The
Charlotte Motor Speedway is within walking distance from where we are staying
in the campground. Today we decided to
drive over since rain was in the area and we are going out to Red Lobster after
the tour to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (a couple of days
early).
We started
out the tour in some really nice seats.
Our tour guide spent about 15 talking about the history of the track and
what we were seeing from our seats.
There are
some really great views here.
Tomorrow
night they will have school bus races.
The busses are taken to local schools prior to the race and the students
decorate them. Tomorrow night the school
principals will race them around the small quarter mile oval in front of us.
When you are
watching the race from those great seats you have access to food and drink in
this area. I understand this is a
popular area for wedding receptions.
We’ve walked
the concession area before. The last
time we were here we had to shelter in place here when bad weather came through
during a race we were attending.
We got to go
into a couple of the corporate suites.
First was
one of the Coco Cola suites. They have
another suite that accommodates 300.
Your view of
the race would be great from here.
The
companies can decorate their suites as they see fit. The Bank of America suite looks more family
friendly.
They have
that same great view.
Lighting in
the press box wasn’t great.
Performance
Racing Network is where the radio coverage comes from.
Lots of
buttons to push in here.
Next we
headed out to a van to go on a tour of the outside facilities.
The ZMax
Dragway where we were a couple of days ago for the Hot Rod Tour.
This is the
drivers view down the four wide drag racing track as they get ready to come to
the starting line.
The dirt
track is where the World of Outlaws run.
Notice the
bottom section of seats, they are all stained from dirt that flies up in the
stands during the races.
There are 52
condominiums here, all are sold and 10 of them are occupied year round.
If you see
strange things in the sky above the garage area, that is just the reflections
on the window of the van.
This room is
the media room where the drivers come for a pre-race meeting. Driver interviews also happen in here.
Standing in
the winner’s circle.
The view of
the stands when you are in the winner’s circle.
The seats
for observers in the winner’s circle don’t look too comfortable. There is tape marking where the select few
are supposed to sit. We noted that one
was marked “CIA”. Someone asked,
“really?”, answer was “yes”.
No more
pictures at this point, we are out on the track and without the seat belt I
would be on the floor, I see now why they have the drivers secured so well
during the race. This track has 24
degrees of bank in the corners. Oh my, that is steep! I don’t know how they keep their cars up
there. We experienced decelerating to
get down to pit lane speed. However, we
were only going about 80 mph – nothing like racing speed. This was a really fun tour.
After we
left Charleston, SC we spent five days in the parking lot at the Freightliner
shop in Gaffney, SC. That really isn’t
as bad as it sounds. They have
electrical hook ups for 20 or so motor coaches as they wait for service. We couldn’t get a designated appointment time
for when we would be in the area (they book about a year ahead of time) so we
went in as a “walk in” and had to wait for mechanics to get the appointments
done before they could do our work. It
doesn’t help that we are so long that we take up two bays of the garage so we
have to wait until there is room for us in addition to a mechanic being
available.
The
Freightliner facility is next door to a technical college campus which made for
some nice walking, we managed to get in a couple of miles each day.
I love
Gaffney’s water tower. South Carolina
actually leads Georgia in peach production.
Gaffney is the “capital” of peaches.
We did get some delicious peaches while we were there. We were eating them fresh a couple of times a
day and I had to do a little cooking frenzy when they all started getting too
ripe all at once. I fixed a couple of
peach upside down cakes (one is in the freezer) and the rest went into peach
sauce which is great on our morning cereal and yogurt.
When we left
Charleston we ran into some stormy weather, really the first bad driving weather
we have had since we left Arizona in mid-April.
On Friday we pulled into the campground at the Charlotte Motor
Speedway. This is a nice quiet
reasonably priced place to stay, we’ve been here at least a couple of times
before.
On Saturday
I woke up to what sounded like a train coming through the campground. When I got into the living room Greg was
watching what looked like miles of hot rods coming right by the campground into
the parking lot outside of the John Force grandstands he said, “Something is
happening”. Yes it was, we just didn’t
know what.
A little
internet search revealed that Saturday was the kickoff day for the 2019 Hot Rod
Power Tour. This is the 25th
year for the seven day, seven city journey for the world’s largest traveling
car show. This year they expect to bring
together 6,000 vehicles and over 100,000 spectators. In seven days they cover over 1300
miles. The vehicles that make the entire
trip are part of the “Long Haul Gang”.
Last year 4,000 vehicles made it.
Considering the age and condition of some of the vehicles that is pretty
amazing. At each stop they will have
locals that will bring in their vehicles just for the day. This year the kick off was here in Charlotte,
NC where they ended up last year. They
will finish this year at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, OH where they
finished 25 years ago on the inaugural tour. The really good
thing was that admission was free, at least here!
You could
find all kinds of cars from classic to the one you would drive to work every
day.
Imagine the
attention I could get driving this around the campground. David Snider, check out those pipes!
Since we
drive a Jeep this display was of interest.
I’m not sure we need that.
This was my
favorite!
This is what
is pulling it.
Cars were
parked for as far as you could see.
This one was
from Indiana – I think maybe a Purdue fan.
No one was around so we didn’t find out any more about it.
I’m not a
big shopper but seeing the Charleston City Market seemed like a must do thing.
This place
goes on for blocks.
They have a
bit of everything here. I particularly
like the sweetgrass baskets. I picked up
a small one and asked the gentleman at the booth, who was working on weaving
another basket, how many hours he put into one.
His reply was about 19 hours on the one you are holding. That made the $135 price tag understandable
but I still couldn’t justify a purchase.
Charleston
Crab House is right across the street from the market. No fried green tomatoes here but we were
getting hungry.
We ordered a
bacon wrapped shrimp appetizer and shrimp tacos entrée and split them. Both were great. The sauce on the taco was pretty spicy. Greg tasted it first, but did he warn me? No,
he just sat and watched what would happen when I took a bite. It was actually pretty good once you got used
to it.
Also across
the street from the market were the French Quarter Shops. We expected another area with lots of
shops. Nope, the three you see are it.
If you like
patriotic themed clothing you need to check out Nine Line Apparel. Their main store was located just down the
street from the campground we stayed at in Savannah. That location has a new coffee shop addition
that looked pretty busy.
Byrd’s
Famous Cookies has two locations downtown.
They have a
free cookie tasting bar where you can sample all 16 varieties of cookies they
make. All of the cookies are small,
crisp tea cookies and they are great. I
didn’t sample all 16 varieties – I may have had 8 (or 10).
We did make
a purchase here after we checked the sodium count which was really low for a
baked good.
Beautiful
buildings on our way to our next stop.
White Point
Gardens on the Charleston Harbor.
There is a
sidewalk along the harbor. Parking is
available for a two hour period. Spots
are pretty scarce.
Not much
happening on the harbor this morning.
Some of the
sidewalk is made up of what appear to be large slate slabs. Sometimes the slabs wiggle, makes me nervous.
I got a good
picture of us just after the cars around us left.
The
historical homes along the battery are just amazing.
If you have
a spare 7 million laying around, this lovely one could be yours.
Even the
driveways are beautiful.
We will be
leaving Charleston and heading to Gaffney, SC to go to the Freightliner Service
Center for some checks and routine maintenance.
Since we couldn’t get an appointment we will just wait for them to work
us in. Not sure if we will be able to
get out to sightsee so this may be my last post for a little while.
