Racin', theater and more music near Bristol

On Monday July 14th we made the short drive from the Asheville area to Bristol (Tenn & Va).  It was a dreary afternoon and drizzly evening, so we headed to State Street (main street), which divides Tenn from Va.

State St. divides VA & Tenn

The Pickin Porch Show was playing on the 2nd floor (why do they call it a "porch") of a museum in town.  The bluegrass entertainer didn't show up, so the host and a couple of volunteers picked.  They were good.

The Pickin' Porch Show in Bristol, Tenn

After the show we noticed this display on the exterior wall of the Quaker Steak Restaurant.

Wall display in Bristol, VA

The Bristol area claims to be the root of country and bluegrass music.  A large museum opens next year.

The next day we scheduled a tour of  Bristol Motor Speedway (about 2 miles from our campground).  The speedway hosts 2 major NASCAR races each year.  The track is the shortest (half mile) on the NASCAR circuit, but is located on huge grounds.

Bristol Motor Speedway

Tim in front of one of the gate entrances at Bristol Motor Speedway

Bristol Speedway picture taken half way up the stands

World's Fastest Half-mile, Bristol Motor Speedway

Nick named: The Last Great Colosseum

The speedway is nick named: The Last Great Colosseum.  At NASCAR races it holds 160,000 fans in a stadium that is almost bowl shaped.  Luxury boxes almost completely ring the top of the stadium.  The half mile track is banked completely with very little straight away.  At the race start, the last starter is already a half lap down from the leader.  Imagine driving a race car and turning right almost the whole race.

Tim on the Winner's Circle

We took a paid tour of the speedway in a Ford Econoline passenger van.  Our driver made a couple of fast laps (50 mph) on the track.  Tim ended up in the Winner's Circle, ha, ha.  The Winner's Circle isn't a circle.  It's actually a raised checker board square the winner drives up a ramp to access.  The infield of the track is so small, there is no room for a traditional winner's circle.  Take a look at a picture about 4 up in this blog that shows the infield.  You'll notice there are markings for a football field.  September 2016 Tenn will play Virginia Tech.  They expect the largest crowd to ever watch a football game....150,000.

Race trailer advertising Battle at Bristol football game

The grounds of the speedway are extensive.  It includes huge parking lots and campgrounds as well as a top notch dragway: Thunder Valley.

View of Thunder Valley dragway at Bristol Motor Speedway

Thunder Valley drag strip at Bristol Motor Speedway

Bristol Motor Speedway

Our driver ended the tour at the speedway ticket office and gift shop.  There was a beautiful garden in front.

Hibiscus blooms at speedway garden

After our morning tour on July 16 of Bristol Motor Speedway and mixing it up with gas and grease, we headed to Abingdon, VA about 20 miles away for some refinement in the afternoon and evening.  We had tickets to two shows, The Wizard of OZ and Welcome Back to Ivy Gap at the historic Barter Theater.

Barter Theater in Abingdon, VA

Everybody has seen the Wizard probably many times.  This production was very good combining pro and local actors.  The 2 p.m. matinee was sold out.  There were a ton of kids attending the show and they were well behaved and loved the show as we did.  We doubt you've seen the second play, Ivy Gap.  It is a story of recently widowed Southern Baptist preacher's wife return to the church of her late husband.  It stars 6 women mixing it up with the former preacher's wife and each other as only small church folk can do and the newly appointed, single preacher who moves from Texas to the small town Ivy Gap in Tennessee.  This show was well done also with great comedy.  The older actor who played the deceased preacher's wife was great.

Tim with some of the main characters of The Wizard of Oz

In between shows we traveled 10 miles east to the metropolis of Meadowview to have dinner at the acclaimed Harvest Table Restaurant.  The dinner was good and we headed back to Abingdon to show two.

Harvest Table Restaurant in Meadowview, VA

Glad we didn't take Big Red to Meadowview.  Check out the sign below next to the restaurant.

Big Red would have "high-sided" the RR crossing in the background

1 block from the restaurant was a building with something that caught our eye.

The window a/c took priority over the bike and kid's pedal car

We had done some shopping earlier.  When we got to Big Red below is what we found: guard cat.

Muffin guarding bags in Big Red

Big Red at our campsite at Shadrack Campground in Bristol, VA

Our visit to the Bristol area ended on July 16 and we left the next morning for Fries (pronounced freeze), VA. and 4 days.  See our next blog coming soon.

BBQ, arts, and crafts around Asheville

Getting on the road from south of Atlanta after the repair of the Lexus lube pump, we headed for the Asheville area.  Heading into South Carolina presented us with rain showers and dark clouds.

Driving in rain in South Carolina

Navigator, Linda, didn't like what she saw on radar and looking at the dark clouds approaching, we decided to head to the closest truck stop and sit out the storm. 

Waiting out the storm in a truck stop in South Carolina

After waiting awhile, we proceeding on the journey.  Well, we avoided the worst of the storm, but not the rain.  We drove through rain in Greenville and Spartanburg areas.  Heading on I-26 the rain left us as we approached the Asheville area.  We arrived at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center, site of the Carolina West Ribfest, late afternoon.  The storm had pass through that area earlier in the day.  We rented a campsite for the ribfest and found out we were the only people who did.

Lonely Big Red at WNC Ag Ctr

On Friday we attended the first day of the ribfest.  The ribfest was okay, not great.  We did enjoy the food, music and talking to people, but attendance was poor.

BBQ booth at Ribfest

Tim ready to get some BBQ at Ribfest

Pails of BBQ sauces to try

Wooden piglet in a craft booth at Ribfest

Band on stage at Ribfest

We ate and listened to music some of the next two days at Ribfest.  Most of the BBQ was good.  We voted for the winner of the BBQ contest, so I guess we have good taste.  Some of the music groups were very good....others not so much.  So we decided to explore some of the Asheville area.
Asheville has a thriving arts district and many craft breweries.  On  July 12 we headed to find them.

River Arts District in Asheville

Many of the art shops had live demos.  We saw painters, clay throwers, & glass blowers.  Linda had a great time.  Tim found a places to relax.

Tim relaxing in the Asheville River Arts District

Tim had a beer in the Wedge as suggested by someone we met at Ribfest

Tim checking out a cool van of the owner/painter of a gallery

Saturday night the city of Asheville hosts a free bluegrass and old time music concert series called Shindig on the Green in a park downtown.  We took our lawn chairs and parked ourselves on the grass and enjoyed a wonderful night of music.

Downtown Asheville park band shell for the Shindig on the Green

Enough of the arts and crafts, and music.  We headed to the gun show!  Yep, we went to a gun show.  We saw a bunch of cars around a large building at the Ag Center, where the Ribfest was being held.  We found a packed gun show with lots of people buying.  People brought guns in and out.  No pictures were allowed inside.

Tim by a sign at the entry to the gun show

We've never seen so many guns and accessories.  New guns, old guns, and all kinds of guns were seen.  Sellers of ammo did very well.  Most attendees were buying.  We felt very safe inside the gun show.

Time to take in some scenery.  The Blue Ridge Parkway runs very close to Asheville for part of its 469 miles.  After stopping at a great Visitor Center, we headed north on the parkway.

Tim in front of Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center near Asheville

We soon came to a sign:

Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville

Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures in the Folk Art Center.  We spent a couple of hours perusing the paintings, quilts, woodwork, clay pots, and other Appalachian  crafts.  There was also an exhibit from work done by students at a local community college.  Time to move on the Parkway.  We packed a lunch an stopped to each at a picnic area on a high pass.

Bearpen Gap elevation 5220 feet

Tim loved the temperature at the gap during our picnic.  Finally we found cool weather.  See below the picture of the thermometer on the car dash:

Yes, a cool 68 degrees

After a great picnic in nice cool 68 degree temp, we headed back to Big Red to watch the soccer World Cup championship game.  We left the Asheville area on Monday headed for Bristol, Tn.  See our next post.

Another day another dollar($$$$)

Driving from home with the detour to the shop in Clearwater to just over the border in Georgia, we kept having problems with the tranny lube pump in the Lexus.  Tim switched to our backup cable hoping it would solve the problem....nope.  It didn't work either.  Linda got on the manufacturers website and located a dealer south of Atlanta.  Tim made an appointment for our arrival on Wednesday afternoon about 3 p.m.
Back in Clearwater we thought the problem was the plug on one end of the umbilical cable between the Lexus and Rig Red.  The plug was cut off and a new one installed.

Old umbilical cable plug

The plug might have been damage, but it didn't fix the problem.  After two hours of testing after we arrived at the shop near Atlanta, the best guess was the lube pump had worn out after 7 years.  We arranged to have them install a new pump in the morning.  Luckily, they had a pump in stock.  We stayed the night in the shop's parking lot and the generator running the 3 air conditioners.

Lube pump on Lexus being tested at shop near Atlanta

Thursday morning the techs removed the "nose" from the Lexus to get at the old lube pump.  A new pump was installed along with some wiring cleaned up.  We connected the Lexus to Big Red and the pump worked perfectly.

Tim pointing at new lube pump installed on Lexus

The nose was re-installed on the Lexus and once again we connected to Big Red.  Awesome, the lube pump still worked.  Just after Noon we departed south of Atlanta on our way to Asheville, NC.  We stopped at a truck stop west of Greenville, SC to let a storm go by.

Storm near Greenville, SC

Driving through rain near Spartanburg, SC and north to Asheville, we arrived late afternoon to great sunshine.  We would camp the next few days at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center across from the Asheville airport in Fletcher, NC.  The Western Carolina Ribfest and exploring the Asheville area followed.  See our next post coming soon.

Leaving on a jet plane.....well not quite, but in Big Red

With 148,550 miles on the odometer, we rolled out of the driveway at 1 p.m. after the queen had her hair done in preparation for the trip.  Can't have a bad hair day (trip).  Tim brought Big Red home on Sunday, so it could get stuffed to the gills for our trip.  I'd hate to weigh Big Red now.  It would have to go on a diet.

Big Red looking all shiny

The last precious item loaded was Muffin, our cat.  She's been hanging out by the house front door while we were packing to make sure we didn't leave without her.  Linda wouldn't dream of leaving Muffin home.

Muffin on her throne

After parking on our friends' and neighbors, Gary & Julie, driveway over night (the house across the street is under an extensive remodel with trucks all over the place blocking our driveway), we head down our street.

Big Red parked in neighbors/friends driveway

About 100 feet down the street, Big Red came to a halt.  The transmission lube pump needed when towing the Lexus wasn't working.  Tim fiddled with it to no avail.  A detour to a shop in Clearwater was necessary.  After an hour Benny the tech at Rentz of Clearwater thought he had it fixed.  A bad connector on the umbilical cable from Big Red to the Lexus.  He installed a new plug and we were on our way.

Benny working on umbilical cable

North of Tampa we started to have the same problem with the lube pump.  We limped to just over the Florida border to Lake Park, Ga. just a dusk fell.  The next morning Tim switched to our spare cable.  The problem persisted.  After some calls we found a shop south of the Atlanta airport.  Arrival at 3:30 and two hours of testing couldn't find the problem.  Assumption is the 7 year old lube pump is worn out.

Mike's Trailer shop in Riverdale, GA (metro Atlanta)

Ran out of time today to finish the lube pump repair.  We're camping overnight in the shop's parking lost.  In the morning they'll replace the lube pump.  Hopefully replacement will solve the problem and we'll be on our way to Asheville.
Linda and our cat, Muffin are relaxing in Big Red.

Linda on phone in Big Red

Muffin relaxed on the console of Big Red

We should travel to near Asheville, NC tomorrow for 3 days of the Western Carolina Ribfest...more later.