Wilmot, Wisconsin: Dirt Track Racing

On July 10 and 11th of this year, Wilmot Raceway hosted the "World of Outlaws." Enough said? In this little city in Wisconsin, just a few miles north of the Illinois line, lies a raceway with a three-eighths of a mile oval (kind of an oval, actually) made of dirt (mud, really).  The cars racing?  Outlaws! Outlaws? Yeah, kind of reminds you of little bugs astir in the mud.  The Oxford English Dictionary definition of these "Outlaw" cars is...cars that look like little bugs astir in the mud. So there! I should also point out that Nos Energy drinks sponsored this weekend. Guess what...they gave away unlimited cans of Nos energy drinks the entire weekend. 10 hours of racing fun later, the weekend was over.  Here's what happened.

I know nothing about Outlaws...so if you have never attended an Outlaw race, and know nothing about it, this blog entry is for you. The crowd was terrific.  I even got the feeling  100% of them voted the same way I did. Friendly, to the max. Then the racers... a lot of them. All driving these "Outlaw" cars.

First...short races...a lot of them.  Maybe eight laps.  Laps? Yep, these little bugger make it around the 3/8 of a mile track in about 13 seconds. Sometimes they flip over.  Sometimes they drive up the wall.  Sometimes they collide with other racers.  Sometimes, some light carnage occurs. No racer was wimpish enough to agree to be taken away on an ambulance. This is a sport for real men...not like the wusses in the NFL, MLB, NHL, or NBA.

The best performers of these little eight-lap races meet in what they call, The Feature. There would be two features this evening, and they are longer races.  30-35 laps. It'll be after 9pm when these features occur.  Who wins? On the first night, the #83 Outlaw, driven by Buddy Kofoid, won everything. He left his competition in the dust...or mud...literally.  I believe he is still a teenager.  The next day, before the races, I walked over to his trailer to maybe buy a souvenir. Guess who was behind the counter, selling Buddy Kofoid souvenirs.  Right!  Buddy Kofoid! Nice kid.  I told him how impressed I was with him and instantly his mother came over.  A very proud and beaming lady. The Kofoids struck me as a super nice family.  Sadly, I brought him bad luck. The second night, his performance was, at best, blah. Then, we must discuss the dirt!

The track is indeed dirt.  When the dirt dries up, to prevent it from blowing all over the place, the water trucks come out and make it...mud. Soon, the mud will be kicked up by all the cars and you will be sprayed by it, especially in the first 10 rows. You will eat dirt...literally.  You will floss dirt from between your teeth.  Up above, that mist by the lights? Not mist...not bugs...dirt.

Two evenings, totaling 10 hours at Wilmot Raceway is a fantastic way to spend a weekend. Sure, pretend you like soccer...or, excuse me, football, and stay home and watch the so-called World Cup. Or be honest with yourselves and go to a sporting event that will actually entertain you. Let the wusses among us go spastic over a 0-0, or a 1-0 game.  Real people will always enjoy speed, crashes, dirt, and free energy drinks.  Can you imagine what a Nos Energy Drink would have cost per can at a World Cup event...probably $15.  At Wilmot Raceway...free! 

  

 

TWA Hotel, The Connie

New York City! Kind of. I went there, but did not leave the airport, JFK Airport. I spent three days at the airport, never left. I have no interest in Broadway shows.  I have no interest in the Yankees or Mets.  I have no interest in going to the top of the Empire State Building, nor the Statue of Liberty, or shopping on Madison Avenue.  All those are for losers. I flew to JFK, got my bag in baggage claim, took the Air Train to Terminal 5, and found the Jet Blue section.  From the baggage claim area at Jet Blue, I took an elevator and popped into a long red corridor to the TWA Hotel.  

When TWA died off in the late 1990s, after one of their planes blew up over the Long Island Sound, their terminal at JFK was vacant for almost 15 years.  Jet Blue purchased the terminal for $300 million and restored it to its old TWA luster from the 1950s and 1960s.  Staying at the TWA Hotel is to go back in time to the late 50s or early 60s.  Everything in the hotel is red and white.  The cars parked out the front entrance are classically restored cars from the late 50s or early 60s.

My hotel room overlooked the runway and across the way was the Emirates gate where I watched Emirates Airbus 390s arrive. Other airplanes I watched from my hotel room belonged to Singapore Air, Virgin Atlantic, Etihad, Air India, Kenya Airways, etc.  I could have stayed in my hotel room the entire time plane-spotting. My room was furnished with a rotary telephone and a Life magazine from May 13, 1966 (35 cents).

I dropped off my suitcase and immediately went down to the so-called cocktail lounge.  Just outside the hotel, still on hotel grounds, on a mock runway is a 1958 Lockheed Constellation! The lounge is called "The Connie." The plane, recovered from a trash heap, has been restored to 1958 form and serves as one of the hotel's cocktail lounges.  On board, you can sit in an airplane seat, or the lounge in the back of the airplane.  Order an Old Fashioned, a Gin and Tonic, or a Sprite! 

The restored airplane requires you to go up mobile boarding stairs. Ever been on a 1958 luxury airplane? Well, I have now. Watch those old airplane movies and now be able to empathize with all the rich passengers who bring their drama to 35,000 feet.

Oh, the plusses and minuses of the TWA Hotel.  The plusses include the nostalgia and luxury.  It is fabulously restored to 1960s form.  The restaurants within are much maligned by reviewers, but I thought they were fantastic.  The gym in the basement is large.  The views of the international runway are magnificent.  Attention to detail, including the rotary payphones and the old fashioned beauty parlor is terrific.  The minuses?  There is a double whammy...it is New York and it is an airport, thus the rooms are expensive.  The rooms are small, but if you are alone, they are large enough with great views. Again, it is New York and half the population is homeless or addicted to drugs and occasionally one of these Mamdani deviants makes it into the hotel.

Aviation enthusiasts and plane spotters will love this place.  The TWA Hotel is a slice of Americana from an era when airplane travel was a luxury and it was treated as a luxury by a still proud population.  The Spirit Airlines culture was not yet infesting airports, and T-Shirts and flipflops were nowhere to be found.  Yesteryear...gone forever?  Who knows? Oh, the stewardesses...they were all fit and trim, and real dolls.  Take a look at their TWA uniforms which are on proud display just over the lobby. 

Lastly, the service was fantastic.  The waiters and waitresses at the hotel restaurants were first-class, all the way.  For me, this was a perfect three days.  I sat in the spacious lobby, took in the sights, and wrote (I have four blogs). I'm looking for a reason to go back, so there will probably be more blog posts about this hotel/museum. 

Rhinelander, Wisconsin, July 4th!

About four and a half hours northwest of Milwaukee lies Rhinelander, Wisconsin. God's country. No Pride flags. No CBD shops. Families, that are actually...families!  You folks from New York, or Los Angeles, or Chicago just would not understand. The state lottery is not pushed on you in every store.  Pawn shops and auto loan emporiums are not visible.  No one is swearing. Rap music is heard nowhere. I like Rhinelander! The local legend here dates back to 1893 as a logger spotted a mini-dinosaur and called it the Hodag.

The Hodag

Tonight the fireworks will be at the park by Boom Lake.  It is called Boom Lake even when there are no fireworks on the schedule.

Boom Lake

Remember John Heisman? Okay, he died in 1936 so you probably do not. He founded the football programs at Auburn and Clemson and is the namesake of the college football trophy presented yearly to the best collegiate player. He's buried here. Apparently he was mauled by a Hodag. 

John Heisman's grave

A 40 minute drive from here is Laona, Wisconsin. We ventured there and rode on the Lumberjack Steam Train. We rode in the caboose as the steam engine brought us on a 3-mile ride to a logging museum.

Lumberjack Steam Train

We had the entire caboose to ourselves and sat up on the cupola.

Caboose

The peeps, all locals, who worked at the little logging city/museum were so friendly and very clean cut. There were farm animals like goats, ponies, llamas, pigs, sheep, and chicks. Logging equipment like saws and chainsaws. Buildings that would have existed in the old logging days like bunkhouses, kitchens and cafeterias, a slaughterhouse, blacksmith shop, and gift shop. Afterwards we ate at the very friendly breakfast and lunch place, Log Cabin Cafe. Again very friendly staff and no annoying music (Rap) playing over the PA. 

Log Cabin Cafe

Before leaving on July 5th we ventured to Pioneer Park in Rhinelander. The park/museum is dedicated to the old logging days of this fine city. A railroad museum, a schoolhouse, a dining and bunk area, logging equipment, and an old steam logging locomotive and train are all here.

Logging Train at Pioneer Park

Sadly we will return to Virginia soon, the world capital of CBD smoke shops, pawn shops, tattoo parlors, and Fast-Cash Loan emporiums. Rhinelander will serve as a reminder the evils that have seemed to take over this country since 2020 may be waning and in some very morally strong areas of this country, never took hold.  All of you who respond "It's everywhere," when commenting on the fall of your city or town... you are wrong...it is not everywhere.

Tarpon Springs, Florida: Greece-Lite

You all saw the movie!  Wait!  It's an old movie so you probably didn't!  Shame!  Find it, 1953's "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef."  Robert Wagner (a really young Robert Wagner), Richard Boone (the greatest actor not on any greatest actor lists), and Peter Graves! Set in Greece...wait, no, not Greece, but Tarpon Springs, Florida.  Same thing.  Picture one of the Aegean islands and the very Greek Orthodox community that lives on it.  Over 70 years after that film was released, is Tarpon Springs still a carbon copy of an Aegean island?

Sponge boats still line the docks of the inlet.  The days take from sponge divers still adorn the decks. Every year a priest throws one of those ornate Orthodox crosses into the inlet and the sponge divers jump in.  Fortune will besiege the lucky diver who emerges with it. 

Trendy, and expensive, and very quaint shops will sell you trinkets, souvenirs, candy, and artsy-fartsy stuff.  A lot of boats will bring you on tours of the inlet.  Get away from the college kids and drunks seeking prurient activities for a more mature day on Florida's Gulf Coast.  

Ask anyone for the best restaurant and you will be told, without exception Hellas Restaurant and Bakery.  Click on this link for their website and menu Hellas website.  Greek food!  Real Greek Food.  The stuffed Grape Leaves they make show why Turkey will never be as good as Greece, and are dripping with egg lemon sauce.  The bakery, which is attached, has Greek breads, cookies, and pastries. 

One wonders if Richard Boone, famous for having Vodka lunches, would have had an Ouzo lunch if he dined at Hellas' during the filming of the aforementioned film. Here are the stuffed grape leaves.

...and the flaming cheese...don't ask.  Sort of a cross between a grilled cheese sandwich and Baked Alaska.  Just go with it!  

Work off the calories after dinner by walking the streets of Tarpon Springs.  Greek flags were very prevalent.  It was nice in the month of June to see Greek flags, American flags, and no other flag.

As a civilizational mindset spreads across Europe, Asia, and Africa, that same mindset, if it arrives here in the U.S. may preserve the Greek culture here in Tarpon Springs.  Where I live in Virginia, the culture is gone and the landscape is teeming with CBD smoke shops, urgent care facilities, and tattoo parlors.  Hopefully Florida will reject what Virginia allowed to happen up there.

Duluth, Minnesota: Big Ships

I voyaged to Duluth, Minnesota, with my son for Memorial Day Weekend.  I had been wanting to visit here for quite some time. For many years I have been fascinated by those 1,000-foot freighters that silently make their way through the oceans, rivers, or Great Lakes.  Duluth seemed to be the place to see these behemoths of maritime construction.  Besides, the Edmund Fitzgerald, the most famous American ship disaster, sailed from here on its last voyage.  Wisely, I booked a room at the Fairfield Inn & Suites-Duluth Waterfront.  My hotel room overlooked the harbor and had a view of these giants arriving or departing from one of the two entrances to Duluth Harbor.  From the harbor, the lock connects with Lake Superior.  My son and I were not disappointed.  Here is one of the ships we spied as it left the harbor, as we looked on from our hotel room.  The Walter J. McCarthy, Jr. (a 1,000-foot diesel Lake freighter).

We also walked to the end of the pier on the lock and watched ships arrive.  Here is a 1,000-foot lake freighter, The MV Indiana Harbor.

These ships are almost silent and quite majestic.  They may be going to other ports, but only as far as the Saint Lawrence seaway. Toledo, Cleveland, or Two Harbors (MN) may be their next stops.  Some will return to Duluth within the week with a new load to be off-loaded. The two pictures below are the drawbridge each of these entering or exiting freighters must pass underneath, and the lighthouse at the end of the pier signals all these ships.

Now, as far as going on these ships...that brings us to the SS William A. Irvin, a 610 foot freighter, served in the Great Lakes from 1937 to 1978.  This ship was retired because it found itself too small as shipyards were turning out 1,000 foot freighters.  The ship is now a museum, fully restored to its 1970s glory.

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As most of these freighters do, guest quarters are provided for VIP guests who may sail along on their voyages.  The accommodations are quite nice for executives and their families from the shipping companies.  Here are some board room, guest quarters, and parlor pics. 

The restoration and the maintaining of The Irvin is terrific.  Here's a view from the bridge looking towards the stern across the hatches.

Two last shots of the Irvin, from the rear and then a captain's quarters view over the ship.

These ships are fascinating.  If you are wondering if you can book the guest quarters on current ships, for Great Lakes cruises, the 1,000-foot ones...the answer is yes.  I'm told the food is terrific.

DFW: Plane Spotting

Dallas Fort Worth, a massive airport, technically located in Fort Worth, Texas.  I hear it is the size of Manhattan. Airline enthusiasts will love it here, but this 50 year old airport has its flaws...and fascinations.  The parts of the airport outside security are cold, old, and sterile.  No restaurants or nice decorations.

Above is a pic of sunset, looking west from my hotel room.  From my room (located in the international terminal of the airport...Terminal D).  Unlike my home airport (Richmond International Airport...which has no international flights), I've seen all sorts of foreign airlines.  Emirates. Qantas.  FinnAir.  Qatar. Avianca. Singapore Airlines. Lufthansa. Air France. Etc.

This airport is where American Airlines is headquartered and American's Admirals Club lounges are located in each of the five terminals.  When booking a room at the Grand Hyatt, specify a room that overlooks the runway.  So why am I here.  From Richmond International, this is the only destination that will serve a meal.  One has to be in the air over two hours to get fed in First Class.  I had Chicken Parmesan.  

At the Grand Hyatt we have a really nice restaurant.  They gave me a free dessert when they found out it was my birthday. The restaurant is called the Grand Met and this strawberry mousse type dessert was delicious.

I am trying to eat healthy, hence my vegetable stir fry with shrimp from last night.  This place is a little more expensive than McDonald's but McDonald's is not the bargain it used to be.

Enough for now...stay tuned...may do another posting from here late tonight. 
 

 

Passport from 2012

This is a page from an old passport...notice The Maldives, Zurich, Switzerland, Frankfurt, Germany, Jordan....and one stamp I can't make out.

I have been to all 50 states, 8 of 10 Canadian provinces...and 29 countries.  Enjoy this blog as I hopefully add to those totals.  If you have any requests for me to visit and blog about, put it in the comments section.