RV & Car Attractions

Another benefit to the RV life is the opportunity to visit some museums, race tracks, and, automotive attractions. For example, I probably would have never had the opportunity to visit the I-80 Truck Stop in Iowa, which is billed as the world's largest truck stop if we weren't RVing.  Here you can fuel up, get your favorite snack, eat in a restaurant, get haircuts, dental work, get your dog groomed, visit the free truck museum, and even buy custom equipment for your truck or coach. Is this a great country or what? When in Iowa, check out the I-80 Truck Stop.

Beautiful trucks on display and check out the LED light display. I like lights!

Lots of antique trucks on display to enjoy.

One of my favorite stops was "Road America' racetrack in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Kathy and I got a worker job for the weekend of the big LeMans Series race. This was a first for us and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Actually got paid to help out and attend the race, seeing all the Corvette, Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes Benz, etc exotic race cars.

We still had our 5th wheel and here we go through the speedway tunnel.

Well, it wasn't all work. We had time to relax at the Tequila Patron vendor. Life is good.

The Indianapolis 500 Museum and speedway was another great place to see. Here we had the pleasure to meet a 92 year old retired police officer who volunteers at the museum. (well I guess it's a volunteer position).  He was so cool, he says to me "I showed them, I've been retired 44 years and still drawing my pension." What an interesting man to visit with.

Give me a photo op, and I'm there baby. Probably the only time I will feel the seat of an Indy race car.

The famous Sebring International Speedway in Florida was another cool place to see. Not too much in the museum department but a great historic speedway.

The "Shelby World Headquarters" and museum in Las Vegas, NV is a great place to visit. Free of charge and lots of neat Shelby automotive history to admire. It has lots of cars and plenty of gifts and memorabilia to purchase. Plus it is next door to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

A very valuable chrome Shelby Cobra and Kathy posing, now that is nice!

We even got to put our names on the large guest autograph wall in the shop area. You can photograph everywhere EXCEPT the shop, there they want to protect the customer's identity.

The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY is a place all gear heads should see. Luckily we got to visit before the infamous sinkhole incident where something like 8 Corvettes were swallowed by the earth.

The Festival of Speed in St. Petersburg,FL attracted many nostalgic race cars plus every exotic beauty you can think of. Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, and Bentley were just a few of these exquisite works of art on display. We would love to return.

When in Elkhart, Indiana, the home of the RV industry, you need to visit the RV and Motorhome Hall of Fame. So many RV's from way back plus RV's that were owned by a celebrity or was used in the movies. It was a great experience.

Road America Raceway - Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin



Pulling "Eve" through the tunnel

 What a great experience! We arrived Tuesday, August 16, and couldn't have asked for a friendlier welcoming! From the gate guard to the office staff to the security staff, just wonderful. Lori, the Hospitality Director was supposed to be out on maternity leave but happened to come in for a meeting and helped get us squared away. Lori had an escort take us to our site since the track is so big we would have had a difficult time finding it. Then Dawn, the Security Director, gave us a tour of the track after we go set up. Had no idea that the track was so big! Bob, the guy that posted the opening on RV.net, and his wife, Kathy, arrived. She attempted to tell us where, how, when, and why but it was just too much to grasp without actually seeing it and doing it. The other camphosts, Mike and Jill, came by to meet and greet us. A very nice couple who offered to show us the ropes the next day.


Hard at work

 
Getting the hang of what we are supposed to do and it was a good thing - camper gate was opened at 3 pm Wednesday. We were assigned the blue, red and yellow camping areas. When the campers arrived we would greet them and verify that they were in the correct camping sites and had their wrist bands on. We were impressed at how most campers were so friendly and kept their sites clean.

We only had an electric site and thought we'd got enough water when we pulled in but we started running low. Not a big problem since the bath house was right across from us and it was always clean.




Our site in the Carousel section

 

By Saturday morning we were pretty much done with our jobs and could enjoy the race. We were allowed to use the golf cart that the track had provided to us as campground hosts. You don't just stay in one place to watch the race! People would ride or walk all around the track and watch from different corners or stretches since the track has 14 turns and is over 4 mile long. Our grandson, Owen had asked for an picture and autograph of a famous person. We stopped at Jim Norton's trailer - what a nice guy! Went out of his way to be friendly and accommodating!
 As we pulled out Sunday morning, we were so impressed by how clean the camping areas were given that most were there for 5 days. Here's the link to Road America - hope to return next year! roadamerica.com






We were provided lunch daily!

 



Getting autograph from Jim Norman for Owen



  

Enjoying a drink at the Patron tent