Friday, June 15, 2018

HRPT 2018- Day 7: June 15- Raleigh, NC to Concord [Charlotte], NC (181.2 miles)

I can't believe how quickly the week has blown by. Today was our last day of the Power Tour.  Following our routine, we left the hotel at 7-ish and hit the route.  It was pretty simple: right turn out of the hotel, first right turn onto the highway on-ramp and follow the signs to 64 West.  Somehow, with those simple steps, we still managed to lose my parents and Ted and Lori in their newly repaired GTO.  Tara and our original Lori worked the cell phones and two-way radios to make sure that the lost lambs were pointed in the right direction. 

The route was another nice one.  There was very little interstate driving and we were primarily on two lane roads through farms and a smattering of small towns.  About 50 miles into the route, I was following a pack of Long Haulers and completely missed a sharp right turn.  Three of our group and about 25 other cars went down a straight road with no turn around option, except for some folks' driveway.   Lori and the rest of the group behind us made the turn and were out ahead.  As we backtracked to the turn about 15 more cars made the same error we did.

Petty's Garage hosted a welcome party with a hot dog lunch.  Unlike other similar stops on previous Tours, this one was worthwhile.  They had plenty of parking for the cars and there was a lot to look at.  The Petty Museum was open as were the shop, NASCAR memorabilia garage and the original garage and race car owned by Richard Petty's father.  We toured the place, but passed on the hot dogs.
Pit Stop
He seemed taller on TV

I didn't realize Richard Petty collected limited edition guns until we saw the museum which was packed with custom rifles, revolvers and shotguns with intricate engraving.  Of course, each one in the collection was #43 of however many were made.
They're all #43

It was funny to see that instead of a replica Superbird from Petty's racing career, they had a replica of "Mr. The King" from the Pixar movie Cars.  There was a also a replica of Mrs. The King", which was a 1969 Ford Station Wagon.  There was an explanation that Lynda Petty drove a 1969 wagon to the races and fed the racers out of the back.  She sold the car and Richard later bought it back and restored it.  When Pixar asked what kind of car she wanted to be in the movie, she said a 1969 Ford Wagon.

Mr and Mrs The King are tucked in the back
In addition to the museum, there was the Petty's Garage shop where they upgrade Mustangs, Challengers, Camaros and Chargers as well as do full restorations.  They have the ability to do just about everything in house and we got to walk through and around the whole place.  It was really impressive.
Where fast is made faster

NASCAR History

Not NASCAR History- Cole Trickle's Daytona 500 winning car

We were all able to regroup  at Petty's and then hit the road together again.  Those of us who didn't have hot dogs, or who do not consider hot dogs at 10:00 am to be lunch (Jake) stopped for lunch at the Famous Toastery in downtown Mooresville, NC.  We even snagged a parking spot right in front.  We took our time eating because none of us were in a big hurry to get to the venue because we knew it was going to be really hot out.  
Rockstar parking
After lunch, we passed the Dale Earnhart Museum (or something like it), but it was 2:15 and they closed at 2.  We got a good picture of the lobby though:




Our Venue was the ZMax Dragway across the street from Charlotte Motor Speedway.  It's a 4 lane NHRA race track with plenty of room for all of the cars.  What it lacks are trees or any real semblance of shade in the parking areas.
It's pretty much blacktop.  According to the guys in the tower, it was triple digits in the staging lanes of the track.  We left my mom in the shade of a Pilot Transport semi truck that was parked near the tunnel to the Vendor's midway while we went to punch in and get our last day's magnets and T-shirts.  It was a mob scene at the vendors.  The T-shirt place was out of a lot of sizes by mid-afternoon.   We talked with Clarence for a brief moment and then tried to get out of the heat.  My parents went to the hotel, but Tara, Scott and I stayed until it was time to pick up our Long Hauler Certificates and signs.  We realized that the Pilot Truck was actually shadier and cooler than anywhere else at the venue, Tara snuck the Acadian in behind it.  Scott was able to snag an open space right across from it.  Guerilla parking at its best. 

"Look, shade"
Better Shade and a primo parking space


Finally, it was time to pick up the Long Hauler sign and certificate.  The line was really long, so we decided to wait for a bit.  When we got in line, it was still pretty long, but moving.  It was moving until they ran out of signs and certificates.  They said they ordered 800 more than last year and still ran out.  This means that there were at least 3,100 Long Haulers that got signs and probably another 300 that didn't.  According to the Hot Rod guy who had the misfortune of making the announcement, this was a record crowd.  They took everyone's name and contact info and promised to ship us our signs.  
The last traffic jam

At some point, I started a tradition with Tara to take a picture with our signs and the car.  Since we didn't have our own, we borrowed some from a couple of people.  We then drove around to find the Hot Rod Power Tour bus to get our picture taken (they post it on the website in a week or so and it's a good picture and another tradition Tara and I have).
We made it

We had just enough time to get to the hotel, change our clothes and throw down a complimentary cocktail before taking the hotel shuttle to the Speedway Club at Charlotte Motor Speedway for dinner.  Lori's cousin Bob is a member and made reservations for our whole group and his wife Carol.  The food is really good and the view of the speedway is awesome.
Billed as the best view in Charlotte



Tomorrow we are sleeping in a bit and then heading back to Orlando.  It'll be weird not to see hundreds of show cars on the road, in every gas station and parking lot from here to there.  Here are some more pictures from today:

Hot Rod Milk Truck

Parking at Petty's

Rare color RoadRunner


1963 Nova Convertible

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