St. Augustine

It dawned on me today why my last few posts have been so long.  I've been covering 2 to 3 days of seeing the sights in one post.  When we traveled out west, I often wrote a blog every night detailing that day's adventure.  This time I have been writing the posts as Mike drives to our next campground.  I was unable to do that today as it was pouring rain when we left St. Augustine this morning, before 8 am.   We decided that I would follow Mike in the Jeep as it was only a 3 1/2 hr. drive to our final destination - Zephyrhills, Florida.  We had hooked the Jeep up to tow in yucky weather before and it is no fun.

Back to St. Augustine.  We arrived at our campground in St. Augustine Beach on Wednesday early afternoon in time to get set up and drive the 7 miles into downtown St. Augustine.  Finally, of all the places we've been that has had a claim to "the oldest", St. Augustine takes first prize - the oldest city in the United States.  We're talking OLD - Ponce de Leon came ashore in 1513 and claimed the land for Spain, naming it La Florida.  The actual city of St. Augustine was founded in 1565.  Thinking that we would be coming back on Friday, we decided to forgo the trolley tour and just set off walking.  We saw most of the interesting, touristy sites, just didn't get the narrative to explain everything.  We started at the old city gate and walked down St. George Street, a pedestrian-only narrow lane lined with shops and restaurants, many of them housed in original, old structures.  (since we weren't eating and Mike doesn't go in cute, interesting looking shops, it didn't take us long to walk the length of this street.)  We hadn't even gone a block when he came upon the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse in the U.S.

Having done a little research on the area, I wanted to see Flagler College, mainly for the architecture.  It turned out to be just several blocks west of St. George Street.   Flagler College was originally the Ponce de Leon Hotel, a luxury resort built by Henry Flagler in 1888.  Henry Flagler was a partner with John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Company.   He also built the East Coast Railway and is considered the founder of Palm Beach and Father of Miami.  Another of his resorts - The Breakers - is in Palm Beach.  The Ponce de Leon had 508 rooms and was the first hotel to have hot running water and electricity.  The resort was only open during January, February and March.  We walked inside the main building and it was easy to envision it as a hotel lobby.  It was extremely ornate and beautiful.   It has the largest collection of Tiffany stained glass windows (over 25 of them) in the country.  Flagler College took over the property in 1968.

Another block away was the Memorial Presbyterian Church, built by Flagler in memory of his 33 year old daughter who died in childbirth.  When it was built in 1889, the cost was 1.3 million dollars.  It was built to resemble St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.

We made our way back to the main avenue and I mentioned how nice it would be to go  on a carriage ride because we could get off our feet for awhile, we would learn some of the history of the town and it would just be downright romantic!  Somehow Mike agreed, so off we went with Bess walking at a slow pace and much of what I just related to you I learned from our carriage driver, a native St. Augustinian.  (When the carriage went past Flagler College, bells were ringing a lovely tune that only added to the romantic part!)

There is a Fountain of Youth here, but when we saw that they charged to park the car and charged to get in the "park" we figured it was a tourist trap and didn't go.  I never did get a picture of one of the several statues of Ponce de Leon.

Thursday was sunny and in the mid 80's.  We drove on A1A, the two lane road that follows the Florida coast, heading south to Daytona Beach.  We drove past miles of beautiful beaches - Crescent Beach, Flagler Beach, Ormond Beach.  And when our view of the beach was blocked it was because we were treated to large, gorgeous mansions or smaller, funky beach houses.  Either way, it was very interesting viewing.  Our trek to Daytona was two-fold: the Daytona International Speedway and the beach itself.  Mike has been to both and wanted me to experience both.  We arrived at the speedway 10 minutes before the next tour (perfect timing) and joined 17 other people on a 90 minute guided tour of the Daytona racetrack.  (I think the tours of Charlotte Motor Speedway and now Daytona are paybacks for all the national park orientation films I made Mike watch when we were traveling out west! Or maybe it was the carriage ride . . . )  We were led into one of the suites where we could look out over the track as our guide gave us a little history (the racetrack was built by Bill France, Sr. in 1958, the founder of NASCAR, and his company International Speedway Corporation owns 12 other tracks, including Talledega and Michigan) and also explained "Daytona Rising", a two year remodeling of the grandstand area that will cost in the hundreds of millions.  From artist's renderings and the scale model we saw, the new Daytona will be the ultimate experience for any NASCAR fan.  On race day, when you count the grandstands and infield, the speedway becomes one of the largest cities in Florida.
We also went to the Fan Zone, the winner's circle, the garages for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup cars, drove past the lake which is in the infield, through the different camping facilities in the infield (the driver's campground was the best, surprise, surprise).  In the driver meeting room, our guide had us watch the exact video all the drivers have to watch before the race.  The driver meeting is mandatory.  Watching the video I thought the drivers probably pay as much attention to it as we do to the flight attendant safety spiel before a flight.
After a drive by the combined  NASCAR headquarters and corporate offices of International Speedway Corporation, which is right across the street, the tour ended with a short film on Daytona, a look a Jimmie Johnson's number 48 car that won the 2013 Daytona 500 (sticky champagne, confetti and all, just as it came out of the winner's circle) and an exit through the gift shop. (every attraction in Florida seems to have strategy down pat).

We left the racetrack and drove to Daytona Beach.  Or I should say, on Daytona Beach.  Mike came here almost 40 years ago on spring break with his cousin Mary and some friends and I had heard the stories from that trip, along with his brother Steve's hilarious spring break tales from the following year.  Mike wanted to drive on the beach again.  40 years later he found out it now costs $5 to do so, but it was worth it .  We drove for a while, parked the Jeep and ate lunch at a tiki hut on the beach while Mike went over that senior year spring break trip again.  So now we have not only ridden our bikes on the sands of the Atlantic ocean, we have driven our car on it too!

Back in St. Augustine Beach, before returning to the RV, we found a beachfront restaurant (I use that term loosely) called the Beachcomber and decided it would be the perfect place for a sunrise breakfast.
So Friday morning we rolled out of bed, threw hats on our bed hair and got there at 7:15.  We told the cook we would be right back, sat with our back to some dune grass on the beach, our eyes on the water and watched the sun come up.  Every bit as spectacular as some sunsets we've seen.  Mike is often awake and outside to see this everyday occurrence.  I'm sometimes up, but not usually outside so to plan to watch a sunrise just like we do to watch a sunset was really kinda neat.  After our Beachcomber breakfast, we went back to the RV, cleaned up for our day at the World Golf Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame is in the World Golf Village, just north of St. Augustine - a residential community with two golf courses.  The Slammer and Squire course is inspired by Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead.  The King and Bear course was jointly designed by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.  The village includes the H of F Museum, a Renissance Hotel, headquarters of the First Tee program, the Caddyshack restaurant (owned by Bill Murray and his brothers) an 18 hole putting course, and a Challenge hole built to resemble the 17th island green at TPC Sawgrass.  All of these are in a circle around a large pond. The admission price to the museum includes the putting course and we each got 3 swings on the 132 yd. Challenge hole.  Mike put two of his shots on the green and put one over.  All three of my balls found the water. (surprise, surprise)

The museum started with a tribute to Bob Hope, an odd choice maybe, but after walking through the displays, it was obvious what a promoter and ambassador of the game of golf he was.  (I didn't know Bob Hope was born in England.  He jokingly said he left when he realized he couldn't be king!)  There were many pictures of Hope playing with presidents and other famous actors.  He often brought a golf club on stage with him during his numerous overseas trips to entertain the troops.
The beginnings of golf in Scotland came next.  Pictures, information on early famous golfers (Old Tom Morris)  and actual equipment from the 1700's and 1800's brought this history to life.
On to golf in America and there was an entire section devoted to Bobby Jones who accomplished the Grand Slam of golf in 1930 by winning the British Amateur, the British Open, the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open.  (today's Grand Slam is The Open Championship, The Masters, The U.S. Open and the PGA Championship). He is the only person ever to have received two ticker tape parades in New York City. He endeared himself to the people of St. Andrews when, after winning the Open, he didn't take the Claret Jug home, but asked if he could leave it there and would they "mind it for me".  His lasting legacy to the world of golf is Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters tournament.
There were sections for the international competitions - The Ryder Cup, The Presidents Cup and the Solheim Cup.  The woman golfer who got her own room was Nancy Lopez.  Her dad put a club in her hand when she was 7 years old and said, "Put it in the hole."  If only it were that simple.  But for Nancy, who was basically self-taught, it was.

The last area of the museum was the Hall of Fame.  Bronze face plaques lined a wall, much like at The Baseball Hall of Fame. (the Football Hall of Fame has bronze busts).  The most recent inductees had a section with their memorabilia and accomplishments.  One of our family's favorite golfers - Freddie Couples - was in the Class of 2013 so we particularly enjoyed this area. We ended by walking through a replica of a locker room.  Each member of the Hall of Fame has a locker with a glass front and they are allowed to choose what goes in the locker for us to see.
And once again, we exited through their gift shop.
We recommend a visit to the World Golf Village for anyone who likes golf.  It is in a pretty setting and enough hands-on activities to make it interesting.

We drove north about 20 miles to the The Players Club at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedre.  The drive back to the stately clubhouse was lined with banners of the past winners of the Players Club Championship.  We walked through the clubhouse, but didn't wait for the tour led by "storytellers".  It's too bad we didn't wait because we heard they not only give you a tour of the clubhouse, they take you by golf cart out to the 16th, 17th, and 18th holes - the 17th being the signature island green par 3.

So Saturday our eastern journey ended as we arrived in Zephyrhills about 11:15 am.  The motorhome got a good washing, inside and out and we are all set up on a rental space in an RV park for the winter.
As with our western trip, we are thankful for the opportunity we had to take the month of October to meander down the east coast of our beautiful country.  We certainly didn't see everything which only leaves us looking forward to more journeys.  God willing, there will be more.  We are open to any and all suggestions of "must see" places!

Psalm 9:1 - "I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders."

                                 Old City Gate into St. Augustine.  Looking down St. George Street

                                                        Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse

           Typical shop on St. George St.  Have to go in doorway to get to another opening for the store.

                                                                  Henry Flagler

                                                       Flagler College - a 4 year liberal arts school

                                                           Lobby of main building

             This is what you can do in late October when you attend college in Florida.  On campus.

                                Henry Flagler and his family are buried inside the church he built

                                                                   Carriage Ride!

                                                               Infield at Daytona

                                                        In the Winner's Circle

                                                       Jimmie Johnson's winning car

                                          Sunrise at St. Augustine Beach - yes, that is me

                        At World Golf Village - Hall of Fame and Museum in the background

                                                           Mike entering the museum

                                                                    Like this quote

                                                            Hall of Fame Class of 2013

                                                         Mike on the Challenge Hole

                                                         TPC at Sawgrass Clubhouse

Hilton Head and Savannah

We have so enjoyed our past 3 days!  I think Hilton Head has made my list of favorite places to visit or vacation.  There were only 2 choices of campgrounds on the island, both expensive.  We are glad we made the decision to bite the bullet and pay the price to stay on the island and not in the Savannah area and drive over to Hilton Head.  Our RV resort (that is what they call campgrounds to justify prices equal to a cheap hotel room!) was very private, quiet, with beautiful landscapes sites.  The best part was it was right on the bike trail that takes you anywhere around the lower part of the island.  (more on that later)  I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed and it took me two bike rides around the RV resort to realize that there were only Class A motorhomes allowed.  No tents, pop-ups, travel trailers or even fifth wheels.  That explained the "quiet" - I never saw any kids.  Lots of older people and their dogs.

We spent all day Monday in Savannah, about an hour drive.  Our GPS routed us on back roads, not I-95, which I always like.  They call this the Lowcountry and we could see why.  Marsh land everywhere.
To get a feel and overview of the city, the first thing we did was take the 90 minute trolley tour.  Always informative, we learned the following:  Colonists landed in what is now Savannah in 1733.  It is the first planned city.  Broad Street was the first paved road in Georgia.  Slavery was banned in Georgia until 1751.  Two-thirds of the world's cotton came from the south and there were only two pricing houses for cotton: Liverpool, England and Savannah.  The city was planned around 24 "squares" (22 still exist) that are basically green spaces, or parks (very welcoming and restful).  Some have fountains or statues and some are just a lovely oasis in an urban setting.  Savannah is the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts , and Johnny Mercer, who wrote "Moon River".  During the Civil War, General Sherman burned the city of Atlanta on his march through the south.  Savannah was spared that fate because Sherman had friends (the Telefairs) who lived here.
And to add to our list of "oldest this or that", Savannah is home to the oldest African-American church congregation.

After doing the entire city loop, we got off the trolley and explored on foot.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the 70's.  The gal at the ticket booth said Savannah has 14 good days a year and we hit one of them.  She said it is either freezing cold or blazing hot.  I think that might be an exaggeration, but we could see the distinct possibility of steamy summer days here.
Walking around, we found some of the architecture similar to New Orleans with wrought iron fencing and balconies. I tried to take pictures of the beautiful houses that surround the squares, but, for the most part, large oak and magnolia trees would block the view so I knew the pictures wouldn't show what we could see.
After reading some online reviews, we chose Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House over Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons for lunch.  (Ok - I may have been influenced by the name Wilkes, as Ashley and Melanie Wilkes are major characters in one of my favorite movies - Gone With The Wind.)
We were warned that there would be a line, but I told Mike this is like the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans where the beignets were worth the wait.  The line actually serves a useful purpose - helping to locate the restaurant and the side entrance.  It would be very easy to walk right past it.
There is no menu.  We were seated at a large oval table with 6 other people.  The food and iced tea were already on the table and it is all family style.  The main dishes were fried chicken, beef stew and BBQ pork.  We then could choose from the 15 side dishes on the table, including sweet potatoes, yellow squash, black-eyed peas, collard greens, baked mac n cheese.  In other words, all things southern!  For the unadventurous, there was mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and cole slaw.  The servers wore T-shirts that said "If the Colonel made chicken this good, he would have been a General."  It was delicious, along with the cherry cobbler and banana cream pie pudding we forced ourselves to eat, even though we were stuffed!

To work off some of those calories, we walked to River Street, which appropriately enough runs parallel to the Savannah River.   When Savannah was founded, the river was 12 feet deep.  Dredging has increased that to 42 ft. and 98% of the world's ships can navigate the river, making it a very active port.  The street is cobblestone and lined with the touristy shops you would expect. Other than having to go downhill to this area, Savannah is a very walkable city with no high rise buildings.

Tuesday was our day to explore our end of Hilton Head.  I say "our end" because when we were leaving today, I realized that the island is quite large and some areas very commercial and busy.    We were down on the southern tip where we could easily get around on our bikes.  The trails are well marked, paved, and flat.  (you have to be thankful for the little things. . . )  We turned right out of our park and rode 2 miles to a marina and back.   We then headed the other way and rode 2 miles to one of the many public beaches.  The tide was out so we were able to ride our bikes right on the beach.  We rode in one direction close to the water, playing chicken with the incoming waves and rode back up higher on the beach.  We now have the distinction of riding our own bikes (not rentals) on a beach on the west coast (Santa Monica) and east coast.  As Mike said, "From sea to shining sea."  It was actually ocean to ocean, but that doesn't fit so well in the song.
It was a perfect day weather-wise so we ate lunch at an outdoor cafe just off the beach.  We rode back to the RV, worked on a tire pressure problem and then took our camp chairs and drove to another beach to spend the rest of the late afternoon gazing out at the Atlantic, looking for dolphins (no luck), and watching two beginner surfers attempt to handle the small waves.  You would think that growing up on  Lake Michigan, as we did, that being on the water, or looking at the water would be ho-hum.  Not so.  Maybe because we grew up on the water, we never tire of the calming effect it has, watching the waves break on shore or gorgeous sunrises and sunsets the water produces.

We also drove to Harbour Town to see the iconic red and white lighthouse that stands behind the 18th hole of the Harbour Town Golf Links, home to a PGA tournament.  Harbour Town is part of Sea Pines Plantation, a huge resort that takes up the entire tip of the island, and the only drawback is the $5 fee to enter this area.  So to get to all the restaurants, shops, golf courses, or beaches here, you have to pay.

We left at 8 am this morning and are almost to St. Augustine, where we will be for the next 3 nights. (my goal lately is to finish a blog post in the hours it takes us to get to the next destination.  I've only got 16 more miles!)

                                                                    Our campsite

                        The Savannah riverfront.  We came across that bridge to get to the city.

                                                           Examples of the squares

                           We thought this statue looked amazingly like Captain Morgan!

            The line to get into Miss Wilkes Boarding House for lunch.  Mike is in the blue shirt and shorts.

                        The sidewalks here have crushed sea shells mixed in with the cement.

                                        We didn't eat here, but this is Paula Deen's restaurant.

                                     I did walk through her shop connected to the restaurant.

A statue on the riverfront in honor of a women who signaled a welcome to incoming ships for over 40 years.  By day she waved a towel, by night a lantern.

                                         Bike riding on Coligny Beach - Hilton Head Island

                                                         Harbour Town lighthouse

NASCAR Everywhere

My task in this post is to make it interesting enough that those who didn't understand my reference last time to "Jeff, Jimmy and Junior", or have never watch a race on TV or simply could care less about NASCAR, will continue reading.
I'll start with Mike's observation.  It is always noted how difficult it is for an athlete to make it to the professional level of their sport - i.e. the NFL, the NBA, MLB.  Let's take the National Football League as an example.  There are 32 teams with 53 players on each team.  That means there are 1, 696 openings for an aspiring football player.  In NASCAR,  only 43 drivers compete week after week in a Sprint Cup race.  His point?  It is harder to make it to the top of stock car racing than any other sport.

Since all the race teams are headquartered within a 30 mile radius of Charlotte, you would think NASCAR was born here.  Not so.  The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing was founded in a motel room in Daytona Beach in 1947.  Its roots are in this area, as the early drivers, for the most part, were moonshine runners from the Carolinas.  To outrun the law, they started tinkering with their engines to get more speed.  A pioneer and legend in NASCAR, Junior Johnson was 14 years old when he started running moonshine.  Driving fast cars led to challenges of "who has the fastest car?" On weekends, the runners would take their cars to the hard sand of Daytona Beach for races.  Seeing the potential of organized racing, along with the need for safety, Bill France, Sr. presided over a meeting at the Streamline Motel and fast driving became a legitimate sport.  Here is a portion of his plaque at the NASCAR Hall of Fame:  "Without Bill France, Sr., NASCAR would not exist.  His vision and drive transformed stock car racing from a weekend pursuit to a major national sport and made NASCAR a household word."

Back to Charlotte.  Our campground was across the street from the Charlotte Motor Speedway.  After arriving, we realized we were fortunate to get a site as the Speedway was hosting a car show this weekend.  The campground was full of motorhomes pulling large trailers with every kind of old car inside.
We were up before the sun on Friday morning to try to get to as many racing team headquarters as possible as most were about 20 to 30 miles outside Charlotte.  Our first destination was Mooresville, a.k.a. Race City, USA.  Hoping to get some of the crumbs from the NASCAR table, this town has every imaginable business associated to racing.

Driving to Mooresville, on Hwy 3, we passed a large complex that looked empty.  No signage indicating what it was, and only one of the several buildings had a few cars in the parking lot.  We knew DEI - Dale Earnhardt, Inc. was on this road (hence the Hwy 3) but couldn't believe this would be it.  We didn't stop to investigate as our first destination was JR Motorsports because it was the only garage we visited that does guided tours inside the garage and we wanted to catch the first one. Things seem to fall into place for us (thank you, Lord) because just like in Napa Valley when our first vineyard stop was Larson Winery and the guy was so helpful and knowledgeable, going to Dale Earnhard, Jr.'s Nationwide (the junior varsity of NASCAR) team garage was the perfect place to start.  We got an in-depth tour of the garage, which included every aspect of getting a car ready for the track.  We could take pictures of everything except the engines (from Hendrick) and in the fabrication shop which would be the car chassises.  We could ask questions of anyone working (I prefaced mine by saying "this will probably sound stupid, because I know nothing about NASCAR. . . ").  Mike took more pictures and asked more questions in these past two days than he did our whole three months out west!  He was glad he took a lot of pictures in this garage area because this was the only one we were allowed in to.  We saw cars being made literally from scratch through the final painting process and sitting waiting to be loaded into the trucks that will take them to the next race track.
I asked the receptionist about the complex we passed on our way in and she said it was indeed, DEI.  When I commented on how deserted it look, she answered in the sweetest southern accent and said, "I know, and it just breaks our hearts."  She found me later and said she checked and the gift shop at DEI would be open from 11-2.  We were disappointed because that time frame wouldn't work for us as we needed to be sure we left the most time for Hendrick Motor Sports, arguably the pinnacle of NASCAR race teams.  For Mike, being a Jeff Gordon fan, the Hendrick garage is the pot at the end of the rainbow, the holy grail.  For me, you take the three J's previously mentioned, (Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale, Jr.) throw in fourth Hendrick driver Kasey Kahne, and this race team has the cutest drivers, hands down!

We made stops at Penske Racing, Kyle Busch Racing (strictly for Uncle John), Joe Gibbs Racing before ending our day at Hendrick.  Talk about saving the best for last.  Or at least the biggest.  The other garages had all their cars in one building, even if there were two or three drivers.  The Hendrick campus had a shop for the #24 and #5 cars, and an identical building that housed the #48 and #88 cars. Add to that separate buildings for a museum/gift shop, administration, Performance and you can see this is quite the operation.  (What other sport do you identify the individual so closely with a number?  Sure other athletes wear a number, but in conversation, you don't often say, "With that cutback, #20 finds himself in the end zone again."  No, the announcers would say, "Another incredible run for Barry Sanders."  But in NASCAR, if you ask someone their favorite driver, you will most likely get a car # instead of a name.)

NASCAR today is big business, with corporate sponsorship in the millions of dollars.  The top race teams have state-of-the-art facilities and top-notch mechanics.  Lee Petty, father of the Petty dynasty said, "Three-fourths of a race is won or lost in the garages."   Pit crews train in NFL-like weight rooms.  At Joe Gibbs Racing, it is an NFL weight room as Gibbs is the former championship coach of the Washington Redskins.

Saturday morning was quite chilly (for this region) but beautifully sunny.  We went to the Charlotte Motor Speedway to take a tour of the track.  Our second brush with southern hospitality was the parking gal.  After handing over $5, Mike said, "We are going on a tour, where should we park?"  She said if you aren't here for the car show, pull around and park over there.  She gave us our $5 back and took the sticker off the window.  In all honesty, everyone we have come in contact with so far has been very friendly, kind and courteous.  Often we are asked where we are from and then told they are sincerely glad to have us visit.
Charlotte Motor Speedway was built in 1959, the same year as Daytona International Speedway, by Bruton Smith, who owns 7 other racetracks, including Bristol.  We were the only ones on the tour so we had the guide's undivided attention, and vice-versa!  Again, Mike had a lot of questions and just plain talked racing with the guide so our 1/2 hour tour lasted over 45 minutes.  We were in a van and usually the tour takes a lap around the track.  Because of the car show,  we were only able to get on the track at turns 3 and 4.  He stopped the van and said we could get out to take pictures and walk up the banked turn.  You can not appreciate the degree of steep bank the racetracks have unless you see it in person, or better yet, walk up the bank.  Television does not accurately convey it.  When we got back in the van, the guide drove the van up to the top of the bank and stopped.  It was a little scary.  He said on some of the other tracks with a steeper bank, the van would have tipped over.  He had interesting stories of Bruton Smith and the racetrack - exactly why I enjoy taking tours.  I'd share some, but I fear this post is already getting lengthy.  Included in the tour was a look at Smith's dirt track and drag strip.  A world record of 332 mph was set at this drag strip. We also saw the South Carolina State Police holding a defensive driving school for area young drivers at the drag strip.

We then drove into downtown Charlotte (which has a really cool skyline) to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  The fact that it was built in Charlotte speaks to the importance of NC to racing.  (our guide back at JR Motorsports said if you want to be involved in any level of NASCAR, you pretty much have to live in this area.)
The Hall of Fame was terrific.  It was much more than a display of cars and outfits and trophies, although there were plenty of all of those.  It was 3 levels of a sport "driven by people, fueled by passion".  One whole area was all hands-on.  Kids and adults all tried their skill to see how fast they could change a tire during a pit stop, or jack a car up or fill it with fuel.  I drove on a simulated track and only crashed once!  From the orientation film to the actual Hall of Honor, it was an informative and enjoyable afternoon.
Although we didn't buy the obligatory photo they take, the girl gave us directions to Dale Earnhardt Jr's local bar, Whiskey River, which was four blocks away.  We ordered a late lunch but soon realized we were not going to be able to watch the Michigan State/Illinois game as EVERY TV in the place was tuned to the West Virginia game and we were surrounded by a sea of blue and yellow.

I'll leave you with this trivia question:  What is Dale Earnhardt's real name?

We have a 5 hour drive today to Hilton Head, SC.  If you have any suggestions for must see or do in Hilton Head or Savannah, please send them along!

Answer:  Ralph Dale Earnhardt

              Mike taking one of his many pictures.  This isn't a display car.  This is Junior's Nationwide car.

 The actual car Dale Jr. drove to a win at Daytona the year after his father was killed at that race.  It will never be driven again and was in the condition (dirt and all) it came off the track in.

           The trucks that take the cars and equipment to the races.  The cars go up on the top.

   

                                                      In the lobby of Joe Gibbs racing

                                                       Outside Hendrick Motorsports

                                               

       

                                 The lobby of the #48 and #88 building.  I like the saying

                    This is how close we could get to the garage workers at Hendrick

                                      Mike at the top of the 23 degree bank at Charlotte

                                                      Entrance to the Hall of Fame

                                            The car that won the first official NASCAR race

                  No visit to NASCAR country would be complete without a picture of The Intimidator's Number 3 car

                                                      Look who's driving the 48 car!

I mentioned they put the cars at the top of the trucks to haul them to races.  This is how they do it.
The truck drivers are the unsung heroes of a race team.  While the drivers and pit crews fly to the races, the trucks haul everything that is needed, from cars down to spare parts.  They are also the chief cooks and bottle washers!

                                   Someone testing their skills at tire changing in a hurry

An inside true to scale example of the bank at some tracks.  I could not stand there without holding on to the rail.  The cars behind me are full sized.