usa

Day 3 Update

My burning question of the moment- where should I have my heart attack, in terms of who offers the best health care? USA, UK or Germany?

The reason is that I have had the best race track catering ever today.

Since the team is sponsored by bacon, we had bacon for breakfast, and bacon wrapped sausages for lunch. Brilliant.

Another question- what’s the deal with those four way intersections with stop signs in all directions? Everyone sits there awkwardly, before edging forward.

Blow that, I’m taking the initiative, and going for it.

Final question- what’s the deal with the red rear indicators??

So today was qualifying day at Sonoma, a lot of effort for everyone to lob up for only a single lap of action!

I was going to go up to the top of the mountain with Tim the spotter, but he took off while I was chatting in the hauler. So I spent the session on the pit lane, still pretty cool.

Marcos put it on P2 after an engine drama coming to the green flag… what could have been.

Watched the first 15 laps of the K&N Pro Series West race- there were four cautions in that time, so I left.

Perfect weather, a Mustang, California- so I just started driving, not really knowing where I was going.

Wound up in Napa, which is like Movie Scene USA. Everything is manicured to within an inch of its life.

Got lost further and wound up at an outlet shopping centre. Bad news, credit card copped a bashing.

Wound up using my male internal compass to drive back east, and stumbled upon Sonoma.

Stopped off at the Kunde winery- amazing place. Terrific wine, and a brilliant facility.

Home earlyish so I can get everything together to depart tomorrow morning- off to the track for race day, then back to the hotel over the road for one last night in the area prior to moving south to SF on Monday.

Trip Day 1- USA

Wine countryRedwoodsRedwoodsRedwoodRedwood... largeRenter rocket
Best transporter everIn-N-Out burger...Golden GateMustangGreat seat, Unique Cars? How did they know?Is this plane allowed to fly a night?

Day 1- USA, a set on Flickr.

Day 1 Update

So the trip has started!

Things kicked off well when the nice lady at Air New Zealand asked “Would you like a free upgrade today, sir.” Yes, yes I would.

The first leg was near the front of the jet, and pretty bloody good. Leg two from Auckland to San Francisco was more interesting. I jagged a quasi exit aisle- it wasn’t technically an exit aisle, it was the one behind, but my seat didn’t have anything in front of it.

Things were looking even better with an apparent empty seat next to me… until the last passenger aboard took position. At first she wasn’t happy because she wanted an aisle seat because she “had DVT in the past, and need to get up a lot.” Oh man…

Things weren’t too bad until she got the mega night horrors about two hours after the dinner service, when everyone started to drift off. The horrors then somehow resulted in a spot of unconsciousness. Fortunately one of the hosties was a former paramedic, and got her going again, but it wasn’t great for the other two punters in row 54!

Anyhoo, had a win at SFO when the nice rental car man gave me a Mustang for the weekend. It’s a pretty good rig, a fair bit of sniff, reasonably good handling, but the road compliance of a pogo stick. Note to self, never hit a bump/grain of sand, or run the risk of winding up in a paddock.

Staying on the correct (wrong) side of the road hasn’t been an issue- in California there is a car ever five square metres, so there are plenty of people to follow around…

Did In-N-Out Burger for lunch. $5 for a large burger/cholesterol meal deal. Delicious. Root beer, where have you been in my life since 1994?

Visited the Walmart next door, what unbelievable quality at outrageously cheap prices. I was surprised being in the middle of Wine Country USA that shit Australian wines feature prominently in their offering.

Went up to Armstrong Redwoods- amazing place, the photos of these 100m/1400 year old trees do them absolutely no justice. The road there was pretty special, all of the vineyards are green and leafy, on rolling hills framed by redwoods.

Staying at the Hilton Sonoma Valley, it must be the spot, as everyone else here is from the NASCAR circus. Darian Grubb is in the room next door… to eavesdrop on set up chatter or not?