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Just to get a good photo for the blog entry
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After leaving the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, we drove straight through to Amarillo, Texas which takes us about 5 hours.
We parked at the Elks lodge in Amarillo, Texas again.
While in Amarillo we saw our doctors for annual checkups. We also visited my Aunt Janet and my cousins, Rob and Cindy. Rob & Cindy bought a new house so Al was able to help them with a few projects. They hadn't moved in yet so we'll be anxious to see the house on our next visit to Amarillo. Cindy is a great decorator!
After our tasks were completed in Amarillo, we headed south to Lubbock, Texas where we stayed at another Elks Lodge.
We stayed in Lubbock for three nights. Before leaving Lubbock, we filled up on diesel at Costco for $4.29/gallon.
On our drive to our next stop we were notified by another driver on the road that we had a flat tire on the trailer. Al found a safe place to pull over and had the tire changed to our spare in less than an hour.
We continued on to our planned stop for the night at Xanadu Acres Lavender Farm in Mullin, Texas.
The lavender was already harvested but the farm also has long horn cows which amaze me how they maneuver with those huge horns stuck on their heads!
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| Baby |
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Oh, and a donkey too.
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Funny fence post toppers
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The next morning we were treated by our hosts providing scones and lavender honey for breakfast.
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Lemon lavender scones with lavender infused honey!
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The owners have a small store on their property and also sell their items at farmer's markets.
We enjoyed our peaceful night at Xanadu Acres and purchased a few lavender items before driving to our next stop in Niederwald, just south of Austin, Texas. It was difficult driving around in Austin trying to avoid the toll roads since we don't have a transponder and find our way to our next stop. We stayed at the Longhorn RV Resort and picked this campground due to its proximity to the Circuit of America's race track.
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| The campground was on a small lake. |
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We were in town for the 2022 Formula 1 Race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) Racetrack in Austin, Texas. We splurged and bought two tickets since we got hooked on Formula 1 by watching the docu-series, Drive to Survive, on Netflix. The sport has just exploded with fans who got hooked like us on the Netflix series. This is definitely a rich mans sport!
The sport is raced in many cities around the world. There are 10 teams with two cars and drivers per team. The schedule in each city is three days (Friday-Sunday). We bought tickets for the whole weekend. Parking (like everything else) at the event is VERY expensive so we paid $191 for the weekend to park our truck in a nearby lot and and ride on a school bus to the event! This was a lot cheaper than parking in a lot onsite and less worry that our truck would fit. And the bus drop off spot required a LOT of walking.
Day 1
On Friday, the parking lots opened at 8:30 and the gates at 9 AM. We left the RV at 7 AM and arrived at the Park & Ride and we were about the 15th car there. (I read how bad the traffic is on race weekend so we didn't want to have problems.) The bus let us off at Turn 11 and we walked all the way around the outside of the track to the main entrance to pick up our lanyards. We went through security at the main entrance and didn't have any problems sneaking in our food. I have that innocent look!
There were different Masters and Legends qualifying sessions all morning. We were not so interested in those so we walked around to get a lay of the land. The track is 3.5 miles long and there are different themed areas to visit with food and drinks and activities. The areas were Biergarten, Onderland, Lonestar Land, Big Red, La Cantina, and Pecan Street.
And people were buying this stuff like crazy although the "outlet" tents were the most busy.
At the entrance to COTA is the Grand Plaza where there was a display of Ferrari Challenge cars.
It is possible to buy an entrance ticket only but we bought a package which provided us a reserved seat on Turn 19. We stopped by as it was near the Grand Plaza to see what our view of the race would be. We were not pleased with a bleacher seat for all the money we spent! Unfortunately Turn 19 gets the afternoon sun in your face. Not good for a hot Texas weekend!
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This was our view as the cars were coming counter clockwise past us.
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This is turn 19 with just turn 20 that goes past the paddock and garages.
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We walked around some more and here was a sample of prices for some food and drinks at a cart.
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Alfa Romeo took our photo.
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We stopped off at different spots and watched a little of the Masters Legends races. These cars were louder than the current F1 cars.
There is an Observation Tower that is 250 feet tall and 419 steps. They have timed entry and it cost just $35 to go up. We did not go up the tower although we hid from the sun in the shadow of the tower after the Practice to re-hydrate.
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Firemen with good seats to watch the cars.
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There was a tent with a display of some interesting cars.
Hollywood Car Collection in ONEderland
If movies and cars are your thing, the Hollywood Car Collection will
be a must-see! Located in the Park – COTA’s infield – take pictures of the Scooby Doo Van, the DeLorean Time Machine from Back to the
Future, 1959 Cadillac Ectomobile (also known as the Ecto-1) from GhostBusters,Lightning McQueen from Disney Pixar Cars, the 1966 Batmobile
from Batman and more.
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It was COTA's 10th anniversary so we got a free slice of birthday cake from the little boxes in this display. There were "elves" inside serving pieces of cake. One of the few free items at the race!
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From 2-3PM and 5-6:30 PM there were Practice Sessions and our fist chance to
see the F1 cars and drivers. We watched the practices from different spots
along the track.
Between Practice sessions we hid from the sun in the Biergarten and found seats at a table. There
were giant TV screens inside the tent so we just hung out to re-hydrate
and relax a bit.
The second Practice we watched from Turn 1.
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The Paddock and garages on the right.
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The Paddock and Garages with a nice view of Downtown Austin far off in the distance.
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Thank God there were these giant water filling stations to refill our water bottles.
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This is inside one of the GIANT food tents in one of the "lands."
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Anyone interested in a $12 PB&J sandwich?
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We sat in our bleacher seats at Turn 19 for Practice session #2.
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After Turn 19 there is a turn off to the left to go to Pit Lane or straight and left to continue on the course.
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One good thing about our seats is that we could see a giant TV screen for information.
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After the second Practice Session, it was time to walk over to the Super Stage for the Green Day concert once it got dark. There was a tunnel under the track on our route to the concert area.
We don't know too many Green Day songs so we watched from the back. After several songs, we called it a day. We still had to walk back to the bus to drive us back to the Park & Ride. It must have been a 25K step day! I lost my FitBit during the weekend so there's no way to know for sure.
So that was Day 1!
Day 2
The next morning we arrived a little earlier again afraid of the traffic and had no trouble getting parked and on the bus to the track. This morning we brought pillows with us and took an hour nap in the truck in the parking lot before catching the bus. We knew it would be another long day.
The parking lot opened at 7:30 and gates at 8 AM. There were some more Masters events during the morning.
There is RV parking at the track for mucho bucks. Some people get very clever with their seats for the race.
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This was set up on top of their travel trailer!
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Near the Grand Plaza and Turns 16-19 is an Amphitheater. This is where the drivers come out and do short interviews for the fans. I didn't know this yesterday or we would have come to watch. Luckily there were more interviews today.
We arrived early and got a good seat. I did not want to stand and wait for the "show" to start.
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Laura Winter, announcer, who said, "amazing" about a million times.
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As it got closer to show time, the place was packed!
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Haas Team Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher
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The guys throwing hats to the crowd
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Alpine Team Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon
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The guys liked to take selfies with the crowd and the fans went wild!
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Ferrari Team Carlos Sainz and Charles LeClerc
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Red Bull Team Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen
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Mercedes Team Lewis Hamilton
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I don't know why Lewis Hamilton and George Russel were not on stage at the same time as they are both Mercedes drivers. Maybe they were having a spat?
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Mercedes Team George Russel
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Williams Team Nicholas Latifi and Alexander Albon
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The other teams which we missed the day before were:
McLaren: Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo
Alfa Romeo: Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas
Alpha Tauri: Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly
Aston Martin: Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll
Some more walking before Practice session #3 from 2-3 PM.
It is definitely more crowded than yesterday!
This time we watched from Turn 1.
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| One of the Red Bull cars comes out on to the track. |
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Ferrari heading up the hill to Turn 1
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Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes entering the track.
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After Practice #3, here were the fastest drivers:
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Verstappen
Leclerc
Sainz
Perez
Hamilton
Alonso
Russell
Vettel
Stroll
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Now time to find somewhere to get out of the sun! It was even hotter today.
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One of the food tents with people everywhere to find shade and re-hydrate!
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From 5-6PM was the only Qualifying session of the Austin Race.
We watched from the long straightaway near the Premium RV parking area and Onderland. The cars go by so fast since this is the area where they reach their top speed with a long straight section of the track. We ended up watching most of it on the giant TV screen and just heard the cars zoom by.
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Look how crowded this section is just for Qualifying!
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Here are the results after qualifying with Carlos Sainz at Pole position in the race tomorrow:
- Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
- George Russel, Mercedes
- Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
- Lando Norris, McLaren
- Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo
- Alexander Albon, Williams
- Sergio Perez, Red Bull
- Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin
- Pierre Gasly, Alphatauri
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
- Kevin Magnussen, Haas
- Fernando Alonso, Alpine
- Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren
- Mick Schumacher, Haas
- Nicholas Latifi, Williams
- Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo
- Yuki Tsunoda, Alphatauri
- Esteban Ocon, Alpine
We walked past Onderland on the way to the Super Stage for tonight's concert.
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This thing was even more cool at dusk with flames shooting out of it.
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While waiting for the concert to start, here is a nice shot looking past the track, the premium RV parking, one of the car parking lots and out to the city of Austin in the distance.
We had a beautiful sunset waiting for the Ed Sheeran concert to start.
We listened to about 8-10 songs and I only knew one of them before we left for the night. And that was the end to Day #2 of the weekend.
Day 3 - Race Day!
On Race day we arrived at our Park & Ride lot even earlier. We brought our pillows again and took a two hour nap in the truck! We were exhausted from the last two day's events and we still had a full day of activities! When we arrived at the track it was so crowded!
The Parking lot opened at 7AM and the Gates at 8AM.
Al wanted to take photos from Turn 6 and I knew I wanted to watch the race from Turn 1. I wanted to be able to see the start (and end) of the race along with the pit area. We planned to meet up after the race but when Al saw how crowded it was, he went with me to Turn 1. We SQUEEEEEZED ourselves into a spot on the grass that was uphill from the starting line with a good view of Turn 1 plus the bonus of having a TV screen viewable in case we missed any crashes. Now we wait..........
We only brought towels to sit on or to use for shade while we waited for the events to begin. We each took turns to use the restroom before the race started and it was a real challenge to get back to our spot because there were SOOO many people. Even using landmarks it was hard to find our spot.
Some people had way more expensive tickets than we had and their tickets included a ride around the track on one of the semi trailers. It was funny because as the trucks passed by, the people in the stands would boo the people on the trailers. That was our entertainment while we waited.
At noon there was the Driver's Parade where each team's drivers went around the track in vintage pickup trucks. This is Texas after all!
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Haas Team Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher
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Astin Martin's Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll
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Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu and Vatteri Bottas
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Red Bull's Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen
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Ferreri's Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz
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Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and George Russell
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McLaren's Daniel Ricardo and Lando Norris
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More waiting.......
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Anyone see the Buccees Umbrella?
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Looking over to our bleacher seats at Turn 19 by the Ferris wheel.
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The cars came out for a warmup lap before the National Anthem was sung.
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McLaren
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| Ferrari |
The cars are all lined up and the teams on the track. The National Anthem was sung by Reyna Roberts (don't know her).
It was too windy so the Air Display was cancelled. Bummer!
The race is 56 laps or 2 hours whichever comes first.
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Now just the teams on the track
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One more warm-up lap....
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Cars getting in to their correct starting positions
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Max Verstappen fans with their orange smoke.
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Now it's "Lights Out!"
The drivers go up hill and around Turn #1 on the first lap and there is a crash between Ferrari's Pole position Carlos Sainz and Mercedes' George Russel. (Of course all the really good photos are from Al.) Carlos Sainz was out of the race that quickly!
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Ferrari in red and Mercedes in silver and green
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All that action on the first turn of the first lap! And we had a great view of it all.
Here are photos of some of the cars as they were in Turn 1 which Al could get without so much fencing in the way.
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George Russell
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Each lap is 3.4 miles long and the cars can do a lap in about 1.5 minutes so the cars were going by pretty rapidly. There was never a lull with no cars for very much time.
Fastest lap: 
George Russell (Mercedes) – 1:38.788 (lap 56)
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Sergio Perez
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Max Verstappen
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Sergio Perez
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Max Verstappen
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Lewis Hamilton
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Charles Leclerc
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Max Verstappen coming from Turn 20 (last car). He's lapping the two Williams cars.
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And the checkered flag goes to.......Red Bull's Max Verstappen!
After the race is finished and all the cars are off the course, the fans are allowed on the track. It was mayhem as people were running to get down to the trophy podium to watch the ceremony! My plan was to go down to the podium to watch the ceremony but when I saw how many people were running there, I gave up on that idea. We watched it on the giant TV screen.
Track Invasion
When the checkered flag drops and the winner pulls in on Sunday, the
track gates will fly open. You are invited to celebrate on the track!
Experience the trophy ceremony, grab a souvenir tire marble, and party
on the front straight with DJ Diesel (aka Shaq) spinning the hits.
We did make it out on to the track but decided to walk the track in the direction the cars went so we bypassed all the crazy mob.
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Lewis Hamilton on the TV screen
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The winner, Max Verstappen
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People are so crazy. Check out this chick laying on the track at Turn 1! Too funny! These were marks from the crash on Lap 1.
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Red Bull's Team Principal, Christian Horner
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Podium shot from the giant TV screen
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Final score:
So we just walked on the track along with thousands of other fans.
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DJ Diesel (Shaq)
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Do I look exhausted and dehydrated in this photo??? I sure was!
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Turn 11
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After being in the sun all day and I ran out of water, I was so thirsty. It was too crowded to try to refill my water bottle once we found a spot to watch the race. While we were walking on the track someone found some nice cold water bottles left behind by the safety crew. I was so happy to get some water to drink!
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Check out this guy trying to steal one of the advertisement signs for Rolex.
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One of the walking bridges over the track.
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We walked from Turn 1 all the way around to Turn 19 before they made us leave the track. So that was about 3 miles.
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Turn 19 bleachers
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Then we had to walk all the way back to Turn 11 outside of the track to catch our Park & Ride bus back to our car. It took about an hour for the bus to reach our lot because there was so much traffic. The Park & Ride worked well and our wait for a bus all weekend was very short no matter when we were ready to leave. We got back to the RV, took showers, and relaxed! We were exhausted!
There were 440,000 fans in attendance for the weekend!
That was our experience at the Formula 1 Race in Austin, Texas! It sure was an endurance weekend! Would we do it again, probably not. In my opinion, it's better to watch on TV with all the commentary and replays. Just like football. But we were glad we went and had a good time for this experience!
The next day we rested! Then the day after we got four new tires for the RV in Kyle, Texas. $772 later and we were done. We were having some trouble with the brakes locking up when we turned so that was resolved. Plus we needed to replace the spare tire we were driving on after the flat.
The next morning we drove
to Hill Country Haven in Harper, TX about 2.5 hrs away. The route took us south towards San Antonio
and then west and north west on I-10 to Harper.
We were greeted by our host and parked on their property amongst the
scrub trees. We went inside their house
and saw Sue’s mosaics and jewelry. I
purchased 3 necklaces as gifts.
Plus the $20 they charged us to stay on their property which included no
hookups, a dozen eggs, 2 bottles of cold water, and homemade cookies. It was quiet and we had a good night.
The next day we said our goodbyes to our hosts and had less than a 2 hour drive to
Sonora, TX where we stayed at an RV park not far off the freeway. We picked a spot and paid $35 at the Super 8 motel
across the street. We had our pick of sites!
Al drove the 3.5 hours the next day to an RV park
just off the I-10 at exit 212.
It was like last nights campground where you
just pull in and pick a spot for the night with FHU (full hook ups) for $20.
Al accidentally put Diesel additive fluid in the DEF
tank instead of the gas tank. Uh oh! He spent hours watching You Tube videos to learn how to drain the DEF
tank and then draining it. He didn’t finish at night and let
it continue to drain overnight.
The next morning Al was back out there putting the DEF tank
back together after draining. We finally
left at 12:30 for the 5-hour drive to a winery in Deming, NM which we've stayed before. I drove a couple of hours and the check
engine light came on when I started the truck.
The light wasn’t blinking so it wasn’t a critical issue according to the manual so we continued
and made it all the way to the winery for the night. We bought a bottle of their Plum wine that we like and a flat
bread to go.
The next day we got an early start and were on the road by 8:30 for the 4-hour
drive to our friends, John and Sandy's place in Tucson, Arizona. Plus, we gained
another hour with the time zone change.
We arrived at 11:30 AZ time. At
12:30 we rode with John, Sandy, and Kenny to the AZ State Univ Club for brunch
overlooking the football field (no game).
While we were visiting them we also did a hike with John and Sandy in Sabino Canyon. It was 3.7 miles in to the canyon. Three of us took the shuttle back out and one walked/ran back. Guess who?
Back at John & Sandy's house we got to relax in their hot tub and watch a beautiful sunset.
We also visited our friends, Dorothy, Jerry, and Sadie while in Tucson but I forgot to take a photo.
On November 2nd we left Tucson and drove to Sunshine Acres Children's Home in Mesa, Arizona where we will spend the winter.
Here is a map of our travels for this entry (Texas is a BIG state!):
We have a bunch of activities coming up so I'll pick up with that in the next blog entry.
Thanks for following along.......
We arrived early and got a good seat. I did not want to stand and wait for the "show" to start. 
Some more walking before Practice session #3 from 2-3 PM. 
It is definitely more crowded than yesterday!
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We walked from Turn 1 all the way around to Turn 19 before they made us leave the track. So that was about 3 miles. 
