A New NASCAR Fan????

The preparations for the NASCAR race seemed to be non-ending.  I have not seen Bibi this excited about something she knew nothing about in a long, long time.  I am fearful she may catch the bug and become a rabid NASCAR fan.  BUT it is one of our items on the Bucket List so off to the races we go.

Here she is sporting the program for the day with Sophie.  Notice the clear plastic purse Sophie is holding.  Bibi has one at her feet just like it but a different color.  These purses along with the appropriate "non-hollow tubing" seating have been our singular focus for procurement this past week.

Are they excited? - - - YES, they are!

Thank goodness all of that is behind us now and we are finally here and ready for the big race.  After getting up early to avoid the crush of people, we have made our way to the event.  There are many ‘shopping’ opportunities in and around the racetrack today.  You can buy just about any type of apparel, food, gadget, etc. and still find other things to rent.  It is very mind-boggling to say the least.

It is Race Day, headed for the racetrack!

Care to spend a little money?

David and Sophie let Bibi tag along with them to look over most of the opportunities while I found a nice quiet shaded bench underneath the stands.  My perch provided a most unique place to participate in a favorite pastime while Bibi shops which I refer to as ‘people watching.’  There were many unique specimens to observe during this time.

Bibi really is a neophyte in the racing world.  Sophie pointed out Richard Petty to her and told her she should take his picture.  Her response, “which one is he?”  After staring at her for awhile to ascertain whether she actually believed her ears or not and was she serious, Sophie pointed towards the only guy wearing a Cowboy hat, sunglasses and sporting a mustache.  All of these items part of RP’s regular persona and attire.  Picture taken, she proudly marched off to tell me she got his picture.  Sigh-----!

Which one do you think is Richard Petty?

Yep, that's right.  The one in the fancy hat.

The race event is a grand spectacle and there are many things happening all at once.  It is very hard to take it all in when attending in person.  Skydiver jump team, pit crews preparing their areas, driver introductions, big screen TV interviews, National Anthem, military jet flyovers, fireworks and the race hasn’t even started yet.  When it finally does start and the cars spread out and begin lapping then it really becomes confusing keeping up with the action.

Newly Inducted NASCAR fans into the Live Event Venue

One of four parachute jumpers coming down onto the track

National Anthem time, Pit Row ready to start those engines.

View of track and pit row from our seats.

-Thanks to our rented Radio Electronics, we can listen in to driver conversations or the TV broadcasters or the Radio broadcasters to keep ourselves in the know.  A really fun time is listening to the conversations as the cars come in to the pit area, especially if they screw up and go past their spot a little and have to back up.  The language gets pretty colorful, especially Kyle Busch when he messed up for a second time.  These marvelous devices serve a second very important purpose which is ear protection.  These cars are very loud and could easily damage the hearing.

Weather was superb and made for a very enjoyable day.  Sunscreen and lightweight clothing provided the best protection on a typical sunny day for Arizona.  Phoenix is called the Valley of the Sun for a reason.  We are certainly enjoying it here right now, especially the sunsets but will have to leave before the temps start climbing.  Mid 80s here are quite warm and will become unbearable when reaching the 90s and 100s.

Yaaayyyy, what a finish!  Who won, who won?

Good thing we had this tower to tell us who won.

Bibi was a bit disappointed there were no wrecks or accidents during this race.  It ran pretty fast and there were only a half dozen caution lights so it was almost non-stop racing.  Fun for me and the drivers but Bibi was looking for more mangled metal.  The last couple of laps were intense because of the caution that came out right at the end of the race.  The finish was truly photo finish and looked like there was literally an inch or two between first and second.  After we watched it on the replay screen behind pit row, that is.

It was a grand day for a race and a grand race.  The only thing left to do was ‘trudge’ our way back to the car and leave.  Of course, this entailed waiting in line to turn in the radios that were rented and to make the long trek back to the car with the other hundred thousand or so folks.  After we made it to the car; it was pull out and wait time.  Actually we did not move more than four car lengths for approximately one hour.  When it was finally our time to move, we made good progress because we went the opposite direction of the vast majority that were trying to make the way back to Phoenix.

Since we were headed west of the track this put us into the minority of folks escaping the huge mass of humanity and vehicles exiting the area.  We made our way to Cracker Barrel and a good meal in short order after moving which improved our spirits considerably.  We were amazed to discover we each had walked almost 3.5 miles from car to track and back to car again as registered on our iPhone app.

The last step in the day’s activity is to take a nice long hot shower and fall into bed.  That is all for now and we will post again soon.

Hello Phoenix

Now we are in Phoenix; Buckeye, AZ to be specific.  Buckeye is located on the Northwest side of Phoenix and is a suburb.  The weather has been great.  There has been no rain on us since January 31 as we left Benson, AZ for Tucson, AZ.  Temperatures have been in 70s and 80s which is perfect weather for watching baseball games or lots of other outdoor activities.

This is part of what we have been up to since arriving.  Spring training is in full force and there are several teams training in the area which is known as the Cactus League in March.  So far we have been to two Rangers games and watched them play 17 consecutive innings without letting their opponents score.  The only runs scored against them in the two games came in the bottom of the last inning played but the Rangers still won.

The first game was played between Kansas City Royals and the Rangers at their shared training facility in Surprise, Arizona.  Just a hop, skip and jump from where we are but as you can see from the sign post, quite a ways from Texas.

It is interesting to watch these games because you are so close to the action and the coaches are letting a lot of different players play to see how they perform in game situations.  I was able to score some autographs and plan on getting some more.  We have visited two of the stadiums used for the Cactus League and thinking we might do this again in the future.

Pre-game Warmup, Prince Fielder on right acting silly

That's me in the beige hat getting Mitch Moreland's autograph

National Anthem time at Surprise Stadium

Pre-game warm up at Goodyear stadium Rangers versus Cincinatti Reds

Mitch Moreland swings while Adrian Beltre watches waiting his turn

Seats cannot get much better than this!!!

Our park is very nice and we made friends with our neighbors the first day here.  They are from Illinois and are leaving the same day we leave.  Saint Patrick's Day is coming soon and we have been invited to partake in some Corned Beef and Cabbage on the 17.  That is my kind of Irish meal.  There are a lot of lighted decorations in this park.  This is an example of a tree and a peacock right out our back door.

We found a church the first Sunday here and the Pastor and his wife used to live in Brownwood, TX.  They have a relative that lived in Longview for awhile.  It is truly a small world when you find folks from your home state living and working right down the road from you.  Funny though, nobody seems to have any problem identifying us as Texans as soon as I open my mouth and say something.  What’s up with that?

The name of the church is First Southern Baptist Church of Buckeye.  We thought that was a unique name and it drew us in.  We are enjoying visiting various congregations and find it interesting comparing orders of service, selection of worship songs, etc.  The main constant that has not varied is teaching from God’s Word which is comforting to know the truth is taught everywhere.

We also made a trip to pickup our tickets for the NASCAR race at the Phoenix International Raceway.  We made our way to the track only to find out after driving ALL around it that we were in the wrong place.  A very nice and funny security guard directed us back to the location where we could pick up our tickets.

David and Sophie watched a local show on PBS and saw some local dining establishments highlighted.  One of the places receiving high marks was named Flavors of Louisiana and owned by some folks from Louisiana.  Since it was located close to the raceway ticket office, we decided to mosey over there to give it a try for lunch.  Oh my!  It was good!  So good in fact, we are going back again before we leave the Phoenix area.

The rules for entering venues of large gatherings of people (such as the raceway) are changing.  There are many restrictions of what you can bring in with you.  Our ladies discovered they cannot bring purses in unless they are made of clear plastic.  This led to a constant search for this particular item.  Ultimately it had to be ordered online and we are happy to report they have arrived in plenty of time for the race.

Our seating at the racetrack is bleacher bench seating with no backs.  This led to another dilemma with the new restrictions.  You are not allowed to bring into the venue a stadium seat that has hollow tubing of any kind.  So after much research and looking we finally found some soft-sided seating without the hollow tubing.

Coming back from the trip, we made a quick stop at Wal-Mart and to our amazement there was one of the race cars from the upcoming race.  Not only that but we spotted the driver.  Funny though, he is a lot older looking in person than on TV.

Joey Logano NASCAR number 22 rig at Wal-Mart

Grey hair?  I thought these guys were all young bucks!

That is enough of the adventures for now but we will post again soon.  Be safe and enjoy the journey.

Tucson - Final Chapter

We are about to move our home to Phoenix on March 1^st.  This will be our final blog posting from Tucson.  We are spending this last weekend cleaning and organizing for the move on Tuesday.

We visited the Pima Air & Space Museum here in Tucson.  It is adjacent to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, home of the “boneyard.”  This is the area where older planes are brought for storage until disposed of and where after the SALT treaty the long range bombers were cut up and left in pieces so the Russians could see we complied with the terms of the treaty.

The museum houses the third largest collection of historical aircraft in the U.S. and the largest private collection since numbers 1 and 2 are government funded and supported.  The Pima collection is from private donations and volunteers.  There is an extensive outdoor display and currently five separate hangars full of aircraft and memorabilia.  We managed to see most of it before we were exhausted.

Here are just a few of the pictures that will provide a glimpse of the quantity and diversity of the collection we viewed.  Everything from a replica of the Wright flyer special to the sleek jet powered military aircraft we are all used to seeing.  It is quite a journey through the 100 years of aviation history.  Things have really changed from the early days.

Of course, we all have our favorites.  This is one of mine.  This thing is so small it looks like a toy and you think there is no way it could fly.  It is currently the smallest piloted airplane to actually fly.  It was designed and flew by a Tempe, AZ aviator and is currently the record holder in that experimental category.  It is known as the Starr Bumble Bee.  The wingspan is only 5 feet 6 inches and the entire length is 8 feet 10 inches.

Two other events we attended while in Tucson were the Rodeo Parade and the Rodeo itself.  Officially it is known as Las Fiestas de Los Vaqueros and locally called The Tucson Rodeo.   The rodeo began in 1925 and has over 600 contestants with over 1,000 horses involved during the rodeo.  The rodeo parade is billed as the world’s longest non-motorized parade.  It is such a big deal in Tucson, they close the schools for two days and many businesses shut down as well.

Here are some photos from the 2016 parade.  The parade route is about 1-1/2 miles long and lasts around two hours.   We saw horses (all sizes and shapes), mules, wagons, carriages, stagecoaches and of course marching bands.

Grand Marshall Float

Clydesdales, notice difference in size from previous picture.

Univ of Arizona Marching Band.  We saw several high school bands too!

There is a lot of color in the parade.

These are Clydesdale wannabes!!!

Notice the nail polish on the hooves and the roses braided in the mane!

Not everyone was on horseback or in a wagon.

These horses were very well trained to not flinch!

You know the parade is over when the street sweepers show up!

The rodeo itself is very exciting with all the traditional events.  There is a definite festival atmosphere to the whole week.  This is the 91st year for the Las Fiestas de Los Vaqueros.

Honoring America!

Bareback Riding.

Steer Wrestling

Team Roping

Saddle Bronc Riding

Calf Roping - Notice the horse is already stopping, well trained!

Barrel Racing

Bull Riding - Get out of the way everybody!

...and that is what the Bull thinks about it!!!!

Yeee - Hawww!  Ride em cowboy!

David commented the calves that are roped grow up to be these bulls and their sole aim in life is to get even with the cowboys for yanking them around so much as youngsters.  Sounds plausible to me as mean as these bulls can be.  They are out for revenge.

This ends our stay in Tucson and so now we move on to Phoenix and new adventures.