Common people encountering uncommon circumstances.
I am a common man. It just seems as if I encounter more than my share of uncommon experiences. I’m here to tell you all about that today.
We’ll cover the usual. Traveling tips, dos and don’ts, and the touring unusual. Money, how to save it by getting good value. Trackchasing! Four tracks from Florida in five days.
My guidelines to a semi-normal life.
Additionally, I have a few over-arching guidelines for life.
Among those, I want to stay flexible, take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself, and buy GOOD stuff CHEAP. I am a common man. Some might see this read as talking about auto racing. I see this as a message about the people I met. They came from all walks of life.
The simple plan rarely stays simple.
This weekend’s race itinerary started as a simple plan. First, I would fly overnight to a Thursday night race in Alabama. Then I would move over to Florida for some racing at two tracks in Florida. On Saturday morning I would fly back to Los Angeles to join Carol for a UCLA basketball game. Can a trip plan be any simpler than that?
I guess this simple trip wasn’t really that solid.
Because these events seemed so “solid” I bought an airline ticket a couple of months in advance. I NEVER do that. But, I got a great price with my legacy carrier American Airlines. I would fly overnight from Los Angeles to Tampa on Wednesday night. Buying a ticket far in advance is a death notice for me. That means the trip is going to change and having a non-refundable ticket will turn from a good idea to a bad idea.
Just as I was getting ready to leave for another trackchasing adventure and final preparations had been made the Alabama track canceled! Something about adding new clay and not having enough time to work on the track because the promoter had a regular job. If it ain’t one thing it’s another. So many of these tracks and race dates at this point in my trackchasing hobby are way too “fragile”.
What to do now?
Should I keep my airline ticket and simply “burn” an off day in Florida? Should I find another way to get down to the Sunshine State? Should I just bag the trip? I rarely bag any trip. That would simplify things, wouldn’t it?
Andy H. to the rescue!
About that time one of my online trackchasing friends in Florida told me about a racing event on Saturday afternoon in Florida. That sounded great and super productive with my current Friday Florida race plan. However, if I did that, I couldn’t get back to California and Carol for the basketball game. Things were starting to get complicated.
There is only one permanent race track in Florida that I haven’t seen yet. It’s located way up in the panhandle in the small town of Baker, Florida.
Would this finally be the time?
The Northwest Florida Speedway races about 10 times a year almost exclusively on Saturday nights. I have been following this track for more than 20 years. Because of weather, and travel issues, I still hadn’t made it there. They were having a special event on Monday.
This was my new plan…a lot different than the old plan.
Oh my. My simple trip was changing quickly. Now I could fly overnight on Wednesday, have an open day on Thursday see races on Friday and Saturday, and have another open day on Sunday before seeing my fourth race of the trip in Florida on Monday night. I would fly home on Tuesday just in time to fly with Carol to Texas to see our granddaughter Astrid’s play, then fly home the next Monday morning in time for a Monday night flight to Melbourne, Australia. Anybody else got a busier schedule than that? Doesn’t everybody do stuff like this?
I’m also a used car salesperson.
I am also trying to sell my 2020 Tesla Model X. I have ads with Autotrader, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace. With all of my near-term travel, I won’t be available to show the car. Maybe I’ll just leave the keys in the car and anybody who wants to take a test drive can. Wait! You knew that a Tesla doesn’t have “keys” right?
Wednesday, February 21
Let’s get this party started.
Off I went on Wednesday night for an overnight flight from Los Angeles to Tampa. Those red-eye flights are always fun.
The “public” can sometimes be a pain. What are these people like at home?
When I am in public spaces, I do my very best not to bother anyone else. I don’t even want others to know I’m in or near their space. That doesn’t seem to be the case with my fellow Americans.
I had a nice seat on the plane. However, the young man in the middle seat was as big as me, but he was a tosser and a turner in his sleep. He was wearing shorts that were way too short and he was way too big. He continued to toss and turn, which made a very smooth flight a very turbulent flight for me. Once I got up to go to the bathroom when I came back, his leg was in the middle of my personal foot space. His body was slumped over into my seat as he slept. Oh my.
Thursday, February 22
SOS! This wasn’t good.
I landed at 6 a.m. Eastern time, which is 3 a.m. California time. So, there’s that. I grabbed a seat in the terminal to collect my thoughts. My phone wasn’t working. All I could get was a “SOS” signal. I thought my iPhone was acting up and it never acts up. It turns out there was a nationwide AT&T cellular failure. My phone was included in that problem. Just lucky I guess.
This brought back memories from being in the Marine Corps.
I’m not that good at collecting my thoughts after flying the red-eye to the East Coast. The airport was quiet except for two people who came all the way over to my corner of the terminal world and sat down. Then the guy proceeded to listen to his phone with some programming that was so inane and so loud that I just about ripped his head off and shit down his neck. I’m sorry for that verbiage. This was just the type of conversation I heard daily during Marine Corps Boot Camp. Please forgive me for sharing it with you today. Who plays their phone in a public space like that? Then his wife began a coughing fit as if she were stricken with the whooping cough. Oh my.
Nutrisystem revisited.
For the next two months, I want to lose 15 pounds, so I am doing the Nutrisystem diet once again. During week one I lost 9.2 pounds on a 1,000-calorie-a-day eating plan. In week 2 and for the next seven weeks I’ll eat up to about 1,500 calories/day. I expect to lose 15 pounds rather easily. Remember, you can never be too rich or too thin.
Nevertheless, my Priority Pass benefit yielded a very upscale restaurant called The Café by Mise en Place in the airport. It was located within 50 yards of where I had been sitting. How could I pass that up? I dined on two fried eggs, a very thin piece of lean ham, a piece of toast, and only five bites of cheesy grits. I figured I could slip that into my 1,500-calorie adventure. Using my Priority Pass was one of many examples on this trip of buying good things cheap (BGTC).
This was part of my trip’s rental car strategy.
National Car Rental cars are about $95 a day in Tampa. I figured I would take a Lyft rideshare from the airport to the hotel and back today. That would only cost about $40. I’ll get my rental car for the main part of the trip tomorrow. BGTC.
I am attracted to shiny things.
As I walked out of the terminal to get my rideshare, I passed a gift shop. They had some Tampa Bay Lightning shirts on sale. Tampa Bay Lightning? That’s a hockey team in the National Hockey League. I wondered to myself if they might be having a home hockey game tonight. My phone was working only because of the airport Wi-Fi. Still no cellular service. I checked SeatGeek. The Lightning were hosting the Washington Capitals tonight. Perfect. Now I had something to do this evening. Yes, I can be a last-minute planner.
I was hoping the Hyatt Place Hotel near the airport would let me check in early at 10 a.m. If they did I would get a nap in and be ready for the game tonight. Hyatt helped me out!
I am on a mission. I’m pretty tough when I’m on a mission.
I have a lot of travel/points and miles projects going on right now. One of them is to stay enough nights at a Hyatt property to earn their top-tier frequent stay status, which is called “Globalist”. I need 60 nights to do that. I am well on my way. When I reach this goal I will be able to get more good things cheap!
I have to recommend the Hyatt Place. This is Hyatt’s entry-level property. Nevertheless, the rooms come with a very large L-shaped hide-a-bed sofa, wet bar, and refrigerator, and plenty of space. Free breakfast is included.
Mr. Marriott, please don’t be offended.
For most of my traveling time, I have been a “Marriott Man”. This is not to be confused with being a “Marlboro Man”. I have never taken a single puff of a cigarette. I can leave Marriott temporarily for Hyatt without losing my lifetime status of “Titanium Elite”. I figure if I can become Globalist at Hyatt and Titanium Elite at Marriott I should be good to go for my overnight accommodations. You gotta have a life plan, right?
I don’t do much without giving everything some thought.
Today I used Lyft as my rideshare rather than my normal vendor, Uber. Why? With my Chase Sapphire Reserve card, I earn 10x points with Lyft and only 1x points with Uber. With a $40 spend, I would earn 400 points which is worth about $12. I am always looking for an advantage.
I thought I had a great strategy to use rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft to avoid getting a rental car. However, I have discovered that whenever I think I have a good idea oftentimes there is a better idea. When a better idea comes along I will go with that in a heartbeat.
I am a road warrior.
One of my favorite songs is Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again”. During my lifetime, I have stayed in hotels for more than 5,000 nights. Divide that number by 365 to see how many years that would be!
Never ever heard of this.
For the first time ever, my hotel the Hyatt Place next to the Tampa airport, was offering complimentary Uber and Lyft rides to and from the airport for their guests. They must think doing that is cheaper than having a shuttle bus and driver. Since I didn’t know that in advance I wasted nearly $20 of my money with Lyft today although I would get six of those dollars back later in credit card points. Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.
Tampa Bay Lightning. Fun!
Tonight, when I went to the hockey game at the Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa, I used rideshare again. When I do that I always compare the fares between Lyft and Uber. Tonight’s Lyft fare was $20 and the Uber fare was $45. I found that somewhat amazing. You can guess which company I chose. BGSC.
I would like to see every sports arena in the world.
The Amalie Arena opened in 1996. It looked much newer. They have a 1-acre vegetable garden indoors to feed the players! They’ve held just about every indoor sporting event you can imagine here. While I was most impressed with the Amali Arena Tampa’s baseball arena, Tropicana Field, is pretty much the worst Major League Baseball venue I have visited and I’ve been to every MLB stadium.
They tried to play an NBA game here but…according to Wikipedia
“The arena was slated to host an NBA preseason game in 2010 between the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat, the league’s two Florida teams. However, months before the game, the arena’s basketball floor was treated with an oil-based cleaning solution that resulted in a slippery film forming on it. According to Magic players, the floor was so slippery that they had to walk through their shootaround. When it became apparent that there was no way to make the court playable, the game was canceled half an hour before the scheduled tipoff. All fans received a full refund.”
Always trying to avoid the obnoxious.
Although the place seats nearly 20,000 for hockey it didn’t seem that large from my top-row seat in the stadium. What’s the advantage of sitting in the last row? No obnoxious fans are sitting behind me, trying to broadcast the game, play-by-play, or yelling at the refs 45 times a game, and firmly convinced the refs make every call against their home team, and never for them.
Of course, I can’t forget the boyfriend who feels compelled to explain every rule of the game to his girlfriend. It does take all of my willpower to not turn around and tell the girl her boyfriend doesn’t know what he’s talking about and that she should run for the hills.
I enjoy meeting people.
I am a reasonably gregarious person. A young man sat down next to me and we struck up a conversation. He was at the game for the same reason I was. He was here on business, didn’t have anything to do, and thought, why not go to a hockey game? It was his first hockey match to see in person ever. That was pretty cool.
The Lightning fans are well-behaved a bunch. They did have some fighting on the ice. The fans are also very enthusiastic about their team. I suspect many of those fans are relocated Yankees.
Nevertheless, my friend, Bradley and I spent the entire evening talking about financial planning and career planning and things like that. That might have been annoying to the rabid fans sitting in front of us!
Bradley was 28 years old. He was from the south and worked for an international logistics company where he is located in Denver. He travels as much as I do about 175-200 nights a year.
I always talk to my Lyft and Uber drivers.
On the way home traffic was heavy. I enjoyed my conversation with Steve, my Lyft driver. He had just graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in mathematics and physics. He was in the midst of lining up his future job opportunities while doing a little bit of moonlighting as a Lyft driver. Yes, I always talk to my rideshare drivers.
In talking to these two late 20s men about their career and life prospects I was reminded about how uncertain life can be when you’re just out of school and trying to get on the fast track to financial security. These guys have a good 30-40 years ahead of them in the workplace. The decisions they make now are going to stick with them for a lifetime. Both of the fellas I talked to were the nicest guys in the world. I can only wish them the very best of luck.
Friday, February 23
Finally. Time to go trackchasing.
Today is my first trackchasing day of the trip. Tonight’s racing venue in Dade City, Florida is located at the Pasco County Fairgrounds. The fair is only a 50-minute drive from my hotel.
I’m a picky eater but Publix had what I needed.
Right now, I’m in the midst of a two-month Nutrisystem eating plan. I took the morning to walk down to the local Publix supermarket and grab a few provisions. This included lunchmeat, blueberries, carrots, string cheese, and Pepsi Zero. I’ll supplement all of that with the non-frozen Nutrisystem items I brought along on the trip.
No doubt. I am a planner.
I needed to pick up my car at 4 o’clock this afternoon. Why? In two days, I’ll be returning the car at the same time following a basketball game. I hope to attend the University of South Florida basketball game in downtown Tampa. I spent quite a bit of time last night planning my hotel, rental car, and racing plans in my room last night. I enjoy the planning aspect of my hobby as much or more than the rest of it.
Being smarter this time, I used the Hyatt-funded rideshare to take me to the rental car center at the airport. I had a couple of hours to kill and just watched the people arriving from the Midwest and East for their winter vacation. Most were wearing shirts signifying where they were from. Going to Florida is a big deal for folks from these areas but not so much for the “Western states” residents.
I will be gone on this trip for six days and five nights. Somewhat miraculously, I will only need a rental car for one day in Tampa and then a couple of days later I will need a one-day, one-way rental from Tampa to Atlanta. Yep, this is all about logistics.
Weather apps rock.
I am amazed at how accurate weather apps are nowadays. I can look at the weather forecast six or seven days in advance. I’ll see they are predicting rain over a four-hour period in nearly a week. It seems that more often than not, the forecast comes to fruition. Weather forecasting has gotten so much better with today’s technology.
It’s the winter county fair season in Florida.
Most of the county fairs in the United States happen in July and August. I’m talking about the Midwest and East.
In Florida, the county fair season is during the “winter”. That would be February and March. I’m guessing not too many people would want to venture out to a county fair in the heavy-duty, heat and humidity of Florida in the summer.
With my trackchasing hobby, I have been to more than 500 county and state fairs. That’s a lot of corn dogs as Carol and I are seen enjoying at this county fair in Idaho. Tonight, I would add one more to the list that being the Pasco County Fairgrounds in Dade City, Florida.
Why Dade City? Why Dade City this Friday night.
There were going to be several attractions for me tonight. Of course, the first and foremost was the figure 8 and oval racing at the fair. Two configurations. Two tracks.
Seeing old friends.
I would also get a chance to meet up with Richard K. the race promoter. He didn’t mind my taking his picture in a heavy downpour. Richard and I first met each other seven years ago when I attended one of his shows at the Hernando County Fairgrounds in Brooksville, Florida. I would also get to meet a Florida trackchaser, relocated from upstate New York, Andy H. Andy and I met several years ago at an indoor race in Pennsylvania. He had been helping me with this Florida trackchasing trip for the past few weeks.
Rain!
There hadn’t been any rain in Florida for several days. There wasn’t any more rain expected over the next several days during my visit with one exception. Tonight’s racing was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. The Dade City, Florida area was expected to get and did get some very heavy rain just an hour before race time. I guess I’m just lucky.
Just as predicted as I paid my $10 admission to the fair, it started to rain lightly. There was quite a bit of red and yellow in the weather radar on my phone. Any amateur meteorologist knows that signifies heavy rain. By the way I’m here to tell you that bypassing all of the treats at a county fair is real tough when eating a Nutrisystem diet!
Soon, I found the area where tonight’s racing was going to take place. There were no fans in the stands. From my view, I couldn’t see any race cars either. A few people were standing in the track’s infield but other than that, nothing and nobody. I’ve had this experience before. I had a more than strong thought in my mind that tonight’s show had been canceled at the last minute. Oh my.
I made my way down into the infield. Soon I was reuniting with track promoter Richard K. We hadn’t seen each other in a few years and it was good to catch up.
Also, waiting down in the pit area was Andy H (above center). This was our first time to meet each other since 2017. Andy moved down to Florida a couple of years ago like many of his New York neighbors. He won’t be moving back anytime soon.
At just about that time a heavy-duty downpour came our way. The three of us and another dozen people all scrambled inside a very small trailer. That shelter could not have held another single person. We waited for the rain to stop. Luckily, the state of Florida is pretty much a big sandbar so the rain absorbed quickly.
Seven cars. Seven junk cars. No problem.
There were only seven racing cars in attendance tonight. I commonly call these low-dollar “junk cars” although I am sure the owners of these machines might take exception to that.
Despite the rain, the drivers wanted to race. Had this been in the Midwest and the rain had come at a more traditional dirt track where the water couldn’t soak in the race would have been canceled. However, with the drivers wanting to race and with my coming from California just to see this racing, Richard was hell-bent on making sure the show happened.
When the rain stopped about 150 fans jumped out of their cars and grabbed a seat in the grandstands. The program tonight would be simple. They would race one main event on their oval track (marked by two huge tractor-tire combinations). Then run a figure 8 race (above) followed by a backward race. Short and simple. And no, running a backward race does not count as a new track.
I love telling people about trackchasing.
Richard asked me to do a short interview with the track announcer. For a little bit more than four minutes, I explained just what my hobby was all about. You can hear that in my video from Pasco County. I told the fans about trackchasing and where I had been to do it. I think fans, racers and promoters enjoy hearing what I have to say about my adventures. It certainly is an “out of the box” conversation.
One very creative young lady.
I also spent quite a bit of time talking with Richard’s daughter, Dana. Dana builds the trophies for the drivers. By build, I mean, she takes parts from cars and engines and transmissions to make the trophies. Then she and her brother weld them together and paint them to make the most unique-looking trophies that I’ve ever seen for this kind of racing. Well done, Dana.
81 Florida tracks.
When the racing was finished, I had added two more tracks to my Florida totals. I’ve now seen 81 tracks down here. Richard has another show that I might attend next month.
When we were done with all of the visiting and bench racing, Andy and I headed back to the parking lot and said our goodbyes. We had cheated the rain. I can’t believe I’ve done this almost 3,000 times. As luck and Andy’s good bird dogging would have it we might end up seeing each other at another race in Florida tomorrow morning!
Sometimes, I can be a real dumbass.
When I drove into the fairgrounds tonight, I lowered my side window to get some directions from the parking attendant. To begin with, I mistakenly lowered the back window and then quickly lowered the front window to hear the directions I needed for where to park. Then after I parked, I left my car and went inside the fair. When I came back I noticed the left rear window was still down. Yep, it had been down during the 15-minute downpour. Luckily all of my “stuff” in the backseat was on the other side and nothing of importance got wet. I can definitely be an absent-minded professor!
Saturday, February 24
Finally, a simple day…sort of.
This was a pretty straightforward day that included delays, racing, beating deadlines and walking miles in the dark.
Last night I stayed up in Jacksonville, Florida. I got there at past midnight. I needed to be on the road by 10 a.m. Oftentimes I don’t spend all that many hours in a hotel just enough to get in seven or eight hours of sleep.
The name was much more impressive than the track.
Today I was meeting Florida trackchaser Andy Hickok at the Florida International Rally and Motorsports Park in Starke, Florida. That’s a pretty impressive track name, isn’t it? We were here for side-by-side (SXS) racing.
We had been told racing was expected to begin at 11:30 a.m. I must be the most gullible person in the world. When people tell me stuff I believe them. And when people don’t deliver, I will never be their biggest fan again, unless whatever happened was totally out of their control.
Today’s racing was held under beautiful 70° Florida winter skies. A real positive of today’s visit was that there was no admission charge. The track also had a grandstand with a tarp over it for shade. We were stylin’.
It didn’t take long for me to meet up with Andy. He and I randomly sat together at a race in Pennsylvania in 2017. Then we met up again last night at a county fair show in Dade City, Florida.
Cutting to the chase.
To cut to the chase today’s countable racing did not begin until 3 p.m. This gave Andy and I quite a bit of time to sit in the grandstand, and get to know each other. He’s an interesting guy. Andy is from upstate New York and lived near one of the most beautiful towns in the country, Saratoga Springs, New York.
My rental car strategy was in jeopardy.
I was concerned about the 3 1/2 hour late start. I had hoped to return my rental car today in time to avoid an extra day’s rental charge for keeping my car too long. As time ticked away, my chance of pulling off that rental car strategy got slimmer and slimmer.
The group we were watching today started with quite a bit of qualifying and then quite a bit of kid’s racing. Qualifying aka time trials and kid’s racing don’t count in trackchasing. Don’t like that? Don’t blame me. I didn’t make the rules.
Florida is flat.
Today’s racing surface was flat. One of the main reasons that was the case is because Florida is flat. Britton Hill in Florida is the state’s highest point…at 345 feet!
It was interesting to see that the racing took place on a “mixed” surface. This means part of the track had a dirt surface, which is really sand down here and part of the track was an asphalt paved surface.
Back in 2021 the “FIRM”, that’s the acronym for the track, held a Nitrocross race. That was a little surprising to me because today’s facility was pretty rudimentary. Nevertheless, for that race back in 2021 they attracted NASCAR’s most popular driver, Chase Elliott. Travis Pastrana, the always effervescent driver/rider/owner, runs the Nitrocross series.
That’s me with Chase’s dad the famous “Million-dollar Bill” up at the Evergreen Speedway in Washington back in 1985. Then I met up with Bill and Chase at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2008.
When the racing was finished, Andy and I went in different directions. Don’t be surprised to see us match up again somewhere sometime soon.
The most exciting aspect of today’s racing was the speed these SXS aka UTV racers were doing. They raced down a very long asphalt straightaway only to make a strong 90-degree right-hand turn. This put a tremendous amount of stress on the suspension. I feared if any part failed they would go barrell-rolling right into our laps!
It was mad dash, white knuckle time.
Now I was in a mad dash to get my rental car back to the Tampa International Airport. I know that when I rent cars they normally give me a 30-minute grace period. Today I was going to arrive exactly 60 minutes beyond my 24-hour stated rental agreement.
When I got out of the car, I put on my biggest smile and my best attitude, which are always there for me. I asked the rental car agent this question. “I’m an executive elite member. I’ve run over my one-day rental return time by about an hour. Would you be able to waive that extra hour fee?”
Luckily, I got a nice guy. He did waive the one-hour $36.00 late fee. I was good to go. I called my Hyatt Hotel from the Tampa airport and ordered their free Uber to come pick me up at the airport. BGSC.
The Hyatt is the only hotel that I have ever seen that offers complimentary Uber/Lyft rideshare transportation to and from the airport. I’ve got to believe they’ve concluded that the fees they pay for that are less than operating a hotel shuttle bus and paying drivers to drive it. Pretty ingenious. I was just a little concerned when my Lyft driver had a small iPad playing music videos on his dashboard!
Most folks from my demographic wouldn’t do this.
Since Andy and I sat in the grandstand most of the day I was behind on my four miles of walking. Once I checked into the hotel, I went into the surrounding areas where there were mainly commercial buildings, and that included quite a few restaurants. With the gun situation nowadays, I wasn’t sure it was a bright idea to be doing that but I had a goal and that goal was to walk 4 miles each and every day.
Sunday, February 25.
From a simple day to a kickback day.
Today is a kickback day. No trackchasing on the agenda.
I always have to be doing something I’ve never done before.
That being the case I went on SeatGeek and ordered a basketball ticket to the University of South Florida Bulls versus Southern Methodist University Mustangs game. They were playing in the Yuengling Center on the campus of the University of South Florida.
I didn’t have a rental car. I paid about $25 each way for a Lyft ride from the hotel down to the basketball arena and back. That’s $50 in rideshare fees. That’s about half of what I would’ve paid to have had a rental car. Plus, I will get about $15 back in credit card value. You gotta pull on both sides of the rope, right? BGSC.
This was a fun one-time experience.
The South Florida Bulls have a very enthusiastic crowd base. Yuengling Place seats about 10,000 people. It was probably 90% full today with screaming fans. Despite the Bulls having a 20-5 record and being at home they were a 2.5-point underdog to SMU. The Bulls won by 11 points. Take that, Vegas! I’m glad I went.
When I am out on the road trackchasing, if I don’t have a race to go to, I’m always looking for something to do. I’ve got an entire section on my website at www.randylewis.org devoted to everything I’ve seen and done around the world when I am NOT trackchasing. I call these sports and touring opportunities I discover “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions”. Check out that link.
I am always going to try to see some form of tourist activity and often that has something to do with sports. Now that I’ve seen a USF basketball game I wouldn’t go back and see another one. Nevertheless, I very much enjoyed seeing the first one.
Wanna go to the “show”?
A couple of days ago I walked about a mile to a Publix grocery store and picked up some provisions to support my Nutrisystem eating plan. During that walk, I passed an AMC theater. I’m a big movie fan. I go to the “show” about three times every month.
I did some searching using my Fandango app. I found a movie called “Ordinary Angels” starring Hillary Swank. This was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. The film actually brought a tear to my eye.
From the movie theater, I walked back to the Publix grocery store. It was now dark. I don’t necessarily recommend walking along sidewalks next to four lanes of fairly heavy traffic at night. Nevertheless, I picked up a few more items went back to my hotel, and made my own dinner.
Busy day tomorrow. Lots of driving.
Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day. I’ll be taking a rideshare over to the airport to get a rental car. Then I will drive six hours from Tampa up to Baker, Florida. I plan to watch some racing at a special Monday night race before driving more than four hours from Baker up to the Atlanta International Airport area in Georgia. I’ll pull into my hotel about 3 a.m.
Tomorrow my driving will take a little bit more than 10 hours. I’ll probably be at the race track for about three hours. I gain an hour with the time zone change driving from Tampa to the panhandle of Florida. Then I lose that hour on the drive back to the Atlanta airport in Georgia.
I figure I’ll have just seven or eight hours in my hotel in Atlanta. Then I hop on a jet airplane to take me to my home base, which is the Los Angeles International Airport. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.
Monday, February 26.
I make really good travel plans. Too bad they change so much.
As you can see my trip planning never really goes fully according to plan. Sometimes my plan doesn’t even resemble what actually ends up happening. Today is a perfect example of that.
I cut the cord.
About a year ago, we switched to YouTubeTV. We left DIRECTV. There have been several benefits from that decision. YouTubeTV costs about half of what we were paying to DIRECTV. However, with the different items of special equipment, including several Apple TVs, it will probably take me two years to break even.
With YouTubeTV a huge benefit for me is being able to watch my recorded shows when I’m traveling on the road. With DIRECTV I couldn’t do that. YouTubeTV allows me to watch everything wherever I am in the world. This morning I watched yesterday’s NASCAR Atlanta race. The broadcast was 4 1/2 hours long. However, I can skip the commercials. That knocks the viewing time down to about three hours of actual content. As I say, very happy with YouTubeTV. I am also surprised they haven’t figured out a way to prevent subscribers from skipping the commercials!
This morning I knocked out three miles of my four miles of walking. That is the plan for the day. I’ll get that final mile pretty much just with daily activities. I’m also driving 10 hours today. Hard to walk all that much with so much driving.
I buy good stuff cheap.
I’ll be staying for my fifth consecutive night in a Hyatt hotel. With the credit card strategies that I have explained to everyone in the past, I will have used my Chase Credit Card Points for all five nights of my Hyatt stays.
Those points knocked out a $1,375 spend at Hyatt for those five nights. That replaces a nearly $2,000 IRA withdrawal that I would have had to make to cover this week’s hotel expense. That’s a huge savings and created with only five nights of hotels.
It’s important to have basic tenets and theories in life. However, if you don’t implement those things, they’re not as much value.
I have always said that I want to buy good things cheap. Staying in Hyatt hotels at the expense of zero is the definition of buying good things cheap!
We’re going to slow you down, Randy!
I was just notified by AT&T that now, on the 26th day of the month, I have used 40 GB of their data. Now they will “slow me down” for the last three days of the month. That’s the first time I’ve gotten a message like that. 40 GB of data seems like a lot, doesn’t it?
Talk about technology. I’m watching a YouTubeTV DVR recorded sports event on my laptop while I am dictating my future Trackchaser Report on my iPhone. That’s multitasking.
Yes, I did get 90% off the best price for my rental car.
For me, rental car expenses used to be very manageable. A few years ago, we lost our corporate retiree discount with National Car Rental. With that discount, I was renting cars for about 50 bucks a day. Now the new normal car rental expense daily is nearly $100.
I continue to rent from National. For every five rentals I make they give me a free day. I always use that free day on a “one-way rental”. Today I’m picking up my car in Tampa, Florida, and returning it within 24 hours to Atlanta, Georgia. I would end up driving my car 709 miles in that single day!
The best rate for that one-way rental from National (TPA-ATL) was $189. That’s actually not a bad price for a one-way rental. However, when I used one of my free days, the price was reduced to $9.36. Yes, I travel a lot. However, I think I do get a lot from my travel dollars. Whenever I see prices increasing in one category or another of my travel I try to figure out a strategy to alleviate those increasing prices. National’s free days do that for me with rental cars. BGTC.
Finally, the Northwest Florida Speedway!
Tonight, I was trackchasing at the Northwest Florida Speedway in Blackman, Florida. This track is what I would call a permanent dirt short track. By permanent I mean they race at the very same track either weekly or every other week from roughly May through September.
I grew up watching racing on permanent tracks. My home tracks, from all of our corporate relocations, included Peoria Speedway, Rockford Speedway, Santa Fe, Speedway, Orange County Fair Speedway, Manzanita, and Ascot. I’m not sure if anyone has had a better list of “hometown” tracks.
Pop-up tracks keep me busy.
In the past several years I’ve been able to knock off virtually every permanent track in the United States and Canada. Currently, in the U.S. I only have about 10 permanent tracks left to see. That’s it.
With my trackchasing the permanent tracks have been replaced by what I would call “pop-up” tracks. Those are county fairs and UTV woods courses and the like. Trackchasing has changed for me. Now there’s as much interest in seeing what the local tourist spots are as there is in watching the racing.
This was a big show.
Tonight, at the Northwest Florida Speedway they were having an IMCA modified special. They were racing on a Monday night. The four-day series featured two nights at Northwest Florida Speedway, and then another two nights at the Southern Raceway in Milton, Florida. Drivers had come from all over the United States and Canada. It seemed as if most of the drivers were from the Midwest where IMCA modified racing is very popular.
When I pulled into the track the first thing I noticed was that I was driving into the overflow pit area. That was strange. Race cars were being worked on and were coming to and from the track after their races. I grabbed a parking spot right next to a couple of the race teams.
I have met thousands of new friends doing what I do.
Next, I wandered through the pit area. I took a few photos and soon found myself sitting in the top row of the grandstands as I like to do. I struck up a conversation with the fan sitting next to me.
This fellow was from Owensboro, Kentucky. He rides a Honda Gold Wing 1800 motorcycle and tows a small camper that he uses for his overnight accommodations.
This guy’s name was Ricky W. He was probably just a few years younger than me. He told me that he thought he had seen my website and sort of knew what I did as a trackchaser. I get that reaction quite a bit from the racing community. Ricky seemed pretty amazed that I do what I do. We had a nice time talking to each other.
Ricky did something that a lot of people do when I meet them for the first time. Even though I have seen racing at nearly 3,000 tracks, he couldn’t resist asking me if I had been here and then if I had been there, and then if I had been at the other place. My answer to each one of his questions was, “Yes, I’ve been there”.
Later I received a FB message from Ricky’s wife, Cyndie. This is what she wrote me.
“My husband met you last night at a track in Baker, FL. He finally got enough cell signal at 4:30am to call me and tell me about this cool guy that he met that has seen over 2800 tracks all over the world. (I think that’s what he said…keep in mind it was 4:30am. Just wanted to say hi and let you know that you were the topic of our conversation and did I mention it was 4:30am????. Good luck in your travels…we will be watching for updates”
It pays to know the players.
Racing is a lot more fun if you know who some of the drivers are. One of the drawbacks to trackchasing is that most of the time I don’t know any local drivers. That wasn’t exactly the case tonight.
Some NASCAR stars like to race on dirt tracks.
In the first heat race of the night, NASCAR’s Ken Schrader was competing in his own modified stock car sponsored by Federated Auto Parts. Kenny started third in his heat race and won.
The second heat race, as my new friend Ricky pointed out, had NASCAR’s Kenny Wallace racing an IMCA modified. Kenny races modifieds all over the country, but tonight he was in someone else’s car because his modified doesn’t meet the IMCA rules.
This experience was everything and more from me.
I watched all 99 on the modified stock cars race. Then I went back to the pit area. I wanted to see if I could meet both Kenny Wallace and Ken Schrader. I had actually met Ken Schrader the year before he moved into NASCAR Cup racing. We were at the World of Outlaws sprint car end-of-the-season banquet.
At the time Schrader was mainly an open-wheel driver. As Ken and I waited in line at the WOO dinner buffet I asked him why he was moving to NASCAR. His answer was simple. He told me, “I want to be able to walk when I’m 50!”. That made a lot of sense. I think his decision to move to NASCAR was also a good one from a financial perspective.
When I got into the pit area, I noticed that both Schrader and Wallace were pitted next to each other. That was to be expected. They are great friends, and both hail from the St. Louis, Missouri area.
If you ever get to meet Kenny Wallace you won’t forget it.
I noticed that Kenny Wallace was talking to a couple of other folks. These fellas turned out to be his brother, Mike Wallace, a very well-known NASCAR driver himself and Mike’s son, Matt. Matt could have easily been mistaken for Dale Jr. in disguise. I wouldn’t put that past these guys!
I waited respectfully for their conversation to end. Kenny noticed me and stopped, stuck out his hand, and said, “I’m Kenny Wallace”. I wonder how many times in his life he’s done that! I shook his hand and said, “I’m Randy Lewis and I’m the World’s #1 Trackchaser”. I told Kenny and Mike that I had followed their NASCAR careers and congratulated them on their success. I told Kenny I loved his podcast. It’s one of just a few podcasts that I subscribe to.
Kenny told me I was “content”.
When I mentioned that I was a “trackchaser” Kenny immediately realized that this could be “content” for his YouTube channel. His YouTube channel has 88,000 subscribers! He ran off to get his cell phone. Soon we were doing an eight-minute interview about my trackchasing for the Kenny Wallace podcast.
Mike Wallace was impressive.
How many people have you met who were much more impressed with themselves than they were with you? They never asked you a single question and only wanted to talk about themselves. That is NOT Mike Wallace.
I was impressed with Mike Wallace’s interest in my hobby. He asked me lots of questions and remembered my answers. Very impressive guy.
Mike had a successful career with NASCAR. He raced in nearly 200 Cup races, NASCAR’s top division. He won four times in the Xfinity Series and five times in the Craftsman Truck Series. Mike kept asking me how do you do this and who pays for it. He was very impressed, and although he had never heard of trackchasing before tonight he fully understood what it might take to become the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”.
Schrader!
About this time Kenny Wallace summoned Ken Schrader (second from right) from inside his trailer. Soon all of us were talking and having a good time. Kenny Schrader won four races in Cup and was a multiple-time champion with USAC. Both of the “Kenny’s” are among the most popular drivers to race in NASCAR. Now they like to race on dirt just for the fun of it.
And now the star of the show.
Kenny Wallace won 9 NASCAR Xfinity Series races and won multiple poles in NASCAR’s top division, Cup. He raced in the Daytona 500.
The funny thing about this is that I follow all of the NASCAR drivers and listen to their podcasts and their interviews on TV. I feel as if I know them, although I haven’t met very many of the principles at all. I have met Darrell Waltrip (above with Carol), Bill (Million Dollar Bill) Elliott, Chase Elliott, Mike Joy, Jimmie Johnson (we shared first row seats at a Garth Brooks concert), Brett Bodine, and Larry McReynolds among others. I’ve only had a chance to say a few words to each of these people and they wouldn’t know me from Adam.
Meet Kenny Wallace!
Kenny Wallace is a down-home guy. He calls himself a redneck from Jefferson County, Missouri. I’ve watched him as a regular TV commentator and listened to his podcasts. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He is probably the sincerest guy you will hear from in this business. Sometimes he acts as if he didn’t do as well in his career as he wanted. In point of fact, both his racing and his media work puts him at the top of the pack. I wish I lived next door to this guy.
As we stood around in the pit area I felt like I had known these guys for a long time. We all grew up in the Midwest. Midwestern folks are pretty darn friendly.
Yes, guys I worked for this.
The guys kept asking me how I was able to do this and what I did for a living. They wanted to know how I funded my hobby. Kenny Wallace was more than happy to know that I had “worked” to get where I was. I brought up my overriding financial strategy, “Die with Zero”. They hadn’t heard of that.
These guys are poster children for Die with Zero.
I gave a brief explanation that DWZ was all about… optimizing for personal enjoyment and creating memories. Then I looked at these guys. They were poster boys for doing exactly that! They had made their fortunes in NASCAR. Now they were spending some of what they had earned simply enjoying themselves. Major good on them!
If you want to check out the video Kenny Wallace made with his brother Mike, Ken Schrader and me here’s the link. Carol said this was the best trackchasing interview I’ve ever done. She really liked Kenny Wallace. Mind you she doesn’t know Kenny Wallace from Cale Yarborough!
If you’re not into NASCAR racing there is a good chance you’ve never heard of Mike Wallace, Ken Schrader, and Kenny Wallace. If that’s the case and you like country music these guys are just as big names as Toby Keith, George Strait, and Conway Twitty! Here’s the link to that video.
Meet the World’s #1 Trackchaser
After we all told a few stories, I mentioned that I needed to get on the road and make the nearly five-hour drive up to Atlanta, Georgia. They were pretty amazed that I would be attempting that drive after the racing tonight. They were also somewhat incredulous that I was on my way to Texas in a couple of days to see our granddaughter Astrid perform in her play and then next Monday heading toward Australia.
To me, these guys are a big deal.
I could probably tell you 25 details about these guy’s racing careers and personal lives. To me, these three are “a big deal”. However, if I were to share the photo that I had taken with them with my civilian friends, they wouldn’t have any idea who they were. No problem there. I’m satisfied with knowing I just spent time with three of my heroes. I will remember that for a long time and likely forever.
Just give me caffeine.
Now it was time to take a bottle of 5-hour energy. If I only had two hours to drive tonight, I wouldn’t drink a 5-hour energy drink. However, for a nearly 5-hour drive then 5-Hour energy drink was going to be perfect!
A little bit of sports watching.
Tomorrow morning, I will have been gone for six days and five nights. In some ways, the trip seemed longer. I knocked off four tracks in Florida. This brings my lifetime total in the Sunshine State to 83. I got a chance to see the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game and a University of South Florida Bulls basketball game.
For this, I got the gold medal.
It was on the people front that I scored a gold medal. I met Florida trackchaser Andy H. for the first time in several years and got to know him much better. I spent quite a bit of time with Richard K. the Florida figure 8 promoter. Meeting Bradley at the hockey match, Steve my math/physics major Lyft driver and the two ladies mentioned below were true highlights. Tonight I enjoyed chatting with a “fan in the stands” Ricky W. from Owensboro, Kentucky. All of this was topped off by meeting, Kenny Wallace, Mike Wallace, Matt Wallace, and Ken Schrader at the track tonight.
This had been a great trip and it turned out so much differently than the original plan. Tomorrow I fly back to Los Angeles.
Tuesday, February 27
A common man that can’t escape uncommon experiences.
Wouldn’t it be nice if I told you I simply hopped on an airplane in Atlanta and flew home to Los Angeles? Simple, huh? My world doesn’t seem to work that way. Please keep in mind one thing. I’m not smart enough to make this stuff up!
I woke up to a cold shower. This is how I described my dilemma on Facebook.
“I should’ve done that trackchasing reality TV show with Fox years ago. Last night’s track was one of the dirtiest ever. Got to my hotel room in Atlanta at 3 AM. Went directly to bed. Woke up to a cold shower. Trudged down to the front desk. They told me they could give me a shower in another room. I suggested they waive the $18 hotel parking charge for the inconvenience. The clerk told me that with my Hyatt status I didn’t need to pay which wasn’t true, but she did waive the parking fee anyway. She also told me she would give me 3,000 points in the Hyatt frequent stay program. I asked her to increase that to 5,000 points and she did. 5,000 points will buy me a $150-$200 hotel at Hyatt sometime in the future. We finished with a high-five. Win-win. You should know I never negotiate with friends and family, but this was business. I can’t make stuff like this up.”
Then when I got to the airport I had another interesting meet-up with a new “friend”. I always like to keep my FB friends up to date on what’s happening and this is what I told them.
“I truly cannot make this stuff up. Got to the Atlanta airport just in the nick of time after a cold water shower incident at my hotel this morning. Found a place to sit down next to a young woman with a dog. Folks who know me know that I like Teslas a hell of a lot more than I like dogs. As I was trying to figure out my life this morning, the young woman started talking to me. It seemed as if she might have had some physical and mental disabilities. She just started talking. She told me she was staying in a shelter tonight, and would be joining her boyfriend in Kansas in a couple of weeks for his birthday. I tried to be nice and she kept talking. Then I thought about the lucky penny I found in a Love’s Truckstop toilet stall yesterday. I hadn’t given it to anyone yet. I didn’t think a penny was going to help this woman too much. I reached into my briefcase and gave her the $100 I keep for emergencies. I told her to buy her boyfriend a nice birthday present. Anybody who says this is a scam is a no-good tinhorn scoundrel. Plus, I hope anyone who says that on FB has their name noted as a cold-hearted ass. She didn’t ask me for any money. All I had to do was get up and walk away. Carol once told me, “The poor man pays the most”. That’s one of the truest statements I’ve ever heard. But the poor man never realizes why they are poor. I gave this lady 100 bucks. The Hyatt just gave me 150 bucks. Plus, the young woman got the ambiance of that lucky penny found in a Love’s Truckstop toilet stall. P. S. That’s not her picture.”
As I mentioned I am a common man who seems to encounter more than his share of uncommon situations. I’m good with that!
I think my next newsletter post is going to be a mid-term update on my results with my new hobby, “credit card arbitrage”. Stay tuned. Some things are happening really well and there is one item that seems to concern others more than me. You be the judge if I’m reading the room correctly on that one.
Randy Lewis
The common man…
P.S. I was home today when I got an email from National Car Rental. They told me they had discovered damage on the rental car I returned. I called them. The first person transferred me to the second person. The second person told me the damage had been reported to me when I returned the car and I accepted the claim. Not true. No discussion like that took place. I was transferred to a third person. She did some checking and confirmed the damage was reported with the person who rented the car BEFORE me. I was off the hook and she sent me a note confirming that. Jeez. Why do these things happen to me?