Gentlemen, Start Your Engines (NH, RED SOX & NASCAR!) **Updated 2/11** COMPLETE - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Today I wore my red Daisuke “Dice K” Matsuzaka Japanese Red Sox shirt (It’s an excellent conversation piece, as no one seems to be able to read Japanese), so today was dedicated to Red Sox pitcher – Daisuke Matsuzaka #18. Matsuzaka joined the team this year from Japan for some crazy amount of money! The Red Sox won the bid with $50 million just to talk to him and then agreed on a contract for another $50 million (for I don’t remember how many years). So, I’ll just say he’s our $100 million dollar man.
Here he is with Theo Epstein, the Red Sox General Manager, when they announced Matsuzaka’s signing. He’s quite pleasant to look at….I only have one beef with him about a certain trade, but we’ve already been down that road before.
Okay, enough about Matsuzaka and on with Day 5! We woke early and began to get ready for our day. Many of our neighbors had already left for the track, but we gave up on early arrivals years ago. I headed up to the bathrooms, while the boys were rousing. I came back to them both giggling and me nearly being thrown out of the trailer by the odorous explosion that hit my nose when I opened the door. Ewww!! Of course, both of my ‘stinky butt boys’ were quite pleased with their accomplishment. I just
Other than the glorious smells, the day was perfect for a race. The temperatures were unseasonably cool and there were lots of clouds in the sky!! This would mean no stifling heat, while we sat at the track!!
We left for the race around 10:00am. We stopped at the Dunkin Donuts that was a few minutes down the road from the campground. Jeffrey ran in to grab us something, while Kyle & I were doing something in the truck. What we were doing, I can’t remember, but I know we were doing something.
From there we headed to the New Hampshire International Speedway. There was the usual traffic that we run into each race. It’s always fun, but not as much fun as it used to be. (Jeffrey’s truck is rigged like a fire apparatus, with all the bells & whistles. He disconnected the speaker that could be heard outside after a race many years ago. I guess he didn’t appreciate me playing “The Hamster Dance” over & over with the hand piece to the speaker so everyone around us could hear it. It was quite funny, as everyone we passed was That’s Jeffrey…..my fun killer!!!) So, back to the traffic….there were 3 lanes heading to the track. Pretty, isn’t it??
We pulled into a field that is used as a parking lot for the race. The cost is a $10 donation to a local high school group instead of the $0 to park at the track. A free shuttle is provided to and from the track. The police are wonderful about moving the buses right along through the traffic, which is a godsend in that traffic. The bus drops us off right at the entrance, which is much nicer than walking through the unpaved & uneven free lot at the track. (The drive back to the lot is also much easier due to the police & we are out of there lickety split. Being the farthest from the track also means less traffic to fight.)
As soon as we were through the gate, we attempted to find Twin Power Electronics so I could get my free scanner list. (I like listen to the drivers, especially when they get into a crash ) We couldn’t find them, but we had fun looking around the sea of trailers with all the race merchandise.
I just happened to find this
I saw a couple of these signs, which I thought was
I don’t know why, but I thought of Crystal when I saw this trailer
Penelope Pitstop was there, with her little pink umbrella. I did not take a picture of her, as she was much too scantily clad for my liking!!
We went to find a picnic table under the bleachers until it was closer to the race. Jeffrey took a walk over to pit row to get some pictures of the cars.
His favorites…Dale Jr & Kevin Harvick (Don’t know why that #24 is in there…sorry Terri! )
Then he went over to get a photo of Carl Edward’s Red Sox car
When Jeffrey came back, we decided to get something to eat. We opted for 2 orders of chicken tenders with fries and we split them amongst the 3 of us.
I took this photo of Kyle while we were sitting around. I don’t remember who he was talking to. Probably his cousin, Ryan.
As we sat and people watched, we were quite surprised to run into 2 of our friends from church, Fred & Laurie. I didn’t realize they were race fans. I’ve known Fred since I was like 7 & Laurie since they got married in the early 1980’s. His girls, Bethany & Cathrene, used to babysit for Kyle when I worked a couple of nights a week years ago. Fred & I teach Sunday School together. They are good people. We talked for a while and then they went in search of their seats on the other side of the track.
Not long after they left, we decided to head to our seats. There were lots of welcoming clouds and we actually needed to wear sweatshirts, which was nice compared to what we normally experience at this race. I don’t know if the weather had something to do with them moving the date up 2 weeks or what, but I liked it!! (I found out at the September race that they had record numbers of heat stroke at last July’s race )
The opening ceremonies commenced...
and the Star Spangled Banner was sung with the usual flyover. There was only 1 plane this year. I forgot it was coming, so I took it a little late. It's that tiny dot in the midst of those wonderful clouds!
Now, my favorite driver – Kenny Schrader - I know, I know - wasn’t racing this race. So, I needed to choose a new driver. Hmmmm…..I wonder You guessed it…..Carl Edwards #99 – Roush Fenway Racing & the Red Sox Car!!
I didn’t take as many photos as I usually do at a race. The ones I did try to take weren’t very good because they are traveling so fast! I had to scratch more photos than usual this year because of that. Here are a couple that I did manage to capture.
I how the flames shoot off of the tires like that, when the drivers hit their brakes
The race was pretty uneventful. There weren’t many crashes , but I was very intent on listening to my scanner. Carl Edwards’ pit crew was hysterical. He had moved up from the middle of the pack and even led a few laps. After a pit, his crew was hoping to move him back up and kept looking for a reason to call a caution. They decided to call the head honchos, with a claim of debris on the track. When the guy came back on, he was laughing saying that he was told they were lying!! I listening to the bantering back & forth. Eventually, a caution was called, but Carl Edwards was unable to regain the lead.
We decided to leave with quite a few laps to go, as we wanted to beat the crowds out of the stands. I don’t even remember who was in the lead. It was kind of a boring race in terms of ones that we’ve seen where several drivers seem to be going head-to-head, that probably played into our reasoning for leaving as well.
We got to our bus stop just as a bus was pulling up and we were on our way back to the lot within minutes. Once in the truck, we listened to the race as we drove back to the campground. As we were pulling in, the race ended. Denny Hamlin #11 for Fed Ex won – a second year NASCAR driver.
We listened to the tail end of the Red Sox game. Texas was still in town and Julian Tavarez was no match for them. The Sox lost 1-2. Once the game was over, we packed up the non-essentials as this was our last night.
We ordered pizza from a local place about 2 minutes away from the campground. Then we played rummy and I WIN!! I WIN!! I WIN!! (It was my lucky weekend) This was also about the time that other people started returning from the race. We were back about 2-3 hours before the majority of them started coming in!
Kyle started his first fire all by himself. This was in preparation for our camping trip scheduled 2 weeks later – Jeffrey was going to have to go home to work 2 nights, so who better to start the fire.
Kyle & I made some s’mores and I played around with the settings on the camera.
Kyle looks like he has a fro. A strange likeness to Ronald McDonald??
A negative of Jeffrey
Then I practiced walking on fire!
It was a long day, so we called it an early night.
The best thing today was watching Carl Edwards #99 race, while listening to his radio frequency The worst thing today was the stench in the trailer from my stinky butt boys The funniest thing today was listening to Carl Edwards crew try to find a caution. (Kyle would say it was his stench. He’s gross! ) The weather today was 60’s – we needed sweatshirts
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Okay......I was going to post an update today, but it appears that Imagestation is having a problem with their links. I'm off to explore that more, but I think it's a universal thing, as other member seem to be having similar problems judging by the lack of signature photos.
I didn't have too much of a choice, with my dad around. When my older brother just didn't like baseball (the HORROR!!!), he turned to me...I was a more than willing participant!! There is just something electric about Fenway & being at a game. Jeffrey was a fan when we got together, but now he's really getting into it too. To keep Jeffrey & Kyle well-versed on the Red Sox players, we play what I call the Red Sox number game (usually in the car). I call out a number and they tell me the name of the player. Great fun! Great fun!! Yup, I'm a dork!!
You should get to a game if you can, Lisa. You're not far from the Hall of Fame, are you? That's always a fun option too!!
I'm a little over an hour from Cooperstown. Couldn't book a hotel room around here a couple weekends ago during Hall of Fame Induction Weekend (Cal Ripkin was inducted this year; tons of Baltimore fans around!).
I've actually been to the Hall of Fame twice. Even though I'm not a big baseball fan, I like seeing the old uniforms (The Boston Red Stockings!) and the "bling"-the World Series rings. They have some of the old player's lockers (Ted Williams' is there, I think) and even a few seats from the old Ebbitts Field. Tons of stuff to look at; you could easily spend an afternoon there. One of my favorite parts is the "Women in Baseball" section. That final scene from "A League of Their Own" was filmed there and I remember when they were filming our local paper ran a story about someone who was an extra. Oh, and they're adding stuff all the time, like they just added the helmet Barry Bonds wore when he broke his record. Check out their website: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum: Home and plan a trip if you've never been!
More TR, please!
__________________
-Lisa
The World is a book. Those who do not travel read only a page." - Augustine
Lisa, we the Baseball Hall of Fame!! Whenever we go to visit my aunt, we always make a stop there. Our favorite visit was when we got to see the 2004 World Series Champions display!!
Now, on with the show...
Now playing: A journey into a rainforest
Day 6 – Monday, July 2, 2007
Today I wore my red Tim Wakefield Red Sox shirt, so today was dedicated to Red Sox pitcher – Tim Wakefield #49. Wake is the player who has been with this club the longest, this being his 13th year in a Red Sox uniform! He is most known for his mean knuckleball, which is difficult to hit & difficult to catch! (The Sox traded away his catcher, Doug Mirabelli, prior to last season only to make some trades to get him back a month or so later because our new relief catcher just couldn’t do the job. Mirabelli isn’t a stellar batter – I the song he chose for when he bats though….”Skydiving”-, but he can catch Wake ) Wake is the 2nd oldest member of the team, with Timlin being just a few months older, but he has an amazing record of 15-10 this year. My dad swears he’ll be pitching until he’s 60 years old!! I hope they keep him around, as he’s not only a great pitcher, but does wonderful charity work in the community as well!
Throwing the knuckleball
Here he is with Doug Mirabelli. I have no idea what they are doing or why Doug would wear a striped suit, with a striped shirt. It was the only decent photo I could find of the two of them together. Maybe they were trying to look 'gangstah'
Okay, enough about Wake and on with Day 6! (This is where my notes become non-existent, so I’m going by memory ) We were up early knowing that Jeffrey needed to be back to go to work that evening. I know visits to the bathroom were made and showers were taken.
When I came back to our campsite, I noticed more people had left since I went up to shower. There were only 2 other trailers, who happened to be right next to us.
Empty again
Since we had packed most of the non-essential stuff the night before, we didn’t have much to do. We packed up the pillows & blankets and closed up the Pop-Tart . Jeffrey even waved for the trip report!! Kyle’s probably in the back seat.
We waved goodbye to Dwayna and Jean as we passed the office (the guys must have been off checking on all the empty campsites) and we were on our way around 10:30am!
On the drive up to New Hampshire, we passed by the Burlington Mall and decided right then that we should stop at the Rainforest Café on the way home. In all the years we have been traveling up for the race, we have never visited RC on either the way up or back. We usually visit on a whim every once in a while. I think from now on, we’ll visit on our way home from the races. It certainly makes a lot more sense. Dontcha think?
Traffic was wonderful on the way there. Waiting until the day after the race is so much easier on the nerves! We arrived to RC around noon time and were seated immediately.
I didn’t take many pictures here, but we were seated next to this bird…
in the gorilla section. It felt just like home!!
It was a fun experience, as always. We no longer dine at RC while in WDW, since we have a couple within less than a 2 hour drive.
Kyle had the Lava Nachos with meat only with a diet Roy Rogers . Jeffrey had a Rainforest cheeseburger & Safari fries with a raspberry lemonade. I had a Jungle Chop Salad with some kind of slushy drink and then a diet soda. I ended up taking half of my salad home & ate it for dinner that night. Kyle couldn’t finish his nachos, but we decided not to take them home due to the soggy factor that would surely ensue. Jeffrey ate everything on his plate!
After dinner, we ventured across the hall into the Disney Store. I knew this was where Janine (FanOfMickey) works, but I didn’t think she worked during the day. I looked for her anyway, but she wasn’t there. We looked around for a little bit, but we made no purchases.
We headed back to the car and made our way back onto I-95. We were about an hour from home. There were very few people on the road and we were home somewhere between 3:00-4:00pm. We unloaded the coolers and the bags of clothes from the truck into the house in no time.
Jeffrey left for work about 4:45pm, while I unpacked what was left in the coolers into the refrigerator and got the dirty laundry situated. Then I settled in for a quiet evening catching up on the boards, while I watched the Red Sox game with Kyle. They were playing their final game against the Texas Rangers. Kason Gabbard (the new #61) was pitching. The Sox won 7-3! And Kason Gabbard got another win! He has since been traded to the Texas Rangers and is doing remarkably well, with a 5-1 record. The guy is bound to have a great career, as I believe it is in the stars for him! Kyle & I were at Fenway for his 1st game…it was 61 degrees when they stepped onto the field…he pitched 6.1 innings…with 61 strikes…61%...our Fever Pitch family all agreed this kid is going to be great!!
So, that’s it! That’s my TR of camping, Red Sox and NASCAR, but it’s really not over yet!!
The best thing today was dining in a rainforest The worst thing today was having to pack up & leave the campground The funniest thing today was I don’t remember…I’ve taken WAY too long to write this TR!! The weather today was 60’s – very comfortable!!
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Sorry to see this report come to an end, but it sounds like you had a good journey home. You know, one of these days, we really must try the Rainforest Cafe. Can you believe we've never eaten there?
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shirt (It’s an excellent conversation piece, as no one seems to be able to read Japanese), so today was dedicated to Red Sox pitcher – Daisuke Matsuzaka #18. Matsuzaka joined the team this year from Japan for some crazy amount of money! The Red Sox won the bid with $50 million just to talk to him and then agreed on a contract for another $50 million (for I don’t remember how many years). So, I’ll just say he’s our $100 million dollar man.
)
how the flames shoot off of the tires like that, when the drivers hit their brakes 
, but I was very intent on listening to my scanner. Carl Edwards’ pit crew was hysterical. He had moved up from the middle of the pack and even led a few laps. After a pit, his crew was hoping to move him back up and kept looking for a reason to call a caution. They decided to call the head honchos, with a claim of debris on the track. When the guy came back on, he was laughing saying that he was told they were lying!! 
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Pixie Dust
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I'm a little over an hour from Cooperstown. Couldn't book a hotel room around here a couple weekends ago during Hall of Fame Induction Weekend (Cal Ripkin was inducted this year; tons of Baltimore fans around!).
for the wonderful comments, everyone!!
. Jeffrey even waved for the trip report!! 
with some kind of slushy drink and then a diet soda. I ended up taking half of my salad home & ate it for dinner that night. Kyle couldn’t finish his nachos, but we decided not to take them home due to the soggy factor that would surely ensue. Jeffrey ate everything on his plate! 
We just ate at the RFC yesterday afternoon 
Let's see a movie!! 
Hope you like it! 
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