North Carolina, Concord - Tuesday, July 9, 2013 - Charlotte Motor Speedway

We’ve been on the road a month now and we are still having fun.  I know there are some that wonder how you can share a small space with someone day in and day out.  I think the secret is that you not only have to love them, you have to really like them too.  I notice more and more that as we work together to do things like fix breakfast our routine is coordinated – he goes one way, I go the other – whatever, it seems to be working very well.

While we waited on the service tech to come out and assess what needed to be done to the air conditioner unit that isn’t working (we have two others that are working just fine), I got busy and did some cleaning inside the coach.  I even made cornbread from scratch – only because I didn’t have a Jiffy mix handy.

This evening we walked over to the Charlotte Motor Speedway to watch the bandollero (not sure on the spelling) cars race in round 6 of the Summer Shootout.  $7.00 per adult for a night of racing and fireworks was a good deal.

The Speedway is beautiful.  The seats are comfortable, the temperature was into the low 80’s with a slight breeze.  The sun was going down behind us so it wasn’t shining in our eyes.  A perfect night.  The races were fun and there were fireworks to look forward to.  We were sure the rains were going south of us this evening.

And then it happened – RAIN, thunder and lots of lightning.  About halfway through the races, the grandstands had to be cleared and everyone had to go under the grandstands for shelter.

The numerous lightning strikes were to be the only fireworks we would see.  Remember, we walked?  Although the Speedway is within walking distance from where we are parked, it still takes about 20 minutes.  We bought a funnel cake (along with about a hundred other people at the same stand) and stood around for a while watching the impressive lightning.  We looked at WeatherBug and determined that there were two pretty active cells that would be coming right through where we were at.  Once the lightning let up we decided to head back home before the next round started up.

 

North Carolina, Concord - Monday, July 8, 2013 - Charlotte Motor Speedway

No sightseeing today.  We had to get laundry done and get an appointment to get one of our air conditioners fixed at the RV service center next to the campground.  We also spent some time going over what tours were available for the racing team garages and the racetracks here and making our reservations for the Biltmore mansion coming up in a couple of weeks.

Once again the rains came down this morning.  If you are going to be in the Charlotte area during a time when races aren’t going on, I would definitely recommend checking out this campground.  It doesn’t have a lot of amenities like a big playground or pool.  But, it does have huge stone covered lots, wide paved streets and full 50 amp hook ups for $25 a night.  There are very few trees and we still seem to have trouble getting our satellite dish to get a signal – not sure what is happening there.  During races the prices are considerably higher.

We took a walk this evening to check out the drag racing track, dirt track and Charlotte Motor Speedway, all of the tracks are within walking distance from our site.

 

 

 

 

Maryland, Lothian to Concord, NC - Sunday, July 7, 2013 Charlotte Motor Speedway

Today is a travel day.  We met Robyn, Jason and Maddie for breakfast at Dunkin Donuts.  Like good grandparents we got Maddie on a sugar high and then left.  We are headed to Concord, NC which is just outside Charlotte.

We took I-85 through North Carolina and I have to say I am impressed with how beautiful the North Carolina landscaping is on this highway.  For several miles these trees with large pink flowers were planted in the median.

 

At each interchange large blocks of yellow or orange lilies, ornamental grasses and flowering trees were planted.

 

There was also a lack of litter and billboards.  It kind of made me ashamed of the trashy conditions of some of the Indiana highways.

We pulled into the Tom Johnson Camping Center Racing Resort at the Charlotte Motor Speedway just ahead of some rain.  We got set up, put the awning out and were thinking about sitting outside once the sun went down since the rain had stopped and the temperature had dropped to a tolerable level.  Then all of a sudden strong winds and rain came through almost taking down our awning before Greg got it retracted.