Off to the West Coast again ..Day 4 Long Beach & Vegas

[daytonababe]

I woke up at 5.30am and checked my emails and OMG. One was from my favourite NASCAR drivers PR lady Jill.. We are friendly and keep in contact and I knew she wouldn't at any of the West Coast races as she was off on holiday.

Anyway the email basically said your in Phoenix next weekend right, you best check your twitter !

Confused I checked my twitter and there was a tweet from Jimmy Johns who are a main sponsor of my driver and it said next weekend at Phoenix you and a guest are Ultimate fans for the day DM us ! I had no idea what a ultimate fan was ! But google was my friend and basically it meant we were treated like royalty got hot garage passes to sit on the pit box for the race and meet the driver . Well I wasted no time replying to Jimmy Johns I can assure you !

(As I later found out my friend Jill had been talking to Jimmy Johns about me for a year and it was all down to her).

I had to wake DH and tell him.. but then I had to choose who to take.. So in my DM i asked if any age restrictions and was told no , So I choose to take Connor. He is the big race fan and I knew would get so much from it.

7am we all got up showered and finished packing .. Breakfast at the hotel again and then loaded up the car. We were off to Vegas today but there was no great rush so we wanted to do something on the way.

Tbh none of us were fussed about going to Hollywood or the usual LA sites so we decided to head to Long Beach.

Didn't take long to get there but we did stop on the way at Target and bought a few more NASCAR diecast and drinks etc.

We knew the Queen Mary was at Long Beach so headed there, Chloe loved it , Connor couldn't have been less impressed .. I was quite surprised how scruffy the outside looked in parts never the less its a impressive site and next year we might do the tour.
Decided to go for a drive through Long Beach and saw all the posters for the Indy Car grand prix in April, then we came across the start/finish line and the grandstands being erected for the race. I tried to persuade DH we should stay for the race !

Then we headed for the beach, ample parking nearby with parking meters that we couldn't get to work ! Pretty quiet here though so we spend about 30 mins on the sand .. Lovely beach and area and I suspect one day we'll be back to stay and do the Grand Prix.

We decided it was time to head off... via Fontana ! There is a NASCAR track here and next year we will be off to that race so we went to see how much tickets were and look for hotels nearby.. Stopped at the AM/PM near the track for drinks and snacks.. $5 for 3 huge drinks 1 hot dog and 3 cookies bargain..

And then it was road trip time ! Traffic was horrendous around the San Bernardino Valley we barely moved at times but finally we could get on. Decided to stop on the way for tea, Didn't fancy Barstow as we did that last year so carried on to Baker.

Well not much at Baker bar the world's biggest thermometer ! Oh and a Denny's so we called in there for tea.. Parked opposite were some late model stock cars so DH & DS went to take some pics.

Tea done it was back in the car and finally we could see Primm in the distance and knew we were nearly there.. South Point is Primm end of Vegas so around 8pm that came into view :-))

Connor then woke up and asked if we could go to the race track and see if the NASCAR haulers had arrived so we did.. well what's another 17 miles when you've driven 280 !
Happy his haulers were at the track we drove back to South Point and checked in... Hotel was full with race teams and some other event. We were given room 206 and told we could move the next day.

Went to the room and it was fine, down the end of the corridor and not a great view but the room was lovely and tbh we just sleep there.
DH and I unpacked whilst the kids went down to the shop.. There were soon back with Connor asking me for $100 !
The hotel owners son races NASCAR and had some shirts and signed cars in the shop.
To be fair Connor had bought barely nothing so I took him down and bought them for him..

He is a avid collector of NASCAR models its all he really buys so I knew he was about to start spending his money :-)

By now it was 11pm and we had a long day ahead tomorrow so we went to bed

Steps 6134

[daytonababe]

[daytonababe]

[daytonababe]

[Sandraoh40]

We loved Peggy sues. We are going to drive over for lunch when we are in Yucca Valley in May, it's only about an hours drive. It will be the first time we have been to the west coast without it being Vegas and is going to be difficult not to drive over ...
I always like reading your trip reports, they give me loads of ideas, thanks

[daytonababe]

Thank you for your kind words :-)

I wish we had stopped at Peggy's Sues not sure why we didn't really, Maybe next year as we are bound to pass by .

[Enchanted]

More great pics, bet that's the most exciting email you've ever had

[daytonababe]

OMG yes it was ha ha ...

I was speechless which I'm sure you know doesn't happen too often.. I genuinely didn't know what it meant I just thought I'd get in the pits.. I've been trying to do that for years and not managed it so was perfectly happy with that.

Then out came all the other details of what we would actually get and due to issues with Connor's age I was actually able to take both kids with me which made it even better.

Unfortunately Chloe now has a taste for the VIP lifestyle on race days ... she's in for a shock next year when its back to normal seats lol..

[Pussycat Doll]

Wow, brilliant email to get! Lovely day as well. We've been to that Denny's in Baker as well on one of our many road trips! Pussycat

[Glee Fan]

I bet you were so excited when you read your twitter! How fantastic and what an experience.

My parents spent a couple of months exploring California last year and went onto the Queen Mary for cocktails, I think they quite enjoyed wandering around. It does look a bit tatty though in your pics which is a shame.

Glad Connor has got into the spending spirit now too!