Race Weekend!!!

OK race fans, the fun at the track started to peak as the weekend approached!  But first, we take a few minutes out to enjoy the strip!  Here's Isabel at her favorite gaming spot inside Circus Circus:  The quarter pusher!

After just a few minutes she amassed over 1,000 tickets!

Which she quickly cashed in for this bling!!  A nice tiger hat/mitten combo and a gumball machine.

Luckily, she remembered to pay the "Mom Tax" by treating Mom to a mountain of Tootsie Rolls paid for with  her leftover tickets.

Is this a content kid, or what?  A bunch of new toys, an ICEE, and a pretzel!

and just across the way, mom makes another quick 20-bucks by playing her new favorite slot machine.  I don't know how she does it, but every time she sits down at a machine she makes money!  SO far, she's paying our way!

We stepped out onto the strip to watch the NASCAR Hauler Parade

The parade was great and lasted about 20-30 minutes while every hauler passed by an blew their horns.  Here's the highlight of the night:

Go Jimmie!

And Speaking of, we figured our first stop on Sunday should be to check in with the crew in the garage to make sure the car would be ready

Meanwhile, Isabel was meeting with Ms Sprint 

and she was trying to meet with Danica.  Unfortunately this was as close as she would get this weekend

She also had a chance to get a close look at what she says will be her car someday!  The Dodge Challenger.

Back to the garage to check in with the competition.  Here's a picture of the NASCAR haulers and all of Carl's gear.  Not sure why he left his tires and stuff here...

and back in Jimmie's garage, Junior has come over to discuss race strategy with Jimmie and Chad.

Roaming around the garage area, we saw this mechanic really getting into his work!  

Sunday finally arrived so Isabel and I climbed on top of the RV to get the ultimate NASCAR view from the infield!

The field is lining up in turn 3!

Fast forward toward the end of the race--Isabel and I head to the winner's circle.  Since it's the Kobalt 400, she gets a complimentary foam rubber hammer!

and soon after, the winner of the weekend, Tony Stewart pulled in and climbed out

Here's his car, back at the garage after the celebration.

All in all, it was another awesome NASCAR weekend. 

I just wish this picture would have been of Jimmie or Carl since that's who we put money on at the casino!

 

Luckily for Isabel, this wasn't the end of the excitement!  Stay tuned for details of our surprise side trips following Las Vegas!

Our New Spot and the Calm Before the Storm

Moved to our final camping spot Sunday Afternoon in the infield this year. Here's Diana checking out the neighbors and Isabel supervising move-in.

Here's our new across the street neighbors.  Notice that this picture was taken Monday mid-day as the Sprint Cup trucks started to arrive from Phoenix.

Here's the view from our backyard down the backstretch toward turn 2

A few of the die-hard fans started arriving today at Noon on the dot, as soon as the gates opened.

Even the gulls are fighting for a good spot!

During our morning walk, I couldn't help but realize we were enjoying the calm before the storm.  Here's a view of turn 4.

Most of the Nationwide Series Haulers arrived Sunday.

We took a chance to head downtown to the Venetian for a stroll around our old stomping grounds (of sorts).

Isabel enjoyed a Limon Cello gellato in the mall!

and a quick mention that we are feeling slightly guilty for leaving Sadie at home during this trip, but we're glad that we did now because we know she wouldn't have enjoyed the infield experience.  I was looking back at a few pictures of her and found one of her early puppy sleeping poses.

Here's a picture of her at the house from just a few weeks ago.  I have a feeling she's probably doing the same thing right now since we're gone.

More Updates to come...

Las Vegas!

After a few months off so we could close up the quilt shop and finalize the lease of the building, we are back on the road!  We're back at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as camp hosts again this year!  There was no snow on the way down so the drive was a breeze this year!  Here's the new view from our living room for this week...

We'll attend our welcome meeting today at 1 pm and we start work Monday.  Not sure which campground we're workiing yet...

Home again!

Our time at Amazon has come to an end and we're back home again, well into the new year.  Due to business obligations and the speed of life, we've been updating our quilt shop blog instead of this one lately.  We will soon be merging the two blogs together onto this site so stay tuned for a review of our final weeks at Amazon and the latest updates from today forward!

Day trip to Joplin, MO

We're about an hour and a half west from Joplin, MO so we decided to take a road trip over there to see the area and check the rebuilding progress after the tornado.  I have to go to work so I'll let Isabel take over the blog post to describe what we saw from her perspective.  

ok, so, this is joplin missouri after the tornado this spring

most of these were houses,

some were old so they are just tearing them down

but some were brand new

the tornado only covered about two miles

some houses were destroyed

and some just had walls ripped off

i think only three or four had foundations left

houses weren't the only things ruined in the storm, 

many buisnesses were destroyed too

and the occasional power pole was bent over

this one might be hard to tell but there used to be a building or two there

that was the temporary homedepo 

and what used to be a sign

                                       
                                                         in the end..there was alot of damage,
                                        the pictures may seem bad, but its worse (and almost depressing)
                                                                              in person.              

Yes Dorothy you really are still in Kansas...

OK, so back in the early 1900's the town of Independence decided its youth were pulling too many pranks during Halloween so they turned Halloween around backwards and invented the Neewollah Festival.  It runs for 2 weeks right around Halloween time and the entire community gets involved.  It's also billed as THE biggest event in Kansas each year.  Among other events, they hold several parades two of which we attended.  I always thought that Kansans were a reserved conservative group, but the parade we attended proved me wrong!

Here's most of the town lining up to take parts in one of the parades.

Here's the loyal fire dog, which it seems most everyone knew by name waiting patiently for the festivities to begin.

Let the weirdness begin!

I can't really describe it so I'll let the photo speak for itself. These are both Kansas farm boys

Where in the world would you go with your new scooter?  A parade of course!

Guys in bras raising awareness for breast cancer

They may have gone a little too far in this case though.  Consider yourself lucky I didn't show the front view.

Of course every parade has an egg transporting chicken on a lawn mower

The award for the most normal float went to this group.

The sign reads "Extra Ketchup hot flashes and rum"

Sadie's favorite group

Second to the end

The end (except for the street sweeper that followed).

Mom couldn't stop laughing and Isabel was clearly affected by all she saw.

Happy Neewollah everyone!

Sadie Update...

Our internet connection here in coffeyville has been less than optimal so it's taking a while to upload photos... so I figured I'd upload just a few photos to see how long it's actually taking--and who better to upload than Sadie?  Sadie now gets her daily exercise by chasing her favorite ball around the field near the trailer.  When she gets tired she runs to the side of the field by the hay bales and lays down to sniff the breeze and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.  Here she is taking a break in the action.

Home at rest thinking about chasing her ball...

This is her "ready" position.  "OK, go ahead and throw it already!"

and here she is bringing it back.  She does this several hundred times a day and would do it non-stop if we let her!

That's it for the Sadie update.  Now let's see if I can upload some other photos...