Time to Chill

Tom Johnson Camping Center Racing Resort Campground

Located just off Bruton Smith Boulevard, (I-85, exit 49) is a short walk from the front stretch of America's premier race place, Charlotte Motor Speedway and a short drive from the shopper's paradise of Concord Mills.

  We stayed here on Monday and Tuesday for $25 a night with full hookup.  During race week it runs around $475 a week.  It is a good stop over place as long as there isn't a race going on.  The campground has paved roads, good size gravel sites, laundromat, no cable and a picnic table.  It is my understanding from the office that the name can change every year as the rights are sold to the highest bidder...anyway, as long as you can find the ZMAX Dragway in Concord you will be ok.  We would diffiently stop here again as the price is right and it was clean.

It was so nice to have full hookups and not alot of people around.  In the evening we rode our bikes around and discovered one gate was left open to the drag strip so of course we had to check it out.  It seemed pretty wild to ride our bikes on the drag strip with nobody there.

                                                                   Start your pedals....

On Tuesday we had lunch at Charanda Mexican grill &cantina which was very good.  Then we decided to go see the new Priates of the Carribean movie which was at the mall.  We wandered around the mall until the movie started enjoying the A/C and the sites. 

I have never been in a Bass Pro Shop before so it was fun to check out what they have.  The huge fish aquarium was pretty cool.



That's one big ugly catfish

Oh by the way the movie was excellent and we look forward to the next one.  After the movie we went to Quaker Steak n Lube for beer and wings.  It was good but not as good as the one in Sharon PA that my cousin Doug took us too the first time.  This one didn't have enough stuff like the cars hanging from the ceiling, oil cans, car parts, etc.

We leave tomorrow and plan on stopping by the family farm in Cerro Gordo to see if we can fit the caravan in somewhere.  Still haven't located a spot to park til September so this may be an option. 

The Busch and Coca-Cola Race

The Busch race was run on a very hot Saturday which called for lots of ice cold beverages.

                                        This is the new jumbo screen that was installed this year.

The stands in the back is where we will sit for the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday which will be right in the
sun...ugh

Greg Biffle was the winner and it was a good race.

                           I enjoy the burn outs that the winners do...the cloud of smoke is awesome.

Later on that evening we had a fire using the new Stump Stove.  This is a pretty cool concept and it work very well.   It’s a log that has been cut according to the specs of the companies patent which allows it to burn five times longer than a traditionally cut firewood log.  You can even extinguish it and reignite it multiple times.  One single 16-inch log, depending on diameter and density, can burn well beyond 3 hours.  Compare that to a typical night out camping, and you’re burning anywhere from 2-6 bags of firewood.  The Stump Stove is probably the most ingenious advancement to camping technology we have seen in decades. It conserves forestry by cutting back the amount of wood used, and also the amount of carbon released in the atmosphere when you burn it.  They sell from $15-$20 depending on the size.

Coca-Cola 600

Well we lucked out for the 600 race as Buddy, Sara, Mark and I got upgraded to clubhouse which has A/C with tv monitors so you know whats going on during the race.  You couldn't bring in coolers but it was worth it.

                                                The new screen at night time was impressive

And the winner is Kevin Harvick...poor Dale Jr. ran out of gas on the 3rd corner but Mark won the pool that we had going.

And again the smoke...all is good