Day 19 – Bristol – Cincinnati

This morning when I woke up it was quite cool and there was dew on the tent. I had my breakfast and started to think about packing everything up. Both the tent and the fly cover were wet so I would have to hang them out tonight when I get to my accommodation. I cleaned out the tent and also cleaned up the trunk of the car before packing all my camping gear into the car.

Saying goodbye to my camping neighbours I jumped into the car only to find I had a flat battery. I checked with the people next to me but they did not have any jumper leads so I thought I would need to walk around the campsite looking for a set of leads and I’m thinking this could take a long time. As I am trying to think where to start the people from the next campsite asked the people next to them and they had some, thank goodness for that. So I was on my way quickly, thankfully.

Driving off a lot of tents and some of the Recreational Vehicles had already left and I drove up to the shower block and there was only two people waiting in line so leaving the engine running in the car, I stood behind them and waited my turn.

Showered I then jumped into the car and drove out the campground only to drive straight into a traffic jamb. I suppose that was to be expected as 40,000 vehicles were at the various campgrounds for the weekend. It was about 5 or 6 miles and just on 30 minutes before the traffic started flowing freely.

I was driving back over the roads I came down on Wednesday heading back to Kentucky and I knew I was in for some spectacular scenery again. I stopped at a historic marker site which recorded the influence of country music starting in this area and the way the early pioneers had to travel through this remote area and cross wild rivers and the bridges that were built for train transport.

I stopped for lunch just off the freeway near Berea and then headed up to Lexington Kentucky to meet up with another of my Beer Can Collecting friends, Jim Blackersby. Jim is on the Board of Directors of the BCCA and I have met him at Canventions and we correspond via the internet. Jim was worried I might not be able to find his home but the GPS got me directly to his front door and it was good to meet up again and to meet his wife and three sons. We chatted for a few hours about beer cans etc. It was great to catch up with Jim again. I am hoping also he gets better soon as he is struggling with a virus and might not be able to get up to the Canvention this week.

Leaving Lexington before dark I headed north to Cincinnati where I have booked into a hotel for the night. By the time I drove into Covington on the south side of the Ohio River that separates it from Cincinnati it was dark. The south side of Covington is quite a lot higher than the business area and you come down a long escarpment which provides a view of Covington and the skyline of Cincinnati with all their lights was a wonderful view.

I arrived at the hotel and unpacked the tent and hung it up in the bathroom to continue drying out before heading to bed.

Day 18 - Bristol

Today is the day for the NASCAR race. It does not start till 7.30pm so it is a long day waiting for the action to start.

I was up about 7.30am and it was overcast and a bit cooler than previous mornings. I had some cereal and again jumped in the car and headed into Bristol to go to the Starbucks to use the Internet. I checked the queue at the shower block on the way out and it was again quite long. So I just kept going.

Driving up to the Starbucks store I was able to see that the main area around the front of the speedway was full of people wandering around the merchandising stands that have been set up. Today there will be around 150,000 people at the event.

Arriving at Starbucks I was able to get some of the blog written up and catch up on some news from home via the Sydney newspapers. I also caught up on some emails and was able to put some more photos up on the blog.

I left the cafe and drove to Walmart to grab some food and also got some money from the ATM. By then it was just after noon and I started back towards the campground. I was obviously held up in traffic when I got back closer to the speedway and it took about 1.5 hours to get through and back to the campground. The state police were at all the intersections near the speedway to keep the flow of traffic moving. They really are organised well and doing a great job.

Back at the campground and the crowded line waiting to use the shower block had gone so I jumped in and cleaned up getting ready for the day’s festivities. I went back to my tent site and had the lunch I had bought and sat with the neighbouring people and chatted for a few hours.

Finally about 4pm I decided to head off for the track walking down to the bridge leading from the campground to the speedway area. It was quite warm by this stage with the sun really biting as it shone down. I decided to wait for the tractor shuttle to get me up the hill to the track as I wanted to go further around than the gate I needed to enter the track from.

I wanted to get some Marcos Ambrose merchandise from the Nascar merchandise area so I wandered into this sea of people wandering around looking at all the transporters that are set up for sales of official merchandise and also some of the drivers were signing autographs at their transporters so people were lined up in the hundreds for them.

Marcos Ambrose and another driver A J Allmendinger race for Richard Petty Racing and the transporter is set up with their merchandise either side if a lot of Richard Petty items. I was able to get a cap, a stubbie holder and a T-Shirt which celebrates Marcos’ first Nascar win two weeks ago at Watkins Glen racetrack.

Once I had purchased the items I joined the queue waiting for the tractor shuttle so I could continue around the rest of the outside of the speedway. I had not been around to this side of the track and I saw a stage setup with some musicians playing to a large audience and further around was a 4WD tack set up for people to do some all terrain test driving and then a large simulator and fairground area was set up to entertain the crowds.

I finally arrived back to the entry I needed and entered the area behind the seating and purchased some food and drink for dinner. Although it was still about 1.5 hours before the race I went to my seat and ate my food. There is activity around the track so there is plenty to watch plus others were also coming to sit down and I was able to chat with them whilst waiting. They were surprised that I had travelled from Australia and was at the races.

About one hour before the race all the official activities started and the drivers were introduced to the crowd and driven on a lap around the track on the back of Ford pickup trucks.

Then a US army officer read the USA Pledge of Allegiance the national anthem was sung by a group of local school children who had been dressed in period clothing.

Finally the cars were on the track for the race and the within minutes the race was underway. I still had the headphones and scanner from the other day so listened to the commentary which helped keep up with what was going on. Marcos Ambrose started in 11th position but dropped back a few spots in the first few laps. He was able to get some room to move though and worked his way up to 8th spot by the first yellow flag caution.

Every time there was a caution from then on Ambrose would get away slowly on the restart and drop back a few spots before gradually work his way back up to 9th or 8th. There were not many yellow flag cautions as normal at Bristol and they actually set a record for the most laps without a yellow for the track during the race of 162 laps.

By the end of the race Marcos Ambrose was in 10th place which was good as by having another top 10 finish and his first race win it makes it his best year yet in the USA with still another three races to go.

The race winner Brad Keslowski is the up and coming star of the Nascar and this was his third win of the season.

I waited for the final celebrations in the middle of the track and there we some fireworks over the track while I was making my way back to the campsite. I sat up talking with the other campers for about two hours before heading off to bed for the night.

Spending the four days at the race meeting, seeing the races, camping and meeting some great fellow campers was really good, I don’t think I will ever get to do it again so it was a fantastic experience to have.

Day 17 - Bristol

Another decent nights sleep in the tent and up for breakfast about 6am. Was going to shower then head off to Starbucks again to upload the blog page to the free WiFi, however there was a 30 metre queue waiting at the door of the shower room. So I decided to just drive to Starbucks and take my chances when I got back to the campground.

Stayed at Starbucks for about 3 hours, hopefully if you look backwards at some of the previous pages you will see that I have added photos from present back to Day 11. Hopefully I will get a chance to do some more of them tomorrow.

I went to a local diner to get lunch and then headed back to the campground, the traffic slowed up about 2 miles from the track and it took about 20 minutes to go the last two miles. I assume it will be even worse tomorrow.

There was no queue for the showers so I got straight in and cleaned up. Driving back to my tent there was quite a few extra people at the campground and a lot more tents up. I think a lot of people have the Friday off work and are coming for the two nights of racing.

By now it was about 4pm so I grabbed my backpack and headed for the track. I had to pick up my tickets for both nights racing and was able to do this quite easily at a ticket window. On entering the track I got some drinks and made my way up to the seat. I had booked a seat in the Junior Johnson Stand. All the areas are named after Nascar drivers. I picked this area to sit in after reading reports of other peoples experiences at the track. It is an individual plastic seat with a back and with metal arm dividers between the seats. Also it is on the western side of the track so the sun is behind and blocked by the roof of the stand while it is still daylight.

By the time I got in they were running the final qualifying for the Nationalwide series was being conducted. This is the main support race for the Nascar race and will run later tonight.

Following this was the final qualifying for the Nascar race. Cars come out onto the track individually and have two timed laps to qualify their best time. Marcos Ambrose, the Australian who races in the series, did his two laps and posted the fastest time until then. The photo below is of him qualifying.

Unfortunately there were still about 14 cars to qualify after him and he ended up qualifying 11th. His time was one tenth of a second slower than the pole position winner Ryan Newman.

That meant 9 other drivers qualified within that one tenth of a second gap. How close is that. In fact all 46 qualifiers finished within eight tenths of a second of the pole.

Following this was the running of the Nationwide Race. All the drivers were introduced to the crowd and driven around the track in pickup trucks. After the national Anthem was sung the race got underway

and there were only 4 yellow flag stoppages during the 250 laps of the race. One of them was caused by this spin out on the start of the main straight.

The lead changed I think about 5 times with the eventual winner Kyle Busch won by 0.019 seconds from his team mate Joey Logarno. It was neck and neck racing for the last 10 laps between these two and the crowd were really into the racing. It was Kyle Busch 50th win in Nationwide Cup racing taking ahead of another driver Mark Martin who has 49 wins.

I really enjoyed the racing and it was good to be able to listen to different perspectives on the scanner I had hired for the weekend.

As the crowd left the track it was very packed heading for the exits but the people moved along o.k. and it was a quick walk back to the campsite. I have a new neighbour as the spare space next to my tent was filled when I got back. I met the two people staying there they live about a 2 hour drive from the track in Virginia. We sat talking for about an hour before I went off to the tent about midnight to get to sleep.

Day 16 – Bristol

After a good night’s sleep in the tent I was up about 7.30am as the sun was coming up over the tree line and headed off for a shower.

There is a shower block at the campground with about 15 showers in it. There was no queue so I was straight in and cleaned up and then went to get some breakfast. I did not have milk for my cereal so I ate at the campsite food outlet. I got a Fuel Up breakfast; it included sausage, scrambled eggs, bread roll and gravy. Although it was filling I will make sure I get some milk for tomorrow morning.

I went back to my tent and cleaned up everything before jumping in the car to go into Bristol to check out the party day celebrations. The campground is starting to fill up but I am sure there are a lot more people still to turn up.

As there is no racing today the city closes its main street and puts on a festival. It was $6 entry and there were a lot of stalls setting up and displays of cars from different eras. It had not really got going whilst I was there although I did get some giveaways and a brochure of the event. I could also come back using the same ticket if I wanted.

Bristol It self straddles the state boarder between Tennessee and Virginia and as you can see in the photo below the main street is the border and there are markers along the middle of the road.

These are some of the photos I took as I walked through the festival. Don't forget you can double click on the photos to make them full size.

 This car was the Bristol Speedway Champion in 1962. It has a For Sale sign on it and you can buy it for $7.500 or Best Offer.

I left the area and drove off heading for the interstate highway thinking I would go for a drive to see some of the area. I had only driven a short while when I noticed a large shopping precinct and pulled off the freeway to check out the shops. I am desperate for some CD’s to play in the car as there is not much to listen to on the radio. If you find a decent channel in 15 minutes time it will fade out due to all the mountains in the area.

There was a Target store in the complex and I was able to buy a couple of CD’s to listen to. Next door was a book shop so I looked through the books and bought a book on Nascar racing, it is about one of the early promoters of the series and looks as though it will be a good read. They had WiFi available but you had to join their book club to get it and the book club was $20 for 12 months. It would have been o.k. if you were local but no good for me. I spoke with the man about it and he told me that I could go to a Starbucks Coffee shop and get free WiFi. So I will have to check that out.

By now it was about 2pm and really hot outside, I was a bit weary so I saw a large parkland and drove into it and parked under a bunch of trees and there was a reasonable breeze so I laid back the seat a bit and had a quick nap in the cooling shade.

After that I started back towards Bristol and saw a Starbuck’s so I drove in and was able to hook up to their WiFi. I grabbed a chocolate smoothie to drink and sat at the computer writing up some blog and getting all my photos loaded onto the computer. I hope to be able to put some of them onto the blog pages soon.

I spent in total 3 hours in the Starbucks and then went to Walmart to glad some milk and soft drink. I also bought a ham salad bread roll for dinner and a yogurt for desert. I was going to head back to the campsite to eat but along the way as I re-entered Bristol I saw a lot of people sitting along the roadside and remembered they have a Nascar Transporter parade in Bristol tonight. All the team’s transporters parade through the city and then make their way out to the race track.

It was about 8pm and the parade was at 9pm so I pulled up in a car park sat and ate my roll and desert and waited with all the other people for the show.

Right at 9pm there was some fireworks in the distance, they were at the start point for the parade and it was not long before the police cars with lights flashing were coming down the road. They were followed by some sponsors cars and some modified vehicles then a group of motorcycles and then the Transporters.

It was a good spectacle and there would have been thousands watching all the way from the city out to the racetrack.
I waited about 20 minutes for the traffic to get moving but it still took me an hour to get back to the campground with all the traffic. It is a 15 minute trip normally. Once back at the campground I backed the car into its spot and was in the tent straight away, there was a lot of noise in the campground but even with that I was asleep within a few minutes.

Day 15 – Lexington to Bristol

I had another later start to the day as it was just on 10am before I left Lexington. I put Bristol Motor Speedway into the GPS and headed in that direction. Driving south east on the I-75 the landscape turned quite hilly and the vegetation a lot more dense, I was told by the GPS to turn onto Highway 25 East and just then I was at the town of Corbin and saw a sign saying to turn right to see the Birthplace of KFC. Colonel Saunders started his first fried chicken restaurant and hotel in Corbin and the KFC there is still on the site of the original restaurant. There is a lot of memorabilia and the old kitchen is either still there or has been rebuilt as it was then (could not find out which was correct).

Leaving Corbin I headed further South East along Highway 25 E and crossed the border into Tennessee at Cumberland Gap where the road goes through a road tunnel.

I was in Tennessee all of 5 minutes when I turned onto Highway 58 and drove immediately into the state of Virginia.

The highway is also known as the Daniel Boon Trail, you can actually walk the trail which roughly follows the roadway along the highway.

The highway is also known as the Daniel Boon Trail, you can actually walk the trail which roughly
follows the roadway along the highway.
The scenery is wonderful, there are so many hills and mountains completely covered in trees and you travel up and down them crossing from valley to valley.

After a while you again cross over into Tennessee and travel south towards Bristol. I will admit that in this section of Virginia and Tennessee I have never seen so many churches anywhere in my travels. There seems to be a church every mile or two along the road, mostly smaller buildings but still they are everywhere.

I arrived in theBristol area and noticed the signage for ticket scalpers straight away. There were quite a few of them along the road.

I then got my first sight of the Raceway 

I arrived at the All American Campground about 4.30pm and at the campsite was given all my passes and stickers for the week. I found my campsite relatively easily only once having to ask for a direction. There was only one other tent set up so far in my row of 14 sites. But I expect more will come over the next three days.

I got the tent up quite easily but twice put the fly cover up wrong before figuring out how it was to go on properly. Luckily I had bought some extra tent pegs at Walmart as the ones that came with the tent were useless. It was only when I had everything up and stepped back that I realised that I was right over to one side of my allotted site but decided not to move it and hopefully it will be alright where it is. Time will tell. Below is a photo of the rental car and tent.

In all it took me about 30 minutes to set up the tent at it was about 30C so I was happy to be able to sit down and have a cool drink of water and get my breath back. I then got out sleeping bag, mat and pillow into the tent before heading off to the race track for the nights races.

Or the way I stopped and hired a scanner and headphones set. It costs $43 for the weekend and it allows you to listen to many different channels at the race track. You can listen to the ground commentators, the race officials, and television or radio commentary, to any of the drivers own radio channels or set it to scan across a mixture of channels. Having the headphones also blocks out the noise of the cars flying past.

Walking to the racetrack from my tent site took 10 minutes and included two huge hills that take your breath away. There is a golf cart that you can get from the bottom but there was a queue so I walked up.

At the top of the hill you get a good feel for the size of the raceway from outside. These photos are from the Southern end of the stadium.

I had pre-booked the Friday and Saturday night seats but the Wednesday night is general admission and sit where you want (although some sections of seating were not open) the ticket cost $30 for the night. I bought a glass of ice cold squeezed lemonade and headed up into the stands to watch the racing.

The first race had already been going 15 laps by the time I got to a seat. The stands are quite steep and you enter at approx. Row 20 and all the seating below was already taken. Turning to look up the stand so were most of the next 30 rows. I walked up to row 56 before finding a free area that I was not going to have to climb over someone to get to. Unfortunately about 6 rows in front was a steel post supporting the roof. I sat there for a while but moved later on to another section that I did not have to worry about the pole.

I took a panorama series of shots from this end of the stadium.

The first race was for modified race cars over 150 laps, there seemed to be a car spin out or crash every 5 to ten laps so there were a lot of yellow flag laps with the pace car. Listening to the scanner provided a lot of interesting pieces of information, from pit crews talking about tyre changes to the officials telling cars what positions they needed to be in on restarts etc.

When the race finished they had a presentation and then introduced all the drivers for the 200 lap Truck race that was on later. I managed to go down to the back of the grandstand and get some dinner from the concession stands.

Before the second race started they sang the national anthem and then the race was on. The trucks closely resemble pickup trucks and the closest racing we would have would be the Ute races that are on before the V8 Supercar races.

Once again there were plenty of stoppages for crashes and spin outs, if you spin out you inevitably hit a wall and some car parts end up on the track, where one of the four debris truck and crews come around to pick up the debris before the pace car pulls off the track and the race restarts.

The race was quite competitive with the lead changing a few times and the top 7 cars changing positions often during the racing. Finally the chequered flag came down and the winner drove his car onto the winner’s podium and there were some fireworks and speeches as the crowd started to leave the stadium.

I bought some shirts and a program on the way back to my tent and sat for a while listening to music that was coming from other sites in the camp ground. After about an hour I jumped into the tent and fell asleep. I only woke once during the night and had to go about 50 metres to get to the portable toilets. It was about 3am in the morning and all the lights from the race track were still on.