LVMS

That’s Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That’s where we are at right now. Today we moved from Sam’s Town RV Park to the racetrack. We are on the outskirts of the track in one of their many RV parking lots. It is dry camping but we are right here at the track. This has got to be the most I have ever paid for boon docking at $50 a night. Our daughter has an infield spot and we have a car pass that will allow us to drive right in to their RV everyday. We have a pretty good spot that is on the end so we aren’t boxed in by other rigs. The only problem was, there is a generator powered light near us that is bright and loud. I asked the guy working this area if it was going to be running 24 hours and he said not if you don’t want it to. I told him during the evening isn’t a problem and he said he would shut it down at 10:00p. I guess it never hurts to ask.

Las Vegas

Well, We picked up the car from the NASCAR track this morning and hightailed it over to Las Vegas. We had all these visions of running into LA traffic heading over to the track and having a hassle getting the motorhome into the parking lot to hook up the car but it was a piece of cake. The drive to Las Vegas was a good one also. The traffic was light all the way and the weather was perfect. Since they didn’t get to finish the race yesterday (they tried until 11:00p) they finished it today.

We were on the road during the race but with modern technology and our Verizon Aircard Susan was able to follow every lap on the NASCAR website.

I posted a few photos of our weekend. Click on the Cal NASCAR 2008 thumbnail in the left column.

It didn't look like they were going to race today but finally the race got started...late, then someone slipped on the water seeping out of the seams in the track and hit the wall. After that caution they started the race again. Then another car slipped on the water and hit the wall, slid down the track taking out another car, slid back up the track and was rear ended causing it to flip and catch on fire. All this happened right in front of us.

This time they got out the concrete saws and cut slots in the track to try to drain off the water. They finally got the race started again and it started to rain again. We gave up and left. Last I checked they are still trying to dry off the track and start the race again. Good news…Jimmie is in the lead.

OH and to top it all off. Our daughter thought they could drop us off at our car on the way out but once we got out of the infield we found that all roads in were blocked and the only way we could go was out. So we had them drop us off at our motorhome at the Elks Lodge. The car is still at the track. We hope we can get in tomorrow with the motorhome to pick up the car on our way to Las Vegas.

There’s snow in them thar hills

The rains last night put a nice dusting of snow on the mountains here. They managed to get one race in today before the rains came again. The truck race went off without a problem but when it came time for the Nationwide (Bush) race the rains were playing games with them. It would stop raining and as soon as they got the jet dryers out on the track it would start raining again. They would stop and the rain would stop. They would start drying again and the rain would start again. This went on for a couple of hours until they finally called it a day. There is another race tomorrow and if they get that one done with no rain, they will try to run the one that got rained out today. The weather out look for tomorrow looks worse than today however. We will just have to wait and see.

A day at the track

No NASCAR race activity today. Got rained out. Today was supposed to be practice and qualifying. We still had a great day at the track today though. Got to spend some time with old friends and the day with our daughter. Tomorrow is supposed to be a good day. They will be running a truck race and the Bush…Ops…Nationwide Race tomorrow.

I hate LA

Did I ever say I hate Las Angeles? I think I have. Well Not really LA but the LA traffic. We didn’t even get into the heart of it and still it’s a mess. As we were traveling down an LA freeway a piece of something went whizzing across the front of the motorhome, hit the side of the truck next to us and bounced back and made a few marks on the side of the motorhome. We made it to Ontario where we will be staying at the Elks Lodge. We will be driving the car to the California Motor Speedway for NASCAR from here. It’s a good thing we got here when we did because it filled up shortly after we setup. There are a few that will probably be pulling out as soon as they start letting them into the infield of the speedway.

Rain Rain Rain Rain

That’s the weather forecast for the next 4 days. This is not good for NASCAR. We will just have to see what happens.

Another successful Rally

We have been going to a rally at Lake San Antonio near Paso Robles California for (I think) 4 years now. This started as a small get together that Susan and I found on the RV.Net message board and join in one year. From the start we had such a great time that we now try to make it to the twice per year rallies if we are in the general part of the country. It has become so popular that they try to limit it to 20 rigs. Once it is posted that they are accepting reservations the 20 spots are filled within 24 hours. We had a great time and look forward to the next one.

We are now at the Santa Barbara Elks lodge on our way to Fontana for the NASCAR race. Tomorrow we will be moving on down to settle in for the weekend’s race. Susan is so excited.

San Antonio Lake

We moved on to San Antonio Lake near Paso Robles this morning. We left a bit earlier than usual because we needed to get here and set up the satellite dish so Susan could watch her NASCAR race. When we got to Paso Robles the wind was blowing pretty well. It wasn’t too much of a problem until we turned off the highway and started heading up the hill. Now we had a good crosswind. I am real pleased with the handling of our motorhome in the wind, however as we were heading down the road a gust took us into the oncoming lane. Good thing there was no traffic. We arrived at San Antonio Lake safe and in time to catch the race.

Beullton California

We left Temecula yesterday morning and spent the night at the Simi Valley Elks Lodge. We were going to wait until 12:00p to leave since it was only a 2 hour drive to the next stop and they don’t let you pull into your site until 2:00p. We decided to head on out at 9:00a because I needed to fuel up and Susan needed to do some laundry. They do allow you to park in overflow before 2:00p so we sat in overflow while Susan did laundry here at the campground. We are all settled in at our site now.

I really screwed up. I almost never make reservations. Why? Well take today for an example. I called last night and made reservations for tonight and tomorrow night. After making the reservations I started thinking…the 2 nights will cost me $80. I could have stayed at the Lompoc Elks Lodge 2 nights for $30. Susan needs to go to the DMV to get her drivers license renewed. The DMV is 1 block away from the Lompoc Elks Lodge, it is 17 miles from where we are now. If I canceled our reservations here it would cost me $20. I could have canceled and still been $30 ahead. I really screwed up!

Another great weekend

We just had another great weekend. We got to Pechanga RV Resort in Temecula California on Thursday and the rest of our friends arrived on Friday. Saturday we took off to the NHRA drags in Pomona for a day trip.


You can see some photos of the drag races I shot by clicking on the photo link in the left column. We had pass to the NAPA hospitality tent, which was right next to the NAPA car pit. What a blast! Later that night we went to dinner at the casino then to the Improv for some comedy. We sat and relaxed for today then our friends had to head home. As I was writing this post we were treated to a really cool fireworks show over the casino. I don’t know what it was all about but it was a good show. We will be staying one more night before we head on up north to an RV Rally for next weekend.

A change of scenery

We have a change of scenery today. We left Havasu this morning at around 9:30a Arizona time and arrived in Temecula at 4:00p California time. That’s about 7.5 hours. No, I didn’t drive 7.5 hours! We stopped in Havasu to fuel up the motorhome and car, and then stopped again in Hemet to do our shopping. I would say I drove about 5 hours, which is still over my limit, but it was a good drive. The weather was ideal for driving. It was in the low 70s and pretty much no wind, even the windmills in Palms Springs were still. I don’t think I have ever gone through there without seeing at least a few windmills turning. I am serious, there was not one windmill turning! As we were traveling through Palms Springs we ran into a traffic jam. I heard a trucker on the CB ask what the hold up was and another responded by saying it was a motorhome that (what I thought he said) broke down. As we approached the scene, the motorhome wasn’t broke down, it was burnt down. What a sad sight to see. I hope everyone got out OK.

Cleaning and Cleaning

I spent hours cleaning today. We had a rain last night and after the rain the wind started to blow…Real hard. I guess the wind kicked up a lot of dust because when I went out this morning everything was covered in a light coat of mud. I tried to ignore it but just couldn’t. Finally I got out the hose. I started on top of the motorhome and worked my way down to the cement slab. Everything on the lot got hosed down. Of course since the water quality isn’t the best around here I needed to towel dry the motorhome and car or the water spots would be impossible to remove. The wind blew all day but at least everything was dry so mud wasn’t an issue. There is a 3 day rule in Havasu when it comes to the wind. It usually blows 3 days straight and then it is calm. I hope this holds true this week because on the 4th day we are traveling. I would rather not travel with a strong wind blowing unless it’s at my back.

I added something new to our website today. I sat down and compiled a list of campgrounds by state, city, and campground name. You can view the list by clicking on the link “Campgrounds Visited” in the left column. Email us if you would like any more info on any of the campgrounds.

Less than a week

We are down to less than a week before we are back on the road again. Seeing others come and go around here is making me anxious to hit the road again. We are heading on over to Temecula California for a birthday party. While there a friend and I are planning to head up to Pomona on Saturday for the NHRA Winter Nationals. This is the start of the NHRA drag racing season for the year.