Adventure #9 - V8s in Texas

Well this adventure had a bizarre start: with me in Washington DC for work having to fly north to Philadelphia, to fly south to Austin, Texas; Jac and the boys driving north to Ottawa, to fly south to Chicago and then eventually meeting me in Austin. Despite all of this and the shoddy travel offered by US based airlines in general, there is one area where they come out on top - WIFI - we were able to communicate via Facebook whilst flying on different planes to the same location.

Now without wanting to start a war with anyone, the US is different! Then Texas is different again. And above all else, they are hands down the worst drivers I have experienced anywhere in North America - yes you heard right, worse than Montreal drivers! I dropped more than the odd Heyzeus whilst manoeuvring the 7 tonne Chevy Suburban around morons. On second thought there was heaps of Aussies there, so they could have all been from Melbourne!

Backwards? No, we're not sure either, but we think so.

The Tank.

Inside the Tank - heading to the V8s. 

The Roads where Texans race and generally drive like idiots!

 So after recovering overnight from the travel to the deep south, we headed out for a bit of pre-race sight seeing, and ended up walking up a mountain in 35 degree, 90% humidity. Now ordinarily that wouldn't be too difficult, but after 5 months in Canada and a max temperature of about 23 and bugger all humidity, it was  a slightly sweaty affair. Not to worry though, it set us up well to go hang out with the bogan's at the V8s - some of these guys could recognise a tin of deodorant about 3 times in 10......

Off for a walk - Mount Bonnell.

Colorado River from Mount Bonnell.

 So after sweating it up, we headed to the Zilker Botanical Gardens. Nope not another V8s attendee there either, but not somewhere I would normally hang out either. It did get the kids out of the car and provided us all with some shade from the heat of the day but also introduced us to some local reptiles. Whilst checking out the local turtle population and taking a few photos, we noticed a few snakes in the ponds. So after taking a few steps backwards we moved to somewhere a little more protected. But this meant that the photos were not so good.  

I cant see any Snakes!

 So I moved forward into the scrub to get some photos of this slippery buggers and they turned out quite well.

But then Tom decided to move in for a better look too, and at about head height in the branches of a palm like plant, there was a big snake. The photo doesn't really do it justice but I wasn't really concerned with how good the photo was as I back pedalled out of there!

Yep, that's a big snake!

Jared taking a load off on a Butterfly.

 So with all of this sweating and excitement, it was time to go and boost the local economy and buy over priced water and junk food at the track. And not only did the 'awesome' seats that I paid a fortune have us in the main grand stand on Pit Straight, they were part of the only section without any roof! So would you like to suck it up for a few hours more in the sun? Yes please! We did go for a walk through the pits - we couldn't get any hotter, but Benny was really struggling.

Benny struggling with the heat at Lowndsey's Pits.

Tom at Russell Ingall's Pits.

The view from our heated seating.

 Eventually after feeding the horde and buying t-shirts, hats etc, we sat down (in the sun) for the first of four races. It was a great sight to see the cars all lined up ready to go.

Lined up ready to go. 

 There were only three cars we were interested in  - #888 Craig Lowndes - an old favourite from his time as a Ford driver.

Craig Lowndes

 Jared is a fan of 'Frosty' - #5 Mark Winterbottom.

 And Tom loves the 'Enforcer' - #66 Russell Ingall.

At the end of the first of four races a pattern formed that would follow for most of the weekend. The Redbull Team - Whincup and Lowndes dominated, Whincup with three firsts and a third; Lowndes with three seconds and a fifth.

Lowndsey - always the gentleman (without the helmet).

A common sight over the weekend. 

 After a bit too much sun on Saturday we decided to turn up just before the first race on Sunday, which gave us a bit more time to get out and about in Austin. Jac just had to have a pair of Cowgirl Boots and a Hat, so a visit to Sheplers was first stop.

The Boot and Hat place.

We then went to the Capitol Building and had a good look at the various monuments and inside what is essentially the State Parliament building. 

The Capitol Building - built in 1988.

The Tribute to Texas School Children - with a couple of Aussies as well. 

 Then it was off to broil for a bit longer at the track.The best part of the weekend was when it was all over.....and then we were allowed onto the track. We walked all the way up the hill to the first corner with the boys collecting tyre rubber on the way up.

Family shot - standing on the main straight at the Circuit of the America's.

We had a great time, there's no doubt. But there is a bit of a sad footnote to our trip. Our flight back to Ottawa was via Chicago. After take off, the pilot advised us that we would be taking a westerly route to avoid some big storms. It turns out that these storms were those that created the Oklahoma Tornado where 24 people were killed including a number of kids who were at school at the time it struck. And ironically after the heat we experienced (that really just would have been a warm day at home), one week later people have died around the Austin / San Antonio area due to flooding. Its amazing how quick things change.