HRPT Day 10 - Home!

Today is Father's Day and the last day of the Power Tour trip.  We did nothing but drive all day from Lousiana back home.  We made good time but it was still such a long drive.  We pulled into the drive with 2,884 miles on the trip odometer and had reached the goal of 10 states in 10 days.

HRPT Day 9 - Skip Barber & West Monroe

Today was largely a day to put down miles and get back home.  The worst part of it was a pain in my right knee.  It slowly got worse and worse over the trip.  I'd put some pain killing lotion on it most mornings but the long days like today were the worst.  I think it is a combination of the strange angle of my leg and the throttle return spring being a little stiff.  

We broke up today's trip by taking a very small detour to Skip Barber Racing Museum and the nearby Buckees.  Skip Barber was far more than I expected with three or four floors of motorcycles.  They were also racing cars on the track outside that you could see from an observation bridge.  We enjoyed our time there before hitting the road to put down more miles.

One thing which stuck me driving back was how horrible the roads were the entire way back.  There were tremendous pot holes on the roads that you just could not escape.  We stopped seeing classic cars pulled over but now modern cars pulled over with tire damage no doubt from the roads.  It is rather ridiculous that we spend so much as a country helping others when we don't even have adequate roadways.  

We stopped for the evening in West Monroe, LA.  Its not the best town or the best hotel but it worked.  We ultimately ate a few steaks at Logan's steakhouse, drove past Duck Commander, and made it to the hotel right before it began to storm heavily.  Luckily, we checked the following morning and there wasn't any water in the floorboard.  It seems what we had found there in the days prior was all from the AC box leaking due to the drain hose or condensation.

Our mileage at the end of the day was 2,540.

HRPT Day 8 - Bristol

We started the day off as normal and jumped into the car excited to make it to Bristol and be long haulers.  I did the normal morning check of the car and jumped in to start it to find the battery was dead.  I thought this could end up happening as the battery was old and this would tax it but I was tired of buying everything just in case.

I pushed the car back into a spot where the front of the car was accessible.  There were others there around getting ready to leave.  I had my jumper cables and found someone in a suburban who was willing to jump start the car.  Once it was running, I had my son look for an Auto Zone along the route.  We were getting an early start so most were not open.  We found one 30 minutes away with the right battery in stock.  

We pulled up out front of the AutoZone and swapped the battery without too much trouble.  With the battery swapped, it started with ease.  We filled up the car with gas and got right back on the route.  We had been starting the route 30 minutes before the established time daily and lost that lead due to the battery problems.  This made me worried as I continued to hear about Hot Rod running out of long hauler plaques each year.  This made me a little stressed but soon it vanished.

This day had the best route of the entire trip.  We went through the mountains in North Carolina (Blowing Rock and Boone) and tree lined roads that turned and weaved.  The temperatures were awesome (low 70's) for the entire morning drive.  There was a large three car wreck along the way which we passed just after it occurred.  That wreck ultimately held up most of the traffic behind us for quite some time. 

We made it to Bristol which was a shockingly small track on the inside.  It was, however, the easiest to get into and park the car.  We seemed to make it there before so many other people.  We parked the car with 1,749 miles and quickly headed for our long hauler plaques.    

There wasn't much fanfare when we got our plaques.  We luckily each received one as we both had credentials stamped for each day.  I was worried they would run out which we learned later on Facebook ultimately did happen a few hours later.  With plaques in hand, we found someone to take our picture, we then took the plaques to the car, and then walked the parking lot looking at all the cars.  There was an autocross track to run but we didn't as we needed the car to last the 15 hour trip back home.

From the Bristol Speedway, we went to Sonic for a quick burger.  We then drove fully into Bristol, Virginia reaching our 8th and 9th states for the trip.  We then headed back south to Ooltewah, TN for the night.  It was strange as we drove away and slowly started seeing fewer and fewer HRPT stickers on cars.  We continued to see them sporadically this last day but it slowed to almost nothing afterwards.  Whe we arrived at the hotel, we were at 1.979 miles.

HRPT Day 7 - zMax Raceway

Today's venue was zMax Raceway which was only about 1.5 hours from Monroe.  We started the day off early regardless.  If we were going to guess the route wrong, today was the day as there were many thigns to do in the area.  We went to Hendrick Motorsports Museum and also the Mustang Museum.  We had a few BBQ sandwiches and then started off for the venue.

Getting into the venue today was worse than the day before.  The temperature was incredibly hot and we were backed up all through the three lanes into the speedway and out onto the roads.  We had been counting cars we saw broke down on the side of the road and today we doubled that count to 24.  Most of those which were broken down seemed to be overheating.

We waited in line for what seemed to be forever and suddenly, they started letting people cut in front of us from the road we were initially lined up on.  I learned later that the city forces them to do something if cars on the road start to back up through stop lights.  Aaron and I were not too happy about them cutting in but later learned we were on a Vice Grip Garage video as Derek was one of those that cut in right behind us.  

It took a total of 1.5 hours just to make it off the road and to a parking spot.

We quickly got our tour credentials punched again.  Each day we stopped by the Painless Wiring booth as we were told that at some point they would start to give away extra long haul stickers for the windshields and I wanted an extra.  Today was our lucky day and they gave both Aaron and I one since we both had long haul credentials.  

While we were there, a black Dodge Dakota was about to make a run down the race track and blew up on the line.  I learned later that he blew the transmission on the starting line.  The truck then caught on fire from all the flammable transmission fluid.

We drove a short distance away to our hotel and were at 1,570 miles when we stopped.  We ate at a Juicy Crab just down the road from the hotel.  There were a few cars in this hotel parking lot so we walked around that evening looking at them some.  We then called it an evening.  

HRPT Day 6 - Rockingham Speedway

We followed the established path to Rockingham which was mostly small county roads.  Traffic was not too bad until the last 1.7 miles into the speedway where it was completely stopped in both directions.  How we moved so incredibly slowly is a mystery as it took 45 minutes to drive the 1.7 miles.  Several cars were beginning to overheat while others were heading to the trees on the side of the road for a restroom break.

I didn't want to risk overheating by running the AC the entire time we were in the long line.  After a while, I just started running it as the new Spal fan setup was running strong.  It was near 2 o'clock when we arrived and the engine temp never went over 180 degrees.

There were many cars parked on the infield but we seemed to get there later than most despite starting the route 30 minutes before the established time.  I suspect those who arrived before us must have drove some the night before or just drive an alternate route.  As we pulled in and parked, we rolled over 1,456 miles.

As with the day before, the first thing we did was get our credentials stamped.  We walked around to find the same vendors and items on display.  Aaron and I got something to eat at one of the vendor stations and were about ready to leave.  As we debated leaving, David Freiburger and Steve Dulcich pulled up in an older red Duster covered in GoPro cameras.  As they arrived, camera men showed up and started recording as it seemed they were recording part of a Roadkill Garage episode.  We stood around watching and then David started handing out stickers and signing autographs.  Luckily, Aaron was third in line and had his Power Tour hat signed.  It was the highlight of the day.

Once the HRPT destinations are announced, you must quickly make reservations before hotels are fully booked.  Rockingham was hard as there were no nearby hotels so we decided to stay in Monroe.  It was on the most likely route to the next venue but I was wrong.  We drove a little after the days event to Monroe and had several classics around us and at the hotel with us.  We ate at Buffalo Wild Wings that evening and had another relaxing night at the hotel.