Greetings from Essex Junction, Vermont
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Lifetime Track #1,897
A day off from trackchasing but not a day off from touring……………more in “The Details”. My biggest touring day of the year?……………more in “The Details”. I would leave the U.S. so I could return to the U.S. to trackchase……………more in “The Details”. Day 20 and still having fun……………more in “Attractions”. Thanks to the boys back at the shop……………more in “Attractions”. Roaming around and avoiding the locals at Citi Field……………more in “Attractions”. $27 bucks for a county fair figure 8 race?………..details in “Race Review”. An 852-pound pumpkin? ……..details in “Race Review”. A day off from trackchasing but not a day off from touring. I woke up on Monday morning in Allentown, Pennsylvania. After a hard day of touring I slept overnight in Jamaica, New York. Then on Tuesday I headed up to Vermont and ended up finding a motel in Colchester, Vermont. This is what my two-day trip looked like. MONDAY Mondays – normally not very busy but today was! Today, Monday was a non-trackchasing day. Monday is the day of the week when the LEAST amount of auto racing takes place. Of course, Saturday is the most popular day for racing by a wide margin. My biggest touring day of the year? I would use Monday as a “transit” day of sorts. I would matriculate up from Pennsylvania to Vermont. Of course, that trip would have me passing through the state of New York. There was a LOT going on in New York on this Monday. It would turn out to be one of my biggest, if not my biggest, Trackchasing Tourist Attraction day of the year. Please don’t miss what’s behind the “Attractions” tab of this report. Following the tennis and the baseball…… Sleeping at Wal-Mart had limited appeal. I was in New York City and the surrounding area today. NYC might be the most expensive place in the country. Tomorrow morning I would be flying out of the LaGuardia airport in New York. LaGuardia was just 3-4 miles from the tennis and baseball venues. However, hotels in the most immediate area had sky-high prices because of the U.S. Open Tennis tournament being in town for two weeks. Hotel prices ranged from a low of $100 to more than $500. One hundred dollar a night hotel charged $40 per day for parking! I toyed with the idea of sleeping in the Wal-Mart parking lot near the JFK airport. However that didn’t have the same appeal as if I had been out in a Wal-Mart near some cornfield in Iowa. Therefore I had to find a place in Jamaica, New York home to New York’s JFK airport. This is not the best neighborhood but it’s all I could find. I ended up securing a Super 8 hotel in a rundown neighborhood for $117 for the night. Parking was free but I wasn’t sure my car would be there the next morning. The next morning I would have to get up early to drive from near JFK to LaGuardia. I had already visited two Citibank ATMs (one in rural Pennsylvania and the other at Citi Field) to get enough cash to make it through my New York stay. That place is expensive. TUESDAY Montreal customs hall – Photos forbidden I would leave the U.S. so I could return to the U.S. to trackchase. My 5:30 a.m. wakeup call got me to New York’s LaGuardia airport in time for my flight to Montreal. That’s right. I was flying out of the country so I could drive BACK INTO the U.S.! Tonight’s racing was in Essex Junction, Vermont. Essex Junction is just 94 miles from Montreal. This would be the quickest way to get to Vermont for tonight’s racing and then get back into Canada for tomorrow night’s racing. Folks, it’s all about logistics! Clearing Canadian customs in Montreal took all of about 15 seconds. I was simply asked what I was going to do in Canada and how much money I had with me. Canadian border people quite frequently are amazed that I would come all the way to Canada for “trackchasing”. I quickly picked up a Hyundai Sonata from the National Car Rental Company and was on my way. Of course, the Sonata had Sirius satellite radio and the NASCAR channel! Timmy’s – My Canadian ATM. I had to stop at Tim Horton’s just north of the Canadian/U.S. border. I did that for three reasons. First, I needed some Canadian currency for later in the trip. I didn’t have any before I walked into “Timmy’s”. Then I got the shock of my life (exaggerating a bit). This outlet didn’t serve chili except during the winter. I had never heard of such a thing. Wendy’s doesn’t do it that way! My restaurant bill came to about six Canadian dollars. My U.S. twenty dollar bill gave me $14 Canadian in change. Now I was in good shape for Canadian “incidentals”. What were my #2 and #3 reasons for stopping at Tim Horton’s? Food and restrooms. TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION I very much enjoy the racing when I go on trackchasing trips. However, I am not the type of person who would feel the trip was complete if I simply left home, went to the race and came back home. I do a good deal of traveling. I want to do my best to see the local area when I come for a visit. There are usually unusual attractions that one area is noted for more than any other locale. I want to see those places. I want to touch them and feel them. When I leave an area, I want to have memories of these special places that I call Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. I will remember those experiences long after the checkered flag has fallen on whatever race I have seen that day. U.S. Tennis Open – Flushing Meadows, New York Day 20 and still having fun. Monday was day 20 of my 28-day trackchasing trip to the Midwest, East and Canada. Who goes on a 28-day trackchasing trip? Just me! With Monday being an off day from trackchasing I was on the lookout for some unusual Trackchasing Tourist Attraction (TTA). I found it….I mean them. Seemingly incredulous. Wouldn’t you know it. The first day of the U.S. Open in tennis would be today in Flushing Meadows, New York. Then, of all things, the New York Mets would be playing a game that evening at their home park, Citi Field, against the Philadelphia Phillies. “But Randy, I’m pretty sure getting from one place to another in the greater New York area is pretty difficult with all of the congestion. How could you get in two major activities like this” the seemingly incredulous reader might be heard to ask his/her buddy. Thanks to the boys back at the shop. First of all, I’ve got to thank the “boys back at the shop”. Of course by that I mean all of the dedicated employees back at the headquarters of Randy Lewis Racing in San Clemente, California. It is those folks who do the research and come up with all of these great plans. It turned out that I could walk all of about 200 yards from the afternoon tennis tournament to the evening baseball game. Was this a stroke of luck and good fortune? Or, was it the result of hours of pre-planning which continues to produce great plan after great plan. I present. You decide. I have a long history of attending the country’s major sporting events. However, I had never attended a major league tennis tournament. That would change today. Back in the day. Back in the 70s I always brought my tennis racket to our sales meetings. Nearly everybody did. When the meeting was over we hit the tennis courts under the lights. I remember being on the road when Billie Jean King was playing Bobby Riggs in one of the most controversial and watched sports TV programs ever. We all watched it on TV in a hotel conference room. Then we went out and played some tennis! A last minute idea with a few details to sort out. Today my plan to attend the tennis tournament was a last minute arrangement. I would need a ticket. The cheapest ticket I could find on StubHub was $95. I figured it might be a good idea to try the U.S. Open official website for tickets. That worked out very well. I soon found a center court seat for the afternoon session. The ticket price was $72. After fees for service and shipping the price came to $87.75. Center court at the U.S. Open! I would only be going to the U.S. Open Tennis championships once in my life. That meant it was time to buy good stuff not exactly cheap but compared to the resale market not all that expensive either. I had a center court seat in the Arthur Ashe Stadium. This is the MAIN stadium used amongst several smaller venues and tennis courts for the U.S. Open. Arthur Ashe Stadium opened in 1997. It seats 22,547. The stadium does not have a roof, which has opened it up for some criticism in the past. As luck would have it there was a brief rain shower today causing a delay in play for a few minutes. During the rain delay I phoned Wells Fargo to get a cash advance on my home equity loan so I could afford to buy lunch at the U.S. Open. I was lucky to see the very top names in the sport of tennis. I would be seeing two matches during the afternoon. The first was popular star Venus Williams playing Kirsten Flipkins of Belgium. Williams went onto to win that match before losing in the second round of a tournament her sister Serena would ultimately win. I didn’t need to leave my seat to see Rafael Nadal from Spain and Ryan Harrison from the U.S. play. Nadal would defeat Harrison in three sets, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. Rafael Nadal would go on to win the men’s singles championship a few days later. What were the chances I would have center court seats to see matches including players like Venue Williams and Rafael Nadal? Of course I did a lot of “walking around” the entire venue when the matches were finished. I bought a souvenir U.S. Open t-shirt to commemorate my visit. It was a most fun day at a major sporting event. Don’t miss the pictures! Citi Field (New York Mets vs. Philadelphia Phillies) – Flushing Meadows, New York What were the chances? What were the chances I would be able to see afternoon play at the U.S. Open Tennis tournament and then an evening major league baseball game at Citi Field in the evening? These two venues were just 200 yards apart! Heck, I didn’t even have to re-park my car when I changed stadia. I would have thought the Mets would have been playing on the road during the tennis tournament just to reduce potential congestion. Citi Field….a beautiful place. Citi Field was completed in 2009. It’s one of the best baseball parks I have visited. It replaced Shea Stadium, which came on the scene in 1964. Shea might have been the worst stadium I had ever visited. The Mets played their first ever regular season game against the San Diego Padres on April 13, 2009. In 2013 Citi Field hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star game. Citi Field has a capacity of 41,922 almost 15,000 fewer seats than Shea Stadium. I very much enjoyed visiting the Mets Museum & Hall of Fame. It reminded me that Casey Stengel was their first ever manager. I was a fan of Casey when he managed the Yankees, my favorite team as a boy. Roaming around and avoiding the locals at Citi Field. I roamed around the park tonight first selecting a seat high up and behind home plate. I had purchased my ticket from StubHub for just $15 U.S. However, I would soon have to move because I was near a group of about six “New Yorkers” who must come to the game just to harass each other. They talked, needled and yelled nearly non-stop. After about five minutes it was way too much. I had to leave. The Phillies ended up winning the game 2-1. Again, don’t miss the pictures. This was a very beautiful ballpark. Lake Champlain Cruise – Burlington, Vermont Laid back! On Tuesday afternoon I was in the Burlington area home to the University of Vermont. With some time on my hands I was looking for something to do. The weather was absolutely perfect so I decided to take a cruise on Lake Champlain. My 2 p.m. cruise lasting 90 minutes was just perfect. It was lightly attended and the captain was full of historical tidbits. Did you know this? Lake Champlain is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. after the five Great Lakes. The only one of a few lakes that flows in a northerly direction It is 12.2 miles wide, 120 miles long, and 427 feet deep at its deepest point. It encompasses Vermont, New York, and the Province of Quebec, Canada. It is believed to have the best collection of historic shipwrecks in North America. Samuel de Champlain discovered the lake in 1609 I very much enjoy doing things like this. It’s relaxing, scenic and educational. Champlain Valley Expo – Essex Junction, Pennsylvania $27 bucks for a county fair figure 8 race? Following my afternoon cruise it was time to spend the evening at the county fair. One of the reasons for going out of my way to see a race in Vermont was the National Geographic Diversity program. Tonight I would be seeing my 8th lifetime track in the Green Mountain state. Surprisingly, to me, that would give me a third place ranking in Vermont amongst all of the trackchasers in the world. What’s the world coming to when a California guy does that? There was a $5 U.S. parking charge for the fair. The sign at the ticket office told me admission would be $12. However after 6 p.m. the price was reduced to just six dollars. I had arrived at 6:17 p.m. I paid six dollars to enter the fair. However, I wasn’t done paying just yet. There was another ten-dollar fee to enter the grandstands to see tonight’s figure 8 racing. That meant that I paid $21 to see the race and I would have paid $27 if I had arrived some 18 minutes earlier. Wow! I only pay $20 U.S. on average for a good seat at a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. By the way every NASCAR track offers free parking. What’s for supper? I would need some “supper” which is what we call the evening meal from where I come from in Illinois. Tonight that was some fried dough nuggets ($4) and one slice of cheese pizza ($3.75). Neither was great. In order to use my credit card to pay I would have to give them my address and get their fair mailings. I didn’t want to do that so I paid cash. I didn’t want to do that either but it was the best of two choices. An 852-pound pumpkin? I had time to explore the contents of the fair buildings. That’s always fun. There was a huge pumpkin display. The blue ribbon went to a pumpkin weighing in at 852 pounds! There were some beautiful old cars including a 1947 Ford Vermont state police car. The fair had a huge selection of “fair” food including fried Oreos, fried veggies, cider slush and Tootsies fried dough. Animals at the fair included llamas and oxen. You don’t see those at every county fair. The covered grandstand was sparsely attended. That was unusual. Most county fair have packed grandstands. However, at $27 per person including parking the ticket prices were steep. The racing was unremarkable. The racing wasn’t much. They were using the “double figure 8” configuration. This was the first figure 8 race I had ever seen in Vermont….on dirt. Previously, I had seen my one and only figure 8 race on a frozen lake being the first trackchaser to ever do that. There were a few rollovers. That’s somewhat unusual in figure 8 racing. Overall, I was pleased to see a race in Vermont on a Tuesday night. That doesn’t happen often. With my hotel being nearby I stayed for the completion of the last event of the night….the demo derby. Being in Vermont positioned me well for tomorrow night’s show in Ontario, Canada. Don’t miss the racing action video. STATE COMPARISONS Vermont The Green Mountain State This evening I saw just my 8th lifetime track in the Green Mountain state, yes the Green Mountain state. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member Vermont sayings: So quaint it’ll make you puke. There are two separate Picasa photo albums here. The first details my visits to the U.S. Open Tennis tournament and to Citi Field home of the New York Mets. The second focuses on my visit to Vermont. Enjoy.
QUICK FACTS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Chicago, IL (ORD) – 1,745 miles Chicago, IL (ORD) – Detroit, MI (DTW) – 234 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Detroit Metro Airport – trip begins Belleville, MI Butler, PA Urbana, OH Union, KY East Moline, IL Marshall, MI Armada, MI West Branch, MI Midland, MI Detroit Metro Airport – 2,378 miles RENTAL CAR #2 Detroit Metro Airport – trip begins Greenland, MI Escanaba, MI Escanaba, MI (again!) Hudsonville, MI Greensburg, PA Abingdon, IL Brooklyn, MI Onekama, MI Detroit Metro Airport – 3,429 miles RENTAL CAR #3 LaGuardia (New York) International Airport – trip begins Oreville, PA LaGuardia (New York) International Airport – trip ends – 314 miles AIRPLANE Detroit, MI (DTW) – New York, NY (LGA)– 500 miles New York, NY (LGA) – Montreal, Quebec, Canada (YUL) – 324 miles RENTAL CAR #4 Dorval (Montreal) International Airport – trip begins Essex Junction, VT TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Wayne County Fairgrounds – $10 Butler Farm Show – $12 (not trackchasing expense) Champaign County Fairgrounds – $12 Florence Speedway – Complimentary admission Quad Cities Speedway – $8 ($2 senior discount – not trackchasing expense) Calhoun County Fairgrounds – $10 Armada County Fairgrounds – $8 Ogemaw County Fairgrounds – $8 Midland County Fairgrounds – $10 Adventure Mountain Raceway – $8 Upper Peninsula International Raceway – $8 Upper Peninsula State Fairgrounds – $5 Hudsonville County Fairgrounds – $9 Westmoreland County Fairgrounds – $8 Abingdon Fairgrounds – $10 Michigan International Speedway – $20 Manistee County Fairgrounds – 13 Oreville Kart Club – No charge Champlain Valley Expo – $16 (parking $5) LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are: Total lifetime tracks seen Total “trackchasing countries” seen Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results Total Lifetime Tracks There are no trackchasers currently within 350 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,897 Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total. 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 65 Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.10 That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report 
