down a shaft dug in the late 1890s, then hiked down another 600+ feet to the longest water falls found in a cave. They had artifical lights on the falls and you could hike all the way around the falls. On the way there were lots of stalagtites and stalagmites (remember which is which?). This morning we went to Rock City (again on top of Lookout Mtn.). This area was discovered by some missionaries who described it as a citadel of rocks. A couple named the Carters had this area as a part of their estate and Freida Carter began developing a walk through this large "rock garden". After two years work, they opened it to the public. We took our dogs through the walk which took a couple of hours and enjoyed rock formations such as mushroom rock, needle's eye, fat's mans squeeze and lover's leep (Roy says he jumped) but I have a picture of him under the 1000 ton balanced rock afterward. We then loaded the RV and headed to Atlanta GA for the next NASCAR race. Go Earnhardt Jr #88 and Stewart #20.

More Charlotte and Memphis TN

Here are a few more pictures from Charlotte last week. On Thursday we went on a garage tour. Chris is standing in front of Jr's. car as it goes through one of the NASCAR inspection points where they measure the car and check various settings. Roy is standing on the garage road next to the haulers. Jr's hauler had a frig full of AMP energy drink cans at the end of his hauler. I guess this is in case he or his pit crew need more caffeine??

We walked with about 15 other people up and down both sides of the Sprint Car cup garage as the cars were inspected and brought back to their garages. Three cars were painted pink for breast cancer awareness/cure (Kyle Busch, Sadler and LaBonte). AJ Almendinger and Skinner were being interviewed by TV as we walked by.

After Russell and Rachael left, we headed to Memphis TN where we attended the National Association of Biology Teacher's Convention. We both went on a tour of St. Jude's Medical Research Center (started by Danny Thomas, the comedian). This 65-acres facility sees 5400 children contacts per week, mostly on an outpatient basis. Their main emphasis is pediatric cancer. All treatment is FREE, including your flight here, room and board, etc. They raise $1.4 million a day to run the research/hospital facility. The picture is of the main treatment hospital. Roy went to the techy sessions at the meetings and found out how biologists are using technology, wikis, etc. in the classroom. I mostly attended workshops on classroom techniques. These sessions help keep me updated on things going on in biology so when McGraw-Hill wants us to write a new edition of the textbook I co-author, I have a clue what's "new and hot" in our nation's classrooms. It was fun to see my fellow co-authors also. We are resting in Memphis this Sat. and Sun and will then head out to Chatanooga, TN for two days, then on the Atlanta for the next NASCAR race. Tonight we hope to go to Rendevous, the very famous BBQ restaurant. Pres. Bush took the prime minister of Japan after he visited Graceland. We went last year and it is the best BBQ I've ever had in my life and definitely the best BBQ beans I've ever had.

Let us know by commenting if there is a driver you want a picture of and we will get the car/driver if we can.

Charlotte, NC

We spent the week in Charlotte NC camped in the RV outside Turn 4 of the track for Race 5 of the Chase. On Thursday Russell and Rachael flew in and joined us for the National Race, a Pit pass tour and the Sprint Cup Race. We also went to a concert for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s foundation that supports Make a Wish Foundation and Victory Junction Gang Camp (camps for kids with chronic diseases founded by Kyle Petty in memory of his son who died in a NASCAR practice). It was great to have Rachael and Russell join us. Today (Monday Oct 13) Roy and I are going to a Dale Earnhardt Jr. Charity auction. We head out to Memphis TN early in the morning. We sure would enjoy a comment so we know you are looking at our blog!

Talledega Motor Speedway

From Sept. 30 - October 6th we were in Talladega AL at the racetrack. It is said there are 30,000+ RVs staying at or around the track for the races. We were in the family camps that have 1000s of RVs. The Sprint cup race was exciting and controversial. They are still talking about "who" won the race. About 15 laps before the end, a bunch of cars were taken out by a bump draft gone wrong by Carl Edwards #99, one of the chase drivers. (#88 was taken out by Carl's wreck). After the restart, Tony Stewart took the led and defended the number one spot. #6 Regan Smith tried to pass him below the yellow line (not allowed at the superspeedways). For a while at the end of the race, no one knew who won. It was exciting and crazy. Since we also cheer for Tony, we were happy NASCAR ruled that Smith violated the rules and he was black flagged.
We arrived in Charlotte NC today after spending a day at a repair shop. Seems our house batteries on the RV were bad and had to be replaced. We will be in Charlotte for the week.