Greetings from Castor, Louisiana
and then Austin, Texas
.
.
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Piney Woods
Dirt road course
Lifetime Track #2,700
Circuit of the Americas
Asphalt road course
Original Lifetime Track #1,828 – revisit today
THE EVENT
Editor’s note: 2,700 tracks in 85 countries. I never would have imagined that when I started doing this. This was a rainy weekend. We were lucky to see what we saw, eat what we ate and spend time with family as we did. We’re just lucky ducks.
I AM A TRACKCHASER.
My name is Randy Lewis (above at a St. Paul Saints game on one of my trackchasing adventures). I live in San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so.
Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I enjoy auto racing. Secondly, my hobby requires a good deal of overnight travel. When I venture out to see a race at a track I’ve never seen before I do not want my trip limited to racing only. The very last thing I want when I’m done trackchasing is to have memories of only racing. I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Those visits in many cases will provide more long-lasting memories than whatever I saw on the track. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me.
Hundreds of trackchasers have stopped for a moment to create their own personal trackchasing list. I think that is great. However, I will tell you that no one has ever taken trackchasing more seriously than I have. Do I have any data to back up that assertion? I do. To date, I have seen auto racing in 85 countries at more than 2,690 different tracks. Does that sound serious to you?
I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link.
Bourbon Street!
Trackchasing Tourist Attractions
After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience on my website at www.randylewis.org. My trackchasing contributions generate a good deal of interest in what I am doing. My YouTube channel (ranlay) has more than 1.3 million views. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month.
Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this nearly 2,700 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. It’s just fun!
If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you.
If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks!
FOREWORD
Saturday/Sunday, May 22/23, 2021.
Unusual but not THAT unusual.
This weekend’s trackchasing trip was a little bit unusual on the one hand. But at the same time, I had done this type of trip virtually hundreds of times. This is what I’m talking about.
This trip was also special!
On this trip the Piney Woods track in Castor, Louisiana would be the 2,700th lifetime track where I had seen racing. Yep. That was special. Here’s a list of all of my previous “century” tracks.
SUMMARY OF “CENTURY” TRACKCHASING ACHIEVEMENTS
# 1 – Peoria Speedway (Mt. Hawley – oval), Peoria, Illinois – circa 1955
# 100 – Red River Valley Speedway (oval), West Fargo, North Dakota (Sammy Swindell winner) – July 13, 1981
# 200 – Sumter Rebel Speedway (oval), Sumter, South Carolina – March 28, 1992
# 300 – Brownstown Speedway (oval), Brownstown, Indiana (Billy Moyer Jr. winner) – April 19, 1997 –
# 400 – Barren County Speedway (oval), Glasgow, Kentucky – October 1, 1999
# 500 – Freedom Raceway, Delevan (oval), New York – July 27, 2001
# 600 – Trail-Way Speedway (figure 8 course), Hanover, Pennsylvania – July 20, 2002
# 700 – Thunder Alley Park, Evans Mills (oval), New York – April 22, 2004
# 800 – Five Flags Speedway (oval), Pensacola, Florida – December 3, 2004
# 900 – I-96 Speedway (inner oval), Lake Odessa, Michigan – July 15, 2005
# 1,000 – Auburndale Kartway (oval), Auburndale, Florida – February 10, 2006 (Ed Esser joined in the celebration)
# 1,100 – Cambridge Fair (figure 8), Cambridge, Ontario, Canada – September 9, 2006
# 1,200 – Castrol Raceway (oval), Edmonton, Alberta, Canada – June 3, 2007
# 1,300 – Bira Circuit (road course), Pattaya, Thailand – January 19, 2008
# 1,400 – Kemper Raceway (indoor oval), Kansas City, Missouri – December 20, 2008
# 1,500 – Glencoe Fairgrounds (figure 8), Glencoe, Ontario, Canada – September 27, 2009
# 1,600 – 85 Speedway (oval), Ennis, Texas – October 8, 2010
# 1,700 – Aylmer Fairgrounds (figure 8), Aylmer, Ontario, Canada – August 13, 2011
# 1,800 – Ancaster Fairgrounds (oval), Jerseyville, Ontario, Canada – September 20, 2012
# 1,900 – Jackson Speedway (inner oval), Jackson, Minnesota – August 30, 2013
# 2,000 – Reading Fairgrounds (oval), Leesport, Pennsylvania – August 4, 2014
# 2,100 – Le RPM Speedway (oval), Saint-Marcel-de-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada – June 6, 2015
# 2,200 – Tullyroan Oval (oval), Dungannon, Northern Ireland – March 26, 2016
# 2,300 – George County Motorsport Park (oval), Lucedale, Mississippi – February 25, 2017
# 2,400 – Lake Elsinore Diamond Stadium (road course), Lake Elsinore, California – December 15, 2017
# 2,500 – Midvale Speedway (mixed surface figure 8), Midvale, Ohio – October 14, 2018
# 2,600 – Ice Pragelato (ice road course), Pragelato, Italy – January 6, 2020
# 2,700 – Piney Woods (road course), Castor, Louisiana – May 22, 2021
Welcome, Carol!
First of all, Carol would be joining me on this trackchasing adventure. She doesn’t go on every trip that I take. I sometimes sense when I get feedback from these kinds of people that they seem to think that I’m not treating Carol well because she doesn’t go on every trip. I think that feeling might come from the individual who takes one or maybe two trips a year always with their spouse.
I take 40-45 round-trip airline trips every year. I’ve done that since I retired nearly 20 years ago. Carol comes with me about a dozen times each year, maybe more. I think that’s what people don’t seem to get.
How many spouses, be that man or woman, go on 12-15 round-trip airline vacations every year? I would guess the number isn’t very many. Carol is quite happy going on a dozen trips or so every year. That’s actually a lot more travel that she would do if she were married to someone who didn’t travel much at all. I see my responsibility as dragging her along so she can get to experience many of the things that I get to experience during my 40 trips or more every year. It all works for us.
This was the master plan.
The overall plan this weekend was to see a Saturday afternoon UTV woods cross country race during the afternoon in Louisiana. Then our first option for Saturday evening was to see a race in Texas. Both of these potential track visits would be new tracks for both Carol and me. If the Texas race on Saturday night didn’t work out, I had a nighttime race in Louisiana planned for Carol which would be new for her only.
Then on Sunday Carol, Jim our youngest son and Krista our daughter-in-law would head out to the Circuit of the Americas road course for the first-ever NASCAR Cup visit to Austin, Texas. That was going to be fun.
The weather was not good.
Unfortunately, there was weather was in the area for everywhere we planned to go. I’ve got a really good weather app called, “Weather Underground”. I can’t believe how accurate it is and how good their long-term forecasts are. There was a good chance that all of our races up until we got over to Austin on Sunday would be canceled because of wet weather. It was a risk we needed to take.
Without further adieux, I’ll take you through a blow-by-blow description of exactly how each part of the plan worked…and didn’t. We definitely had a lot of uncertainty but we had backup plans. With uncertainty comes backup plans.
FRIDAY
DAL or DFW?
To begin with, we needed to get down to Dallas, Texas on Friday afternoon. We were flying standby and the standby seats were most limited. We might make our flight and we might not.
That being the case I made reservations on three different airlines. Two of the airlines would take us into Dallas’ Love Field (DAL). The other flight would have us landing at the DFW International Airport (DFW). This meant that I had to make two individual rental car reservations. We would be dropping our car in Austin, Texas. That privilege came with a premium price. Nevertheless, I had a car reserved from DAL AND DFW for us.
It turned out that we made a flight taking us from LAX to DAL. A lot of times, when we fly standby, the remaining seats that are unsold are first class seats. That was the case tonight.
Carol would be flying in first class.
Although Carol and I were a twosome there was only one first-class seat to be had. Of course, I gave it to Carol. When we used to travel with the family it was common that the airline might want to upgrade me because I was such a frequent flyer. The rest of our family of four would have assigned seats traveling in coach. Every time that happened, I had a contest of one sort or another which helped me select which of the other four people in the family would get that one first-class seat. I always did it that way. I never ever flew in first class with any of my family members in the back.
We did land at Dallas’ Love Field at nearly 9 p.m. We were just in time to stop and get a Whataburger at the airport. They closed about 10 minutes later.
From there I picked up my favorite rental car, the Toyota Camry, and we motored over to the Tyler, Texas area. There I had reserved with Priceline a brand-new Holiday Inn Express hotel. Quite a few of the Holiday Inn Express properties are relatively new. They’re always very nice.
What? We can see the hotel we just can’t get to it.
My go-to GPS system is Waze. Tonight, we had a very unusual circumstance with our GPS directions. I guess because the hotel was brand new, opening only a couple of months ago, the directions weren’t working well with Waze. Even though the hotel was located just off the freeway and in easy sight it took us about 25 minutes to get there. I have never had that experience with Waze before. The hotel clerk confirmed our GPS problem was not unique to us. The hotel was planning to build a separate entrance road but it wasn’t completed yet.
SATURDAY
Trick or treat!
Most of the hotels that we stay in, during pre-Covid times, offered up a hot breakfast of one form or another. Since Covid, hotels have switched to “grab and go” breakfast choices. This usually includes a pre-packaged bag of maybe fruit, a granola bar and maybe a bottle of water.
Today’s hotel offered to grab and go breakfast but the operation was just a little bit different. The desk clerk grabbed two bags, sort of like we were trick-or-treating, and asked us what we would like. She went through a series of muffins, fruits, bagels, granola bars, and various drink choices. We took what we could and were off to Louisiana.
Canceled!
Along the way, I checked to see what the weather status was for the track we had planned to see this evening in Texas. Canceled! Rained out! I have tried to get this track on numerous occasions. They have had a lot of rainouts!
Castor, Louisiana is a small town…I mean a SMALL town.
With that in mind, we continued on to our afternoon destination of Castor, Louisiana. Castor is a small town. The latest census tells me they have a robust population of 258 people. The name “Castor” refers to the genus Castoridae or beaver, a Latin term, contrary to an oral tradition of the word being Native American in origin. During the Civil War, Castor supplied salt for the Confederacy. The area supplied hundreds of young men as soldiers during the Civil War, including the Castor Guards and the Bienville Rifles. In the late evening of April 23, 2000, Castor was struck by a tornado with a half-mile-wide path of destruction, which caused massive damage. There were no severe injuries, but the infrastructure damage caused the closure of most small businesses as well as the public school for a period of weeks. Most of the affected buildings were demolished or renovated because of the severe damage. Castor has one school located on Front Street. The complex contains a Pre-K and Kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school buildings.
Castor produced a Major League Baseball Hall of Famer.
I was surprised to see a large sign telling us that Lee Smith, Chicago Cubs pitcher (he played for eight different teams) and major-league baseball Hall of Famer grew up in Castor. I found that pretty amazing considering how small and off the beaten path Castor, Louisiana was.
LACC does a good job.
This afternoon we would be seeing a LACC UTV off-road woods race. I’ve seen racing at four or five of their locations. They always come through with a trackchasing countable racing format. They did today as well.
Are you the guy from California?
I had been in contact via Facebook Messenger with the LACC people. Today when we pulled in driving a rental car with an Illinois license plate, we paid our $10 admission fee and signed the liability release. As we were talking to the ticket seller he asked, “Are you the guy from California?” I have no idea based upon the information that we had exchanged up to that point how he would know that but he did.
Have you ever driven a Camry on a water bed?
This area of the country has gotten a lot of rain over the past week or two. We initially pulled into what I considered to be the paddock area. The paddock was quite a long way from where I knew the race would be starting. When I went to park the car, I could feel as if I was driving my Toyota Camry on a water bed. The ground was really mushy.
After I parked, we sat in on the driver’s meeting for a few minutes. When the meeting wrapped up, I decided that I really needed to move the car from the paddock area closer to the starting grid. That was going to be a problem.
Thank goodness for Cajuns.
Our National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry is a front-wheel drive car. Typically, those cars are better at getting out of slippery situations than rear-wheel-drive cars. Not today. I had only moved about 5 feet from our parking space and then couldn’t go any further. Luckily about six big ol’ Louisiana Cajun natives saw our dilemma. They pushed us to safety. Thanks, guys!
A watermelon field!
From the paddock, we drove to the side of an entry road and walked through some muddy confines to what we would find out was a large watermelon field. I guess it’s not the season for watermelons. Today the space was pretty much just a grass pasture at this point. This is where today’s UTV racing would take place.
No kids!
The UTV teen division had just two competitors. They had an age limit on this class of 13-16 so this class would not be counting. You know the drill. No kids!
These races made this track “countable”.
However, in the adult division, one group had five starters and another adult group had two starters. You’ll be able to see what the start of these races looked like from my video. The start will show how the UTVs raced across the watermelon field into a clearing in the woods and then finally off into the woods again. Each race for these two groups lasted 30 minutes.
I will be the first to tell you that UTV racing in the woods is not tremendously entertaining for the spectator. Today with the wet and muddy grounds things were just a little bit more challenging than normal. Nevertheless, I was seeing my 17th-lifetime track in Louisiana. Carol was seeing racing at her third track in Louisiana. I have now seen racing at more tracks in Louisiana than any other fellow competitor.
Did you know that Carol and I have seen racing at 3,351 tracks? That’s 2,700 for me and another 651 for Carol. That makes us the World’s #1 Trackchasing couple in the worldwide standings by a margin of hundreds of tracks.
Seeing the local color.
Following the races, we stopped at the General Store. This place was something. They sold groceries and they sold hardware as in nails and bolts and those kinds of things. We ended up getting some Dr Pepper Zero Sugar with vanilla which I have never had before. We couldn’t pass up an entire box of Moon Pies for a buck 29. I love going in old stores like this.
Now for another new track for Carol!
Our next stop was going to be over in Leesville, Louisiana. Leesville was on the way to Austin which was our destination for tomorrow afternoon. Back in 2015, I had seen racing at the Leesville 171 Speedway. However, this would be a first-time visit for Carol which meant that stopping was worthwhile.
Rained out twice in one day!
All during our drive, we saw huge rain puddles but at the same time, we hadn’t had any rain while we were driving anywhere on either Friday or Saturday. When we pulled into Leesville, I checked Facebook. Six hours ago, the Leesville 171 Speedway had canceled because of rain. That was it. No more racing for us today.
Similar bathroom habits!
Carol and I are only about six weeks apart in age. Of course, one of us is a boy and one of us is a girl. Nevertheless, our bathroom needs for all of our travels have always been pretty similar.
Everyone gets to choose their reaction to the same set of events.
We stopped for gas. While I was filling up, I suggested that Carol go in and use the bathroom. She came out with a frown on her face. Apparently, the toilet was stopped up and nearly overflowing. She told me she tried to use a plunger to fix things.
I’ve got to be honest with you. Carol and I do not view many common circumstances with the same frame of mind. If I came upon a stopped-up toilet, which I did after I filled up with gas, I would never ever consider trying to fix it myself. I’m more of a manager than an actual worker. I would assess the situation. If I felt my contribution to the bowl wouldn’t make it overflow any more, I would simply use it. That’s what I did. Carol and I left the gas station with me smiling and her frowning.
Cajun food anyone?
It was now time for dinner and I had a hankering for Cajun food. I quickly went on Yelp and found Leblanc’s Cajun Kitchen. That would be great.
We stopped in there and had chicken and sausage gumbo and onion rings. The place had a real family atmosphere. Carol had fish tacos with fish that didn’t look like they came from California and I’m sure they didn’t. I had the chicken and pesto pasta. It was all delicious. Then we added a piece of chocolate cake. Personally, I have no idea how I gained 3.4 pounds in 72 hours.
SUNDAY
A first for NASCAR!
Today was going to be a big day. We were going to see NASCAR’s Cup division race at the Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Tennessee. NASCAR had never been to COTA until this weekend.
I did something for this race that I NEVER do!
Normally when I go to a NASCAR Cup race, I never ever buy a ticket in advance. I know there will always be someone who has an extra ticket. They will sell that “extra” to me or maybe they will even give it to me. Over the past decade, I have had paid only two different prices for tickets when I showed up at a NASCAR Cup race. Those two price points would be $20 and free. That would not be the situation today.
Only the best seats money could buy for us.
Because Carol and our son Jim and our daughter-in-law Krista were joining me, I needed to buy our tickets in advance. I pretty much knew that the viewing points at COTA, because it’s a road course, wouldn’t be very good no matter where we sat. With that in mind, I figured we might as well sit in the main grandstand right across from the pit area. At least that way we could see some pitstops.
Contrary to what I would do at any other time I bought four tickets from the COTA website. The tickets were expensive. I paid $165 for each seat. It pained me to do that but I was here to entertain others. I had saved a lot of money in the past using my “Need One” sign. I was spending some of those savings for this race.
Then about a week before the race, we got word that Krista wasn’t going to make it. Some out-of-town relatives were now coming into the general area. This messed up babysitting opportunities with grandma and that sort of thing.
I was now the “poor soul”.
Like so many of the poor souls from whom I had bought a ticket to a NASCAR race in the past, I now had an extra ticket. I could sense their pain. This was not a good feeling. For nearly a week I went on Stubhub.com and tried to sell the ticket.
I had paid $165 for that now extra seat. At first, I tried to see if there were any gullible idiots out there who might pay me $225 for the seat. There were not. Each day I would lower the price by $10 or $20 or $30 until I finally got down to a price of just $75. I still couldn’t sell the ticket.
Plan B.
My next best plan was to try to sell the ticket at the race itself. I had no idea how that was going to go. The forecast for Austin was for rain and cloudy and cool weather all day on Sunday. That wasn’t going to help my chances to sell the extra seat. I would need to figure out a plan quickly.
Buc-ee’s.
On the way to the track, we discovered a place called Buc-ee’s. Our daughter Kristy and her family had lived in Austin for a few years up until about a year ago. She was telling me that Buc-ee’s was simply outstanding. We passed one Buc-ee’s. It didn’t look much bigger than my living room. That was disappointing.
Then we came across another Buc-ee’s. The store was much different than the first one we had seen. Imagine just about the biggest Walmart you’ve ever seen. This is pretty much what Buc-ee’s look like. We stormed in there, being just a couple of miles from the racetrack, and grabbed a couple of pulled pork sandwiches, a cinnamon roll. Carol hit the popcorn aisle. We were a little rushed for time or I would have stayed to get the 100% tour of Buc-ee’s. Buc-ee’s was impressive!
NASCAR parking is free!
I knew that at NASCAR tracks they always have some free parking lots. For us today that was, “Lot T”. No charge to park there. Fortunately, the roadways inside the parking lot were paved or at least packed with dirt. Many of the parking spaces themselves were nearly underwater with the rain they had and the rain they were going to get today. I made sure I parked our car with our front wheels on solid ground which would get us out of just about anything.
Then we hopped on a shuttle and rode nearly a mile from Lot T over the main ticket entrance right behind the grandstands at the Circuit of the Americas. Jim was waiting for us. He had driven his 2004 Lexus LS 430 to the races. That was my car for the first nine years of its existence. Now it’s been Jim’s for the past eight years. It’s still going strong with about 165,000 miles on it. A few years ago, Jimmy had it painted in Hawaii. It looks brand new from the outside and it’s seventeen years old.
Time for Plan B now.
We had an hour before the race would begin. I figured I would run out over toward the ticket booth and see if I could sell my extra ticket to anyone who would be watching the race by themselves. I didn’t have a sign. I simply walked up to folks who looked like they might be getting ready to buy a ticket and ask them if they needed one. This was no time to be shy.
Bingo! Jackpot! We have a winner!
In a matter of about five minutes, I found a guy from Wisconsin who was visiting family in Austin. It turned out that this fella was a race fan. I told him that I would be willing to sell my ticket for $110. I reminded him this was a nice discount from what they were selling tickets for at the ticket booth today at $165. He thought that was a good idea and immediately gave me $110 in cash.
Going into this morning I pretty much figured that I had lost $165 on the extra seat that I had purchased. Now getting $110 back almost seemed like it was Christmas. I would take it. Could I have asked for more? I don’t know. I was very happy with the price that I did get for the ticket.
Rain…and a little more rain.
Rain was in the forecast. It was definitely going to rain. I knew that our seats were in row eight of the lower grandstand. I didn’t know if we were underneath the covered grandstand roof or not. It didn’t take long to find out that we were not under the roof!
I don’t recommend a race like this without a radio and strong noise-canceling headset.
Normally a race fan will come to a NASCAR race and rent a radio with a noise-canceling headset that allows the fan to hear communication from the local radio broadcast as well as what the drivers and spotters and crew chiefs are saying to each other. I find that to be an essential way to enjoy a NASCAR race.
However, during Covid Racing Electronics (the only vendor that rents/sells radios) no longer sells or rents their headsets at the track. You have to rent them ahead of time online. I went online a couple of days before the raced only to find out that all of the radios and headsets were sold out. Bummer.
Nevertheless, I had a Racing Electronics radio that I purchased about two years ago. I also have a Uniden radio that must be nearly 20 years old. I had a splitter. That meant these two radios could be used as three radios. We would all be able to listen to the broadcast and use our headsets to keep us from going deaf because NASCAR racing is so loud.
We were set!
Jim sat in the middle of Carol and me. This way I could give Jim some pointers and explain what was happening on the track since he’s not really into racing. We had a good time. We got wet. Fortunately, Carol brought us some cheap plastic ponchos which kept us from getting drowned.
A fan can’t see squat at a road course.
We couldn’t see much. That was expected because this was a road course and you can’t really see much at a road course. We did have a good view of pitstops. We could see the cars come out of turn 20, yes there are 20 turns on this version of the 3.4-mile track. We watched the racers drive down the front straightaway in a straight line and then make a left-hand turn up the hill at turn one. When we weren’t seeing that small amount of racing, we watched the rest of it on a big-screen TV.
Matthew McConaughey…a real cool and somewhat strange dude.
It was kind of cool to hear Matthew McConaughey, a native of Austin, give the “gentlemen start your engines” command. He’s a weird guy but at the same time a pretty cool guy. Today it seemed as if he needed a haircut.
Rain tires, please.
I don’t know if the NASCAR Cup racers had ever competed in the rain in a Cup race. Just a couple of years ago NASCAR came up with the idea of using rain tires. Today they would need them!
There were a couple of major crashes, one of which necessitated a red flag delay of probably a half-hour or more. NASCAR brought out the Jet Titans to try to knock down the puddles which were creating a hydroplaning situation.
Next time we go to COTA for a NASCAR Cup race, if there is a next time, I think I will choose a different seating location. We just couldn’t see very much and spent most of the time watching the video screen. Then when I got home, I watched the race on TV just to see what I missed.
Well done, Chase!
Chase Elliot ended up winning the race. The event was shortened by 14 laps because of rain and impending darkness. COTA does not have lights. I had the chance to meet Chase Elliott and his famous father Bill when Chase was probably about 12 or 13 years old.
Would we go back?
Would Carol or Jim ever want to go back to watch a race at COTA? Probably not. I said to my Wisconsin friend who had bought our fourth ticket, “You’ve got to be a pretty hard-core racing fan to want to pay what it cost to go to one of these races and then see so little of the race action on the track as well as sit through a steady rain”. He agreed.
From there with the race now complete. We all headed for our cars. Somehow Jim, a NASCAR spectating rookie, had just about the best parking spot in all of COTA. He was just 75 yards from the front gate!
Not so fast. You will have to wait.
Carol and I had a nearly one-mile uphill walk to reach our car. We are pretty much parked in the back of Lot T. We sat in our car and didn’t move for a full hour. We saw tow trucks towing pick-up trucks out of the mud. Fortunately, we were on solid ground.
Ribs from a gas station…delicious.
Jim beat us back to his place by about an hour and a half! Krista and the girls had prepared dinner for us. Because of our tardiness, the food had been sitting on the counter for a while. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ribs from a local gas station no less, beer bread and lemon squares prepared by Ella. We spent several minutes catching up with Krista, Ella and older daughter Jules. They work for a living and/or go to school. They needed to get to bed at a reasonable hour.
MONDAY
Ceci is a pretty and fun little gal.
We spent the morning with Jim and daughter Ceci who is nearly 3 years old. She’s a ball of fire and a lot of fun to be with.
Monday morning at the WH.
From there we headed over to Waffle House for our Texas departure breakfast. There was a 15-minute wait. We had to sit in our car until they called us to come on in. Covid is dying out…but it’s not dead no matter what you read about Texas being “wide open”. I didn’t suspect such a crowd at 10:30 in the morning on Monday at Waffle House. We ate a lot.
These plans are meant, I guess, to be changed.
From there we grabbed a flight from Austin back to LAX after an exciting trip. Despite all the planning, I put into these things the changes that come along as we actually implement the plan are constant.
More good food.
For us (me?), trackchasing is very much about eating tasty, highly recommended food. From LAX we stopped at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants called Frijoles in Inglewood. It’s only a mile from the airport itself. There we dined on exotic food that was as authentic as anything you’ll find in Mexico anywhere.
I think I see our modest seaside cottage.
It wasn’t long before we were pulling into the driveway of our modest seaside cottage. I had added a new track in Louisiana. Carol had added two new tracks in Louisiana and then Texas. Plus, to top it off we got a chance to spend time with family. Considering they live nearly 1,500 miles away that’s a good thing.
Randy Lewis
San Clemente, California
Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,700 tracks.
Louisiana
The Pelican State
This afternoon I saw racing at my 17th-lifetime track in the Pelican, yes, the Pelican State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Louisiana. Louisiana ranks #34, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S.
Here’s a link to my all-time Louisiana state trackchasing list. I have made 14 separate trips to Louisiana to see these tracks.
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
Louisiana sayings: “Dressed”
This has nothing to do with clothing and everything to do with how you order your po’boy, a sandwich served on French bread that’s crispy on the outside and soft in the center. Shrimp, oyster, catfish, sausage, roast beef — the variations are endless. When you order you’ll be asked if you want it dressed, which means with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and mayo.
You can find great po’boys all over Louisiana, but each November in New Orleans, the Oak Street Po’Boy Festival serves more varieties than you can possibly imagine.
JUST THE FACTS
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 800 tracks of my lifetime total. That’s a fact, Jack.
- Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,700
Total Trackchasing Countries
My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to my lifetime total.
- Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 85
Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results
- Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 3.96
That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report
Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today.
See it in pictures!
Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure.
A trip to Louisiana is always fun in so many ways!
A first for NASCAR a visit to COTA and then family time for us