LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, START YOUR ENGINES

Ever since the Jack Nicolson/Morgan Freeman movie came out called “The Bucket List”, Laurie and I have been talking in those terms when planning for the future. Our helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon last March was one of the items that we stroked off our list. This trip, “the Odyssey”, is another item on the list. One of the items on my personal list was to see a NASCAR race. I have been checking the NASCAR website as we have been travelling and it seemed that we couldn’t catch up to the NASCAR tour. While we were in Newport RI I found out that NASCAR was in Loudon (Concord) New Hampshire the following weekend. So I bought a ticket on the internet and we took off from Newport (June 25) and checked into Blake’s Brook RV in Loudon NH, which was a way up in the mountains. It was camping with the hill-billys. When we arrived, Laurie and I drove over to New Hampshire Motor Speedway to scope it out; location, parking, and to get a feel for when I travelled there for the race on Sunday. We pulled into a parking lot to look at race souvenirs at a road-side stand and I bought a Jeff Gordon (#24) hat. While I was standing there a car pulled up behind me and a guy asked “Do you want tickets for tomorrow (Saturday)?” I said “How much” and he said “Free”. Apparently he works for the city of Loudon and they have promotion tickets to give out. Saturday has a race for open-wheel stock cars and a Nationwide Series race, which is the training ground for the big time Sprint Series. Danica Patrick drove in the Nationwide, but she was really out of her league.

We go back to the campsite and two trailers had pulled in beside us and I made friendly, and found out these people have been going to the race for over 10 years. The next day (Saturday) I went to the track with my 2 new friends (Skip and Leo) (both in their late 60s) and they educated me about car racing. What a hoot! The next day I drove to the track on my own for the big show, and is it ever a show. If you don’t know, NASCAR is the example for promoting a sporting event. Each driver has a semi-trailer where the side drops down and they sell their souvenirs. There is a rock concert and an Air Force fly-by before the day gets started, there are venders everywhere, they rent RV spaces in the fields around the outside of the track (I would guess that there were between 800-1000 RVs), there were 4-6 helicopters in the air at all times during the race, and much, much more. The noise that these powerful cars make is unbelievable, and you can actually get to within 10 feet of the cars while the race is going on, and they are travelling 160-180 miles per hour…..10 feet away. On the Sunday I wore ear-plugs and I was walking along the wall when they dropped the green flag after a yellow “Caution” flag, so all the cars, grouped together went roaring past me. Even with the ear plugs the noise was painful to my ears, and I had to go under the bleachers to stop the pain. To be there with 100,000 people and most of them are adamant fans of one particular driver, is quite a spectacle. It was well into Monday before my head stopped ringing. WOW!

June 28, 2010 On the Monday after the race, Laurie and I headed to Littleton, Massachusetts which is 25 miles out of Boston. We did a driving tour, stopping to walk through the park known as Boston Common and we went and had a drink at the bar called “Cheers” where they filmed the TV show. We drove through Harvard University and went for a walk along the Boston waterfront. Boston seems to be a very nice city with some very distinct areas; Historical District, Waterfront District, China Town, the University District, etc.

The next morning, June 30, (Sara’s Birthday….HAPPY BIRTHDAY) I went golfing at Shaker Hills Golf Club and that night I took the subway, “the T”, to Fenway Park to watch the Boston Red Soxs play the Tampa Bay Rays. Fenway was built in 1912 and it is one of the last remaining, old, classic ballparks in the Majors. You can probably guess, this was on my “Bucket List” as well. Just to be in that stadium where Babe Ruth pitched (yes he started out as a pitcher), and Ted Williams, Carl Yastremski, and Carlton Fisk all played was a special experience for me. It was a day I will always remember!

"The Green Monster"  If you know about Fenway Park, you know about the Green Monster!







Observations:

* Throughout Connecticut and New Hampshire, we saw many homes that have stacked rock fences. I believe that it is to give the home a historic look.

* While we were camped in Newport, we discovered that there was a polo practice field next door. One evening, 7 huge horse trailers with 3-4 horses in each, drive up and they have a polo practice. The horse groomers/trainers get the horses ready and then a bunch of fancy cars pull up and the polo players get on their mounts that were prepared for them, have some fun and then get back in their cars and leave the groomers to pack up the horses and the gear. What a life!

* At New Hampshire Motor Speedway, fans could bring coolers in with alcohol in them, as long as the containers weren’t glass. And boy, was there ever a lot of booze consumed that day. I don’t know if that is the norm at all tracks, but I can’t help but think that NASCAR is letting a lot of revenue slip through their fingers. Mind you, fans were still spending money hand over fist.

* We are really happy with our truck and 5th wheel and then you see the ultimate.  These people are from Alaska and both the truck and 5th wheel are each worth over $100,000.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
* We are amazed that there are police officers in their cars at every road construction site.  It seems that it would be more cost efficient to hire traffic control???