Richard Petty and Charlotte Speedway (10/10) (10/11)

This morning we are headed over to Richard Petty's museum and family home. It is located in Level Cross just a short distance from the park we are staying at.  We have always been a fan of the King and to see his garages and the house he was raised in is cool.

The museum has everything you would want to know about Richard Petty and his family in it.  All his trophies. This is just a few of them.

After watching a video on him and his family we went out to the garage where all his cars are kept.

These are just a few of them. The bottom on is a car his mother had restored for him and gave it to him on his 60th birthday.  There were also Kyle's and Adam's cars on display.

 We went to some of the out buildings, one of which is the original garage where the Petty's built their first race cars.

 This is the house he grew up in, sure wish they let you go into it.

 Once done here we head towards Charlotte Speedway for tonight's Nation Wide race.  Neither of us have ever been to this speedway so a new experience for both of us.  We stop first at Hardee's for lunch, they have pretty good hamburgers.
We decided to take the back roads to Charlotte to see the country side, this is really a beautiful area.  The fall colors are just starting to really show.

As the corn fields die away the soy bean fields are getting ready for harvest.  Soy Bean is a big crop in the south we see these fields everywhere we go.



We get to Charlotte early so decide to walk around their mall.  We are both so tired from sitting in the truck for so long.  It is 85 miles to Charlotte and there was a lot of road construction.  I am glad we are taking the freeway back to the park.
Joe never buys anything for himself so I was happy when he found some long sleeve shirts he really liked and bought them.
Once done shopping we head to the track.  It is still a little ways to get there and once we do Joe missed the turn into the parking area B where we are suppose to park.  So we had to take a long detour around the park to get back to this parking lot.  We are just getting general admission tickets and are in no hurry, it is early yet.  The race doesn't start until 7:30 and it is about 5:00 now.  We found great seats in turn four about half way up, we can see the whole track.  Then we discover after purchasing a couple of beers, we can't drink in this area.  So we have to go sit somewhere else while we drink our beers then go back to our seats.  Usually it is just one small section that is alcohol free but here it is the entire Toyota section which is huge.  We are just in time for the NASCAR Sprint cars to do there final practice for tomorrow's big race.  They have 1.5 hours on the track and are in and out of the garages making adjustments to their cars.  It was interesting to watch.  We will not be coming back tomorrow for the big race so I was happy to watch them some today.  Tomorrow's race is expensive the cheapest tickets that were decent seats are $140 per ticket.  YIKES!!! We will watch it on TV.

Time for driver introductions!  Kyle Larson is my pick for tonight.

Now let's go racing!!!!!

We had ordered us some headsets so we could talk to each other during the race.  They were waiting for us at the park we are staying at.  It is so nice to be able to talk to each other and understand what we are saying.

This was an excellent race, a lot of competition going on all around the track.  Chase Elliott is the car to beat at least right now.  He is the son of Bill Elliott.  Kyle Larson is gaining on him but just can't quite get there.  Then Kyle Bush takes off and leads the race and before long rocket ship Keselowski passes everyone and pretty much leads the rest of the race.  A few yellow flags and before you know it the race is over and Keselowski has won.  Kyle Larson came in 5th and Chase Elliott ended up 8th.

Now for the long trip back to Greensboro.  It takes us a good 30 to 45 minutes just to get out of the race traffic.  It is like Dover they don't keep the lights green so race traffic can clear out so of course everything grid locks.  Finally we are on the 85 and on our way.  The next issue arises when we have been driving for some time and have not found our exit.  We discover we passed it about 20 miles back.  So we had to turn around and head west again.  It was 1 am by the time we got home.  The race was over by 10:30.   We will be sleeping in tomorrow!

(10/11)
It is looking like rain, so glad this a do nothing day.  We have been on the go non-stop for the last two weeks and I for one need a break.  Time to catch up on laundry and cleaning.  Then watch the race tonight on TV.

The Wright Brothers (10/08-09)

We started today by getting up at 5:30 and watching the eclipse.  I stayed in bed until around 6:15 and watched the last part of it.  It was really amazing to see, the moon was so big that it made it easy to watch.  Joe took some great picutres with our little bitty camera that came out amazing.

Once awake and ready for adventure we go to the Wright brothers memorial just around the corner from where we are staying.  I wasn't sure if this was something I would like. I was surprised how much I enjoyed this memorial and story about the Wright brothers told by the park ranger.

The Wright brothers always had an interest in flying.  They started out as business owners of a bicycle shop in  Dayton OH.  But their dream was to fly and they never gave up on it even with all the criticism they received.  They didn't begin seriously follow their dream until 1899.  They began by using gliders.  Then looked for the best place to test them.  The first site recommended to them was Chicago IL, of course that wouldn't do.  They needed someplace private.  They finally settled on Kitty Hawk in the Outer Banks of NC.  Today Kitty Hawk is known as Kill Devil Hill.  They spent four years testing here to start with and almost through in the towel.  That last year they went back to Dayton saying man would not fly for another 1000 years.  But they didn't give up and scrapped all the info they had received from the Smithsonian on flight and came up with their own calculations.  They were ready to return to Kitty Hawk with a working model.  It took another 4 years to get it right. In December of 1903 they made their first man powered flight.  Just a short distance but by the end of the day they had flown 852 feet in 59 seconds.  The world would never be the same.  It was amazing to learn that just a short 66 years after man's first flight Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  1903 to 1969 seems such a short time to have accomplished so much.

There first glider

Their first actual man powered plane

Picture of their first flight that changed the world

This is a picture of the distances of their first man powered flights.

This is their memorial











Back to the park for lunch and a nap for me, I didn't sleep well last night.  Now it's time to go spend a couple of hours at the beach.  I love the Atlantic Ocean, it is so much warmer than the Pacific.  We walk along the beach with the waves crashing against our legs.  I am in heaven.  I love to just sit and watch it and listen to the waves come and go.  Joe went for a longer walk up the beach.

 We have really enjoyed our stay in the Outer Banks and can't wait to come back again in a few years and spend more time.  Now we are heading to Greensboro NC, and then to the Charlotte Nation Wide race on Friday.  We will miss the NASCAR Sprint race this time, tickets are very pricey.
The drive is only 200 miles or so but takes us all day.  There was a lot of two lane roads with 45 to 50 mph speed limit.  But is was a nice drive with great scenery.

More Lighthouses (10/07)

We start the day with a lazy drive down the coast to the Bodie lighthouse.  This lighthouse was built in 1872  is 156 ft high with 219 stairs.  Yesterdays lighthouse only had 214 steps so this is slightly taller.  I brace by self for the trip up those stairs.  This time it is a tour, the park service does not let you go up on your own.  It was nice to get a history lesson along with the walk up the stairs.  This is the third Bodie lighthouse, the first was built in the wrong place.  Instead of being in Bodie they discovered once it was built it was actually on Pea island.  They thought they had built it on sound ground but unfortunately it was built on sand and after a couple of years was leaning so much that the lighthouse keepers refused to climb the stairs any longer. So it was taken down and a new one was put up again on Pea Island but in a better location.  This time they did make sure it had a good foundation and it stood tall and straight.  But then came the Civil war and when the island was being attacked the Confederate Army decided they did not want to leave it for the invading North so they blew it up.  So it was finally built in Bodie in 1872.  The climb wasn't so bad and the view at the top is well worth the climb.

View from the top!

 What would these pictures be without the boot shot!!!!

Joe on the left and mine on the right!




On down the coast the drive is very cool.  Sand dunes on both sides of you an the water just on the other side.  You get glimpses of it through the sand dunes. The cool thing is that this is just a narrow strip of land with the ocean then sand dunes then the road then sand dunes and finally the sound on the other side.

Then we come to the town of Rodanthe, this is where the movie Nights in Rodanthe was filmed.  We had lunch here.  It has been a long time since I have seen this movie so not sure I recognize the town, we will have to watch the movie again.

Once done with lunch we head to the last light house for today.  This is at Cape Hatteras.  I was in for a real shock when we bought our tickets for this lighthouse, it has 248 steps.  WOW, 219 was bad enough.  Luckily they have 8 landings you can stop and rest on.  This is equivalent to a 12 story building. It stands 210 ft tall and is the second tallest brick lighthouse in the world and was built in 1870.  This is the second lighthouse to be built here.  The fist 2900 feet to the south of where this one stands.  The Outer Banks are actively moving as the ocean pushes the sand inward.  It was described as like a log rolling very slowly.  The ocean was encroaching on the site of the original lighthouse so it had to be moved. So in 1999 they actually moved the whole structure standing up, 2900 ft to the north where it stands today. It was quite the process to move it and took I think 23 days.  They put it on some type of rollers and used these big hydraulic pistons to push it, when it reach the end of the rollers they dissembled them from behind and moved them to the front to move again.

I really liked this lighthouse, but my favorite of the three we have seen was the Currituck Beach Lighthouse that we saw yesterday.  It being all brick and the setting gave it a different feel, but of the two we saw today I liked this last on the best.                                                                                           

 Before we head back home we stopped at the beach by the lighthouse and took a little stroll. A nice relaxing way to end the day.

 Joe discovered sand crabs that bury themselves in the sand.

Once back at the park we have dinner and watch Nights in Rodanthe.  It was fun to watch it again and see the sand dunes we drove through and many other land marks we had just seen.  What a great day!!!