NASCAR circuit offer more to focus on than just racing
There are many great things about my job and being able to travel coast-to-coast is one of them.
Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, New Hampshire, Florida, Illinois and Indiana. That’s the current stretch as far as states the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is competing in during the summer months of June and July. While it can be the most grueling part of the season because of all the air travel and days lost at home, it can also be the most enjoyable because of everything this great country has to offer.
For example, last week we were enjoying Northern California and while some of my colleagues took advantage of the many tours available – from the wineries of Napa Valley, to the prisons of Alcatraz and San Quentin – others opted for wandering Fisherman’s Wharf or, like myself, going to a San Francisco Giants game in one of the most scenic ballparks in America – AT&T Park.
This week, we’re off to New Hampshire and while most of the weekend will be spent at the speedway working and enjoying the professionalism of Fred Neergaard and his media center staff, there is also time to get out and experience different parts of New England.
Throughout the last decade, I’ve visited different parts of this region and have yet to find a place that wasn’t interesting or enjoyable. I like the area so much that if someone told me I had to move out of North Carolina, I’d likely end up in one of these Northeastern states.
That might sound crazy, but as a native Michigander, I enjoy all of the four seasons and when it comes to the history of this nation – something that I continue to enjoy learning about – you can’t beat what New England brings to the table.
This feeling was confirmed last year when my wife, Lisa, and I spent a week exploring the region on vacation. After working through the weekend and watching Kurt Busch win a rain-shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 300, we ventured out and took a series of day trips from one state to the next. With Manchester, N.H., serving as our home base, we used a hub-and-spoke philosophy – not to mention our fuel-efficient Ford Focus – to see what we could see.
Vermont brought us a wonderful little village called Quechee, where the Quechee Gorge serves as the main attraction. From there we stopped and learned about the exploits of Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys at the state capitol in Montpelier, before capping it off with Vermont’s most popular tour attraction – the Ben and Jerry’s manufacturing plant in Waterbury.
Maine presented a scenic drive along the coastline, which was highlighted by the Nubble Lighthouse and numerous beaches. The towns of Kittery and York offered numerous places to shop, but what’s a trip to Maine without experiencing a lobster dinner, which we did in a quaint restaurant overlooking the water.
The Fourth of July was spent in New Hampshire, starting with a memorable whale-watching expedition in which we saw almost two-dozen whales, including one rather curious sort that thought it would be fun to go under our boat. After touring Portsmouth and seeing how they celebrated the holiday, we returned to our sightseeing dock for a nighttime cruise where we saw a variety of shoreline fireworks, including the main show at Hampton Beach.
Boston required a couple of trips because even though the downtown area is relatively small, there is so much to see that you can’t do it all in one day. We walked the Freedom Trail from Faneuil Hall, to Quincy Market, to the Old State House where the Boston Massacre took place, and to Bunker Hill. Day Two encompassed a sail around Boston Harbor on the Liberty Clipper, complete with a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party, and a trip to the cemetery where the likes of Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere are buried.
If it wasn’t for my job, I’m not so sure I would have ever thought to take a New England vacation. Or fly to San Francisco and experience the thrill of driving across the Golden Gate Bridge for that matter. But that’s just another reason why I love my job.
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