NASCAR Hall of Fame and more...

We moved to a Statesville KOA on Friday for a couple of reasons. Statesville is about 30 miles plus north of Charlotte but is centrally located to alot of the sites that we wanted to see. Secondly, if camped at a KOA on Friday, we got Saturday FREE. What a deal!


Last week I researched all of the NASCAR owner garages and their locations and printed directions so I would be ready with all of the information when the time came. Richard Petty Racing had a Statesville address so we looked that up on Friday. Had no problem finding it except.... the shop had moved! Oh, well.





One of JHB's photos...

Today we went to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in downtown Charlotte. It opened one week ago.
Even got the senior discount!

Richard Petty's car. And who is driving the 43 car now...Seedy's driver..A J Almendinger.

All of these cars plus the #48 were displayed as they were on a track that had a progressive 33 degree banking. The banking actually went on and became higher but the thought is to add other displays and no more cars in the future. That must mean that they don't think the banking will ever get higher than 33 degrees anywhere.



There are displays of all of the NASCAR tracks and their history. JHB took pictures of the ones that we have been to PLUS the Iowa track.

Every tire we saw on old and new cars was Goodyear.

Inside of a car...

Here I am at the Finish line...throwing the checkered flag! Please note the Office Depot car in the background.

I am in an antique spotters box!

Tony is IN the Hall of Fame already!

What a hard day at the office. White rockers were in the Hall of Fame for all those old farts who had to rest but also in alot of front porches across America....even in Queen Creek, AZ.

The Hall of Fame exceeded my expectations. It really is something to see for anyone who likes NASCAR. There is so much to see. They even have a whole semi that is simulated as Jimmy Johnson's hauler. And they have a great display explaining the point system, which helped me understand that a little better....or alot better.

So onto Joe Gibb's shop...just up the road a piece. His drivers are Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. Of course, you all know that Tony use to drive for Gibbs before he became his own boss!

All of the drivers trophies go to the owners, which doesn't seem fair but there were two BIG cases that were full of Tony's trophies. These pictures didn't turn out the best but you can get the idea.....he is a mighty big winner!

The floor was spotless. You can see a #18 car in the background. All of Kyle's cars had the M & M's pretzel decal on the hood.

I wonder what one engine costs?

We were not able to get any pictures of Denny's car for Brent. His cars were at the other end of the shop that we could not get to. Sorry, Brenty!

They have a gift shop on site for momentos. Used lug nuts were a mere 50 cents a piece. That doesn't make my Tony nut very valuable! Also they had car parts that had been wrecked for sale for $50 to $450. We saw one guy carry out 2 parts that were going on top of his fireplace. They also sell used tires. Didn't notice those prices.

Just so everyone knows we have now had 4 days and nights of rain. The forecast for the weekend is not really very good either! WE NEED THE SUN!

Tomorrow more garages and we are going to check out the track so we know we where we are going! Toodles.

Andy, Barney and Goober

We drove 150 miles yesterday to Mt. Airy, NC, which is Andy Griffith's hometown. On our way we stopped at a Camping World in Roanoke, VA looking for a replacement plastic handle for the closet door. No luck but in the parking lot was one of the NASCAR drivers' rigs with engine trouble. Couldn't tell whose it was but there was a "Competitors" tag on the drivers side of the coach. So it was someone on their way to Dover.

Walked inside Floyd's Barber shop to see all of the pictures of the celebrities.

This car was sitting on Main Street but they also use these to give town tours.

We checked out a few museums and got the senior citizen discount! The town is actually pretty big. Does anyone remember the Snappy Lunch restaurant from Andy's show? I don't but I guess it was mentioned several times. It is still in existence, under the original ownership. Didn't eat there. Lots of antique and memorabilia stores.

Today we drove another portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway and visited a well-known winery...Shelton. Got a few souvenirs!

On our way back to the campground we ran into this sign outside Wilksboro, NC. (For those who do not know, Mathis is my maiden name.)

We are staying at the Mayberry Campground. It is only 2 years old and laid out very nicely, compared to other campgrounds. We may even rate this a 10. The Good Sam people have not been here yet to rate it but I'm sure it will get a high rating.

Tomorrow, we head on down the road to Statesville, NC, a little closer to Charlotte so we can do some NASCAR garage touring!

Ms. Garmin fired and re-hired

Our GPS lady has had one heck of a time on this trip. She has screwed up SOOOOO many times and has to do an awful lot of "re-calculating"! So she was fired yesterday and was going to be replaced. We have had it!!

JHB started doing some research on what to buy next. On day 2 of his research (today) he discovered he could get a FREE firmware update. We had updated the maps when we went to Daytona 2.5 years ago. We will now rehire her ...on a temporary basis...to see if this new knowledge improves her accuracy! Stay tuned!

The Virginia Leg

We left South Carolina on Monday, May 10 and traveled all the way through North Carolina to the middle of the northern part of Virginia. We went out of our way a little bit to stop at the Martinsville, VA NASCAR speedway. It's only a half mile track and looks like the size of a football field. Very weird. I can't imagine cars racing there. I don't think the infield can hold the car haulers, let alone anything else.


Entrance to Martinsville's grandstand. This track is built right in a neighborhood in town.


Probably on turn 4 looking at turn 1


Other side of grandstand.

Our main reason for coming to Virginia was to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is suppose to have 20 million visitors a year. We didn't know if the road was fit for the motor home so we chose a campground off of the interstate. Jellystone CG was off the beaten path by about 10 miles tucked away in the Virginia green winding hills. We used a CampClub USA membership for half price camping. Every time I wanted to use this card, we did not meet the specific requirements for the campground we were looking at, i.e. day of the week or time of the year. So just this one time will have paid for the membership!! Didn't see Yogi Bear but I bet he will be here for Memorial weekend when this place will be hopping.

Today (Tuesday) was our day for driving on the parkway. We decided to go the northern route from here, which is a 60 mile leg. Guess what? It rained all darn day and the high was only in the 40's!

The Blue Ridge mountains were gray! Not very much traffic, though. The drive reminded us of the Mississippi Great River Road and the Yellow River Forest drive.

This drive would be beautiful in the fall when the leaves were turning.

One tunnel, which would have accommodated the motor home.

Notice the "closed Tuesdays"!...after we drove about 10 miles out of our way on narrow roads to get to this vineyard! Oh, well....

On our drive back to the CG we did stop at a different winery and had free tasting. Helped the Virginia economy and bought a couple bottles.

Tomorrow we will be driving only about 150 miles to the Virginia/North Carolina border to Mt. Airy, the town that Andy Griffith's "Mayberry" was built from. We plan to end up at the Mayberry Campground. Maybe we'll see Barney and Goober!

Toodles.

P.S. Oh. Happy birthday to JHB's grand dog, Toni. She has made it to the ripe old age of 3. Remarkable for everything that she has ingested!
P.P.S. BWB and his wife listed their condo for sale in St. Thomas today. That is the first step to get back to civilization...somewhere other than "the rock".

The track too tough to tame, i.e. Darlington

We managed to reserve the last big rig, full hook up spot at a KOA campground, 20 minutes from the Darlington track. Only had to travel 80 miles from Myrtle Beach Thursday, May 6th.

Set up camp to be like the rest of the rednecks here. Couldn't use the flagpoles because of the trees.

Like most campgrounds near NASCAR tracks, this one doubled it's daily price. What you gonna do? They provided a complimentary pig roast our first night here, which was very tasty. Met some nice people from near St. Louis. We got two free tickets for the raffle, of which we did not win, of course. However, two tickets were given away for the Cup race. JHB looked up the dude on Friday morning. He was willing to let us buy the two $100 tickets for only $100. OK! We'll take them! Got that done!

It's really been hot here....ol' 90-90 deal. My hair is a mess! (They say a cold front is coming through tomorrow!)

We watched the Nationwide race on TV and went to the track Saturday afternoon. It was very easy to find. Lots of rednecks along side the main roads, trying to sell camping and parking places. And then lots of tail gaters in the GRASS parking lots.

Did you know that Darlington is the oldest NASCAR track-made in 1950?


The steps going up to the grandstand! And remember it was 90 degrees.

Do you see me in the top row...in line with the light pole on the left? Our seats were in the 25th row between turn 4 and the finish line. We had a great view of all 4 turns but could not see the cars on the straightaway in front of us.

These are all the drivers big rigs in the infield.

The view of the track from our seats.

Now for the differences between the Phoenix track and Darlington. Here you can take in small softsided coolers in the grandstand with whatever you want in them. Because they allow you do to that, there are no vendors in the stands selling stuff, which is actually kind of nice. And no trolleys to take you to your destination. At least we didn't see any.

The race had some boo-boos. Good ol' Allmendinger took out Jimmy Johnson. Tony missed his pit but ended up leading the race for a few laps and Jeff missed the entrance to pit road going to his last stop, which could have cost him winning the race. So Denny Hamlin ended up winning both the Nationwide and the Cup. Good for him.

Thanks for the texts during the race from Stan, Dar and Marilyn. Glad you saw me and my red shirt on TV. Sorry I could not respond, as the Verizon signal is rather weak here in the sticks.

Well, today we have to decide where we are going to tomorrow!!

Happy Mother's Day all you mothers!

The turtle and Myrtle Beach

Monday, May 3rd, we headed up the eastern coast and drove through Charleston, SC. You can't tell by this lovely picture but the road name is Mathis Ferry Rd. (I don't know how to zoom!)

Here we are at Myrtle Beach, SC, only 200 miles from Savannah. First time for being in this state. JHB picked the Ocean Lakes campground and the site. This is a huge place with a mixture of cabins, houses, trailers, condos and RV's. I think there are over 5000 spaces but we are on prime waterfront real estate- only 30 feet from the ocean. Common transportation around the park are golf carts. Everyone seems to have one and they love giving their dumb dogs a ride!

This is the view from the driver's seat.

We ran into this guy on our first walk on the beach. He had been strangled by the rope of a crab pot. The authorities guessed that he weighed about 1,000 pounds and was between 30 and 100 years old. When BMB showed the boys the picture, they wanted to know if he stunk and if we ate him!

It rained all day on Tuesday. This is a blurry picture of a great rainbow!


Wednesday we walked on the beach and rain into several jelly fish and one lonely, tiny crab! Grandbabies, we have lots of neat shells for you. Great day to sit on the beach and watch all of the babes....(of all ages!)..and all of the old men with no shirts.

Myrtle Beach is certainly a family destination, as there are dozens and dozens of hotel/motels and lots of kids parks etc. Could easily stay here longer but we have to head up the road to the Darlington NASCAR raceway.

Lucked out and got a infield RV pass for the Charlotte All Star race in two weeks. It was for sale on the NASCAR camping.com website and the lady lives in Myrtle Beach. How handy is that!!

So the next post will be from Darlington!!

The Georgia leg

We got to Tybee Island, GA on Thursday and are staying at the River's End RV Campground. It was a challenge to see their street sign posts.....3 feet tall with the street names painted on the sides of the posts. Never seen that before. This campground was probably designed decades ago when there were just travel trailers and small RV's. We did manage to get into our assigned space but there are huge gnarly trees everywhere with lots of Spanish moss hanging down. The sites are rather haphazardly situated but it's the only park on the island so who can complain. Plus the price went down $10 a day from when I made the reservations!!



Savannah is about 15 miles away. We toured the historic district, ate lunch at Food Network's Paula Deen's restaurant, the Lady and Sons. We have heard that people have to line up in the morning to get ticket reservations for dinner but we walked right in at noon. Lucky us! Did not see Paula or her boys. Have gone to Tybee Beach a couple of times so Jim could walk in the Atlantic Ocean. Ate at the rustic..or quaint....Crab Shack and plan to eat at Uncle Bubbas on Sunday night. All you couponers, you would be proud to know that we have a coupon to buy 1 entree and get 1 free!! How about that?


Crab Shack pics


In front of the Lady and Sons


Jim on the pier at Tybee Beach


The famous Tybee lighthouse

We finally decided on Monday we will be heading to Myrtle, Beach, SC. We have reservations at an RV Park with oceanfront property!! From there we will be going to Florence, SC for the Darlington NASCAR race....hope we can get tickets. At least we have reservations to camp. All of the reserved spots at the track were taken so we had to go to plan B, the exclusive KOA!

For all you worriers......WE HAVE A PLAN FOR THE NEXT 10 DAYS! Toodles for now.
P.S. There are no-see-ums here and they love me.