The USAC Sears Auto Center 200 Hooters Procup

Believe it or not, that's where we ended up on Saturday in Lakeland, FL. At the stock car races. 200 times around the track. Hooters girls and all.

It was all Roni's idea. I just went along to keep her company.


We were there with about three or four thousand other folks. Anyone from rural North Carolina would not feel out of place. I bought a ticket on a Harley Davidson raffle. Two Buds were $5.00. Lots of us wore earplugs. No one was in a hurry for anything, except for the drivers - they were in a big hurry. About 26 of the 32 that started thr race actually got around the track 200 times. Not bad.


Yes, there were a few fender-benders but nothing serious - some scrapes along the wall, a few nose to rear bumps, a couple of 360's in the turns, a blown motor or two, stuff like that. But no fires of rollovers. Quite civilized, actually.

I did learn some new uses for duct tape. Seems the guy I was cheering for (a rookie out of Mongomery, Alabama) nearly separated his right front fender from the rest of his vehicle. No problem. Head for the pits with the fender flapping and get out the duct tape! A half-dozen strips and 13 seconds later he is back in the race!! Who knew?? And to think of all the $$ we've spent in the past few years (since Kelly got her driver's licence) and all we really needed was a few rolls of duct tape!!

Here's my guy with the right front fender all
duct-taped back on.


A closer look!

The eventual winner does his traditional tire-smoking spins in front of the grandstand, wow-ing the crowd, collects his champagne and kisses and off he goes.

And as for us - hey, it was fun!

At Disney Hollywood

The last Disney park on our tour was Disney Hollywood - as the name suggests, all things movie-related. The architecture is well-done, with streets like New York Street, Hollywood Boulevard, and San Francisco Avenue done up like their namesakes, as well as representative restaurants. There is a souvenir shop on NY street named "Youse Guys Moichandyse".

We saw a couple of stunt shows with car and motorcycle chases, shoot-em-ups and big explosions. Went on a few rides and saw a few shows.

The best show however, is "Fantasmic!" . . . rated as the best of its kind in Florida. "Combining music, lasers, fan-fountain projection, animation and a cast of over a hundred actors and dancers. Fantasmic! manages to choreograph the entire event with split second accuracy to music, fireworks and lighting. Illuminated boats, flying floats and a lake which bursts into flames are but some features of this enchanting event which plays to audiences of 10,000 per showing."

Unfortunately rain started to fall about 6:00. Fantasmic! was scheduled for 8:30, but not wanting to miss it, we went to the venue in hopes that the rain would subside.

Here is Ray, wrapped in a plastic raincoat,
Mickey Mouse popcorn in hand, waiting for
Fantasmic!, and hoping the rain
will soon stop.

It did not. But it was a warm rain. And the show went ahead anyway!! It was great.

Disney-Mania

There are so many things to do in the Orlando area. Having already seen some pretty fair aquariums and zoos, and not really interested in monster waterparks, and also not much interested in being thrown 500 feet in the air on a rope, we decided that of the many area theme parks, we would choose to visit the Disney ones. Disney has four main parks here - The Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Animal Kingdom, and Disney's Hollywood Studios. We bought a 7 day pass, which allows 7 visits to any of the above parks within a 14 day period - a good value if you are here for 14 days.

So far we've visited the first three, and will go to Hollywood Studios tomorrow.

All of them are a lot of fun, even without our children!!

We've met some interesting characters ..............

....... walked down Main Street to Cinderella's castle......


........had lunch with an ibis at a Mexican cantina......


......... seen several awesome 3D movies .............


........ visited Canada at Epcot...........


...... chatted with a lowland gorilla.......


....... and even participated in several parades.......

Maybe after visiting Disney - MGM Hollywood, we'll even be in the movies somewhere! Can you suggest a name for our first movie??

SST123 Endeavour Launch

Here's a few more observations on the Space Shuttle launch last night.

We viewed the launch from the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex along with several thousand other enthusiasts. This is the closest that a visitor can view a launch, and it is still six miles away from the actual launching pad. During the wait, all the exhibits at the KSCVC are open so we took in a 3D IMAX film of US and Russian launches and the creation of the International Space Station. It was great! We also strolled the rocket garden of previous booster rockets and spacecraft as well as other displays.

The Rocket Garden

As the countdown proceeded on a big outdoor screen, we could see the pre-launch steps as they led closer to the launch time of 2:28 a.m. As the last few critical sequences passed, people would expectantly applaud as it became obvious that the mission was a "go", myself among them.

Keep in mind that I was a 10 year old kid when the "space age" began. To actually see a real spaceship blast off into orbit - this was going to be incredible! It didn't disappoint.

We could see the live image on the TV screen as the massive rocket engines ignited, literally turning night into day. It was several seconds before the sound of those engines reached us. By that time, the shuttle had cleared the tree line and we could see Endeavour rising straight up at an ever increasing speed, followed by a huge vapour trail. If anything, the light from the huge tail of fire increased. There was a cloud layer at, I'm guessing, 6 - 8,000 feet that reflected the light downwards and outwards. As the shuttle passed through this cloud layer, the light intensity dropped, but it was still lighting up the clouds from above. Unfortuately, that was the last we could see of the shuttle, as the layer was pretty solid. As the light faded, so did the sound, which was more like a deep crackling booming than a constant roll.

Endeavour as it leaves the launch pad.

Passing through the cloud layer as only the vapour trail remains.

What an awesome experience! It took us three hours in mostly bumper to bumper traffic to get home, but I'd do it again in a second. Just to contemplate the complexities of such an accomplishment; to appreciate that our great grandparents could never have imagined such a feat, and to have actually witnessed it still fills me with awe and wonder.

Wow!

We just got "home" from the shuttle Endeavour night launch. The launch was exactly on time at 2:28 a.m., and we got home (roughly 60 miles from Cape Canaveral) at 5:45 a.m. Ironically, the shuttle had made two circuits of the earth by the time we got here. More details tomorrow.

Spring Training

"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."


The scene - Chain of Lakes Stadium, Winterhaven, Fla. The occasion - Grapefruit League Baseball. The combatants - the mighty Cleveland Indians and the mighty Atlanta Braves. Two fans, Ray and Roni at their first pro baseball game.

Both managers were very liberal in their substitutions, each pitcher getting three innings, regardless of his effectiveness. The remainder of the players got 4 or 5 innings in before giving way to someone else.

Well, the Indians' bats didn't get working until the 9th inning, but it was too little, too late by then. Final score: Atlanta 5, Cleveland 1.

For Ray and Roni, it was a pleasant two and a half hours in the gentle sunshine, two Buds in plastic bottles, some peanuts and Cracker Jack, and a great way to spend an afternoon.

Can't forget Abigail.....!!!

As we were walking the streets of New Orleans recently, we came across this neat store sign. Of course, we thought of our little "Abbie". Now, I don't know about the "dinky dogs" part, but I'll bet they have some really cool Mardi Gras outfits that would fit!