Day 9. West Coast again ;-) NASCAR racing Phoenix , Far too hot !

[daytonababe]

I didn't sleep that well really.. I was still raging about the night before, Kids woke about 8am and we got ready, We avoided showers because it didn't look all that clean...

Checked out, and walked across the road to the Loves truck stop, Yay I'd spent the night in a bloody truck stop.. bit of a Busman's Holiday for Barry who is a truck driver ;-)

Good thing about Loves is it is cheap, so bought drinks and snacks and off we went.

We knew today would be really hot and didn't want to leave all the luggage in the car , as we had ipads etc.. So we drove to the Best Western and they let us leave all our luggage in a disused room..

Incidently they had never heard of a cash paying guest being turned away..

Headed towards the track and stopped off at a garage which has a little market, Connor bought a couple of diecast cars , He really wanted some sheet metal but its just too big to bring home

He spotted a BBQ on the go doing burgers so we all had one, and in his words they were the best burgers he's ever had !

Arrived at the track and my god it was hot and only around 10am.. I swear Barry parked in the most dusty part of the car park ! ..

Went to pick my tickets up and had the usual conversation that we've had every year for 7 years.. Do we post them.. Nope you don't post international.. Oh no that's right we don't

Tickets in hand we went through bag check.. it makes Disney's poke with a stick look good lol..

Had a wander around and went to our seats.. For this race we sit in row 43 as high as you can get... it nearly killed me. I vowed to change them for next year !

I can't tell you how hot it was today.. but when we left it was 111 so must have been 120 in the afternoon.. For the first time ever Chloe and I had to go sit under the stands, the dry heat was so intense.

Left about 4.30pm and drove to the Best Western and checked in.. Only had one room left and it happened to be a suite.. So we struck lucky there ;-).. We did give the manager a pretty good tip for all her help..

Got showered and changed and was just off out to eat when we got a message from our friend who driver the hauler for the NASCAR team, would be like to eat with him if so meet him at 6.30 at his hotel. We said yes as we'd been in the same hotel in Vegas and not seen him once.

Drove to the Holiday Inn where he stays and he came out to meet his with another of the drivers and a couple we call the Crazy Canadians Lovely people who we met last year but I swear the woman is on a different planet ;-)

So nice to see Eloy and catch up, He let Connor and Barry in his truck etc then we went with him and another driver to the nearby Chili's for some food. Probably the best meal and evening we had all trip. We were still in there at 10.30pm..
We actually met Eloy last year when he crossed the road at the same time as us at South Point in Vegas and we said hello then we ended up in the same hotel in Phoenix as him.

We left the restaurant and walked back across to his truck and he gave us all some team caps etc..

Had a quick trip to Walmart and then back to the hotel and bed where we all slept much better !
Steps 15140 / 8.07km

[daytonababe]

[tocpe321]

Hi daytonababe

Been reading through your days on this trip report. Thanks for posting. You certainly pack a lot in! Sounds like you have a nice group of friends that you keep in touch with on the NASCAR circuit. Shame about the night before, but really good how you got rooms elsewhere. Amazing temperatures on your travels.

[daytonababe]

Originally Posted by tocpe321

Hi daytonababe

Been reading through your days on this trip report. Thanks for posting. You certainly pack a lot in! Sounds like you have a nice group of friends that you keep in touch with on the NASCAR circuit. Shame about the night before, but really good how you got rooms elsewhere. Amazing temperatures on your travels.

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Hello.. Thank you... TBH we probably did too much, We never stopped at all.. But we knew it was the last year Chloe would be coming to the West Coast as she'll be working in a school soon so we wanted to do as much as we could.

Considering we're English we've been so lucky to make so many lovely friends in NASCAR, maybe we stand out being English.

We are off to Charlotte in October to a race and to see friends and Connors managed to get 4 race shop tours lined up ..

I am so so thankful for the Best Western manager, I truly don't know what we would have done. The only other option I could think of was to hire a RV on the Saturday for a few days and park it at the race track but the cost would have been $$$$$

[florida girl]

Nice trucks. I remember when we used to go to the Monster truck racing they were amazed we'd come all the the way from England just to watch, they really appreciate their fan base. We really must try to get back sometime.

[daytonababe]

Originally Posted by florida girl

Nice trucks. I remember when we used to go to the Monster truck racing they were amazed we'd come all the the way from England just to watch, they really appreciate their fan base. We really must try to get back sometime.

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Yes they do and probably think we're a little odd too

My friend Jill is coming here next year but only for 2 weeks.. And she's like but how do you come for so long and have other trips. She gets 2 weeks holiday then another week she can take without pay.

She's stunned we get 28 days or whatever..

I think it was the Monster Jam finals when I was in Fontana, but there was barely anything about it in Vegas this year.

[The Hulk]

Great day after such a bad night hit lucky with a best western suite anyway!

[florida girl]

I know don't think they get much holiday in the US, unless people are retired they only seem to go away for short periods.

[Jake71]

A much better day compared to the end of yesterday.

[WileyCoyote]

Eesh, that's some heat. So pleased you had a good day after last nights debacle.