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I've been watching NASCAR for a few years now, after many years watching Formula 1. Not actually watching, more like having it on to accompany whatever I'm doing - on TV you miss the speed and sounds of a real race. I once had a taste of stock-car racing when I volunteered at the Edmonton Indy, and thought the thunderous sound of a V-8 pushrod engine at 9500 RPM was AMAZING.

So I'm planning to see a race - in Bristol, Tennessee ...

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2012.07.09 Money Well Spent
 
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Time to spend some money! Today was a good day for some consumer therapy - it was hot (still is) and I had some negativity from negative people to counter. It's about time to make this trip as real as a large expenditure can make an idea real. Fortunately, the travel rates I saw back when first considering the whole thing were pretty much unchanged so my sloth hasn't hurt me on this front.

Expedia got me a first-class flight and cheapo car for 2 weeks for 2 grand.

2012.08.21 08:35 YEG-MSP 12:10 Delta 3344
2012.08.21 14:02 MSP-CLT 17:29 Delta 2013
...
2012.09.04 18:31 CLT-MSP 20:14 Delta 2013
2012.09.04 10:10 MSP-YEG 00:08 Delta 3341

Good Therapy!

Track tickets also booked - an aisle seat in the Allison Terrace looking over the Start/Finish line and a 'VIP Experience' package that gets me various benefits including food and a/c. Even though I could have booked online I wanted the aesthetic benefit of talking to a sweet-voiced southern belle and the one who took my order and answered my questions certainly did not disappoint in that regard. :)

 
2012.07.09 Life's (Going to be) a Beach
 
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Possum-bilities....
   I'm travelling for an extra week: after the races I will toodle my way via Charlotte to Wilmington, NC to visit my friend TFS at her seaside sojourn beach house as she works on a TV production. I'll be there for the Labour Day long weekend and for sure at Harbor Masters for their Possum Casserole.
 
2012.07.16 Itinerance Exposed
 
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August      21      Tuesday      0835    1729      Fly Edmonton to Charlotte, NC
                     1730    2400      Drive Charlotte to Bristol, Tennessee
       22      Wednesday           1600      ? around Bristol
                     1700    2400      NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race
       23      Thursday           1600      ? around Bristol
                     1700    2400      Food City Race Night, State Street Bristol
       24      Friday           1600      ? around Bristol
                     0900    2400      NASCAR Nationwide Series race
       25      Saturday           1600      ? around Bristol
                     1300    2400      NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race
       26      Sunday                  ? Knoxville / Nashville
       27      Monday                  ? Drive Bristol, Tennessee to Charlotte, NC
? NASCAR Hall of Fame
       28      Tuesday                  ? NASCAR Hall of Fame
? Drive Charlotte to Wilmington, NC
       29      Wednesday                  ? around Wilmington
       30      Thursday                  ? around Wilmington
       31      Friday                  ? around Wilmington
September      1      Saturday                  ? around Wilmington
       2      Sunday                  ? Charleston, SC
       3      Monday                  ? Charleston
       4      Tuesday      0835    1729      Drive Wilmington to Charlotte
                     1830    2400      Fly Charlotte, NC to Edmonton
 
2012.07.24 Tickets
 
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Got my Bristol Motor Speedway tickets yesterday. They spelled my name wrong. :( 50 years with an unusual name, I'm used to it.


BMS Track Map
   Here's where my seats are for the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races on the Allison Terrace just off the start/finish line . For the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race I have a general admission ticket since it won't be full, and I can move around the place and check it out before the main races.
 
2012.07.25 Getting Myself in Gear
 
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This trip is the first time off I've taken of any significant magnitude since 1999 when I drove with my (now ex-) wife and 3 other couples in their classic cars to Montana for a Sunbeam car meet. The Internet was nowhere near developed enough to have the always-on access we have nowadays. When "getting away" involved actually "being away." All I had was my cellphone - exotic at the time. I don't remember even checking e-mail.

13 years later there aren't too many places in the world one can go and not maintain an electronic connection with the world. So, I'm taking some gear with me, so I can be available to work and carry on my digital life while en tournée.

For a portable desktop I got a great deal on a virtually-unused (only twice I think) Lenovo ThinkPad T61 - a venerable road-warrior classic. I had an earlier IBM version when I worked for IBM long ago and TPs are still primo machines. It was upgraded with a larger disk and more RAM and has pretty much the same power as my desktop machine, and a screen just a step smaller than my desktop so remote-control is very feasible. The disk is large enough to carry all that matters of my files, so it's a real portable version of what I sit at home with.

For walk-around portability I finally retired my trusty old Motorola TimePort and joined the leagues of smartphone users. I got a Samsung Galaxy Note - the largest palmable phone/tablet with the longest battery life. It's really a pocketable version of my laptop with about the same horsepower, slightly smaller screen resolution, and less storage. Perhaps as a sign of my geezer-ness it didn't come with a manual and I had only vague ideas of how to work it initially, until I found a manual online. I guess it's assumed everyone knows how to tap and swipe and pinch their way through a touch interface. The online tech that I called on another matter had to tell me how to answer the phone when he made a test call. Duh me.

I'm not normally a gear collector - I've seen so much of it pass in and out of relevance in 3 decades and stopped chasing the latest 2 decades ago. This is the most new technology I've consumed in quite a while. But this trip is a test of my ability to work and stay in touch from somewhere else, which I plan to do more, regularly if I can.

 
2012.08.10 Digital Resources
 
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The Big Picture         

Roads 1
  

Satellite 1
  

Roads 2
  

Satellite 2
 
Bristol   TN    Weather
Government
Tourism
News
Bristol Motor Speedway
Schedule
Maps
Bristol Caverns
Music
    

Roads 1
  

Satellite 1
  

Roads 2
  

Satellite 2
  

Lodging 1
  

Lodging 2
 
Bristol   VA    Weather
Government
Tourism
News
     It's across State Street from Bristol, Tennessee
 
Charleston   SC    Weather
Government
Tourism
News
Entertainment
    

Roads 1
  

Satellite 1
  

Roads 2
  

Satellite 2
 
Charlotte   NC    Weather
Government
Tourism
News
Charlotte Airport
NASCAR Hall of Fame
    

Roads 1
  

Satellite 1
  

Roads 2
  

Satellite 2
  

Roads 3
  

Satellite 3

NASCAR HoF
  
 
Wilmington   NC    Weather
Government
Tourism
News
Hurricane Center
    

Roads 1
  

Satellite 1
  

Roads 2
  

Satellite 2

Lodging Roads 1
  

Lodging Satellite 1
  

Lodging Roads 2
  

Lodging Satellite 2
  

Lodging Roads 3
  

Lodging Satellite 3
 
 
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But First, a Little Homework
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Jerome's
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Document EIL/PEWQ/0.7:2012.09.10    A branch of The BRIDGE Tree