Vroom-vroom 2...

So today is day two of Randy’s performance driving school (Ron Fellows Performance Driving School http://www.springmountainmotorsports.com/driving-schools/corvette-performance-driving-schools  He’s been driving a stick-shift 7-speed (Note after the school was over: Randy hit 102 in 4th gear. He still had THREE more gears to go!!!) 2014 Corvette, a different one for each different class so he doesn’t have the luxury of a car of his own. And I would not want to drive our car! They go through a set of tires every third two-day class! And they sell the cars after 10,000 miles. Each instructor drives about 60,000 to 80,000 miles a year.

They are very good at making sure the spouses are taken care of as well. We get ride-alongs and may attend and participate in the classroom stuff. Today was especially helpful because El Jefe of the school talked all about the electronics and both Randy and I learned a tremendous amount about the electronic capabilities of the car we’ve been driving for the past 5 months! I’ve always said we needed a degree in computer engineering to really understand the way the car works and how to change the way the car works. Heck, the radio/nav/phone system alone has a 90 page manual. Which of course we have not read! It’s much more fun to just try things out.

The three-day course would probably be a lot of fun but GM would only subsidize the two-day course (they paid 2/3 the cost of the course and one night in the hotel). Day three is mostly on the track, driving really, really fast (which all the testosterone floating around would love!) and putting to use all the techniques they have been learning.

Not everybody owns a Corvette but most do and the sole woman in the course has just bought her 15^th Corvette (El Jefe says he thinks that’s a record for the school). She sold her 2013 with 2500 miles on it to buy the 2014! Everybody who doesn’t own one wishes and plans to buy one. And all the guys vie with one another to talk about either how much he knows about Corvettes and/or all the bells and whistles HIS Corvette has. The two dealers in the class are actually among the least vocal! Many, many in the class live in the northern part of the country and garage their Corvettes for six months of the year!

There are two professional photographers here to take the beauty shots of each of the participants. Only $195 for a package of five photos! They can get a lot closer to the action than I can but I’ve been able to get a few really good photos. Apparently there is a writer in the class (Evan) who writes (for money) a Corvette blog. The photographers are going to comp his photos in return for a write-up on the photographers on his blog. Money makes money, I guess!

Coming in at the end of the last day.

Randy is not having any fun at all!

Part of the track, actually that is turn 9.

The professional photographer is not going to make any money from Randy!

Randy coming through turn 9 on the course.

Another view of Randy and turn 9.

Vroom-Vroom!...

Today was the first track day at Fellows Performance Driving School. So I don't have much to say, just photos.

I got to do a ride-along with the instructor when the guys (and one woman) were doing their first on the track experience. I hope to be able to do it tomorrow as well. I had NO idea how much a Camaro (yes, a Camaro is what the instructors drive!) could do. Heaven help us, we are going to drive the Pacific Coast Highway after this.

One of the instructors.

Randy and his Corvette for his first experience in "performance driving."

Just SOME of the Corvettes. There are more Corvettes here than at the Corvette factory!

Ready, Set, GO...

Demonstrating wet stopping distances.

Randy just finished driving the dry oval track with an instructor in the passenger seat. He and I were able to do this later in the day in our own Corvette and he walked me through apex turns and other miscellaneous "performance driving" tips. Fun, Fun, FUN!!!

More of the Corvettes available here. The tires last three classes and at 10,000 miles they sell them.

Randy and his very brave instructor getting ready for the dry oval (the wet figure 8 was too far away to get good photos).

Taking a turn.

Some of Randy's classmates. Jo is the only woman in the class.

That's Randy in the driver's seat (with helmet) and instructor in the passenger seat (without helmet).

If this is a resort, then it’s the LAST resort…

Off on our mini-adventure: Randy going to Corvette Driving School at the Ron Fellowes School and Spring Mountain Motor Resort and Country Club. A “condo” at the “Resort” is included in the cost of the school. I was excited. A Condo at a Resort. Whoopee..

We were assigned Condo C4 (in hindsight, there might be some relationship to the explosive, as in, it should be blown up!). Kind of a nondescript building in mustard yellow that we got to by driving under the racetrack that Randy will be driving on tomorrow and the next day. That was sort of exciting, driving under the thundering herd of 2014 Corvettes. Well, actually we saw one Cadillac (they also have a Cadillac driving school) driving by. Or should I say floating by? There certainly weren’t any vroom-vrooms involved!

The first downer is that we both have to wear one of those ugly paper (but waterproof paper!) wrist ID bracelets. For two days! Anyway, first thing we look for in the room is a phone. No phone. Second thing is ice. No ice. Called on my cell phone and they don’t have an ice machine. OK, we could get a bag of ice (for the 3” by 6” freezer compartment) if I walked over to the Corvette School building. Which isn’t identified.

The room. What can I say? Two queen-sized beds almost completely fill the room. No chairs but it does have a microwave and a coffee pot. Hence the “condo” designation, I guess. It’s only two days but geeze, if they want good publicity they need to do a bit more! Maybe the fact that I have only seen one other woman and two other people over the age of 20 has something to do with it? Testosterone is oozing out the pores of the stucco walls!

Pictures tomorrow of Randy’s time on the track. If they will let me, that is!

Take me out to the Ballgame!

Well, Randy and I are going off on another adventure. At least, it’s an adventure to us. But probably only the baseball fans among my friends will appreciate our calling our trip an “Adventure.” 

Starting in April we will attempt to see a game in each of the MLB parks in the United States. There are 30 Major League Baseball parks in the US and they range from the very old Fenway Park (1912) in Boston and Wrigley Field (1914) in Chicago to the pretty old (1962) Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles to the quite new Miami Marlins Park (2012). We won’t be seeing Atlanta’s brand new field because it won’t open until the 2017 season, we’ll have to make do with a game at Turner Field. 

I have to have a spreadsheet to help me keep track of who is at home when. The farthest south we’ll go is Marlins Park in Miami and the farthest north will be Seattle’s Safeco Field—they would probably like to be the farthest west, too, but they’re not; farthest east is of course Fenway Park and the farthest west is, by a hair (122.419° vs 122.331°), San Francisco’s AT&T Park. We will watch two teams five times each (counting the home games), Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals. We will only see our beloved San Francisco Giants twice, once at home (against Denver) and once away (at Phoenix). Thirteen of the 30 teams we will only see once, at home, including our detested rivals, Da Bums (the Dodgers, for those of you who only have known them in LA or who are too young to remember their nickname in Brooklyn) from Los Angeles. All of the above is highly dependent on weather (23 stadiums do not have a roof, retractable or otherwise).

The largest stadium/park/field (I prefer park) in terms of seating capacity is Dodger Stadium (56,000); the smallest, Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay (31,042). The largest in distance to center field is Minute Maid Park in Houston (435 ft/133m—a far cry from the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Ebbets Field’s 466 ft/142m) and the Polo Grounds’ (NY Giants) 505 ft/154m).

Planning any trip is always at least half the fun and this one is no exception! Still have lots to plan: where we’ll park our RV especially in areas like Chicago and New York; what to wear; what else to do than watch baseball (there is a gap of four days with no games anywhere in the NY/Boston area; really tough to have to find something to do in NY for 4 days!); and of course I’ll have to re-up my baseball scoring ability. Have to find a place to buy a scorebook (or two).