On November 29th we were the first one in line to go into the Good Sam Rally at the Daytona International Speedway. We volunteered for registration and to help with entertainment and we were fortunate to get both assignments. The weather was wonderful, but we were busy from dawn till dusk and I just did not have time to write our blog. WE ARE BACK ON LINE!!!!
As volunteers we had an up close and personal tour of the raceway, it was fascinating and loads of fun. This is the view from the media center-we had a full view of the track and the surrounding area. This is where we parked, we were faced away from "Lloyd Lake". There are 2 lakes within the race compound and they are a byproduct of all the earth that was moved for the surface under the track. This is Budweiser's "party porch"
View from the media center of the official building of the raceway.
Where I am standing the slope is 31% and the slope at Indianapolis Speedway is only 16% . It was a steep walk to get to the top of where the wall is. I have a whole new respect for all race car drivers.
One of the Good Sam officials received a ride on the track at 180 mph. He said it was a blast!
On the 31st the registration crew wore costumes and of course we had not hauled anything from WA, so we went to a costume store and bought these clown bow ties-we figured they are small and if we are on the road next year we can use them again-maybe even add an accessory or 2.
The folks we worked with are truly some of the nicest folks you will ever want to meet. We are looking forward to keeping in touch with them and hooking up at another rally in 2014. There was approximately 34-3500 rigs that attended and each one had to go through registration-dare I say we were very very busy? 90% of the time each line had and an excess of 15 people.
Sprint car on display
Sun on the way up!
The sunrise view out the bedroom window the first morning.
It was a full moon all the time we were there-but fortunately the crazies were NOT out!! Just pleasant (for the most part) Good Sam campers.
Our second volunteer assignment was to be "ushers" for the 2 evening entertainment performances. It was exciting to see Kenny Rogers and Reba in concert, but this crowd had some issues about 1- 2% acted like they were entitled to show up 10 minutes prior to the performer and get front row seats, they acted like spoiled unruly children. But on the whole it was a great time and we had a ball.
Just a small section of the crowd-the potential was to have around 6-7 thousand people in the stands.
Prior to Reba's performance 2 sky divers jumped onto the track within amazing accuracy. It was really amazing.
We left Daytona on the 5th of November and arrived in Naples on the 6th after spending the night in Bartow, Florida's Camping World. When we arrived yesterday we brought 4 full loads of laundry and some tired bones. We did the laundry and went to dinner at P.J Chaings, the food was delicious and served elegantly.
The Buda statues watched over the diners.
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