It has been a super busy month. As soon as I returned from California on Nov 28th, I did laundry, packed and headed out again on Nov 30th for another girl's weekend with Beth & Maggie. Beth is a fan of Air Tran, a local short-haul cheapo airline. She'd researched and found that we, in Roch, and Maggie, outside Boston, could get 1-way tix to Charlotte, NC for $70. Deal.
We went to Charlotte because a) it was bound to be warmer than Rochester in early December; b) Beth's been there and wanted to show us some sights; and c) Beth knew there is a huge outlet mall and she needed a party dress. Didn't matter to Maggie & me where we met, so Charlotte was just fine.
We got there Friday afternoon. Beth & I flew first to Baltimore, and amused ourselves in the airport for 90 minutes till the final flight. The new exercise machine on display in the Shaper Image store stopped us both in our tracks. It's supposed to simulate horseback riding. Imagine a lurid purple saddle-like seat rotating and grinding around. "Oh my!" said Beth. "I'm not sure they could show that in Rochester." I speculated about a thriving market for add-on attachments and wondered where they would screw in. Aaannnd girls' weekend is off to a ribald start, at 8 a.m. in the Baltimore airport.
After a quick breakfast of mini-cheeseburgers we caught the flight to Charlotte. Waited there for an hour for Maggie to join us, she had to fly to Atlanta and backtrack. The Charlotte airport offered no good amusements. Bummer.
We got the rental car, headed to the hotel, dumped our stuff and zoomed up the way. Beth wanted to take us to the race car shop. I have mentioned that her husband, Bob, works for Troyer building specialty parts for race cars. He also is the crew chief for Donny Lia, on the NASCAR circuit. I was interested to see the shop.
We pulled up in front of the shop - big building. We were to get a tour there and then head to the gift shop, Beth had to buy a couple things. So we walked into the lobby of the shop - extremely impressive. 3 real cars on display. Maggie and Beth are lurking in the background of this one, both of 'em photo-shy.
I'm wandering around, ogling the cars and starting to notice something ... familiar ... a stylized '3' everywhere. (K, you real fans are waaay ahead of me.) I asked Beth "Ummm, the '3' is that ... Dale Earnhardt?" "Yeah, he raced for Richard."
HOLY CRAP - I am Richard Childress Racing, for whom Dale Earnhardt drove. I am at ground freaking zero of NASCAR ROYALTY. I started to slightly hyperventilate. I am now so impressed I'm practically beside myself. Then, Royce came out from the back shop to take us on our tour. Nicest guy, what must he have thought about taking us three through the race car factory, but he was unfailingly polite. He did ask us if we knew about racing. Beth stepped right up and threw down all she knows, which is a whole bunch - by the end of the tour they were comparing notes about having been taught how to do lap timing by a legend.
I so wanted to take pictures in the 'shop' - the factory. The 800,000 square foot factory. With floors so gleaming nd shiny I was glad I was wearing jeans. With legions of Snap-On tool boxes, 5 or 7 cranes holding up the templates that measure that a body is stock, with several cars being worked on at various stages. Royce even took us into the 'trailers' that ferry the crews to the races. Wow - satellite dish, high-speed internet, wide screen TV, gleaming white lockers for all the tools, pluse seating area on the upper deck with even more space above. All in all, RCR looks like a great place to work. And everyone there is really really happy to be there. How cool!
Then we went across the parking lot to the 'museum', really a gift shop. I refrained from outfitting myself like a newbie fan. (It wasn't easy!) I am really looking forward to catching some of the races in 08. And visiting, a lot, when Beth & Bob move to Charlotte - it's in the plan but nothing definite yet.
Me in front of the Richard Childress Racing museum
After all this excitement we went for wine tasing at the Richard Childress vineyards. Opulent place, and they're making the best they can from the local soils. I still think, eeeeych. My palate is branded for Monster California Reds. Oh well, could be worse. I could think that east coast wines are good. ;-) We had the rudest 'pourer' I have ever encountered. We had to buy one of 3 wine tasting packages, which was a flight of 6 or 8 tastings. She allowed no time for us to really get the nose or the taste. "Nyext wine now. You teste." (She was Russian, I think) But we ended up buying 2 bottles.
Went to Speedy's BBQ for dinner. Here's the first culture clash: "Smoking or non-smoking?" the hostess asked. My reply was "My God, you still do that here? How last century! NON SMOKING." The BBQ was served within 4 minutes of ordering - hence the name. And the servings were bigger than our heads. Beth ordered a dinner, Maggie & I opted for sandwiches only. We all lunched off the leftovers the next day.
Saturday we started off at a mall that the bartender had recommended, the night before. We started in Dillards, a Macy's-ish place. Beth had in mind the style of dress she wanted. And it looked really really bad on her. At this point, we pulled everything in her size and started forcing her to try them on. "But I don't like this one." "But you've got to try it on so we can see what works and what doesn't - neckline, sleeves, fabric." "Oh, OK..." At one point Maggie & I started sounding like Stacey and Clinton. And Maggie grabbed what turned out to be the dress. Flattering, pretty, and even on sale. We snapped a picture with Beth's phone, sent it to Vicki (her fashion-conscious daughter) for approval. The comment back - "Nice dress. I love the socks." (She had left those on for the try-on) Beth started to say she was wearing the socks with it the night of the banquet.
We shopped there a bit more, forcing Beth to try on pretty jewelry that might go - you'd think this wouldn't be hard! And we stopped at Macys and forced her to try on shoes with heels - Maggie's doing again. Beth had been joking about wearing fuzzy slippers. And was more serious about ballet flats. She does have trouble with her knees and wanted to be conservative. Maggie made her buy shoes with heels - the nerve! - and relented on ballet flats as a back-up for after pictures were taken. Oh yeah, the dress was for the racing banquet, where Donny Lia's championship win was celebrated. Many cudos to Bob, the crew chief and coach.
Sat evening, we drove to downtown Charlotte to see A Tuna Christmas. If anyone else has seen this, let me know. Is it a bit racist?? A couple of points in the play had us Yankees exchanging glances - they didn't just say that, did they? The big giggle point came when one of the frumpier charcters came on stage in an outfit that included a sky-blue Christmas decorated knit vest and Beth muttered "I have that vest" in a quiet tone of outrage. Then she added "Vicki hates it." I laughed, she laughed and I kept making sotto voice snarky comments about wrapping up for Christmas until we were both in tears. Maggie, on the other side of Beth, caught a contact fit of giggles. Thought they were gonna throw us out!
Sunday we had time for a quick drive-by of the race track, and some sightseeing in the country side. We got to the airport with plenty of time, the rental return went very fast. So we sat in the airport and finished the sweet wine from our tasting purchase. Went well with the bagels and peanut butter were were having for breakfast.
And another girl's weekend successfully had. We haven't yet planned the next, although I think I volunteered to start research.
Man, I do love witing for this blog when I sit down to it. Gotta run now, to hit the stores before they close to get stuff for the party tonight. I'm going to Kathi's for a low-key friends & family thing.
Happy New Year, all!
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