Our last installment of the Road Course Adventure had us never making it to the track on Saturday. Well not past the parking gate anyway. I am warning you right now that this is a LONG post (filled with lots of pictures) as Sunday was A LONG day.  If you are on dialup though I don’t want to kill your ability to see my site so continue on to read the adventure of Sunday at the Races….

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Well the last we spoke of my Road Course Adventure (see: Infineon: A Road Course Adventure Day 1), BFFM and I had spent Friday afternoon at the track…after getting slightly lost and ending up in Petaluma (my dad says I could get lost in a paper bag). Saturday’s adventure could be dubbed: The Day of Dolphins and Driving. And unfortunately didn’t have a darn thing to do with race cars…as you will soon find out.

On Saturday we decided to skip practice at INFINEON and go nearby SIX FLAGS: DISCOVERY KINGDOM (it use to be Marine World when I was a kid).  Well I didn’t know we would end up having so much fun and we didn’t really even ride anything (neither of us like roller coasters).  Of course it shouldn’t really surprise me that we had so much fun- because we both kind of like going to zoos and the like.   Well we ended up staying a little later than we thought we would but that was ok. Here are some pictures from our fun time at Discovery Kingdom:

A dophin trainer and audience helper instruct the dolphins from the underwater window at Discovery Kingdom. Photocredit: ME

A camel observes us watching it! Photo Credit: ME

I spent a lot of time in the Butterfly habitat..only to find that it was really humid in there- and I had to squelch the instinct to swat at them! Photo Credit: ME

I don't know why but I LOVE Flamingos...Photo Credit: ME

I love this giraffe picture I took. Photo Credit: ME

After we were done at Discovery Kingdom- we grabbed a quick bite to eat nearby and took off to the track.  I honestly do not remember what time it was but I do know that we were flagged into the gate and drove up only to have trackworkers tell us to turn around and go in gate one…that gate 7 was now exit only.  We were cranky by this point and decided to go out looking for this vinyard in Calistoga that is owned by my mom’s best friend’s son-in-law because my mom wanted me to pick up a bottle of Cabernet for my dad.  So we drove and drove and drove…through all kinds of wine country…I don’t think I have ever seen so many grapes being grown ever! Anyway traffic was terrible during parts of the drive because of a fairly nasty looking accident at one point and it being Saturday I assume.  We finally get to the Winery only to find it closed. I have no idea if they were closed on weekends or we just missed them closing (we got there about 4:15ish I thing.  So I wasn’t looking forward to it but we turned around and drove back to the track only so we could then drive back to the hotel. I am sure there was a more direct route but we did it this way for two reasons:

1. The genius (me) who printed out directions didn’t think to print directions from the winery directly to the hotel. That was dumb.

2. On the way to the winery we spied a HUGE blue chair and decided it would make good picture fodder…so we definitely wanted to stop at the big blue chair on the way back.  How could we not:

BFFM in the Big Blue Chair. Photo Credit: ME

We also stopped at a cute little market to get something to drink because we were both parched as heck…and while we just picked up some diet cokes and two chocolate covered marshmallows on a stick for the drive- they really have a lot of stuff in that cute little store (although it was murder trying to turn left out of the market to get back on the highway).

So yeah we never actually made it out of the car on Saturday at Infineon…but we still had a lot of fun.

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I must say that after we got back from our entire race-cation I found out that Tony Stewart was at Six Flags but on FRIDAY! Damnation! I totally would have went had I known! URG!

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Stay tune for the final installment- hopefully up sometime Wednesday or Thursday (its a long one!)

Here’s a story of a girl named Amy, who went to Infineon for the first time on June 19-21st to see the NASCAR race.  In tow- her BFF.

On Friday on a semi lark,  we left my home, drove to Santa Rosa to see Tony’s show car:

Tony's Show Car at Office Depot in Santa Rosa, CA. Did you know that the office depot car is sparkly? It is when you are up close to it. Photo Credit: ME

From there we were off to the hotel. We were staying in in Concord, CA. All I can say is that HOTWIRE has not led us astray yet. This was a nice hotel- centrally located for our purposes. After a moment to refresh we were on our way to Infineon to check out the track- get our bearings and hopefully catch qualifying since we definitely did not catch practice.

You all know I have a fear of heights.  Its actually a fairly intense fear- so much that I the Ferris Wheel at Disney’s California Adventure made me cry (as an adult). Well this fear also extends to extremely tall bridges…and I knew we would have to be crossing one so I was a little freaked out to have to drive across a bridge. I must have been envisioning like the Bay Bridge or The Golden Gate- because this one didn’t freak me out at all.  So YEY there- since we would have to cross it several times.  The other thing I would have to deal with that I have never dealt with before would be a toll! $4.00!! That is crazy- or so I think anyway! That would be 20 bucks a week if I had to cross that bridge everyday for work or something! Of course I would also have one of those fancy fastrac things and not have to wait to hand my money to a person.

Anyway- we follow our directions to the speedway- and in trying to find the parking area- end up by passing the track and the parking area only to end up in nearby Petaluma. Whoops.  I never said I had a great sense of direction. So we get turned back towards the speedway and I see that I totally missed the parking area turn off- and get turned into the speedway and parked (next to a pasture filled with sheep and goats I might add).  So we walked up to the shuttle stop and just as I was cresting the top of the hill I hear what sounds like my car being pelted with pebbles. I turn to see a jerk in a car peeling out of the gravel lot and peppering my car (which was parked in an end spot) with dirt. Both my friend and I turn and instinctively yell “REAL NICE JERK” and apparently we did it loud enough they heard cuz the passenger turned towards us.  I mean seriously use your freaking head people.  Anyway, we just happened to hit it right so that the shuttle was there at the stop and made our way down to the grandstand area of the track. We were going to watch qualifying in our Turn 7 seats…but problem there was that we were kinda late by the time we made it to the grandstands and it would require either quite the hike or a shuttle ride!! So we took a place right next to the start/finish line about halfway up- which was actually the optimum place to watch qualifying:

Martin Truex Jr. Qualifies at Infineon Raceway. I really liked Martin's blue car for Infineon. Photo Credit: ME

Denny Hamlin takes the green flag at the beginning of his qualifying run. Photo Credit: ME!

Jeff Gordon qualifies. I have to say that Jeff's car is extremely pretty in person. It stands out well. Photo Credit: ME

Junior makes his qualifying attempt at Infineon. Photo Credit: ME

I am going to have to admit that it was a little more disorientating than I thought it would be to be sitting in stands on the “wrong” side of the track. By that I mean that the grandstands at the startfinish line they are on the side of the track that would be considered “infield” at an oval. That was just a little odd to me.

After qualifying we wandered through the tunnel to the merchandise area (you can see it on the otherside of the track over there in the qualifying pictures). I don’t know if it was me or not but there seemed to be signifigantly fewer merchandise haulers at infineon than elsewhere. I don’t know if the others were located somewhere else but I didn’t see that many. When were done with merchandise we wandered back over to the shuttle and left for the day.

Next Up: Infineon: A Road Course Adventure Day 2: Saturday

I couldn’t have predicted the end of this race if I had wanted to.  Wow.  The conditions were cloudy nearly all day in Louden and from the moment I tuned in I worried if the race would be one of those where we would race for 20 laps and be under caution for 35 because of rain. Luckily- for the most part we were fairly lucky.

Tony had the pole since starting positions were set by the points because of a rained out qualifying.  However once the green flag dropped at Louden, Tony started dropping back like someone had thrown a boat anchor out the rear decklid or something.  Meanwhile Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch played swap the lead backand forth, back and forth. Then it dawned on my that Tony was a hot pass driver so I switched to hotpass on to discover that his radio feed sounded like crap. I hope it didn’t sound like that to him…because that would annoy the heck out of me…all that popping and cracking and half conversations that did not even appear to be his. Tony ran top five most of the day until a late race pitstop mishap on the right front tire caused him to lose a couple of positions in the pits. After a round of green flag pitstops and then a caution and a red flag thrown for rain, the race would not resume- just 28 laps shy of a complete race.  Tony ended up finishing a respectable fifth. Rookie Joey Logano- who took over the number 20 Home Depot machine when Tony Stewart left Joe Gibbs Racing to move to SHR, won his first cup race by being in the right place at the right time when the race was called…and that would be the front!

Notes About Louden:

• I thought Jeff Gordon congratulating Joey Logano was really gracious. Frankly- I don’t think I would be that gracious but that is just me- I can get a wee bit competitive.
• Poor Ryan Newman…so close…but not. He ran out of gas with just a lap or two to go- when rain was starting to fall. He just can NOT catch a break this season.

Next weekend its a Saturday Night race at a little track you may have heard of: DAYTONA!

I do not know which one of you all did it…or what exactly you set off this evening- but it sounded like it was probably an M-80 or something. Anyway- I KNOW you heard Roxy baying at it- I am pretty sure they could hear her all the way down in Uruguay.  What you don’t know is that you set her into a state- and she was baying while quivering and hiding under my desk.  It’s not even the 4th of July yet.  Please for my sanity…be kind and do “safe and sane” fireworks during the 4th- while they still bother her she doesn’t freak out quite so bad.  Sigh….

I was at Infineon last Friday and I have just been too busy to get this up any sooner…but this is a double the MI-5 post:

First up is Bill’s Vacation MI-5 from last friday:

1) Tell us a memorable vacation story you have from your childhood. For awhile during my childhood we would rent a cabin up in DeSabla near Paradise, CA that was owned by the company my father worked for. It had a little teeny lake you could fish on a pool and an expanse of woods that we would hike around in. Well one day we went hiking and GOT LOST! As in REALLY REALLY lost. It was VERY scary and we were lost most of the day. We finally came across what was either a fire break or some sort of access road or trail and followed it but by this time we had been lost for at least 8 hours or so..we were dirty hungry and tired.  We eventually ended up on a street and asked one of the men sitting in front of his house if we could use his hose to get a drink and he let us and my dad told him we were lost and asked him how to get back to where we were from…and he told us but it was a pretty long walk.  A couple minutes later the guy came in a huge ancient Suburban and gave us ride back to the cabin. We got there to my grandparents sitting on the porch drinking a beer. They told us they had been there several hours and were starting to wonder where we got off to.

2) Tell us a memorable vacation tale from your adulthood. Well every adult vacation has a memory attached to it. This last one when I went to Infineon- was meeting and having my picture taken with Darian - Tony Stewart’s Crew Chief. My friend and I always figure out a way to have some sort of adventure!!!

3) Assume you and your mate/significant other/best friend are going on a dream vacation. You don’t have to pay for any of it. Where do you go? Why?  We go to Charlotte for the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 and the week in between. We are gonna do it one of these days.

4) Now, come back down to Earth, and tell us about a “dream” vacation that you think might actually happen some day. Where is that? How long until you think it becomes reality? The one I mentioned up there will happen. I know that because we are planning for it. We have an ultimate goal of visiting EVERY track on the NASCAR circuit and that one is one of the big hits.

5) There are some missionary students on “working vacation” coming to my house for dinner tonight. If someone came to stay with you for vacation, what would you feed them that was really considered a “local delicacy”? What regional food would be a “must have”? A local delicacy? Calamari I guess. Ooh and Artichokes. Yum.

And next is G’s Life’s Journey M-5 for this week:

G sez:The idea is to name the book which is your life.  Give your book (your life) a title.  Or, if your life were a book what would the title be?  Next come the chapters.  Some of these chapters will be uglier, funnier, better or worse than others.  For each of the time frames listed, try to name that chapter in your life.  You don’t have to, but if you wanted to expand on the reasoning behind your titles, that would be great.  Also, if you have a chapter in your life that isn’t represented here, please feel free to add it.

Your Book Title - Late But Worth The Wait?

Chapter Titles:

Birth to 5 Years - Mostly An Only Child…until 4 Anyway
Elementary Years - Just A Normal Kid.
Jr. High Years- Meeting My BFF And Nearly Getting Suspended
High School Years - Kicking Ass And The Great Bus Coup of 1992
College Age - Coming Out Of My Shell…Kinda
Present Age - Where I am Today

Work has been the kind of busy where when I get home I don’t really want to get on the computer much. But I am almost done uploading some of my race pictures (I took 4 gigs with the rebel at infineon and about 500 megs with the powershot at six flags- so that is a lot of pictures to sort through just so that I can tell you the story of my trip to Infineon (aka the “bridges and tolls and sheep oh my!” adventure). I promise its coming…honestly. Just give me a little more time!