Tuesday September 13

8:00am - We slept in a little bit today. Our planned outings didn't open until 10am so we had time to get going. Breakfast at McD's. That's it. I think I am going to buy stock. lol And we are on the road to our first destination in Charlotte, NC. Do you hear it? The thunder? I do! Boogity, boogity, boogity! Let's go racing, boys!!! Our first stop was the new NASCAR Hall of Fame. Opened within the last year, there has only been one class of drivers inducted, of which the late, great Dale Earnhardt was one. Everyone on the track was afraid when they say the black #3 of The Intimidator coming up behind them! They have announced the class of 2012 to be inducted early next year. This will be a great place to preserve the history of this great sport as it changes. On to our next destination, Hendrick Motorsports. Here we visited the musuem and the shop. They have cars that were driven in races, trophys, uniforms worn by drivers when they won a certain race, everything you can thing of. There is also a wall of 1:24 scale model cars of the current drivers that is probably 10 feet high and maybe 30 feet long. Every variation made. It's crazy. They also had the remains of Ricky Craven's Daytona 500 car that he wrecked and flipped about 20 times in 1995 (I think, it was around then). In the shop you could see them building the teams cars for upcoming races. They were in various stages, from almost complete to just a shell with no paint on it. They had about eight cars for each team in the shop being built. Incredible set up! Hendrick is right down the road from Charlotte Motor Speedway and I wanted to stop by, but we were pressed for time so I could only wave at it as we drove by. Next we visited Richard Childress Racing. We went through the museum where they have preserved lots of Dale Earnhardt's cars. It's incredible how small the cockpit of the car is, even more so now, because of all the safety equipment in them. There were lots of trophys here as well! Located here was Harvick's Daytona 500 winning car. That was a great race. (Go Harvick!) We actually did not visit the shop here, because I forgot. Yea, I forgot. So we got on the road to our last destination of the day, Kevin Harvick, Inc. Here we just visited the shop, where they were making both cars and trucks. KHI participates in Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series. This shop will be closing at the end of this racing year as KHI will be moving into the RCR shop. I am glad I had to chance to see if before that happened! Having filled our day with NASCAR, we hit the road to get close to our next destination. We stopped to have dinner at a little roadside diner. Price was about average for us, but C was feeling generous and gave the waitress a very nice tip. When he handed it to her, she said, "Are you sure?", we nodded. She said "Y'all made my day!" The service was good and the food was good. I'm glad she was happy!

Weather - Sun and fog (late day)