What do you do when you're in Charlotte....go the NASCAR Hall of Fame

We're not really NASCAR fans, but we made the short drive from Charleston to Charlotte quicker than we thought.  It wasn't far from our campground site in Concord next to the Charlotte Motor Speedway to downtown Charlotte,  where the hall is located.  We headed there Saturday afternoon.

Entry wing of the NASCAR Hall of Fame

When you enter, the curved wing of the ring of fame is impressive from the outside and even more so inside.  The ring has many cars of famous drivers, with room to expand.

Some famous drivers' cars in ring of fame

Linda in front of Jimmie Johnson's car

There are many exhibit areas that will inform and entertain you for hours.  We liked the cut-away of a race car with the various explanation signs.

Rear quarter view of cut-away car

Trunk with fuel cell

Driver side view with closed foam cell on driver's door

Front corner view

The "lump" in engine bay

There were some famous old cars from the early days of NASCAR.

Mercury Motors sponsored Chrysler 300-A

Tim found a great place to sit down, but had trouble getting out of the race car seat.  His grandson, Caden, does a much better job.

Tim in race car seat

The hall also had Jimmie Johnson's race trailer.  Tim tried to take a picture, but it was difficult to show any of the neat stuff.  Everything has its place and there is a lot of it.

Jimmie Johnson trailer

We closed the hall and headed back to the coach and prepared for our next journey.

Charleston: family, history and laughs

The drive from Brunswick to Charleston was short, but of course included some rain.

Welcome to South Carolina

The rain was light and didn't cause us any travel problems.  We pulled into Oak Plantation Campground in early afternoon and got setup for a couple of nights stay.  Our campsite had some shade, which gave us a little relief from the heat.  Actually, the weather wasn't that bad considering the time of year.

We met up with Tim's brother and sister-in-law, Scott and Andrea.  They purchased an old plantation home near downtown Summerville.  We had a great dinner and made plans to tour a historic mansion in downtown Charleston the next day.

Linda by Calhoun Mansion sign in Charleston, SC

Of course, we didn't know it at the time, but a few weeks later the tragic murders of 9 people would occur a few blocks away from Calhoun Mansion at a church.  You would never think that something like that would happen there.  You never know.
The mansion tour was fantastic.  Many people call this mansion the "OMG mansion".  Besides an awesome mansion it is also a terrific museum, because of the contents in the mansion.

Andrea, Scott & Linda in front of the Calhoun Mansion

The picture below was taken on the front porch of the mansion with Freddie, our tour guide.  Scott and Andrea had arranged for a private tour of the mansion, which includes many rooms the public don't see.  Our tour guide was terrific.

Linda, Andrea, Scott & tour guide Freddie on Calhoun Mansion porch

Ornate hinge on front door

Rope design indicating wealth carved into the front door

Dining table loaded with fantastic items

Baby carriage

Linda, Scott, Andrea & Freddie on the top lookout of Calhoun Mansion

The mansion contained so many items collected by the current owner (and occupant) that it would be a difficult to catalog them all.  The owner travels the world and brings unique items back to the mansion, sometimes by the container full.  You could spend weeks in the museum, I mean mansion and not see everything.  Each object also has its own story.  The tour of the mansion with Scott and Andrea was awesome.  We'll go back again!

Friday ended with an show.  Not any show, but a show that left you laughing so hard that your stomach hurt.  We've been big fans of Jay Leno for decades.  Our good friend, Roseanne, saw him when he appeared in the Tampa Bay area.  She said the show was great.  We couldn't go then.  Looking at our schedule, we realized he was doing a show in Charleston. We went Friday night.  Yes, we left in stitches and our stomachs sore from laughing.  Below is a rather poor picture of Leno.

Jay Leno on stage in Charleston, SC

The next day we drove to Charlotte, NC for a short stay.  See our next post.

1st stop - Brunswick, Georgia

284 miles from home to Brunswick was covered with ease.  Even the cat, Muffin, was comfortable.

Muffin in front buddy seat

As we crossed the Florida/Georgia border the clouds got thicker and darker.  Sporadic rain showers hit I-95 as we headed north. 

Clouds starting to build as we approach Georgia

By the time we arrived at Coastal Georgia RV Park near Brunswick the rain had stopped for awhile.  Setup in our site was fairly easy...before rain came again.  This RV park was nice and easy to get to.  The only problem was the site drives were angled wrong, so turning into and exiting a site with a long rig like ours (67 feet) was impossible without driving over grass.  In this case we made a big rut in the grass.  We weren't alone.

Big Red in the site at Coastal Ga. RV Park.  Notice big rut somebody else left.

 

 Something caught Tim's eye on a flatbed trailer a few sites from us in the RV park.  He went to investigate.

Coyote Cobra on flatbed at Coastal Ga. RV Park

 Tim had a brief chance to talk to the owners, before it started to rain again.  The owners were on their way home to Florida from North Carolina.  They had driven the car on the Tail of the Dragon, which is a road famous for its 318 curves in only 11 miles.  Boy, I bet that was fun.

Thursday morning we left for a short drive to Charleston, SC.  See our next post

First day out starts a trend....rain

Departure day came on Wednesday, June 3.  After double checking everything at home, we rolled down the street about Noon.

Tim & Linda holding Muffin in front of Big Red on our street

 We left under partly cloudy skies, which was not a good sign.  In future posts we'll mention weather conditions, which have plagued our trip.  Rain at least brought cooler temps from the Florida heat. The weather started clear until we got out of Florida.

They've got an "app" for that!

The app on my phone says 11 days until we depart home on Wednesday, June 3.  I guess I could look at a calendar and see that, but that would be old school.

Linda and I have been preparing for awhile.  Getting things ready at home and on Big Red.

Big Red has new captains chairs, which are way more comfortable than the original seats.  Linda wouldn't even sit in the buddy seat, because it hurt her back and legs.  The new seats were special ordered and match closely the rest of the interior.  New privacy drapes were ordered for the front the front windshield.  Sun, wind, dirt, water, and finger prints had taken a toll after 15 years.  The same burgundy color couldn't be found, so we ordered beige.  The new drapes have a backing that contains blackout instead of a fabric lining to knock out the sun, when we're parked.  The drapes are thinner and lighter than the old drapes, so they are much easier to handle.

Big red front drapes replaced

Actually, Linda wanted a larger TV for the basement of Big Red.  Can you believe that?  So we bought a 42" along with a soundbar.  Hopefully, we'll complete the installation before we leave.  We saw a similar installation at the January RV show in Tampa.  We'll be able to save most of the cabinets in the bay the TV goes in, so it should make it functional as well.  All the planning didn't quite work.  The soundbar ended up being too big.  We'll have to find a smaller unit and deal with "smaller" sound.

42" TV in Big Red basement

We've done some other things as well, but we'll describe those later.

Where to go? Of course, Ohio!

Yep, going to Ohio again.
Seems like our destination every summer for the last few years.  We always have a great reason for visiting, Linda's sister family.  Now Linda has a great niece who will be turning 1 year old soon.  We'll take a different route to and from Ohio to change things up.  Plans are to leave June 3 from our home after loading up the cat and other stuff into our RV, Big Red.