I always have a plan. It doesn’t always work but I always have a plan.
Thursday
Today I took off on another exciting trackchasing trip. I’ve done over 1,000 of these trips. They are always exciting. How could they not be? These trips are exciting because I always have a plan. It’s just that I never know which parts of the plan are not going to work out. Every one of these adventures has quite a few changes. I think that’s what gives me such a flexible mindset.
Nice to see Miss Clark doing her thing.
Do you know who Caitlin Clark is? If not, she is a young professional basketball player. I was turned onto Caitlin during this past basketball season. She broke the women’s college basketball scoring record at the University of Iowa.
Caitlin was drafted #1 in the recent women’s WNBA draft by the Indianapolis Fever. Until that happened, I had never heard of the Indianapolis Fever team.
When I go out on these racing trips, I like to tie in visits to local attractions and major sporting events. It just turned out that Miss Clark was going to be playing in a professional basketball game at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. If I started my trip a day early, I could stop and see her play. That’s what I did.
I live in Southern California. Most of my racing activity takes place in different time zones. The biggest number of tracks are in the central time zone. The central time zone is two hours ahead of where I live. Another large group of racetracks are in the Eastern time zone which is three hours ahead of Southern California.
Most of my delayed flights are when I can least work things out.
To ensure I could fly for five hours from the west to the east and lose three hours to the Indianapolis time zone, I bought a ticket on Allegiant Airlines. They are a low-cost carrier. I got a one-way flight ticket for just $83. That was a steal as long as they got me to Indianapolis on time. Sadly, they did not.
My flight was scheduled to land in Indianapolis at 5 p.m. I bought a ticket from SeatGeek for the game, which was starting at 7 p.m. I admit, with a flight landing at five and a game starting at seven, that plan was a little tight. Then Allegiant Air started delaying their flight time again and again. It soon became evident that I was not going to be flying to Indianapolis on Allegiant Airlines in time to see a game in the Gainbridge Fieldhouse. I needed a new plan.
Quickly, I assessed my options. I picked up a standby flight on American Airlines that was also landing in Indianapolis at 5 p.m. It pays to be flexible and have resources. By the way, I have earned more than six million frequent flyer miles with American. That wasn’t important today, but it’s OK to brag once in a while.
My life is really just one big strategy.
When I landed in Indianapolis, my plan was to take Uber or maybe Lyft, the rideshare companies, from the airport to downtown. On average, a full-sized rental car will cost me $100 a day before my sponsorship rebates. I could ride with Lyft or Uber from the airport to the hotel for about 25 bucks. Tomorrow morning, I would do the same thing back to the airport. At the airport tomorrow, I would get a rental car to start my racing trip. This strategy would save me 50 bucks. Then I discovered that the valet parking charge at the Hyatt Regency in Indianapolis, where I was staying, was $59. Valet parking was the only option. Now I had saved $109!
It all adds up over time.
I consider myself a finance guy. Here’s some advice: If you can save $109 here, $27 there, and $68 over there, all of those little savings are going to add up to something if you invest your savings in a low-cost, diversified mutual fund and keep them there for a while. Remember, you heard it here.
My Hyatt Regency was located in downtown Indianapolis. I discovered a few trips ago that downtown Indianapolis is cool. I’ve been there for the NCAA finals a couple a couple of times. There’s a lot going on, and it’s all very walkable.
I did it. Globalist.
This weekend I will achieve something I’ve been working on for a few months. I will qualify for the highest level in the frequent stay program at Hyatt. That top rank is called Globalist.
Tonight, even though I was not yet a “Globalist,” I had a “Guest of Honor” certificate. This allowed me to get Globalist benefits at the Hyatt Regency even though I hadn’t quite achieved that level yet. Well, to be honest, I had achieved it. Hyatt just hasn’t given me the bonus points they owe me. When they do, it’s Globalist for the next year and a half, baby.
Sometimes going first class actually costs less.
What did I get with my “Globalist-like” benefits at the Hyatt Regency tonight? First of all, they gave me a certificate to eat at the bar before the game. That certificate was good for about $30 worth of food and drink. Then they upgraded me to a suite, giving me plenty of space to roam around even though I wouldn’t be in the room much. Finally, they gave me another voucher for complimentary breakfast in their sit-down restaurant, the “Fat Rooster”. That saved me another $30.
I could’ve stayed in my room tomorrow until 4 p.m., except if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to get to the races in West Virginia, but I could’ve done that. If I had used Hyatt points for this stay, they would have waived the $59 valet parking. They’ve got a few other benefits for Globalists as well. It pays to have a plan and be a good customer.
The joke was on me. Details later.
It was only a 10-minute walk over to the field house. Along the way, I noticed an independent vendor selling Caitlin Clark t-shirts. I collect t-shirts from the events I attend. I had my heart set on getting a Caitlin Clark shirt tonight. The basketball gods were shining on me. I hadn’t even entered the arena, and this was my shirt-buying opportunity. Was Miss Clark getting her cut from these bootleg t-shirts? Not likely. The vendor was asking $20. I offered $15. He accepted. If you don’t ask you don’t get, right? I was pretty proud of myself. I loved the shirt. The design was better than anything I saw once I was inside the fieldhouse.
The Gainbridge Fieldhouse opened in 1999. It looks as if it might have opened in the past five years. When the arena first began the Indiana Pacers of the NBA used it as their home. The arena has also hosted the Big Ten basketball tournament, the Professional Bull Riders, and lots more. I was very impressed with this place. If I lived in Indianapolis and Caitlin Clark was playing on the team, I would be a season-ticket holder.
This was one of the more exciting sporting events I’ve attended.
The atmosphere of this sporting event was intense—it had playoff game intensity written all over it. Miss Clark is the team’s point guard. She is known for making three-point shots at a distance greater than most men shoot in either college or the NBA.
She hasn’t played in her 10th professional game yet, but she still managed to score 20 points and dish out eight assists tonight. She is an outstanding shooter and passes just as well. She dropped 30 points on her opponents a couple of games ago, and she’s just getting started. I may go out of my way like I did tonight to see her play live again.
Oh, well.
Oh, one more thing. After the game, those independent vendors sold the same Caitlin Clark shirt I bought two hours ago. I got a five-dollar discount and paid just $15 for my shirt. Inside shirts were selling for $40 and $50. What were they selling for AFTER the game? Ten bucks. Oh my. I still love my shirt, but my $15 price didn’t look as brilliant after the game as it did before the game!
Friday
Change of plans.
When I originally planned this trip, I was only going to see a race on Saturday and Sunday. Then I discovered that the Princeton Speedway in Princeton, West Virginia, was coming out of hibernation to race this evening. They hadn’t raced in three years. I thank the Randy Lewis Racing Research Department for this find. Nobody does it better than those folks.
I walk more than four miles every day. The toughest days for me to do that are when I’m driving or flying long distances and being at a race for three or four hours. Today the plan was to drive 10 hours and be at the racetrack for another three.
What time was it when I got up??
With that being the situation, I woke up at 7 a.m. Indianapolis time, which was 4 a.m. “my time”. Don’t you think 4 a.m. is early? I don’t usually get out of bed until about 8 a.m. Today, I was getting up four hours earlier than normal. If you want to “feel my pain” think what it might be like if you got up four hours earlier than whatever your normal wakeup is. I knocked out a quick 30 minutes of walking around downtown Indianapolis this morning.
Chili and a buddy.
Then, I drove to the Cincinnati, Ohio, area for a couple of hours. There, I stopped at Gold Star Chili. Cincinnati is famous for chili parlors. I had lunch with one of my former work buddies, Greg Robbins. We get a chance to do this a time or two every year and always enjoy each other’s company. He and I stay in touch via text on the events of the day. It was fun seeing Greg. Yes, I also noticed our legs could use a bit more time in the sun.
West Virginia here I come.
Next, I had a five-hour drive to Princeton, West Virginia. When I stop at a rest area, I walk for 10-20 minutes to get closer to my daily walking goal. Once I got to West Virginia, I stopped for a quick bite to eat in the drive-through lane at Chick-fil-A.
The guy was only doing his job.
The young man who handed me my food told me to have a “blessed day”. I couldn’t resist asking him if he was made to say this. He was a little surprised at my question. He looked at his shoes. Then he looked at me and said, “Yeah, but I’m still happy to serve you”. Good answer! I was just curious. I am known to ask people questions like this to see their reactions and better understand the correct answer to my question.
Their first race in more than three years.
The Princeton Speedway is off the main road by a mile or two. I had to drive through a trailer park to get there, which was strange.
The track charges $15 to watch the races from the grandstand. However, if I wanted to pay $30, I could watch the races inside my car at a higher elevation. Quite a bit of the crowd was watching from their cars. On a 60-degree night with temps falling, watching from the comfort of your car or truck seemed like a good idea. I chose the $15 option. I was wearing shorts. It was gonna be cold this evening.
I’m sorry to say this. It’s too bad I have to put it this way. Some of my racing friends and racing promoters might not like what I am about to share. I’m one of those guys who has to tell the truth.
The track advertised starting hot laps (practice) at 7:15 p.m. They were pretty close to doing that, so I can’t jump on them for a late start. They had just 44 cars in the pits spread over four divisions. They ran hot laps. Then they ran time trials, a.k.a. qualifications. Then they ran three or four races and took what the announcer described as a “10 or 15-minute” intermission. If you, as a racing fan, have ever heard those words, “We’re going to take a 10 or 15-minute intermission,” and the intermission was shorter than 15 minutes, you probably have a faulty memory.
There was a crowd of maybe 150 people in the grandstand, and that number or a little bit more watched from their cars surrounding the track. The Princeton Speedway didn’t get its first feature event going until past 9:30 p.m. It was a cold night, and temperatures were now in the high 50s.
If basketball can do it, why not local auto racing?
Last night I went to a professional basketball game. It was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and wouldn’t you know it? The game started as advertised. The basketball game was finished at 9 p.m. Fans were walking out onto the streets of Indianapolis two hours after the game started. They were satisfied with a full night of entertainment…completed in two hours.
Fans were not walking out of the Princeton Speedway grandstand at 9:30 p.m. at the conclusion of the racing event. They were really just starting to see some of the real racing action. I don’t care what any racing person tells me about this. Short-track auto racing is not going to succeed, and they are not succeeding because they can’t follow the professional sports model. That model is simple. Start the show on time with what the fans came to see. That’s actual racing and preferably feature racing. Then, have the complete show over in a maximum of three hours, preferably less.
I think the track blew it.
This was opening night for the Princeton Speedway. You only get one chance to make a good first impression. I can’t tell you if the track is going to be successful based on a crowd that was the size of what they had tonight. I hope they do make it because I am a sentimentalist. Realistically, will they succeed? Probably not. They’re in the same boat that many other tracks are in. Unfortunately, those boats are taking on water.
The cost to operate a track and own a race car is way too high. The promoter can’t charge a price to their spectating customers that covers the cost of all of these expenses. When that happens, the business is more than likely to fail.
Yes, this involves a lot of driving.
After I finished watching racing in West Virginia, my driving destination for tonight was Charlotte, North Carolina. Mind you, I woke up in Indianapolis at an ungodly time. I had lunch in Ohio. I watched a race in West Virginia. Now, I was going to bed in North Carolina at 1:30 a.m. To add to the fun, I drove through a torrential downpour the entire distance to Charlotte.
My bacon was saved.
When I arrived at my Hyatt Place hotel just outside the Charlotte airport, I discovered that I had made an error when I booked my room. I had intended to use my Hyatt points to pay for the room. I had somehow mistakenly charged my credit card the actual $189 rate. Luckily, at 1:30 in the morning, Hyatt’s 800 number was still being manned. They were more than accommodating. The hotel desk clerk and the national helpline worked together to reverse the $189 charge, allowing me to use just 5.000 points for the room. I would only be in the room for four hours. Life on the road!
SATURDAY
Michigan tonight.
Today, I flew from Charlotte to Detroit. I’ll be trackchasing at a county fairground in Standish, Michigan, tonight.
Strategy, strategy, strategy.
I expected to return my rental car at about noon on Monday. That meant that even though my plane landed at 9 a.m. I had to “hang out“ in the Detroit airport terminal for about three hours. Why? Why not just get the car and go? If I picked up the car at 9 a.m. on Saturday and returned it at noon on Monday, I would be charged for three days. However, if I waited until noon today, Saturday, and still returned the car at noon on Monday, I would be charged for just two days. This strategy would save me $100. Even though Die with Zero might say to get the car early, I couldn’t pull the trigger on that one, even though there’s a 99.9% chance I will never spend that one hundred dollars.
One of the best.
I am in 75-100 airports each and every year. The Detroit airport used to be one of the worst. Now it is one of the best. I am especially impressed with terminal D at DTW. Terminal D is for all other airlines other than Delta Airlines. Delta occupies terminals A, B, and C. Terminal D has more restaurant choices for a terminal that houses about 30 gates than anywhere I’ve ever seen in the world. Impressive.
Optimizing for personal comfort.
I am a member of a special program called Priority Pass, which comes with my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. Priority Pass gives me free access to airport lounges and restaurants at airports worldwide. However, effective July 1, 2024, the Priority Pass restaurant option will be gone. That’s a bummer. I’ve abused that benefit for years!
Today, I stopped at Anita’s Kitchen Lebanese Cafe in terminal D. There, I could order up to $28 of food and drink at no charge. The Lebanese restaurant wouldn’t be my number one option out of all the places I could’ve eaten in terminal D, but it became my number one option for free.
I ordered the pepperoni pizza, which is not exactly the type of pizza you would think of if you were in Venice, Italy. My server, a woman who served me about two weeks ago, told me the chef wasn’t in yet, so there would be no pizzas to be made. She explained my remaining options, and I chose the fried cauliflower.
Fried cauliflower? Never again.
I wouldn’t eat fried cauliflower, except under these very unusual circumstances…ever. I will tell you I have never eaten fried cauliflower in my life. I also want to tell you that I have no plans to ever eat fried cauliflower again after today’s lunch.
However, the café does serve banana bread. One serving weighs about half a pound. I walked away with a bad taste in my mouth from the fried cauliflower but a plastic bag with two pounds of banana bread in it. My cost? The tip only.
I was staying at another Hyatt Place this evening in a suburb of Detroit. I stayed here a couple of weeks earlier. They didn’t quite have their organizational act together then, and I wasn’t 100% convinced they did today.
Nevertheless, I was able to check in early at 1 p.m. That didn’t seem early to me, but it did to the hotel. I took an hour’s nap and then headed north toward Standish, Michigan.
This is a very cool place.
I had to stop in Frankenmuth, Michigan. Frankenmuth is home to Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, the largest Christmas store in the world. I’ve probably been there twice a year for most of the past decade after not stopping there for about two decades and wishing I did. Maybe you’ve been to Bronner’s?
I didn’t buy anything. However, I strolled through the entire store, taking pictures and even stopping to watch the videos the store produced explaining Bronner’s history. Bronner’s has seven acres of Christmas stuff under its roof. It probably hasn’t been made if they don’t have it. If you haven’t been there, I highly recommend a visit to Bronner’s.
TNT knows how to play their game.
Racing at the Arenac County Fairgrounds was expected to begin at 6 p.m., and it did. The TNT Demolition Derby company promoted the event. They do a real good job.
For some unknown reason, the state of Michigan has more racing at its county fairgrounds than any other state by a wide margin. I’ve seen racing at 147 different tracks in the Wolverine state, well over half of which were at county fairground locations. Some states don’t have any racing at county fairgrounds.
Rain was expected at just about any moment. This was the kind of racing that would continue in a light rain. Most “normal” short-track ovals would not race in the wet weather we experienced tonight.
TNT begins its evening with a power wheels race for kids aged 3-10. They race little plastic electric battery-powered “toys” around a short homemade course for five or ten minutes. I’m not a big fan of power wheels racing, but then I’m not the parent or grandparent of any of the racers. This activity was followed by some youth bump n run (BNR) racing. The youth division is for drivers aged sixteen or older.
None of these events up to this point counted in the trackchasing hobby. If the rain had picked up and canceled the show, I would not have been able to count this track location in my lifetime totals. Trackchasing’s founding fathers, in their infinite lack of wisdom, didn’t allow trackchasers to count racing by “kids”. Oh my.
Youth racing doesn’t count? Oh my.
There was no way I could tell tonight’s youth division wasn’t made up of drivers with 20 years of oval experience. It was a huge mistake not to count racing with drivers of any age.
Tonight‘s racing was conducted on a 1/5-mile banked dirt oval. The cars raced clockwise, which is unusual for United States oval track racing. They had some major crashes.
Safety should be the #1 concer
I couldn’t believe how fast and aggressive the drivers were. The aggressiveness reminded me in some ways of banger racing in the United Kingdom, which is more than exciting. If you are a race fan and you have never seen banger racing, check out that genre on YouTube.
The track’s safety facilities weren’t that great for the speeds these drivers were turning. They didn’t have any problems with that tonight, but I think they could.
I really enjoyed the racing tonight. I am beginning to actually prefer junk car racing over the top levels of late model and, most assuredly, winged sprint car racing. In those top divisions, they start the fast people at the front. The cars are so evenly matched that passing is difficult.
With BnR racing, you can have some pretty awesome battles where there is a lot of rubbing and banging and spinning, and sometimes flipping cars. Tonight’s show was very entertaining. I hope I get a chance to see more TNT Demolition Derby events this year. Toward the end of the show the rain picked up.
One of the highlights of the trip.
What I enjoyed as much as anything was sitting next to a young man, probably about 40 years of age, who lived in a nearby small town. We talked about a lot of stuff. He had had a kidney transplant. He had been laid off from a national company during a downturn in the local economy. I don’t get a chance to talk to a lot of people who are not in my demographic age-wise or in my economic or geographic position.
Whenever I do, I very much enjoy it. I always come away from these conversations being just a bit more empathetic to the position of people who might not have had a level playing field growing up. I always conclude that it is the parents of these disadvantaged people who are responsible for their children’s lack of nutrition, health care, educational focus, and, in general, role models. This is a sad situation for America.
Ideological wars suck.
The man and I did have a discussion about electric cars. He knew nothing about EVs except what he had “heard.” I could tell he had been influenced by the negative media surrounding electric cars. Demand and appreciation for electric cars suffer from the countries’ “ideological wars.” That’s too bad.
O.K., I get it.
I get it that some people don’t like how the government treats the electric car industry. Nobody likes to think they are being dictated to. However, I have no idea what that has to do with a war against an individual car brand like Tesla. Tesla is head and shoulders above virtually every gasoline-powered car I’ve seen in the areas of performance and technology. Tesla is an American car company. How does all of that transfer to all of the non-truths a certain group of people yell from the rooftops when they have likely never driven a Tesla, ridden in one, and might not even know a Tesla owner?
Anyway, I enjoyed talking to this gentleman, and I think he enjoyed talking to me as well. We even covered bitcoin! I gave him my business card and recommended he search the homepage of my website for the term “finance.” Maybe he’ll pick up some ideas.
SUNDAY
I must really dislike street course racing.
This morning, I woke up in a Detroit suburb. I could have easily gone to the “Streets of Detroit” IndyCar race in downtown Detroit, less than a 30-minute drive from my hotel.
This was an IndyCar race contested over a street course in the city of Detroit. I didn’t go to that for a couple of reasons. First of all, I don’t really like IndyCar racing. I’ve been to the Indianapolis 500 once. Once was plenty for me.
Secondly, and more importantly, was the fact that I absolutely detest racing on street courses. As a spectator, you can’t see anything. There are probably 10-15 or maybe more types of race courses, race surfaces, and race configurations that count in my hobby of trackchasing. Street course racing is my least favorite. I once went to a street course race in Durban, South Africa. From my grandstand viewing position, I could see the cars pass by for about eight seconds out of an 80-second lap. No, thank you.
But no I went with the alternative.
Luckily, I had an alternative. Yes, that alternative was going to be a 520-mile round-trip drive for me, but I didn’t mind.
I was headed to the Niagara Regional Exposition Fair, which is held in Welland, Ontario, Canada. Impact Motorsports was promoting the event.
I know people.
I grew up watching these fairground events in Ontario, Canada, promoted and managed by Thrill Show Productions. I loved Thrill Show Productions and the Williams family. In fact, the Williams twin brothers started the company in the 1940s. The twin brothers started out as a vaudeville team that operated an act and morphed into a hell-driver stuntman group! They even performed with the Harlem Globetrotters!
A few years ago, Thrill Show Productions packed it in. They had been doing it for so long that they didn’t want to do it anymore. Fair enough.
It was time for a younger generation to take over.
Luckily for me, a group of young entrepreneurs managed by Devon and Kristi Germain, a husband-and-wife team, started a company called Impact Motorsports. They do the same thing as Thrill Show Production did. I loved TSP, and now I love Impact Motorsports. I’ve seen figure 8 racing at nearly 400 locations. Nobody does it better than Impact.
It rained for the entire four-hour drive from Detroit. The rain only stopped when I got within ten miles of today’s fairgrounds. However, all of that rain was moving from west to east and would soon hit the fairgrounds.
What a deal!
I find certain things in Canada to be extremely inexpensive. Commonly, at U.S. fairgrounds, I could be hit with a parking charge, a fair admission charge, and a third charge for attending the grandstand event. Sometimes, the total of those expenses is more than $30.
Today, there was no parking charge. The charge to enter the fair was $10 Canadian, which is $7.30 in U.S. currency. Finally, there was no charge to enter the grandstand and watch today’s demolition derby and figure 8 racing. Seven bucks for the entire show? That was a steal!
I’m happy to report that Impact Motorsports starts their shows on time. That’s important. Today, they had a best-looking car contest and went straight to figure 8 racing. They had 25-30 figure 8 racers. There were five heat races where the winners transferred to the feature, and the second-place finishers went to the consolation race. The winner of the consi moved on to the feature, which started six cars.
It rained but they kept racing.
As expected, some light rain came in. When it did, people popped up their umbrellas. This made spectating a little bit more challenging, but by this time, I had matriculated to a top-row viewing position and could stand up above the umbrellas. In between figure 8 racing, they had a rollover contest and a demo derby event featuring five competitors. Both of those were entertaining.
This young lady does a great job.
Kristi Germain, one of my racetrack promoter buddies, announces for Impact Motorsports. She has a laid-back, congenial manner that entertains the crowds. I probably only hear a female announcer working a time or two out of every 100 events I attend.
Today, the audio speakers were covered with plastic trash bags because of the rain. This distorted the PA system while I was listening in the grandstand. However, once I was out of the parking lot, I could hear Kristi as clearly as day. That was weird.
When the 15-lap figure 8 eight feature was finished, I decided to head back down the road. It would be a 4-5 hour drive in Sunday night traffic back to Detroit.
A man’s gotta eat.
There is a sizable Indian (Ghandi, not American) population in Canada and in Ontario specifically. An Indian population means Indian food restaurants. Carol and I love Indian food.
I used Yelp to select the Everest Tandoori Kitchen eatery. It was my good fortune that the restaurant was less than one mile from the fairgrounds.
Real good groceries.
I went with the shrimp masala with rice and the largest serving of chili garlic naan that I have ever seen, along with a can of Diet Pepsi. My bill came to $21 U.S. That’s half of what Carol and I would pay at home for a nearly identical meal. Today’s servings were so large that I’ll be having Indian food for lunch again tomorrow. Good choice.
Commonly, this hobby is a long walk for a short slide.
My driving time today was slightly more than 10 hours. I was at the race track and fairgrounds for about three hours, which made putting aside time to walk somewhat difficult. When I left the Indian restaurant, I had only walked a mile for the day. It was already 6 p.m. If I was going to make my goal of walking four miles or more every day, I had to get on the stick, so to speak.
I knew that I could stop at Canada’s Highway rest areas which commonly feature a Tim Hortons as well as a fast food choice, a convenience store and more. At these places I could walk for as long as I wanted. That’s what I did. I happily met my exercise goal for the day.
Back in the good ‘ol USA.
Traffic was reasonably light on the drive back to Detroit, which was good. It was also most unusual, considering it was a Sunday evening, and people might be coming back to the U.S. after a weekend in Canada. I know that traffic will be heavy if you want to drive back into SoCal from the Bay Area, Las Vegas, Mexico, or the desert on Sunday evening. I had filled up with gas a few miles before I crossed into Canada this morning.
I buy as little gas in Canada as possible.
I have pointed out some examples where Canadian pricing is a real bargain. That is not the situation with gasoline. Today, in this part of Canada, gas was going for about seventy-five cents a gallon ($4.25 vs. $3.50) more than what I paid in Detroit. I planned to return to the states after seeing the racing today. Once back in the U.S., I would once again fill up to get the lower U.S. gas prices. If I did that, I would probably save about $10, maybe a little bit more. That would pay for half my dinner. However, getting back to the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit was going to be a challenge with the amount of fuel I had.
Luckily, I made it. I had rented a 2025 Toyota Camry Hybrid. The car was nearly brand new, with only 3,000 miles on its odometer. My rental car gave me 51 MPG in fuel economy. Excellent. If I were in the market for a sedan the Camry would be high on my list.
Corvettes and Mustangs are sedans?
While listening to my podcasts, I learned that General Motors is discontinuing the Chevy Malibu. That will leave GM and Ford with only two “sedans” the Corvette and the Mustang. Who would have predicted that 25 years ago? Folks, it’s impossible to predict the future.
If this woman buys the last donut…
Different people have different addictions to things. I believe I am addicted to donuts and donut holes, aka Timbits from Tim Hortons. I will also tell you that stopping at a Tim Hortons along interstate highways in Canada on a Sunday night is a losing battle. They are sold out of almost everything.
Crossing back into the United States at the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit was easy. I waited behind maybe five cars. The border control agent asked only two or three questions.
Would you want his job?
I remember during COVID-19, one of the agents told me he could work an entire 12-hour shift without having a single car attempt to cross the border. Amazing. Doesn’t COVID-19 seem like it was a lot longer ago than three or four years ago?
MONDAY.
It was now time to fly home from Detroit to the Los Angeles International Airport. I always feel a little deflated at this point in one of these trips. All of my goals that I had in advance have been met or at least attempted. Now, it’s just a process of sitting on an airplane for four or five hours to get back home and plan the next trip.
Spirit has quite the reputation.
I flew home on Spirit Airlines. The Spirit flight attendant made a funny comment during her monologue before the plane took off. She said, “I’d like to welcome back all of those people who said they would never fly Spirit Airlines again!“. That got a laugh from the passengers and a round of applause. Would you like to work for a company with the Spirit Airlines reputation, deserved or not?
Dustin, saves the day!
When I got back to my parking garage a little past 3 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Detroit time, I was pleasantly surprised. During my time away from the car J.J. and Dustin had come and picked the car up for some special attention.
Dustin is the guy in our family who knows how to fix things, analyze them, and generally get them in good repair. He’s also a good cook. This weekend, Dustin took my car and affixed the vinyl front license plate to the front bumper.
That’s right. For just $120, a driver in California can get a vinyl license plate. That’s pretty cool for no other reason than virtually nobody else has something like this. Of course, the state of California has approved everything in advance. Yes, this does prove I had an extra $120 burning a hole in my pocket.
California, unlike some other states, requires a front license plate. However, quite a few cars, especially Teslas, drive around without that front plate. In order to attach a metal license plate to a Tesla automobile, holes must be drilled in the front bumper. Some people don’t like to do that. Therefore, either they don’t have a front plate or, in very few cases, like mine, they now have a vinyl plate that attaches to the bumper.
Thanks, Dustin!
Dustin was also nice enough to install my wide-side mirrors. I love those mirrors. They are a great safety advantage. I can see two to three times more in these wide-angle mirrors than the mirrors that came with the car.
Move it or lost it.
I left on Thursday morning for this trip. I was able to see Caitlin Clark play in a Women’s National Basketball Association game in Indianapolis. I trackchased in West Virginia, Michigan, and Ontario, Canada. I put 5,700 miles on my body doing this via cars and planes.
A couple of years ago, I determined that my body had traveled 27 mph for each hour of every day of every month for an entire year. Despite all that, I never get tired.
Sweden, hear I come.
The next time you hear from me, I will tell you about being in Sweden for a very long time. The trip to Sweden will be the longest of the year.
Randy Lewis
Optimizing for net personal enjoyment (DWZ)