Sid Grauman and his partners finished the famous Chinese Theatre in 1927. The most interesting thing about the theatre is the forecourt where Stars have left their imprints in the cement.
Five million tourists visit the theatre each year.
Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe from the movie ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’.
Marilyn used an earring to dot her “i” when she did it in 1953. It was stolen 3 days later. The backing still remains.
The story of how these imprints began has 2 versions.
The first is that when silent movie star Norma Talmadge visited Sid at the theatre before it was opened, she stepped in wet cement.
This is supposedly where Sid got the idea to have stars leave their hand and foot imprints.
The other version is that the dog of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks walked across their new driveway and left paw prints. This gave Mary the idea and along with Douglas and Sid left their imprints at the theatre first. That dog’s name was Zorro.
Marilyn’s imprints are the biggest attraction.
Some of the women that stepped into the wet cement wore a smaller shoe than usual.
I still don’t think Steven Seagal should be among these great Stars.
There are 2 time capsules buried beneath the forecourt. The first was buried in 1942 and the second was buried in 1977.
This area is known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre’s “Forecourt of the Stars.”
I’ll come here every time that I’m in L.A.
The Chinese Theatre is a must-see destination when visiting Hollywood.
Johnny Grant was the MC for a lot of ceremonies on Hollywood boulevard, including the imprints and Stars on the Walk of Fame.
When it was his turn to leave his imprints, he misspelled his own name and only used one “n” when he used 2 in Johnny.
My first full day in Los Angeles, I met a friend and we walked up and down Hollywood boulevard.
It is an interesting place with lots to see.
Getting a pic of the Hollywood sign is a requirement.
We stopped by a bar and had some drinks and chips with salsa.
He was staying at the Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood boulevard.
On another day, I visited Hollywood boulevard again.
Who doesn’t love Barney Fife?
Stars located every few steps.
The street was closed off for a movie premiere.
This lady was creating memories on a blank Star.
She had all of the letters to spell any name and all of the props needed for a nice photo.
I had to get some pics.
Some fun memories of my time in Hollywood.
As close as I’ll ever get, lol.
Fame is fleeting.
A funny story about Johnny Grant in another blog post. He is famous in Hollywood for the wrong reason and it’s funny.
That movie premiere was for The Little Mermaid.
Happens a lot in Hollywood.
This is interesting. The first eight Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame were Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, Ernest Torrence and Joanne Woodward.
Street vendors on most corners.
Another view of the blocked off boulevard.
Mini Storm Trooper.
Tours of Hollywood are offered by several companies.
All different types of tour vehicles.
Some better, some worse.
Hollywood boulevard is a must-see place on a trip to Los Angeles.
To see more Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, visit link below.
In May of 2023, I was in Los Angeles with a friend. He was there for work and I went to play. We arrived on a Wednesday. The next day was Thursday, May the 4th.
I had heard that they were giving a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to Carrie Fisher and was interested in going.
On Thursday morning, I woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. It was about 10am when I looked to see what time the ceremony was being held. For some reason, I thought it would be about 3pm.
I was wrong. It was starting very soon. Luckily, I was already dressed so I got an Uber to Hollywood boulevard. I arrived right when the ceremony was beginning.
As you can see, there was no way to get up close.
This was cool.
They closed off Hollywood boulevard for the crowd.
I was able to snap some shots of Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker.
He gave a good speech.
Carrie Fisher was the daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. She was born October 21st, 1956 in Burbank, CA. She died December 27th, 2016 at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA.
This confused me at first… it is a photo of Princess Leia but it is Billie Lourd, Carrie’s daughter.
This is the view from Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.
After the ceremony was over, there were several people lined up on the sidewalk to get a pic of the Star.
There were about 30+ people waiting by a security guard. The crew was taking down the tents and the guard wasn’t letting anybody in the area until the crew was finished.
On my side, I was the only one waiting to get a pic. The security guard by me was letting people in the blocked off area to go to this one store that was inside the working area of the crew.
After a while, he told me that if I wanted to say that I was going to that store, he would let me in the area and I could take my pic while going to the store.
I thanked him and stepped behind the barrier and walked to the store. Carrie’s Star was right by the door of this store in the roped off area. I stopped, snapped a few pics and went into the store.
I checked my pics and then walked back out again and was on my way.
The press obviously got the first pics of the Star during the ceremony. I was the first person to photograph Carrie’s Star before it was opened up to the public. First!
Mark Hamill’s Star, which was nearby.
Later in the day, a friend and I walked by the Star after the crowds had gone. This is a favorite pic of mine.
Being present for this ceremony was really cool and I got some great pics.
I visited several attractions while in Los Angeles and those blog posts are coming up so stay tuned.
To see the pics from my Los Angeles trip, visit the link below and click on Photos.
The seventh weekend at the Texas Renaissance Festival was themed as the Highland Fling and yes, there were a lot of kilts.
This is a story from my visits on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a cold and wet day, but I made the trip to TRF anyway because I figured there would still be people there.
I arrived first again and got my usual parking spot.
I don’t usually promote the clothing company that much, but if you were interested in checking out the merchandise in the Contraband store, visit the link at the bottom of this post and click on Contraband. Lots of cool stuff.
Most may not have noticed in these photos, but my right rear hub cap fell out sometime back. I went to the dealership and had no luck. I came home and found a set of 4 for $19 on Amazon. Many times, people have bad things to say about Jeff Bezos, but he gave the world one of the best shopping websites ever.
There are a few superstitions at the TexRenFest. One is that people never say the “R” word in reference to bad weather. The previous weekend, I was talking to a TRF photographer and said, “This season has been great and no r….” He said to me, “We don’t say that word.”
I said the no-no word and sure enough, the next weekend we had r…. Lesson learned.
My morning pic on the throne.
One of the beefeaters, Jim, striking a good pose on the throne.
Rudy, about to entertain the early arriving patrons.
The cannon was fired under an awning because of the r….
Ravenswood Leather has one of the coolest buildings at TRF. The upstairs balcony if for employees only, but I’d like to go up there at least once.
The staff at Ravenswood is great and MJ is a really nice person.
All of the ladies look great posing with the merchandise. Here’s Mary looking great in her hat and fur.
I had on my STORM Factory jacket and also my STORM Factory raincoat. When I button up everything, I look like I weigh 250 pounds or that I’m pregnant, lol.
Mary had her hair down for a change and I complimented her about how nice it looked. She said that she usually wears it up so it doesn’t get unruly with the humid weather in Texas.
Kevin is a very stylish pirate and the only one I know that uses green as his predominant color with his garb. Love the hat.
I’m going to have to find a solution to the puffiness of my jackets because I don’t like looking like I just ate a whole cow.
Elaine always takes a good photo. I learned her name this weekend and she’s a favorite to photograph.
I learned Dex’s name also. I thought it the polite thing to do since I take his pic often.
I stop by the Thirsty Pirate Pub a few times each weekend day.
The staff are always willing to pose for a pic and I appreciate that. Such nice people and hard workers.
Shelly and Katy are two more people that I met this season.
Kylie never takes a bad photo. Some people are lucky like that.
Her mom, Julie, is the same way. All of the pics I take of her always look great.
Such and attractive mother and daughter. And both are really nice. I’m glad that I met them this season.
The Polish Pub is another of my regular stops each morning of the festival.
Kasia has great people working with her. Kasia has become a great new friend and I appreciate her friendship.
I said last week that I’d learn this girl’s name by this week. Meet Jenna.
The Cajun Booth has one of the friendliest staffs at TRF and they have great food.
I stopped by the Wyrmwood Public House and saw Allen at the front door, as usual.
Mickey made my kamikaze and it hit the spot on a cold and wet day.
I ran into Tim and Cameron again this weekend. They attend the festival several days of the season and always dress so well for the themed weekends.
Tim is very supportive of my efforts on social media and I appreciate that.
Sara and Abby from Catskill Mountain Moccasins.
I met Sara last year and we’ve stayed in touch via Facebook. She posts some funny stories.
Abby is Sara’s niece and I met her last season also. Abby Normal, lol.
Two tough dudes at the Asgardian Armory.
Erika has the best wardrobe and always looks fantastic every weekend.
Erika and Hyle.
I love Erika’s fur hat and I bet it’s very warm.
I’ll try and learn these young ladies’ names this upcoming weekend.
This is a fun-loving group. Very tight-knit.
The attendance was lower than usual because of the weather.
A little muddy in some areas.
Lots of rain gear and umbrellas.
Kelsey, Lourdes and Alex at the Steak on a Stick booth.
Lourdes let me try the boudin. She offered to cut it open for me but I ate it the traditional way and not with a fork. On this cold, wet day, it really warmed me up and tasted great.
The Steak on a Stick booth has a lot of great food items and the boudin is definitely one of their best.
Savannah works in the back area of the festival and I don’t always make it back there. It’s worth the walk to get her pic.
Catalina Longview always takes a good pic also.
I got a pic with Scott. Kurt Russell played Santa Claus in a movie and looks just like Scott. Scott plays Santa during the holidays.
I tried the chicken stir fry and it was good.
Good chicken, peppers and onions.
I stopped by Ravenswood Leather again and got Christina’s pic. A beautiful woman.
The patrons kept coming in, even though the weather stayed overcast all day.
I left about noon because there weren’t that many people in costume to photograph.
I snapped a pic of Willie on my way out. Such a character.
One of the funniest people at TRF.
The bad weather didn’t stop everybody from coming to the TexRenFest. Diehard fans.
This concludes the pics from Saturday.
On Sunday, the weather was still cold but not wet. First again.
If you arrive later in the day, it is a long walk from the parking area to the entrance plaza.
If you arrive early, it’s a short walk.
Such a great entrance plaza.
Much better weather than on Saturday.
A statue of the founder of TRF, George Coulam.
A great man and a visionary.
Morning throne pic.
An early morning pic with Willie. A good man.
The beefeaters of the Front Gate. They have a tough job overseeing all of the thousands that attend the TexRenFest.
Before thousands enter the festival.
The cannon was fired from its’ usual spot on this day.
Lady Iris paints the faces of TRF workers before the festival opens.
She has all of the many options for face-painting on a board so people can choose what they want.
There are many to choose from.
Lady Iris gave me a gift. It was a decorative spider and it is very cool.
Nuria as Queen Juana. Beautiful, as always.
The cast at TRF are so friendly and polite that it makes my job easier.
Rudy stays busy all day with playing his bagpipes for different occasions like weddings and the noon parade.
The morning dance with cast and patrons.
Ravenswood Leather shop has great merchandise to pose in front of.
MJ, Tori and Mary.
Mary is another photogenic person that I met at TRF this season.
I stopped by Elaine’s booth again on this day.
I learned Katherine’s name this weekend also. Very nice.
This pirate got her hat from Big Hat Pirates shop. It looks great.
Thirsty Pirate Pub.
Michelle, Michael, Shelly and Katy at the Pirate Pub.
I took some photos of the Polish Pub that I haven’t taken before.
It’s a great place to eat, drink and be entertained by their shows.
Hunters will appreciate this.
And this.
The Polish Pub is another place I discovered this season. TRF has many treasures to enjoy and this pub is one of them.
Ligia owns 15 booths at TRF, including the Polish Pub, the Thirsty Pirate Pub, the Red Lion Tavern and the whole Spanish section.
Her and Kasia are two new friends that I made this season. They are both great people and so hard-working. I respect them both and am proud to call them friends.
Ligia has a great group of people working with her.
People love Ligia and want to do a good job for her.
She is a Queen of the festival. This is her 46th year at TRF.
She started out making and selling empanadas. Her nickname is The Empanada lady.
TRF would not be as good without Ligia and her family’s hard work and efforts.
Jenna and Janie.
Kylie.
Kylie and Julie.
I enjoy stopping by to chat with Julie. It’s fun to hang out with her.
Rylie and Kylie. Two cuties.
Bri has a floof on her head. I learned that women wear floofs at the festival.
Kelsey and Alex.
Emily sells cool necklaces.
The staff of the Red Lion Tavern. Fun girls.
I saw a few Furries on this day.
My usual stop by the Wyrmwood. Notice Allen’s small hands.
The Wyrmwood also has an upstairs section.
I had Travis look up as I snapped this pic.
This girl’s name is Little Foot.
A pic with Travis.
These girls sing around the festival.
That’s a lot of faces to paint.
I’m always surprised to see guys going shirtless on really cold days. Not me. No way.
Abby and Sara.
Sara looks good in her fur.
Abby brightens my day when I see her.
TRF is a huge festival but I’ve managed to run into this couple on three different days. Nice people.
Erika, wearing a different fur hat on this day and looking great.
She is a favorite to photograph also.
Alex makes leather goods and is very talented.
He made what he’s wearing. Very nice.
Erika has been a favorite person of mine since last season when I first met her.
Alex and Erika.
Chelsea’s bird whistle stand.
She looks cute every day that I see her. One of my best friends at TRF.
Notice her floof.
A good group shot.
These ladies were having a lot of fun at the festival.
Better weather and a better crowd on this day.
No more mud to walk through.
More people in costume and no umbrellas.
I’m sure this guy liked the pic I took of him with the festival in the background.
A pirate and his main squeeze.
I started getting pics like this last season. It’s a great vantage point.
I ran into the King, who was playing golf.
This girl had on some cool pants. I asked her about them and she said that she made them.
The Spanish Court.
Getting a pic with Nuria is always on my list.
Lourdes let me try the fried shrimp and they were awesome.
Who doesn’t love good fried shrimp?
Tanya and Lourdes, two new friends.
This guy was balancing a beer on a stick on his head while playing the violin. Unbelievable.
Lots of great kilts during this weekend.
Elly was at the festival promoting different drinks. Nice girl and knows her stuff well.
They were giving out free samples in little plastic cups.
I talked with Elly for a while and she told me about their different drinks.
A good group shot.
One of my favorite pics from the weekend.
Love this pic.
I mentioned in last week’s blog post that I was going to try the fried alligator and this weekend, I did. Tastes like chicken, lol. Not really and it was delicious.
It should be on everyone’s list to try if they attend the festival.
The food stand areas always have a good crowd of people enjoying the great offerings.
With so many choices, there is something for everyone.
The Spanish section always has a lot of people getting some good food.
I also tried the chicken quesadilla on this day.
One of the best I’ve ever had. Ligia knows how to prepare great food.
Another favorite pic from the weekend.
Kilts and berets are always a good look.
This next weekend, I’m going to ask how much it costs to take a carriage ride around the festival.
Love this guy’s hair.
A much larger crowd than on Saturday.
More people equals more fun.
One of many photo ops at TRF.
Still coming in.
Lady Iris is always busy from before opening to close. And always smiling.
More Furries.
A smiling face to greet you as you leave for the day.
Such a long line to purchase a ticket.
I don’t know why these people wouldn’t buy their tickets online to avoid this long line.
Another successful day at the Texas Renaissance Festival.
This concludes this blog post. Look for another one next week for the last weekend of the festival.
To see the pics and videos from the festival, visit the site below and click on Photos.
This past December, I attended the Dickens on the Strand festival in Galveston, TX. It’s a great festival and I’ll show you that in this post.
If you follow me on social media, you know I like to arrive early when attending special events. It’s easier to park and I like to capture the beginning of the event with photos to add to the story of a day in attendance.
Here is a shot of the Strand. It’s a perfect place for a festival. They host a Mardi Gras celebration here also and you can read about that in another post of mine. I love how clean the street is. Nice job.
Here is the write up about the festival…
Dickens on the Strand is an annual Christmas festival organized by the Galveston Historical Foundation in Galveston, Texas occurring the first weekend in December. Established in 1974 and set against the historical backdrop of Galveston’s Strand, participants come to witness and relive the Charles Dickens era.
Here’s another write up…
For several years, Galveston’s Christmas festival Dickens on the Strand has been a big hit during the holiday season, drawing crowds of more than 35,000, according to Galveston Historical Foundation.
One of the first things I noticed at DOTS was the trash can covers. It may seem trivial, but having the trash cans covered like this increases the aesthetic value of the festival. If you didn’t notice trash cans everywhere, it worked because they blended in.
I met Scott early in the morning that Saturday. He’s a balloon artist.
When I attend special events, I like to cover the food as well. This is Naji’s food stand.
He serves a variety of food and it all looks good.
He told me that he went through 11 cases of Turkey Legs in one day.
I asked Naji to make me a plate of just a few fried shrimp. He loaded me up and didn’t charge me.
The breakfast of champions.
The event has several street vendors and that gives it a great feel for a street festival.
Captain America. Very cool look.
On this Saturday, I saw this gentleman walking towards me and I stopped him for a pic. Take note of this because it will come up later in this post.
Lovely ladies.
These two guys had some really nice uniforms on. Thumbs up.
In the history of the United Kingdom, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria’s reign, from June 20th, 1837 until her death on January 22nd, 1901.
A beautiful young lady in a beautiful dress.
Here is a write up about Dickens…
Charles Dickens, Charles John Huffam Dickens, (born February 7, 1812, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England – died June 9, 1870, Gad’s Hill, near Chatham, Kent), English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian era.
Even though DOTS is about the Dickens / Victorian era, you will see almost anything by way of costumes, outfits and garb.
Great dresses with matching hats. Very nice.
This woman is a Pony Express rider. I said I thought she was Calamity Jane. She said she gets that a lot. I think it’s the hat.
Here is the write up about Steampunk’s era…
The most common historical steampunk settings are the Victorian and Edwardian eras, though some in this “Victorian steampunk” category are set as early as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and as late as the end of World War I.
This guy did stunts like lie on a bed of nails. Interesting street performers help create a fun environment at DOTS.
This gentleman would give you a ride on the back of his conveyance. Notice how I didn’t say bicycle. That’s because I’m not sure what to call what he is riding.
And you will see Pirates at the festival.
Lots of Bobbies at DOTS.
Here is the write up about Bobbies…
Bobby, slang term for a member of London’s Metropolitan Police derived from the name of Sir Robert “Bob” Peel, who established the force in 1829. Police officers in London are also known as “peelers” for the same reason.
I came across a few Santas.
Notice her Steampunk goggles and corset. Cute girl, good look.
There was even a place to play a game of Cricket.
Here’s another gentleman offering rides.
Creative uses for the same material.
The Queen and her Court.
The beggars are a favorite of mine to photograph. The baby with black marks on his face is cute.
The festival has several groups that sing throughout the day. Great voices and great outfits.
I came across the Queen talking with Charles Dickens. She was giving him what for because he missed her party. Funny exchange.
He then read a selection for the audience. This guy looks a lot like Charles Dickens.
Here is the real Dickens for your comparison.
Father Christmas.
Great outfits and pith helmets. With Steampunk goggles as well.
My favorite Steampunk couple.
Completely awesome.
Charles Dickens wrote fifteen novels. He also wrote short stories, essays, articles and novellas.
Bobbies on this stand gave helpful info and offered great photos.
The girl in the shades struck a great pose.
Steampunk goggles.
Great beggar pose.
Steampunk is a favorite of mine and I love how creative people get with it.
One cute Pirate.
Beautiful dresses and parasols.
Attending DOTS is like Time Traveling. I love walking down the Strand and seeing all kinds of people. Pirates may be my favorite.
Another favorite beggar family.
I took several photos of the different choirs. One mother saw a photo on my site where I had captured her 2 daughters with their choir. She then donated to our charity foundation because she was so pleased.
I met Tony at the Texas Renaissance Festival and then again at DOTS. Great Steampunk look.
A stand sold these mugs and then you could fill up the rest of the day for free.
Three lovely ladies having a fun time.
“Get your damned dirty hands off of my wine.”
Bobbies are always unarmed and only carry a Night Stick. When they were created, it was decided to try and differentiate them from the British Military, which was viewed with some hostility.
Another parasol in this next pic.
What is the difference between an umbrella and a parasol?
Generally, an umbrella has a curved handle to allow for easy grip and storage. A parasol, however, (in Latin para for “shelter or shield” and sol “sun”) is typically constructed from more delicate fabrics such as lace, cotton, silk, linen, canvas and plastic.
The steam from his jet pack is really awesome. Great pic of a cool couple.
A good looking and sounding choir.
A fun-loving girl here.
I’ve photographed this couple at the TexRenFest also.
A beautiful woman in a great hat and outfit.
Choirs add to the great atmosphere of the festival.
Lovely hats and great sashes.
Pirates make any party better.
Plenty of food options at the festival.
Everyone has a great time at DOTS. Great parasol in the background.
Street performers are a great addition and they entertain a lot of people.
How do you make a Pirate mad?
Take away the P.
A Steampunk Santa and Mrs. Claus. Very cool indeed.
Another great pic of a beautiful woman.
It takes a lot of talent to walk on stilts. My hat is off to her.
A Bobby told me that I had a ‘Get out of Jail’ card for the day. I never needed it.
A fun pic.
This is one stylish couple.
The phrase “what the dickens,” first mentioned in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, was a euphemism for conjuring the devil.
Charles Dickens first wrote under the name of Boz because he didn’t want any negative references to the devil.
Once his work became known by the public, he used his real name.
Dickens owned a beloved raven he named Grip, and it even appears as a character in his novel Barnaby Rudge.
Following the bird’s death from eating lead paint chips later that year, Dickens replaced it with another raven, also called Grip, which was allegedly the inspiration behind Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven.”
A great looking group of friends enjoying the festival.
Edgar Allan Poe made an appearance at the festival. Here is the write up about Poe…
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States, and of American literature.
This guy did a a great job with his recitation of Poe’s work.
These next pics are from the Sunday of the festival.
Naji hooked me up with something for breakfast.
Beefeaters out in full-force.
A favorite of mine from the event.
My favorite beggar family.
Pirates and vampires. Ya gotta love DOTS.
What do you call a Pirate with both eyes and both legs?
A rookie.
Another write up about Dickens…
Early in 1843, as a response to a government report on the abuse of child laborers in mines and factories, Dickens vowed he would strike a “sledge-hammer blow… on behalf of the Poor Man’s Child.”
That sledge-hammer was ‘A Christmas Carol’.
I happen to catch the Queen and her procession heading down the Strand. Great pic.
This gentleman on the left said he didn’t care for Pirates, so I told him I was a Privateer. All good Pirates know how to lie.
Another great performer at the festival.
I ran into this couple again on Sunday.
He’ll always get a close-up. He looks that good.
In addition to ravens, Dickens loved cats.
When his cat, Bob, died in 1862, he had its’ paw stuffed and mounted to an ivory letter opener and engraved with “C.D., In memory of Bob, 1862.” The letter opener is now on display at the Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the New York Public Library.
The Ghost of Christmas Past.
A beautiful family in great clothes.
Very stylish.
A Pirate and the cutest little dog.
Okay, now for an explanation. That gentleman that I photographed on Saturday turned out to be the great, great, great grandson of Charles Dickens.
Here’s Ollie Dickens on the left and the gentleman playing Charles Dickens.
The little dog steals the show.
Talent abounds at DOTS.
Lazy slackers, lol.
This guy played a great Edgar Allan Poe. Hat’s off to him as well.
Now for my pics from Sunday.
Here I am with Scott. He made a lot of money making balloon figures.
Father Christmas.
With the Queen.
One of my favorite pics from the weekend.
Chuck and I.
Another fav of mine with Ollie DIckens.
Well, that’s it for Dickens on the Strand – 2021. To see all of my photos, go to the link below and click on Photos. Enjoy.
And remember…
Always be yourself… unless you can be a Pirate, then always be a Pirate.
I first met Phil Brayton a few years back, at a comicon in Houston. He was dressed as his Barbarian character. I knew that when I saw him, I immediately wanted to get his photo. This first photo is from the first time I ever met Phil.
When I decided to work several weekends at the Texas Renaissance Festival, I didn’t expect to see Phil there. When I walked inside the gates of TRF, he was one of the first people that I saw. This next pic is from that first encounter at the TexRenFest.
Phil has been working at TRF for 13 years. In the mornings, he poses as his Barbarian character, then after the noon parade, he comes out as Tan Man.
He is 6’6″ and 325 pounds… a mountain of a man.
Phil is called a Badged Entertainer and there are only 5 at TRF.
His Barbarian character is the 3rd highest photographed person at the TexRenFest and his Tan Man character is in the Top Ten in photos taken of him.
I tried to get a pic with Phil each time that I saw him.
Out of the many people that I met at TRF, Phil is one of the nicest. He was always so complimentary of me and the way I dressed.
At one point, he said I was the Best Dressed Photographer at the TexRenFest.
Phil started out his career working in the Medical Field. Then, in his late 30’s, he switched to Mortuary Science and has been working in that calling for over 25 years.
As you can tell, Phil is a real life character.
He also plays Donald Trump. Phil is a Social Media Influencer that works in New Orleans, Houston and Galveston.
He plays Capt. Jazz, the Ghost of Christmas Present, the Barbarian, the Mountain Man and also Houston’s Tan Man.
Phil went to a White Linen party in the Heights of Houston years ago and a friend started calling him Tan Man and the name stuck.
Phil is known far and wide by many thousands of people and also has thousands of Followers on his social media accounts.
Here’s a pic of Phil with some friends at the White Linen Party.
They made the paper with the caption, ‘Life of the Party’. No truer words have ever been printed.
Phil has been in the media spotlight for several years now and been a part of many Promos for a lot of events.
Here he is for the Super Bowl that was hosted in Houston.
Every major social media influencer has been a part of a meme.
Here he is as the Ghost of Christmas Present during Dickens on the Strand in Galveston, TX.
He also has hundreds of thousands of views for his videos.
The Marlboro Man at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
The Undertaker with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Here he is at the Lone Star Motorcycle Rally in Galveston.
At Saint Arnold’s Brewery with the owners.
Mountain Man at the Houston Rodeo BBQ Cook Off.
Mister Astro with some babes.
Here is a pic of Phil while working in his calling.
As I stated earlier, I’ve met many people in my line of work and Phil is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He’s fun-loving, carefree and always so kind.
I asked Phil what it is that he could say about working at the Texas Renaissance Festival and he said this… “I love working at TRF because it is a Judgement-Free Zone. You could be a 500 pound man wearing a Tutu and you will be the most popular guy there.”
My hat goes off to people like Phil who live life to the fullest and get the most out of our time here on this planet. I look forward to seeing and photographing Phil many more times in the future.
Cheers to Phil Brayton for just being himself.
Spider 113
Phil Brayton Fan
Thanx for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
And remember…
“Always be yourself… unless you can be a Pirate, then always be a Pirate.”
This is a post about the last weekend of the Texas Renaissance Festival. I attended 6 out of 8 weekends and enjoyed myself, thoroughly. I met some great people, ate a lot of good food, saw some great shows and got a lot of pics and videos.
For the last weekend of the festival, Celtic Christmas, I ended up with 734 pics. For the entire 6 weekends that I attended, I added a total of 3,105 photos from the event.
I arrived first at the festival again on this Friday after Thanksgiving. These first pics are from that Friday.
I enjoy seeing the Front Gate Plaza early in the morning. There is something peaceful about knowing that as quiet as it is it will get so much more exciting as the day goes on.
I have a special project that I’ll be working on soon that is about the TexRenFest. This may be the cover photo.
I’ll let you know when the project is ready to view. Should be late Spring or Early Summer of 2022. I think many people will enjoy reading my book about my adventures at TRF for 2021. The book will have hundreds of pics from the event with lots of great costumes, outfits and garb, as well as some fun-loving, great characters and patrons.
Hamish McGregor always has the early morning guests entertained with his pipe playing and entertaining stories and jokes.
Rudy does a great job as Hamish and is a well-loved character at the festival.
Hard to believe that about 500,000 people will pass through these gates in 8 weekends.
Always buy a program. These girls and guys are usually the first people you meet in the Plaza and once inside the Front Gate. And they’re always happy to see you.
Queen Isabella looked very good in front of the Christmas tree at the front. Nuria is one of my favorite people to see at TRF.
I love the creativity that goes into some of the costumes and outfits worn by the cast and crew. They help create the fantasy world of the TexRenFest.
Erin as Glinda the Good and the Spanish King.
Katrina as a Bride of Frankenstein.
Micah as Crayon. The kids love her and many come back by at the end of the day to say goodbye to her. We wish Micah luck with her career in the Navy and look forward to her return to the festival one day.
Micah always gave me some great pics.
She was one of the people that I gave the close-up treatment to because I enjoyed her pic so much.
Jade is another person that always gets the close-up treatment. Jade is one of my favorite characters at TRF. I love the effort she puts in to create her face and overall look.
Two very pretty ladies.
I stopped by to see these ladies at a food stand and snapped their pic. I love that all of the workers at the festival like having their photo taken.
I bought the crab cakes from them for breakfast. They were hot and good.
I enjoyed photographing the Pickle Vendors. And I ate a few pickles as well. Always delicious.
I learned of a pizza place in the village and found it this last weekend. The pizza is great and one of my new favorite places to eat.
Lilly always looked so pretty. I loved watching her dance to the music of Tartanic.
I ran into Tony again. And this time, he was Elfis. What a funny outfit and great name. Very creative.
The ears look great and a green mustache with those glasses tops this look off.
Elvis would be proud.
It looks like Tony would be saying, “Hey, Baby. What’s shakin’?””
I took Alan’s pic a few times. He works the door at the Wyrmwood Public House. The best bar in the village.
Mickey made my daily kamikaze.
I look forward to TRF 2022 and seeing all of my new friends again.
I love purple and this singing duo rock it. The Minstrel Rav’n always looked great.
This family was having a fun time.
And she deserved a close-up treatment.
Monsieur Bunny, or Daddy as he prefers. I have lived a long life and never had to call anyone Daddy… until now, lol.
Next TRF, I plan to try the coconuts.
Cute workers always with a smile to greet you.
Who doesn’t like a nice kilt?
Kevin was always fun to photograph.
This is a good pose and a nice pic of him.
What’s better than a pic of a Pirate? A pic of two Pirates.
Hercules brought out his fur for the last weekend because it was a little chilly.
Always get the wings in the frame.
Krampus made an appearance.
If a dad dressed like this for Christmas morning to surprise his kids… he’d scar them for life, haha.
Skidmark was looking festive.
A working man in his office.
A great group shot.
Erika always looked so beautiful.
Greg and Sara were so nice to me during the TexRenFest and I look forward to spending time with them again the next festival.
Haley looked great in her Christmas outfit. The word on the top of her head is ‘Naughty’.
I bet Santa would still give her some gifts though.
I like this guy’s blue, leather vest. Very nice. And he was always nice enough to pose for me.
A Pirate Santa. Good Look.
I met Pam while I was working the festival. She was a lot of fun to hang out with.
The crew of the Sea Devil bar.
Blaze looked happy to be at work on this Friday.
While working at TRF, you make some great friends and lasting relationships.
Big Pirate hats always look god.
Hamish McGregor and a friend singing a tune while in the village.
More good friends.
My favorite Krampus and St. Nicholas. Nice guys and fun to shoot.
And deserving of a close-up.
Great Promo Gal and she loves her job.
One stylish gentleman. I’d definitely wear these clothes. Very sharp.
Another St. Nicholas and his lady.
Jesus and Santa. I photographed Jesus and Satan a few weeks earlier than this.
One of my favorite pics out of all of the TRF photos. He’ll enjoy this pic for years of him and his little boy.
Greg and I in the Catskill Mountain Moccasins booth, number 212.
And with the ever beautiful, Sara.
Now, we’re on to the pics from Saturday of the Celtic Christmas weekend. I was there first again.
The entrance to a great fantasy world where you’re free to be whatever and whomever.
As you can tell, I love this view.
The gates to fun and frivolity.
A lot of people will come down this walkway on this day.
Another cold day in the village.
Ready for action.
Playing his pipes.
Micah as Crayon. So cute.
Micah is full of energy and so fun-loving.
Erin, looking splendid, as usual.
One of Hercules’ best poses for me. He has a good double bicep pose.
Pennywise was a favorite of mine to photograph.
This was the first weekend that she didn’t wear a mask and she looked awesome.
Her face make-up is so great. And close-up material.
Jade, looking her best.
She never disappoints.
In the early morning, right after I enter the Kingdom, I usually get a lot of photos of the characters. This beautiful girl was fun to shoot also.
Phil Brayton was always a pleasure to run into. Through some stats, I learned that Phil’s Barbarian character is the 3rd most photographed person at TRF. And his Tan Man character is in the Top Ten.
I had kolaches and milk from the Queen’s Pantry on this Saturday morning. Always a good start to my day.
MJ and a co-worker. I bought a nice hip pouch from them that I use quite often now. Great quality.
Some very fun ladies.
Kazoo Orchestra.
Skidmark is one character I really enjoy watching work. He’s extremely entertaining.
One time, a guy told me to focus my pics on the beautiful girls. I told him I had that covered. Case in point, this photo.
These 2 characters always enjoyed posing for me and I thank them for that.
Daddy in his element.
Leos is more of man than I am. I even wore Long Johns on this day and he went shirtless.
Lilly, looking fabulous.
Haley with a different Christmas outfit and always looking cute.
This girl’s mother told me where she worked so I could go get her photo. It came out great.
I had several bowls of etouffee from Blaze’s booth.
The crew of the Sea Devil bar. Another good pic fo their gang.
Family pics are fun.
A really good Grinch.
She gave me some advice and it was really bad.
Pirates are always fun to photograph.
Sara and Abby.
Booth 212 – Catskill Mountain Moccasins.
Another good crew photo.
Paolo entertaining the crowd.
The Spanish Court.
Another pic of this beautiful redhead. Her hat is awesome.
A fun group to shoot.
I had to get a pic of these two.
Apollo promoting their show.
Blaze and a friend.
I ran into Tony again on Saturday and this time I got some better pics.
His shoes were very cool.
I only had a few people refuse to pose for me during my time working the festival. I’m glad this girl decided to pose for me.
How much does it cost a Pirate to pierce his ears?
A buck an ear.
A festive group that was enjoying their day at TRF.
She has a great hat and looks good in it.
Eye contacts can always improve a look.
Another great Grinch.
Abby in a good-looking outfit.
The only Christmas tree that I photographed.
I love these guys.
Gruesome.
The stuff of nightmares.
Two more cute food stand workers.
A smiling group shot.
You gotta love seeing people having a good time.
Another festive group.
Cute Pirates are always a pleasure to run into and photograph.
And deserving of a close-up.
One of my favorite poses. Love the hat.
Talent in the village abounds.
I love the hat on the far right.
Now for my pics from Saturday. Big Phil and I.
I’ve got a tough job, lol.
Sara and I.
Abby was fun to pose with.
Greg always had on great garb.
I would leave everyday about 2 or 3pm and I always saw more people coming in.
My view when I leave.
These next pics are from Sunday, the last day of TRF for 2021. I like that the plaza always looks so clean.
I’m already looking forward to going back this next year.
My last pic with Willy for the year.
Another chilly day in the village.
I was asked to shoot the group shot for the Front Gate staff and it came out great.
Leo was nice enough to let me into the Kingdom early a few days and I appreciated that.
Nuria always took a good photo.
You’ll notice a lot of smiling faces in my pics.
I intend to interview Jade next season to learn more about her character and other things like how long it takes her to get ready.
I’d be curious to know how long it takes to do her face make-up.
Micah was a natural with the kids and an asset for the Texas Renaissance Festival.
I’ll miss getting her pics while she’s in the Navy, but I respect her service to our country.
She’ll do the USA proud.
A regal gentleman. It’s good to be the King.
I ran into Phil in another area and snapped his pic one last time for 2021.
This girl always had a great pose.
Case in point.
The staff at my favorite pizza place.
These girls looks festive in their Santa’s Helpers outfits.
Alex was fun to shoot and I look forward to seeing her next season.
Next season at TRF, I’ll focus more on the food.
Lots of characters working the food booths also.
It’s hard not to be hungry as you walk around because the food all looks and smells so good.
I tried some of the chicken.
Delicious.
Another great outfit.
Love the headdress.
How do pickles enjoy the day out?
They relish it.
One fabulous costume.
The ears, the hair, the horns, the make-up… all fantastic.
Why would you expect the coconuts vendors to pose funny?
You tell me, lol.
This look takes some time. Great job.
I look forward to going back to the Glory Hole for my morning beer.
Great horns and a great pic.
The Sea Devil is a great place to get some good pics.
Case in point.
Blaze was a redhead this last day of the festival and looked great.
Her co-worker looked great as well.
This crew asked me to take their staff photo and I was happy to do it.
Alex always looked cute.
Easy to see why I always passed by their booth for photos.
A really good face make-up job.
Another time-consuming job, but well worth it when you see the final look.
How do Pirates prefer to communicate?
Aye to aye.
Another lady that works with Tartanic along with Lilly.
A great Santa.
With a funny close-up.
Paolo playing some tunes.
Alan looking quite sharp.
Erika looked great the first day I photographed her and to this last day.
Melissa and Vebecka while at work in the Asgardian Armory, booth number 211.
The staff that works for Shiva. Great clothes.
I look forward to seeing Violet next season also. She’s a great Fire Dancer.
And gets a close-up.
Next season, I’m going to try and shoot over 4,000 pics. I’ll be attending all 8 weekends with no bad luck and I think I can do it, plus, I’ll have assistants.
I bet they were warm on this cold day.
I plan on shooting lots more videos also.
I’m looking forward to spending more time with Pam. She’s a lot of fun to hang out with.
How did the Pirate call his mate?
On an Aye Phone.
This King has some great looking rings.
I saw more furries on this last weekend.
Hercules saved his best pose for the last day of the festival.
These two girls worked at a food stand but were enjoying the last day as patrons.
This is the last person that I photographed at TRF for 2021 and I snapped it as I was walking to my Tahoe. 3,105th pic.
Now for my pics from the last day. Rudy was one of the nicer people that I met at TRF.
I imagine Jade gets photographed quite a lot. Gotta be in the top 5 of all the characters.
I’ll have a special post about Phil coming up soon. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Blaze is wearing one of my STORM Factory beanies, just backwards while she was working.
My last pic with Erika.
Many thanks to Greg for his hospitality towards me during the 2021 TRF season.
A pic with Shelbelle Shamrock on the Wyrmwood patio.
My last pic with a character at TRF for 2021.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Texas Renaissance Festival and I’m looking forward to going back this next season. Many thanks to everyone that posed for and with me. It was a lot of work, a lot of driving and long hours of walking and also working on the computer, but I loved every minute of it.
Hope to see some familiar faces at the next TexRenFest and if you see us, come say hi and get a pic.
Thanx for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. To see all of the 3,105 pics and videos from the TexRenFest 2021, click on the link below and go to Photos.
And remember…
“Always be yourself… unless you can be a Pirate, then always be a Pirate.”
The fifth weekend that I attended the Texas Renaissance Festival was the Highland Fling weekend. This was my first time visiting the Kingdom on this weekend and I didn’t know what I was in for.
I had an assistant working with me this weekend, so you’ll see some behind the scenes shots of what it is that I do at TRF. These first pics are from the Saturday of the Highland Fling weekend.
I climb up on the King’s throne to get these pics.
At TRF, there is regular parking that is free. With this free parking, sometimes it is a helluva long walk to the festival and then back to your car.
There’s also Preferred Parking, which costs $20. I did that one day and liked the proximity to the front entrance of the festival. And after a long day of walking, having a short walk to my Tahoe is a blessing.
TRF also has Handicap Parking for free and also Valet Parking for $40. The pic below is of the valet area before anyone showed up. It is right near the front gates. I mean, right there.
I was able to get my assistant to snap a pic of me on the throne. It’s not as easy to get up there as you would think.
We ran into this guy at the front entrance area. When I asked for his pic, he struck this pose.
Then, he put on his goggles, extended his wings and struck another pose for us. Impressive is a good word for his look.
Pennywise was right inside of the front gates and I was glad to get her photo. She must have a party size can of helium to have a fresh red balloon every morning. It completes the whole picture.
Tinker Bell was always a lot of fun to photograph. I see the TRF characters from early in the morning until the afternoon. They are always energetic, in character and having fun.
It takes a special type of person to work as a character at the TexRenFest and they have a lot of special people on staff, Tinker Bell being one for sure.
I’m quite sure that there were 2 different girls playing this role. They were good characters and always happily posed for myself and my assistant.
The guy in the middle knows how to pose to make a statement. He was always fun to photograph and gave us some good pics.
After spending some time near the front gates, my assistant, Ryan, and I headed to what I call ‘Food Stand Row’. There are several food stands lined up and next to each other. I would walk down this row and get pics of all of the people working in said stands.
This day, Blaze was wearing glasses.
And we took some pics without them. Blaze knows how to pose to create a good picture.
If anyone gets a close-up, it’s Blaze.
After taking some pics, Ryan and I ordered what would be called Brunch because we ate between breakfast and lunch.
This photo of Blaze serving hot, delicious food is a favorite of mine because it says a lot about the festival in one pic.
On the left is crawfish etouffee and on the right is shrimp etouffee. We enjoyed this meal and headed to the Sea Devil area for a morning beer.
Amanda was there to serve them to us. The little bar that she works at is called ‘The Glory Hole’. That’s really funny.
This is a shot that I’m proud of. They each spent a lot of money on their clothing and hats to look this good. Kudos.
The staff at the Sea Devil bar were always up for a photo. They have a good job at TRF. They work at one of the coolest places to hang out, there’s a live band that plays right in front of them and everybody loves a bartender serving good drinks.
As a note, I bought some Honey Mead from the Sea Devil bar. I think I’ll need to drink some more before I give it a thumbs up or down. One small plastic cup isn’t enough for a fair review.
These 2 girls are good friends and it shows. Fun pic.
Here is an example of a mid-range shot that I always take of people.
And from that pic, I can create a close-up like this. “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”
That is a very famous line from an old movie called ‘Sunset Strip’. The delusional Norma Desmond is about to be arrested for murder. She sees a news camera and thinks she’s on a movie set with Cecil B. DeMille directing the film. She delivers that famous line and it has been used over and over again.
That was your Hollywood History for today.
Hercules struck several different poses for me when I came across him in the Kingdom. Some call this pose the Double Biceps. Others know it as ‘The Gun Show’.
Next TRF, I’m going to ask him where he got that head piece. It’s amazing. And I bet it kept his head warm on those colder days during the festival.
This was the second time that I ran into this pretty lady. I think it was 2 weekends in a row. If you are a fan of people wearing great hats, then the Texas Renaissance Festival is for you.
I’ll give you one guess as to what this guy’s name is… He even gave me a wristband with his name on it.
Painkiller.
Mr. and Mrs. Painkiller. Looking good.
I ran into some Star Wars people, but not as many as you would think. Still a good number of people came as their favorite Star Wars character. I always saw a Mandolorian or two, each weekend.
Here is another time when I use the word striking. As in, “She was striking.”
Definition of Striking… Someone who is striking is very attractive, in a noticeable way.
Here is another mid-range shot that I always take of people. Her necklace is awesome as well.
And another close-up that came from the mid-range pic.
Here’s Erika at Booth 211, Asgardian Armory. She had so many different looks for each day of the festival. I think she wore something different each day for 17 days.
I don’t think it’s possible for Erika to take a bad pic.
Ran into Leos again. As you may have noticed, he was at the festival for a lot of days. At the next TRF, his brother Argos is supposed to join him.
How many brush strokes to create the look of Leos’ face? In a previous post, I guessed at 200. It could be more. His face always looks great.
Alex Draco had on his tartan for the Highland Fling weekend.
I would not be able to go to TRF as either of these 2 characters for several reasons.
My stomach hasn’t looked like that in 25 years and I’m a whimp when it comes to cold weather. My hat is off to both Alex and Leos for their efforts to create such a great Kingdom, full of all kinds of characters.
This guy looked really good. A tartan hat set him apart from all others that were there celebrating the Highland Fling.
This fine couple performs for the guests of the TexRenFest. Purple is one of my favorite colors and they look great in it.
Their IG account is called The_Minstrel_Rav’n. Here is what they say about themselves…
“Telling Songs and Singing Stories of Pirates, Taverns and Elven Lasses.”
Fun couple with a cool job.
I saw a lot of people with those wooden drinking vessels. This couple had them and looked like they were enjoying a walk through the Kingdom while having a drink.
Nuria as Queen Isabella. The entire Spanish Court were wearing tablecloths around their dresses. It was their way of celebrating the Highland Fling while still being in character.
Here is another favorite pic of ours. Such beautiful dresses and he looks great as well. I’d wear what he has on just to run errands around Houston, lol.
A second pic, the mid-range shot, is always a great way to capture the details of people’s clothing, outfit, costume or garb.
I also liked this next guy’s look.
I asked them to get together for a shot of the 2 of them.
Then, I asked him to remove his helmet. I sometimes prefer a photo of someone holding their helmet. It shows the face behind the headgear and they always look cool holding their helmet. Like they’re ready for action.
If I hadn’t asked him to remove his helmet, he would have been content with the shot of him and his girl. Like it is, they loved the shot without his helmet also and even posted it on social media and tagged The STORM Factory. I like it when things turn out like that. I feel like I’ve done my job well.
Here is the King of Spain. I didn’t talk with him much, but he was always nice enough to pose for me.
This was a fun group to photograph. The guy on the left had some great eyes.
This is when I really enjoy the close-ups.
If you didn’t think she was a favorite of mine, you’d be wrong.
Blue is a good color for her.
The Spanish King and his Court. Here, you can see them all wearing, what I think are, tablecloths.
I introduced Bird in a previous post about TRF. She works with the bagpipe band Tartanic by selling CD’s and other merchandise to the audience watching their show.
I’ve mentioned before that I love the fact that Pirates show up on every weekend, no matter what the theme is…
“The theme this weekend is the Highland Fling, but we’re going as Pirates.”
“Great. I’m in.”
One of the prettiest Pirates that I photographed.
Alex looked great on this Saturday of the Highland Fling.
Here’s a pic of their crew. During the Celtic Christmas weekend, they called me over to photograph them in their Holiday outfits. That pic came out great. You’ll see it in a future post.
I wanted to try their fried crawfish, so after taking some pics, I order some.
It was a good meal and I almost ate all of it. I didn’t want to feel bloated while I walked and worked.
I never noticed this before, but Kevin is wearing a pair of Steampunk goggles around his neck on this Saturday. I’m a big fan of Steampunk. Here is what Wikipedia says about it…
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery.
Any good Pirate worth his salt has a good ring collection. I know I do.
Definition of ‘worth one’s salt’…
To be ‘worth one’s salt’ is to be worth one’s pay, or good at your job or profession. Being a Pirate is a full-time job.
Another good pic of a nice couple enjoying their day at TRF.
Most all Pirates have a swagger in their poses. If you look in the back, on the left, you’ll see Amanda working in ‘The Glory Hole’.
Scott would come by to chat with Amanda every day that he attended the festival, which was several times. I would be there some days also, having my morning beer from Amanda. We’d talk about the festival, the characters, and other things TRF related.
These next pics are funny.
I was told by a guy that I needed to go get this guy’s pic. When he turned around and I saw his breasts, I started laughing. I took a full-body shot and then this mid-range shot.
Then I asked him to grab his tit. Gold.
I was able to run into this girl a few different times while I was working at the TexRenFest.
She happily posed for me and got some great pics.
Pothead. Jay wears a pot on his head and one person called him Pothead. So do I.
Jay told me that every flower in his pot was given to him by a kid at the festival. Pretty cool.
Here’s Tits McGee and his friends enjoying some beer at the Sea Devil.
These girls work at the Wyrmwood Public House. That’s Shelbelle Shamrock in the middle.
The Burlesque Show at the Wyrmwood is great and you should check it out this next TRF. I highly suggest it.
This guy looks so good that he looks like he just walked off of a Hollywood movie set.
This is the crew of one of the shops located around TRF. I tried to get a lot of workers.
Mario and Luigi. Great!!
There is a funny story with this couple.
After I photographed them as a couple, I asked to get some pics of just her. So I did.
I then showed the pics to her and after seeing them, she said, “The girls look nice.”
I had to agree.
I would be curious to know who is the most photographed character at TRF. This girl has a seat on a pedestal and she sits there as people come by and snap pics of her.
I have said this before, but I’m convinced that there are 2 different girls that play this role. And both look great.
Good friends, good times.
I ran into Lilly Bontemp on this Saturday. She had a wooden drinking vessel also.
Her hat has a mermaid on it, but it’s the skeleton of a mermaid. That is very much like a Pirate.
This lady has 3 different nose rings. I’d be so scared of accidentally ripping my nose up when something got caught on it. She fit in at TRF perfectly.
Some choose to stay in character for their photos. I like the guy’s outfit. That’s another one that I’d wear.
Bree and Erika at Asgardian Armory.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I think colored contact lenses can complete a certain look and often times put it over the top.
In this shot is an example of contacts creating a great look. She looks Awesome with a capital A.
If ever there was a reason for a close-up.
I brought Ryan by the Wyrmwood for a drink.
Mickey made us 2 kamikazes. We downed them and hit the road to get some more pics.
I’m not a fan of people raising their arms like this. In order to get the arm in the frame, the pic ends up being a lot further back. She does look great though.
In this shot, you’ll see what I mean. Her arm is lower, which allows me to crop in and get closer to see more details.
Next TexRenFest, I’ll spend more time covering this woman’s act. She’s in a group with other dancers and they’re all as pretty as her.
Haley was wearing a tartan skirt to celebrate the Highland Fling.
This is a good example of my shooting practices. The pic above is a full-body shot. This pic is a mid-range shot. And the next pic after this one is the close-up I was able to create from this pic.
The flowers and her face make-up gave her a great look.
I’ve mentioned several acts that I want to cover the next TRF. This dancer is in one of the acts I’ll cover.
Great necklaces.
Apollo always took some time to pose for a pic. That was cool of him.
Lilly changes the flowers on her hat and uses similar colors on her face that match the rest of her clothing. It all goes together. Her stockings are great also.
If you’ve never seen Lilly dancing around while Tartanic plays, you’re missing out. It’s a high-point of the day for a lot of people.
This lady worked with the band, Tartanic, also. Pretty fantastic face make-up.
Here’s Philip. I’ve mentioned this before, but he was voted as one of the Top 10 Pirates of TRF for 2021 by our group at the STORM Factory.
I would love to have a coat like that. I’d wear it everywhere. Philip was the only Pirate that had a great hook. We love his hat, the hair, the hook, the coat… everything. Kudos to Philip.
My friend, Chelsea. She told me one day, “I want to thank you for always asking to take my picture before you do.” I told her, “Of course.”
That is my policy. I don’t shoot people without them knowing it, which a lot of photographers do at TRF. When you see those guys with the long lenses… well, those aren’t for close-ups.
They like to stay a long ways away and shoot people without them knowing. I believe that to be downright wrong.
This sign is for the booth that I’ll be meeting people next TRF for photos.
This is the Wyrmwood Public House. That upstairs patio is awesome.
Maps on a scroll. Very cool, indeed. Good move by TRF.
One of the things I told Ryan, when he was working with me, is to never cut off parts of people’s costumes, outfits, or garb. This next pic is an example of getting all of the top feathers in the pic. Possibly, other photogs would cut them out.
I love that there are big parades on both weekend days. And always starting at noon helps me cover them.
Who doesn’t cheer for beer?
Jade, looking great as always.
These next shots are by Ryan while I was shooting video of this act. This is Cirque Olympus.
I’ll load the videos from TRF on YouTube soon.
Both of the girls in Cirque Olympus are amazing. It’s a great show and if you’re at TRF again, you should definitely check them out. You won’t be disappointed.
It takes years of conditioning to be able to do this several times a day.
She did all of these maneuvers without anything to catch her if she fell.
What a great shot. Awe inspiring.
I would not want this girl mad at me.
Ryan did a great job of capturing some great images.
Now, for some more shots by Ryan that I was in. We started out our day with getting some great pics of this guy.
Here I am photographing the Food Stand workers.
This was one of the few times that I was able to get a pic with Blaze.
TRF is a fun assignment.
Here I am showing this girl the pics I just took of her. I do this with every person, couple or group. They always have final say as to what gets posted on the STORM Factory site.
Being photographed with beautiful women never gets old. This pic concludes our Saturday at the TexRenFest. Sunday pics up next.
I was the first one at TRF again on the Sunday of the Highland Fling weekend. I may get up early to be there that early, but I prefer it because I never get stuck in traffic and it’s a short walk to my Tahoe when I’m ready to leave.
500,000 people will enter this area over 17 days time.
I love witnessing the calm before the storm.
All quiet… for now.
Approximately 29,400 people will come down this walkway on this day, according to our math.
I had Ryan snap my pic again.
Willy is great. He adds to the whole TRF experience.
Hamish McGregor entertaining the guests before the gates to the Kingdom open.
For breakfast on that Sunday morning, I had an egg, ham and cheese quiche and milk.
Ryan had the kolaches, milk and coffee. We were both happy with our meals from the Queen’s Pantry.
Here is what Wikipedia says about RenFaires…
A Renaissance fair, Renaissance faire or Renaissance festival is an outdoor weekend gathering open to the public and typically commercial in nature, which purportedly recreates a historical setting for the amusement of its guests.
These girls were on my daily routine of shots to get. They were always happy to see me.
Funny story…
I’ve mentioned in previous posts about one of the coolest places to hang out while at TRF is the area around the Sea Devil bar. There’s always cool people around there having drinks and looking awesome.
I make it a policy to walk by there every so often. Ryan was off shooting the Joust and I was taking pics around the Sea Devil. I took one woman’s photo and it came out great. As I’m showing here the photo, she says something to me.
She said it so softly that I couldn’t hear her. I asked her what she had said, then she said, “Can I kiss you?”
I said, “Sure.” I could tell then that she was a little tipsy. I’ll chalk it up to a good experience. How many times have you been working and have an inebriated woman ask you for a kiss? Exactly.
This girl looked great in all of her pics.
I couldn’t say how many times someone made a comment about the STORM Factory’s business card. Every time, it was something to the effect of, “Cool card.”
One time, I shot this lady and after I gave her my card, I heard her tell her kids, “Look how cool his card is.”
Another time, I gave my card to a Pirate. He looked at it and said, “Pretty pimp card.”
I noticed that this cute girl was working at different food stands on different weekends. I didn’t know some rotated to other work locations.
If I were a kid at TRF, I would have been all over this horse. For all of the drinking and half-dressed people, TRF has many things for the kids also. I’m always impressed by that. Even elephant rides.
Erin played Glinda, the Good. I heard her explaining one day about how she had made her scepter. She is very talented. More about Erin in my next post.
These people were more than happy to pose for me. They work at a shop and probably don’t get many photo requests.
I’ve been calling this guy a Warrior. Next TRF, I’ll get more info on him, hopefully. He might tell me to F off.
This is probably the look I’ll get when I ask him something, lol.
Skidmark going to work.
His office.
Mid-range.
Close-up.
Another pretty Flower Girl.
I first met Jana during the Cosplay weekend, on the Sunday. Ryan and I ran into her again on this Sunday of the Highland Fling.
I’ve mentioned that I’m a fan of anything Steampunk and her hat is fabulous.
Jana always gives us great photos and we’re grateful. Kudos to Jana and her sense of style.
Lilly and her co-worker. But those abs…
Blaze had her glasses again this day.
The glasses offered a different look for her. I liked it.
It is rare that I meet Jade anywhere in the Kingdom. I usually catch her at the entrance in the morning and I never see her again. TRF is huge.
Ryan and I saw her on this Sunday, so we got some pics.
Full-body shot.
Mid-range.
Close-up.
A great group shot.
This girl works in a food stand way in the back of the Kingdom. It’s a walk to get to her, but worth it. She was always so happy to get photographed.
Memories with good friends are the best.
Here is an example of the shops in the TexRenFest Kingdom. Simply beautiful. Ryan snapped this pic.
And all of the rest of the pics in this post were shot by Ryan. He did a good job.
Great art. Love it.
Tartanic having fun with the crowd. They’re really funny between songs.
You will even see characters up in the trees while you’re at TRF.
This is a good pic of mother and daughter.
Great make-up and worthy of a close-up.
Here is the stage for the Washing Well Wenches show. I’m excited to shoot video of this act next TRF and get some good pics. I love these girls.
A dunk tank. These girls would hurl insults at these men that were trying to dunk them. One guy succeeded, but there were a lot of insults flying. Another fun attraction offered by the great people at the TexRenFest.
Good pic.
In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Washing Well Wenches had a map of the Kingdom. Here I am shooting video of them showing me that map.
She raises the dress and reveals the map… on her ass.
She starts out by talking about the “Entrance” and “Exit”, complete with her pointing at them. It’s quite hilarious. This might be the funniest bit in all of the Kingdom.
At one point, the girl bending over was touched and she said, “I think I just became a woman.”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “I love these gals.”
I take the pics after I’ve been given permission.
Then I show all of the pics and get their approval.
And if Ryan is with me, I can get some pics with people.
When you saw that pic of Jana earlier, you had to know that I would want to get some pics with her also.
Jana wears high shoes and boots, but she is still a tall woman without them.
Here I am discussing an interview with a Fire Dancer named Violet.
You may not notice this… the girl next to Violet is as tall as me. I’m 6’1″ when wearing my Harley boots. Her moccasins barely have a heel. She is what we refer to as, “A tall drink of water.”
This is Violet’s friend, another Fire Dancer. And beautiful also.
Years ago, I went to TRF with a $2,500 video camera and shot everything on MiniDV cassettes.
Now, with technology, I can buy a $1,000 iPhone and get 4K quality video without carrying some huge, clunky camera.
I learned a lot about Fire Dancing from Violet. The interview turned out great and we were both happy with the end result.
Ryan took some good shots for me. I was happy with his work.
On Saturday, he shot over 1,500 pics because he was shooting on Blast. That’s when the camera takes several shots in a matter of seconds.
I had to stay up through the night to get everything organized and loaded onto the Factory site. I ended up showering, dressing and heading back to TRF on Sunday Morning with no sleep on Saturday night. None.
As a rule, I try to load everything shot in a day by that night. This is for the people that are eager to see their pics. I know what that’s like and we aim to please.
I know of some other programs that tell people it will be 3 days before their pics are loaded. That is ridiculous. And totally deferred gratification.
Some of my favorite pics with characters are with Jade.
Another thing about using an iPhone as opposed to a regular ‘camera’ is the view screen is much larger that those little viewers on digital cameras today.
People can’t see the pic well enough to know if it’s good or not. With a Pro Max iPhone, the screen is big enough to see even small details.
Knowing the Doorman at the Wyrmwood Public House is a good thing.
With my friend Greg in the Catskill Mountain Moccasins booth.
This guy was a funny character. And I mean that in a good way, lol.
I’m coming to the end of this post. I’ll close with something funny.
Willy was posted at the exit gate, where they stamp people’s hand if they want to re-enter later in the day.
As Ryan and I are leaving, I put my hand out for Willy to stamp. When he raises the stamp and starts to stamp my hand, I move it and walk out of the festival, laughing.
Ryan said that Willy looked at him with a look like, “What a dick?” Hahaha. Then Ryan snapped a pic of Willy right after I psyched him. The pic says it all.
I would leave the festival every day about 3pm in order to finish editing and loading the pics from the day by 10pm that night. It takes that long sometimes.
And every day that I was leaving, there were many that were just arriving.
Thanx for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. To see all of the 3,105 pics and videos from the TexRenFest 2021, click on the link below and go to Photos.
And remember…
“Always be yourself… unless you can be a Pirate, then always be a Pirate.”
The third weekend that I attended the Texas Renaissance Festival was the Cosplay weekend called ‘Heroes and Villains’.
I ended up with 458 pics and 5 videos. I kept with my tradition of arriving earlier than everyone else. I enjoyed getting early morning shots.
This weekend, I also started getting some pics in the big King chair located at the entrance. It’s a great Photo-Op.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, some days I was allowed into the Kingdom before it was open to patrons. These next pics are Before and During the festival so you can see the transformation.
This area is right inside of the main gates. There are always people, cast and crew here. Some are exiting, some are just entering and some are working as characters for TRF.
This is a great area to sit and chill while you people-watch. Seeing all of the costumes, outfits and garb is always a lot of fun.
This next pic doesn’t show just how crowded this area gets.
I have breakfast at these little tables in the early morning. Hard to get a seat later in the day.
And you can see that for yourself in this next photo. The TexRenFest entertains over 500,000 people every season. People gotta sit somewhere.
On Saturday morning of Cosplay weekend, I had a ham, egg and cheese quiche with milk. It was delicious and filled me up for a lot of walking and talking during the day ahead. I got it at the Queen’s Pantry, one of my favorite places for breakfast.
I always tried to get pics with the staff of Catskill Mountain Moccasins. Here I am with Sara. She works at other RenFaires around the country. Cool job.
My friend Greg was always nice enough to let me store my backpack and coat at their booth when it got hotter in the day. That helped me out a lot.
Had more good comments about the STORM Factory business cards.
These ladies were always a lot of fun to run into. I loved getting their pics each weekend. I plan to shoot video of their act next TRF.
Jade is one of my most favorite people to photograph while working at the Texas Renaissance Festival. She’s so beautiful and her make-up is unreal.
I think you’ll enjoy the special post I do just about her.
I enjoy shooting group photos. It’s an opportunity to make a lot of people happy in one pic. This group might have been the biggest group that I photographed. Twelve people.
I always enjoy taking photos of people that put in the effort. This group looked great.
And when someone puts in that effort, I like to reward them with close-ups to show just how fabulous their work is.
A lot of time went into these looks. Planning, designing, buying, building, creating, and then putting it all on to go to an event.
After I took the pic below, I noticed that it was a woman. Before I could catch myself, in a surprised voice, I said, “You’re a girl!”
She busted out laughing. As I was walking away, I heard her repeating my line to her friends. “You’re a girl!” Then they laughed all over again as they were walking off.
The beautiful Lilly, dancer for the bagpipe band Tartanic. I’ve mentioned her serious headwear game and she never disappoints.
I love that her make-up always goes so well with what she’s wearing. Lots of style that Lilly has.
I love this next guy’s look.
“Hold on honey. We can’t go to TRF yet. I forgot to put blood on my face.”
I tried to eat different things while at the TexRenFest. The pic below is of fried alligator. It was very good. Tastes like chicken, haha.
I have run into Logan at several events this last year. He’s a very talented cosplayer and I’m always impressed with what he wears.
I agree.
Another fun group shot. I photographed many groups and made lots of people happy with my work.
I always try to get pics of Skidmark.
It’s always good to see Pirates at TRF no matter what themed weekend it is. This guy had a good look.
Ran into Leos again. I loved seeing “Renny’s” because it made my job easier, in that I could hit my quota for pics faster.
This is a good pic. I’m sure they were happy when they saw it.
This girl was my favorite Pennywise. She wore a mask most of the weekends except for the last weekend. That last weekend, I was super thrilled to get a pic of her face in full make-up.
I don’t usually post things out of order, but here is that pic from the last weekend of TRF and when she didn’t wear a mask. Her face looks fantastic.
Another Pirate. I think this Pirate married a Mermaid and turned her into a Pirate.
My cute friend Chelsea. I look forward so seeing and talking with her next season at TRF.
This next photo was picked as one of our top pics from TexRenFest 2021. Easy to tell why.
The shows at TRF can get packed and turn into SRO. (Standing Room Only). Every show and act is worth watching. There are some unbelievably talented performers at the Texas Renaissance Festival. You should consider visiting.
I love the color in this pic. Her make-up is superb. The wig, the hat, her face, all perfect for her look.
If I had a choice between a girlfriend that was pink with pink hair or a girlfriend that was yellow with bright yellow hair… I prefer the bright yellow hair.
Nuria was a lot of fun to run into. I think her character is the Spanish Queen Isabella.
This is a great pic. One of our favorites.
Another great group shot of family and friends enjoying their day at the biggest RenFest in the U.S.
This guy was happy to pose for me and I always appreciate that.
This next costume is a favorite. Do you remember Fat Albert and the Gang?
The kids would watch a SuperHero on TV called the Brown Hornet.
I give you… The Brown Hornet. Thumbs up.
And any fan of the Simpsons knows about Duff beer. This is a great costume. Hats off to him.
I like this girl. She poses with a lot of people and gives them great pics to remember their day at TRF. I’m sure she does pretty well in Tips.
Philip was voted as one of the 10 Best Pirates of the TexRenFest for 2021 by our staff. His clothing is spectacular.
The hat, the hair, the hook… it all works so well together. Kudos to Philip for a job well done.
This cute girl’s pic was used as the feature image for the Saturday Cosplay gallery of photos and videos.
When I look through my galleries, I get a smile knowing that when my photo subjects see their pics, it makes them happy and sometimes excited.
These next photos are from the Sunday of Cosplay weekend at TRF. I’m an early bird again this day.
I was always able to find someone to snap a pic of me on the King’s chair. The people at the Texas Renaissance Festival are some nice folks.
The Front Entrance crew was always nice to me and I photographed them quite a few times. I even shot their Season-End photo on the King’s chair. You’ll see that pic in a later post. It turned out great.
Jana is a great person to photograph. This was the first morning that I met her and she impressed me a a lot with her look.
I ran into Jana another day at TRF and got her pics then also. You’ll see them in a later post as well. It’s easy to tell why I love shooting pics of Jana.
On Sunday morning, I had a BLT sandwich. (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomatoe). My blog is read in over 180 countries. Some don’t know what a BLT is. This could be the best breakfast in the Kingdom. It’s sold at a food stand next to the Queen’s Pantry. The name of it is Tea and Strumpets.
In the morning. some of the cast and characters put on a show near the entrance to entertain the patrons. TRF goes all out to give people their money’s worth. And they succeed, in spades.
In my experience from working at TRF this past season, Sundays are a bit slower than Saturdays. I’ve always felt that Saturdays at any event I attend are better than the Sundays. People are more apt to drink more and be in a more festive mood on a Saturday because they don’t usually have to work the next day, Sunday.
I love being in the Kingdom in the early morning of the day. And it’s fun to watch the crowds grow as the day goes on.
Here are those two Wenches again, lol. I love these ladies.
Skidmark never disappointed. He was always disappointing. Just kidding. I loved getting his pics a lot.
Erika works in Booth 211 for Asgardian Armory. She yells out to get people’s attention. Since they sell swords, axes and other killing weapons… she yells out, “Welcome to bloodbath and beyond.” That’s a great play on words with the Bed, Bath and Beyond company name.
I was happy to have a booth to go hang out at during the long days. And Greg was always fun to talk with. He’s a great guy.
I really liked Sara’s headpiece. It looked like a crown or tiara, not sure which.
I have 3 tankards from TRF that I’ve purchased over the years and 2 wine chalices. I love the drinkware at the TexRenFest.
Here’s Lilly on Sunday. Her make-up looked great and her hat was impressive, as always.
I will find out this woman’s name next year at TRF. She always looked great and had a lot of variety in her looks.
This is Scott and Amanda. Every morning around 10am, I would come by and get my first beer from Amanda. I’d drink it while we chatted about the day and the festival. Amanda is a great new friend.
Here’s Chelsea on Sunday. Great smile.
Nuria also enjoys cosplaying when she’s not Queen Isabella at TRF. I recently saw her as Wonder Woman at a Xmas Toy Drive. Wow, did she look great.
This is the band Saxon Moon. I photographed them twice, interviewed them and also another interview with their Fire Dancer, Violet. Great band and great guys and gal.
I enjoyed my interview with Violet and learned a lot about Fire Dancing. She is very talented and a lot of fun to watch. I look forward to seeing her next season.
Pirates on Cosplay weekend. I love it. This is a good looking couple and they look great.
This next photo is of Cirque Olympus. I watched their act several times and shot video of it. They are each so talented and when the perform together it becomes a helluva show. I told you that the shows and acts at TRF are fantastic. You should visit and see for yourself.
This pic is of midday in the Kingdom. As you can tell, it’s a little slower on Sundays. A great time to visit.
I love these shots of looking down on the festival. So much to see and take in.
I’d like to thank the Food Stand Tea and Strumpets for letting me go up on this patio to shoot these shots. The pics help tell the story of a day at the festival.
This angle is always my favorite one from on the Tea and Strumpets patio. You can see people way off in the distance. I love these pics.
This cute girl was selling flower wreaths for a girl or woman’s hair. At TRF, there are 400 on-site shops and vendors like this girl all over the Kingdom. It’s a shopper’s paradise.
Here is another beautiful and talented lady that works at TRF in one of the shows. Her act is another one that I’ll shoot next season.
I bought a few pickles while at the TexRenFest. They were great. I started taking pics of all of the pickle vendors. You’ll see more of them in future posts. The pickles are delicious.
I photographed the Red Queen several times and she always made a great face. She’s a favorite to photograph.
Here’s another beautiful dancer from the Texas Renaissance Festival. Are you seeing a trend? Persuading you to visit TRF is becoming easier, lol.
I shot pics of the Food stands and the bars. These girls work at the Sea Devil bar. I enjoyed going by every day to get their pics. And they were always excited to see me because they knew it was photo time. The girl in the middle is Kay and she’s a sweetheart of a girl.
I saw Alex Draco on this day at the festival. Alex was always a lot of fun to talk with. He taught me some things about RenFaires. There’s patrons and Renny’s (Rennies). There’s a costume and then there’s garb.
A costume is what you put on to go to a party. Garb is more about a lifestyle choice. Pirates would wear garb and not call their clothes a costume. Alex knows a lot about RenFaires. I plan on learning lots more from him.
The kids could even pet a Velociraptor while at the festival. How they train those things is amazing.
Here’s Mickey again. I mentioned in my last post that Mickey was a bartender at the Wyrmwood Public House out at the TexRenFest. Today, I’ll show you more.
The Wyrmwood also has a burlesque show with some very attractive ladies. I believe this is the only bar in the Kingdom that serves hard liquor. I love that.
This is Mickey and Monsieur Bunny. He prefers being called Daddy. I shot a video of Daddy yelling down heckles to the patrons from this upstairs patio. The video is hilarious. I’ll tell you how you can view it at the end of this post.
Daddy, Mickey and Shelbelle Shamrock. Great people that work at the Wyrmwood Public House in the TexRenFest Kingdom.
I ordered several kamikazes from Mickey over the weekends at the Texas Renaissance Festival. Soon, I never had to order or even say, “The usual, Mickey.” When he saw me enter the Wyrmwood, he’d start mixing my kamikaze. Now that’s service. I felt like I was in the James Bond movie about Voodoo.
The bartenders at the Wyrmwood are fantastic and lots of fun also.
I met Blaze while she was working at a Cajun Food Stand. I ate there several times while at TRF. And I began to photogrpah her and her co-workers every day I worked out there. Blaze is very photogenic and I loved getting pics of her.
Here’s another group shot and one of my favorites. I’m sure they enjoyed seeing this pic and then downloading it from the site. I love seeing smiling, happy faces. I know I’m doing my job well when I see this.
That other large group photo was 12 people. This one came close to beating it with 11 people.
I’ve mentioned this in other posts, but I’m a big fan of using contact lenses to change the look of a person’s eyes. Many times it completes the look and often times sets it off.
Another of our top pics as voted on by our staff.
When I asked this family for their photo, the dad said, “Okay girls. Get into position.” Then they all posed like this. That was awesome. Another of our favorite pics from 2021.
The Texas Renaissance Festival is my new favorite event or festival to cover. This season, I shot 3,105 pics and 47 videos. Next season, I’ll have an assistant and should come close to doubling our pics and videos from the festival.
Next season, I want to focus more on the food. I can’t afford to buy food at every stand just to take a pic and taste it or I’d go broke fast. I’m thinking I can talk to some stand managers and ask them to prepare something that I can photograph so I can promote the great food at TRF.
It would be great if the Texas Renaissance Festival gave me a Per Diem each day so I could buy food so I could review and promote the Food Stands in the Kingdom.
I ran into Jana again later in the day on Sunday. I was glad that I did because I wanted a pic with her in that great outfit.
I was also able to get a photo with the Spanish King and his court.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this recap of Cosplay Weekend at the Texas Renaissance Festival 2021.
I have 3 more weekends to post about, so stay tuned for more.
To see the photos and videos from the TexRenFest, go to the link below and click on Photos.
Thanx for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. And remember…
“Always be yourself… unless you can be a Pirate, then always be a Pirate.”
This past year came with some sad news. My cousin, Lou, passed away from covid.
This post is for him.
When I was growing up, my dad was out of pocket. My sister was older and had her own friends. The closest thing that I had to a big brother was Lou.
I learned about sports from Lou. He was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and Minnesota Vikings fan and so was I.
During football season, I would go over to Lou’s in the evening to watch Inside the NFL while lying on his huge waterbed.
I remember being a small kid when Uncle Jack built that house. In the evenings, my mom would walk over and sit with Jack in the frame of the house and drink Schlitz’s beer with salt on the cans.
Lou and I grew up together and hung out a lot.
One time, Lou built a treehouse in his backyard. I wanted one also, but my over-protective grandmother wouldn’t have any of that. So Lou came over and helped me build a kid’s camp on the ground.
Another time, Lou built a small little box of a room behind their hedges in the back yard. You couldn’t see it and had to crawl through the hedges to get in. He had a can with a pipe leading outside and we kept warm with a small fire.
We would sit in there on cold days and play board games. It was in this little camp that Lou started the tradition of flipping the board when he got bored or was losing. I’d be winning and gloating… then Lou would slip his fingers under the edge of the board.
When I was least expecting it, he would yell “Spondelay!” and flip everything up in the air!
I would get SO pissed off at him. He would sit there and laugh his ass off, which made me even more mad.
Lou and I played a lot of sports together. Football, basketball, baseball, softball, golf, flag football, volleyball, whiffle ball and even Putt-Putt.
Many nights, it would be 2am and we’d drive to Lake Charles to play Putt-Putt at this 24 hour course. On the last hole, your ball wouldn’t come out, so you were through playing. We never played the last hole and kept our balls to play all night long.
There was a back road near the Putt-Putt course. After playing for hours, we’d hit our balls down the street to see who could hit them farther. Picard Town kids always looking for the fun in life.
Lou worked hard for everything he had. I remember when he got his first Camaro. It was a white Berlinetta with maroon interior.
His dad and I smoked. The first time I got in his car, I saw a sign he had put up that said, “No Smoking.” Lou took care of his stuff.
Right after Lou got that Camaro, we were in Beaumont to visit his dealership. Afterwards, we were driving down this main street. Lou mentioned that we should get some ice cream.
As we are going along, I see an ice cream shop on the left, so I point it out to Lou. He merges over into the left turn lane and suddenly a car hits us in the left rear. There was a car already in that lane.
It caused some damage on Lou’s beautiful, new car. I was sick. I always felt responsible because I had pointed out that ice cream shop.
I’ve mentioned this in an earlier post, but it bears repeating. Lou was the best athlete out of all of us. He was bigger, faster, more coordinated, and more knowledgeable about sports.
I always knew that Lou would have been an unbelievably talented college wide receiver and after that who knows… He might have been the first person from Picard Town to play in the NFL. I really believe that.
One time, we were playing a flag football game in Carlyss. Lou broke free and was running wide open. He was a long way down the field and open, but the pass wasn’t there.
Lou was pissed and kept running through the end zone. He was going full steam when he ran into a Porta-Potty. He put his hands up and hit it full force and pushed it over. It almost flipped.
When the Porta-Potty landed back on the ground, the door opened and some guy poked his head out and said, “What the fuck?” That was funny. I’m sure that Lou scared the shit out of him, literally.
Speaking of scaring people, Lou caused me to be a very nervous kid, lol.
He would love scaring the shit out of me. This sometimes ended up starting a wrestling match. I never won. There was one time that we were wrestling, and we ended up flipping and landing upside down inside of his closet. I was on top and had him in a stuck position. He had to say, “Uncle.” That was the only time I ever beat him out of many, many matches.
Lou had many friends and no enemies. I can’t say that about all of my relatives, haha.
He was well-liked by all who knew him and loved dearly by his close friends and family. There’s an old saying, “He didn’t have a bad bone in his body.”
Having said all of that, Lou was not a man to piss off. He had that O’Quain blood and many know what that means. In the history of our family, there are many stories of our Uncles getting into fights around town and kicking someone’s ass for stepping wrong.
There was a story where Uncle Jack beat up 4 Marines for disrespecting Aunt Thelma. Out of all of my Uncles, I would least like to scrap with Jackie.
Lou took after his dad in that he didn’t put up with shit. We were cruising in Sulphur one night in Lou’s mom’s car. We were parked at a red light when a guy in a nearby parking lot threw something at the car.
When the light turned green, Lou pulled into that parking lot. I thought, “Oh shit! Here it comes!”
When Lou got out of the car, the guy in the parking lot looked over and saw that Lou was much bigger than him.
Lou asked him what the fuck he was doing. He stuttered and finally said he was throwing a hotdog at the red light.
That hotdog almost got his ass kicked that night.
Lou was not afraid to speak his mind.
I’ve mentioned in previous posts about running jokes that Lou and I had like trying to beat each other back into Louisiana. I’ll tell that story again later on, but here’s another…
One time, I was looking for a job. I made a comment to Lou that I might go get a job with my mom at Brookshire Brothers Market. I never did.
One day, we were about to go to Lake Charles for something. As Lou and I are driving through Sulphur, I told Lou to pull into Brookshire’s. He did.
Then he asked me what I was getting. I told him I needed to pick up my check from Brookshire’s. Lou got pissed, then started laughing. I didn’t work at Brookshire’s and there was no check for me there.
Many times, we would be going somewhere, and Lou would ask, “Do you need to go by Brookshire’s to get your check?” Then we would bust out laughing. That was probably our funniest running joke. I still laugh at how pissed he got that first time when I made him pull into Brookshire’s parking lot for nothing.
Another time, Lou and I were over at Mark John’s house about to go out. Mark had a nice, new leather jacket that he was proud of. He said something about how nice it was, and I said, “Yeah but Mark, that’s Portugal Vinyl.” Lou and I again busted out laughing.
And that Portugal Vinyl line was used many more times in the future and always got a laugh.
I’ve had many good friends throughout my life, but Lou was my best friend. We didn’t talk much over the years when I moved to Houston, but whenever we got back together, it was like old times.
One thing that I’ll miss the most about Lou is his memories. He would bring up stories about things we did or how I did something stupid, and we would laugh all over again. A big part of my life died when Lou passed away.
One funny memory is of my screwing up song lyrics. One day, we were at my grandmother’s house and the Go-Go’s were playing on the radio. When the chorus came, I sang along, “Alex, I see you.”
Lou said, “What did you say?” I said, “Alex, I see you.” He busted out laughing. Then he told me what they were singing… “Our lips are sealed.”
One night, we were camping out. It was Lou, Tommy Lee and myself. We were rambling about something like how cool we were. Tommy Lee said, “I’m steel.” Lou said, “Yeah, we know you steal.” Boy did we laugh at that!!
I had to stop writing to laugh all over again about that “steal” line. That’s some funny shit!!
Lou and I spent many hours at Frasch Park. In the Spring, we’d sneak onto the High School baseball field and play a game with the neighborhood kids. The basketball courts were nearby, and we spent a lot of time there also.
One day, we were playing basketball with the neighborhood kids, and I was wearing my glasses. I had the ball and was dribbling around Harold Miller for a lay-up. Harold went to block me, and his arm came across my face, shattering my glasses in my eyes. I had glass particles in my eye and could feel the pieces.
I kept my eyes shut so as not to move the glass around and ruin my eyesight. I yelled out that I couldn’t see. Lou came up and I grabbed his arm. He led me to his car and brought me to the Emergency room, where they removed the glass and saved my eyesight.
Lou saved me from going blind in one eye.
I never blamed Harold. If you’re in Picard Town and you drive to the hoop, you better be ready for a hard foul, lol.
About my glasses… My dad was pissed that I was wearing my glasses while playing basketball, and he was a dick when he was pissed. Okay, to be fair, he was a dick all of the time, lol.
One day, Lou and I are in the Frasch Park Gym. We are about to play basketball, so I took my new glasses off and placed them on the bleachers.
We go on to play B-ball. There were some smaller kids on the sidelines goofing off with a basketball. You know what’s coming…
They started bouncing their ball really high.
I’m playing the game when I hear a shattering of glass. Those little Mother Fuckers!!!
They had crushed my glasses!
This occurred right after my eye incident and right after I had received new glasses from that.
That was a very long walk home that day… knowing the ass chewing I was in for.
During the Summer, Lou and I had a lot of fun. On hot days, we’d be at the park pool or at some back roads rope pond.
A rope pond was usually a big pond located near the interstate. They had dug out dirt to build the highway and created a big pond. Someone with balls bigger than mine had climbed a big oak tree and hung a rope.
Whoever did this created fun for the ones that knew about it.
We would spend hours swinging from this rope, cutting flips and hitting the water. One game we played was where a person would swing out and come back to the land. When their feet would hit the ground, they’d pop the rope and make it jump.
The next guy in line had to run and grab the rope, which was bouncing everywhere, to complete his swing out over the water and then his pop of the rope.
The ground would get wet and muddy, leading to some serious bust ass. One time, Jim Franks came swinging in and when he tried to pop the rope, he slipped and went head over heels into the bushes and got all fucked up. Everybody laughed their asses off.
No one wanted to follow Lou in that game.
Another place we used to go swimming was at Shepherd’s Rest. This was a nice area in the country that Cam Flag’s dad had set up for people to enjoy his land. There were trails, a trampoline, and a swimming area, with a diving board and rope swing.
One day, Lou and I are at the swimming area and going off of the diving board. I tried to do a gainer, which is an inside flip off of the diving board.
I fucked it up royally and ended up landing on my side. It was a fall from a good height. I didn’t know it then, but I had busted my eardrum. I had to have surgery to fix it.
Lou, his friends like Jimmy Abshire, and myself would go to the hotels in Sulphur and swim in their pools on hot summer nights. When it was just Lou and I, we’d sneak onto the golf course and go up the back way to the pool.
Then we’d climb the fence and go for a night dip. We had to be quiet because they had a pick-up that patrolled the park at night. A few times we had to hold our breaths and go under water.
We even took a few chances and dove off of the diving boards. Diving at night sucks because you can’t see the water and would hit it with your eyes open. We didn’t do that too often because of the noise from the splash.
About the golf course. I mentioned that Lou took care of his stuff. Well, Lou had this nice bike. It was red and I think it was called a Western Flyer. He loved that bike.
On rainy days, the Picard Town kids would take their bikes onto the back 9 of the golf course and ride on the fairways. How was this fun?
We’d start way back and build up speed down the fairway. When we got to a certain spot, we’d hit the brakes and slide through this now mud for a long ways. We trenched up that golf course.
That was one of many reasons why the Golf Course hated the Picard Town kids.
I think Lou’s first job was working at the Golf Course. He was always responsible.
Oh, about Lou’s bike… one time, I used Lou’s red bike to go trenching on the Golf Course. It got all muddy and Lou was pissed at me. If you ask him today, he’s still pissed about how I ruined his bike, haha!!
In the Fall, they lined out a football field in the outfield of the High School baseball field. We had some good games with the neighborhood kids.
One day, we are playing a game. There were a few kids there that didn’t usually play with us. On one play, I have the ball and I’m running around the outside. I fake this kid out and run past him.
The next kid I encounter, tackles me out of bounds. As I’m lying there, sprawled out, defenseless, the kid that I faked out came up and landed on my back with both of his knees. It hurt like hell, but I got up and kept playing.
After a day, the pain in my back was getting intense. The only relief I could get was to run a very hot tub of water and lie in it. The hot water burned my skin and took my mind off of the pain in my back.
After 2 days, I couldn’t take it any longer and asked my mom to take me to the Emergency Room.
I had suffered a renal contusion of my kidneys and almost lost my kidneys. I was in the hospital for a long time and spent most of it in a haze and vomiting my guts up. It was a horrible experience and all because I made this kid look like a fool on the football field.
I was in the hospital so long that I also lost out on my job as a Resident Advisor at U.S.L. and caused my parents to have to pay for my room and food again while away at college.
I remember that kid’s name, but I’ll keep it to myself and hope that the karma train never forgets an address.
Another time, I had to go to Houston to have an operation on my nose for a deviated septum. I stayed in the hospital for that surgery.
After the operation, the doctor stuffed my nose with moist gauze. Both nostrils were packed with this gauze, and I couldn’t breathe through my nose.
After being back in Louisiana several days, I began to pick at this gauze because it was drying out and making the inside of my nose itch. I was finally able to pull it all out. The gauze had dried to the inside of my nose, and it felt like I was pulling out my brains through my nose. God, was it a lot of gauze.
Soon after, Lou and I were in the Frasch Park gym playing basketball. The kid I was covering, popped his head back and hit me square in the nose. He did this to be a dick.
After the game, I realize that I can’t breathe through my nose any longer. After a day of this, I tell my mom that something is wrong, and we headed back to Houston.
The doctor looks up my nose and tells me that I have a Septal Hematoma, which is a big blood clot inside of my nose, blocking air flow.
He then tries to put a needle up my nose to poke the hematoma and drain the blood. The pain from that needle was so intense that I couldn’t take it. They had to bring me back into surgery and put me out in order to get the blood out of my nose. All because of a dick kid. Can you see a theme? Haha!
I never told my dad that I was playing basketball when I got hurt again. I think you know why.
Busted eardrum, blinded in one eye, a renal contusion of my kidneys, a septal hematoma… just another day for a Picard Town kid, lol.
And speaking of injuries, one day, I was at Punkin Ancelet’s house. We set up an obstacle course. We used some of Calvin Ancelet’s saw horses to jump over.
As I’m running the course, I jump over a saw horse and my leg hits it. A big sliver of wood goes into my leg. The piece of wood in my leg was as big as about 3 pencils together. This piece of wood ran parallel to my leg and was making the skin bulge out from where it was going into my shin.
I ran into Punkin’s house and begged Calvin to pull it out. It left a big hole in my shin when he pulled it out. Another day in Picard Town.
I think part of growing up in Picard Town was that you went golf ball hunting. There was a canal that went through the golf course that had trees on each side. Golfers regularly lost their balls down in this canal area.
The canal was deeper than the course and the golfers didn’t want to walk down to the little trail we had made along the water.
On Saturdays, you’d wake up and grab a sock to hold all of your found balls. You’d enter the canal trail by Punkin Ancelet’s house and walk the entire way to Highway 90. Along the way, you came across many lost balls and a lot were brand new.
After coming back with your loot, you’d go up on the course and sell some or all of your balls to the golfers. The course didn’t like this because they sold new balls at the Pro Shop. You were always on the look-out for the security guard on his golf cart.
After making a few bucks from the morning’s work, you’d head over to Tiny’s store to buy a Dr. Pepper and some peanuts. You’d pour the peanuts in the top of the glass bottle and have peanuts with every swig of your drink.
There was a movie called Caddy Shack about the wild and crazy caddies at this posh golf course. If I ever wrote a screenplay about the Picard Town Golf Ball Hunters and their adventures running from the course security, it would be a hit.
One time, Lou and I ended up with a lot of balls, all new. Too many to try and sell a few at a time to a golfer here and there.
Somehow, I got a phone number to a golfer. Lou and I were over at my grandmother’s house when I called him.
As I’m talking to him, I say, “$30 for all of our balls… or $25.”
After I got off of the phone, Lou scolded me for dropping the price. I learned that day to never lowball yourself in a business deal because they’ll always take the lower number.
About scaring people, one night, Lou and I called Elliott Ogea and someone at his house told us that he was going to the Post Office. When Lou hung up, he said, “Let’s go scare Elliott.” I was in immediately.
Lou and I drove over to the Post Office and waited for Elliott. Soon, he pulled up in his truck and went into the Post Office. Lou and I ran over to his truck. I jumped in on the passenger floor-board, and Lou hid in the bed of the truck.
When Elliott opened his truck door, I screamed and jumped at Elliott. He squealed like a scared little girl and jumped back. Just then, Lou jumped up and scared the shit out of him all over again. Boy did we laugh!!!
Speaking of Elliott, he was one of the gang that always hung out together. He played football with us and was always around. One time I owed Elliott $5.
One day, Elliott was over at Uncle Jack’s and his truck was parked in the driveway. I came walking up the driveway and noticed his passenger window was down. As I strolled by, I happen to glance inside of his truck. There on the seat was his wallet.
I reached in and took $5 out.
I then walked into Lou’s room and said, “Hey Elliott, here’s that $5 I owe you.” He said, “Great, thanks man.”
Do you know how hard it is to keep a straight face when you are busting out on the inside? It’s hard! Lmao!
I finally told Elliott about the $5 later on and had a good laugh again. By the way, I still owe Elliott that $5, hahaha!
And since I brought up some Elliott stories, here’s another flag football story. We had a lot of good friends on our team. One of those guys was Dan Sylvest. Dan was a good athlete and made our team better.
One time, Dan caught a ball and was running down the field. An opponent dove for his flags and ended up ripping off Dan’s shorts. He still had his flags, so he kept running… in only his jock.
There was Dan, sprinting for a touchdown with his ass cheeks just a bouncing in the wind. It was the funniest thing I ever saw while playing flag with those guys.
Later on, most of the guys on our team had football pants from the McNeese State Cowboys. I didn’t.
One day, I see Dan at McNeese. He told me to go look in my locker. He had placed a pair of McNeese football pants in my locker that fit me to a tee. Dan made me a very happy camper that day and I’ll always thank him for that. I wish I still had those football pants just to remember how nice Dan was to me.
When I was in high school, Randy Peveto gave me a job working with Lou. One day, Lou called and asked me if I would ride with him to Houston to pick up refrigeration parts. Randy paid me to go along to keep Lou company. I think I was making $4 an hour and damned glad to get it.
We took a pickup truck and hit the road. We made it to Houston, got the parts and headed back to Cajun Country.
There is a bridge that you cross when approaching Louisiana. At the top of the bridge is a sign that says, “Welcome to Louisiana.”
When Lou and I are getting on that bridge, he tells me, “I bet I beat you back to Louisiana.”
I laughed because we were in the same truck. How was that possible?
When the truck got near the top of the bridge, Lou grabbed the steering wheel tightly and pulled himself forward, over it. Then he stuck his head and neck out as far as he could.
When I realized what he was doing, and that sign approaching, I dove into the front windshield, trying to beat him to that sign.
He won and did indeed beat me back to Louisiana.
We had a good laugh about that and every time after that, we would struggle to see who could be home first. We never discussed it, but kept quiet, hoping the other would forget about that sign.
But as soon as that sign grew near, there would be two knuckleheads smashing their faces into the front windshield to beat the other back to the Sportsman’s Paradise.
I imagine God had to laugh at some of our antics over the years.
Lou used to fuck with me all of the time. He enjoyed it. He told me one time, “You’re too busy trying to be smart to know what’s going on.”
One of his running jokes with me was the refrigerator. I’d come into his room, and he’d say, “You want some watermelon?” I’d say yes and he’d tell me to look in the fridge.
I’d go happily look in the refrigerator for some chilled watermelon on a hot day. When I couldn’t find it, I’d yell out, “Where’s the watermelon?”
Then I would hear him bust out laughing from his room. There was never any melon. I would get so pissed at him for that. And I fell for this trick often. He would lose it every time.
One day, he tells me there is coke in the refrigerator. I go into the kitchen and open the fridge. There is no coke. As I’m looking in the refrigerator and realize I’ve been fucked with yet again, I can hear Lou laughing, and I said, “Shit!” really loudly.
Uncle Jackie was sitting on the couch in the living room and saw me look in the fridge and say, “Shit!” He got so pissed at me that he kicked me out of his house, hahaha!! Don’t fuck with Jackie.
Another time, I helped Uncle Jack build an addition to his house. Well, I started out on his crew. We poured the concrete and I helped with that. As we are working, I’m asking Uncle Jack questions.
Finally, he turns to me and says, “Paul, why do you ask so many Goddamn questions?” Then he ran me off the job, lol.
Can you see a trend between me and good ole Uncle Jack? Hahaha!
Writing this has been very therapeutic, in that I have been laughing out loud at some of these stories.
Another thing we did on the golf course was play mud football. On rainy days, the course was closed. The Picard Town kids would meet up at the Burnworth’s and jump the fence in front of their house to play mud football on the course.
We had some good games. Again, we trenched up the course. Can you see a running theme with why the golf course hated the Picard Town kids?
When we would play mud football, I preferred being on Lou’s team because no one wanted to try and tackle him in the open field. You usually ended up hurt in some way.
During the summer, we did something else fun on the golf course. Some nights, my school friend, Tim Moss, would sleep over at my house. Around midnight, we’d sneak out and take our fishing rods with us.
Behind the golf course were some levees that had fresh water running down the middle. There was even a little Dam.
We’d sneak across the golf course to this Dam and sit near the water ‘til all hours of the night, catching big catfish, and talking shit about friends, girls or coming-of-age things. That was some fun times.
I feel like I’m narrating an episode of The Wonder Years.
Tim and I were good friends as kids. I spent nights at his house also. Tim rode motorcycles as a kid. My mom didn’t know this when she would drop me off at Tim’s house on WPA road.
Tim lived in the country, and we’d hop on his motorcycle and ride the back roads. One night, Tim, his little brother Scotty and I were camping out. Somehow, we ended up with a squirrel. I guess Tim shot it because I know I didn’t.
So here we were, camping out and cooking our squirrel. Scotty was trying to get the fire going while the squirrel was already over it. I think he was using diesel fuel. The fumes from the diesel got all over the squirrel but we didn’t know it and ate dinner with no problems.
The next morning, I had diarrhea like Mount Vesuvius. I had to call my mom to come get me. I think I shit myself on the way home. I never ate squirrel again, lol.
One day, the Picard Town kids are riding our bikes on Sara street. That street ran by the golf course. Down by the levees and the Dam, there was a dumpster by the side of the road.
As we are riding by, we see 2 very big cardboard boxes. We stop to investigate.
To our surprise, when we opened those boxes, they were full to the top with Dirty Magazines. There was well over 500 of them. The boxes were too heavy for us to move, so we just grabbed some mags and headed to the Dam.
We spent that whole day in Sex Ed class as we sat at the Dam and looked at naked women. That was a fun day in Picard Town, haha!
Back to Lou, I saw him mad a few times but only a few. I never saw Lou fight anyone. I think people were scared of messing with him. There is an old saying, “Still waters run deep.” And no one wanted to know just how deep Lou’s water was.
Now I’m crying. I miss my big brother now more than ever.
I have to focus on the fact that Lou is with his parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins and friends like Ronnie Venable. I’m sure he is as happy as could be at the reunion with loved ones and also sad at leaving us so early. I know he will enjoy reading this and having some laughs, but it still hurts me badly.
I never told Lou that I loved him. It’s just not what guys do. I wish I had, at least once. Many people post about telling your loved ones how you feel before it’s too late. I wish I had done that with Lou.
I don’t hasten death, but when, and if, I get into Heaven, Lou is one of the first people I want to see.
This is our first Christmas without Big Lou and we are all that much sadder for the loss. But remember Lou as he would have wanted… fun-loving and full of life. We’ll see him again and he’ll be as happy as ever.
This Christmas, I’m giving Lou this story in hopes that it brightens his day up there knowing we all love him and miss him more than ever.
My shirt is wet with tears, and it hurts. Love can be beautiful and also painful. If I had to speak for Lou, he’d say, “Quit your crying, Bitch!” haha!
My hopes are that on this Christmas morning you remember Lou as he was, a great man and loved by all who knew him.
Thank you for reading of my love for my big brother. And although I cried while writing this, I laughed more.
Merry Christmas, Lou. I hear Jesus has some watermelon in the fridge. Why don’t you go look? Hahaha!
Paul O’Quain
P.S. Do yourself a favor and read this 2 or 3 times. It gets better each time.
Would anyone want to see that movie about our adventures growing up in Picard Town? I think I’ll call it ‘Picard Town, USA’. It would be funnier than ‘Sandlot’ or any other movie about kids’ adventures.
Over the years, I’ve often thought about writing a few books about 2 of my careers and my adventures along the way.
Well, recently with Coronavirus and the shut down of America, I decided to pen a book about my adventures as a lifeguard at the first waterpark built in Houston, TX.
I had started the book a few years back so when I decided to finish it, I spent hours upon hours writing, editing, adding photos and rereading the book several times.
The book has some very funny stories in it that will make you Lol. Several of my lifeguard friends read it while I had it posted on my blog. Here are some quotes from them about the book.
“OMG…Outstanding F*%@in job on the WaterWorld Book! Wow…Just WOW! Talk about wonderful almost forgotten memories coming back! SPIDER you hit this one outside the park! Fyi If you haven’t ordered your WW book you really, REALLY SHOULD!” – Patrick Orlaska WaterWorld Guard
“I finished reading the lifeguard book written by Spider Michaels… if you haven’t read it… you need to. WaterWorld was my life for so long… I’d do it all over again!! The book is fantastic and I can’t wait to get my own signed copy.”
– Joni ‘Radar’ Waggoner
WaterWorld Supervisor
“Lots of great memories! Thanks for the laughs Spider, you truly are one of a kind!”
– Carrie Tefteller Benavidez
WaterWorld Guard
“While I was always a little intimidated by Spider, I admired his leadership (those other guards WORSHIPPED him – and the nicknames and his competitive spirit in lifeguard competitions, etc. made work fun). I mostly kept my distance from him (God forbid, I’d end up on the wrong end of one of his pranks), but I heard through the grapevine here and there about his antics – I could tell he was a pretty funny guy – and I loved the “jokester” in him. I realized now… having finished his book… that I didn’t know THE HALF of it! It was a good read.”
– Annie Godwin Bell
WaterWorld Guard
“This book is Vintage Gold. Brings back so many memories of the classic 80’s-90’s when the music was awesome and we all had few worries. Immerse yourself into our world of lifeguarding. You won’t be sorry!”
– Debbie Byars Leibham
WaterWorld Guard
Those are some pretty impressive quotes and I sincerely thank my friends for writing them.
When I was ready to order some copies from Amazon for my friends, I wanted to order a few extra for a Media Blitz, so initially I ordered 60 books. About 50 for my friends and 10 to send around to local radio station DJ’s.
After I posted this next photo, I had some more orders for the book. Now out of the 60, I have one left. I even had to get one back from my sister to send to someone. She’ll get the first one from my next order… signed.
My lifeguard friends also requested that I sign each copy to them. Signing and packaging 59 books, each with a different note, takes quite a while. At one point, I had to take a break because my hand was cramping up. I could never do a book tour where all you do is sign copies of your book.
Here is a photo of the books, all signed and packaged for shipping.
I went through an inventory of my life and I think I have about 4 more books in me. My first, “Lifeguarding at a Waterpark” will probably be my longest at 518 pages with 625 photos.
My 2nd book will probably be about my time working in auto racing. I spent about a decade working in NASCAR, IndyCar and the NHRA Drag Racing series. This book will be entitled… “My Motorsports Memoir: A Photo Essay.”
My 3rd book is about all of my travels all over the U.S. and Europe. I’ll call it “Spider’s Travels”, similar to Gulliver’s Travels.
My 4th book will be about the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. I spent the whole week of the rally one year and got some great photos and stories. The book will provide insight to those going to the rally and those wishing they could go to the rally. I expect the photos of the women will be the most popular chapter.
My 5th book will be a book of Poetry. I’ll have over 100 poems in this book that I’ve written over the years. They’ll cover Life, Love, Celebrities, Death, Heaven, the Afterlife and several more subjects.
Being able to Self Publish through Amazon has made it possible for anybody to write a book and get it into print. My 1st book, at 518 pages with color photos, cost $37.67 to print. With shipping, I think each book cost me $41.27.
Now that price is the Author’s cost. When a person orders my book off of Amazon, the cost goes up to $96.11. There’s a few bucks in that for me, but Amazon gets the Lion’s share. I will add that there’s a Beach Lifeguarding book for sale for about $140 on Amazon and it’s not nearly as long as my book with as many photos.
Any way you slice it, Amazon is the way to go to get your book in print. Otherwise, you have to seek out an Agent, which could take years, then this Agent has to find a Publishing House that believes in your book.
After spending years to finally get your book published, you only get about 12% from each sale of said book. And besides, book stores are closing down faster than you can say, “No business.” Everything is going Online now.
As I said earlier, I had started my book a few years ago so some of it was already written but when I picked it up again and finished it, it was only a few short months and I had a paperback edition in my hot little hands. You can do it too.
It’s been said that everybody has at least one good book in them. If you’ve ever dreamed of penning the next great American crime drama or your dream is to be the next J.K. Rowling well Amazon can be your ticket to getting in print. From there, who knows what could happen for you.
I have plans to send copies of my book to all of the local radios station drive time DJ’s in Houston as well as popular radio stations in L.A. and NYC.
I’m also sending copies to most of the Late Night Talk Show hosts. Hey, they may have a few minutes to laugh at my book and then who knows? Here are the letters.
I have to say, working nonstop on my 1st book has drained me. I’m going to take some time off before starting on any of my other books.
In closing, I wrote this post to motivate any of you to write your own books. If you have any questions, please contact me. I’ll be glad to help.
Lastly, anyone interested in reading my book, here is the link to purchase it from Amazon.
While in college, I was staying in the dorms at the University of Louisiana. During my time there, my roommate signed up to apply for a Residence Advisor position. If you were selected, you received free room and food plus a monthly payment of $40. This was in the late ’80’s but $40 was still nothing.
The best part was the free room and meal ticket. It saved you about $1500 – $2,000 per semester. I decided to sign up even though my parents were paying all of my bills. I thought I’d try and save them some money.
I went through the interview process with my roommate and we both ended up getting selected. The next semester I was stationed at Voorhies dorm, on the 5th floor.
I got along well with the other residents and no one ever gave me any problems except for this Freshman, Eric Tageson. He would play his electric guitar too loudly and I always had to go down and knock on his door so he would knock it off. I don’t know if he knew how to play or was just making noise.
Two other residents to make note of were James Shakesnider and his roommate Doug Meloncon. James was an art student and Doug was in ROTC.
Every year, the male dorms would go over to the female dorms one night. There, the girls would be hanging out of their windows looking down. The guys would be yelling things and the girls would drop their panties with their phone number on them to the crowd below.
The guys would catch the panties and return to their dorm, call the girls, starting up a friendship.
Another night, the girls would accumulate underneath the male dorms’ windows. The guys would toss down their underwear with the number on them. These two nights were a University of Louisiana tradition. Go Ragin’ Cajuns.
The point of this story is about James Shakesnider, the art student.
The girls were supposed to come over to our dorm this one night. I was walking the hall, making sure everyone was getting ready and excited for the evening to come.
As I get to James’ door, it’s locked and I hear several guys inside talking and laughing. I knock on the door and after a while, the door opens.
Inside were James, Doug, Eric Tageson and another guy, Conrad Lebleu. Conrad was notorious for getting into trouble. I knew something was up by the way they all stopped talking when I entered.
After much persuasion and about 30 minutes, finally James shows me what they’re up to.
He takes this roll of brown art paper and goes out into the hall. There, he unrolls this paper. As it is unrolling, I begin to see a very large dick, complete with veins. He didn’t unroll it the whole way because it was too long, but I got the point.
Then he says, I can’t do anything about it because I promised if he told me, I’d keep quiet about it. I was stuck.
I knew this was going to be a big deal. All of the Deans, male and female, were always present on the ground below during the panty raid and jock raid.
I went to my switch off Resident Advisor, Jagman Kuman. He also stayed on the 5th floor with me and he was the first assistant House Director.
I confided in Jag what was about to happen. Jag didn’t seem too worried about it and said to let them have their fun and deal with it later. I was still unsure and a bit nervous.
Later, when the girls arrive, they are all screaming up at the guys in the windows and the guys are screaming back.
I go into a room next door to James’ room and look outside. Just as I poke my head out of the window, I see big Doug Meloncon lean out of his window. He’s holding a broomstick and the spool of art paper is attached to it.
Just then, he lets go of the spool of paper and it starts to unfurl. There was a crackling noise and the paper ruffled when it went down and opened up.
The girls knew what it was instantly. They all ran over to the area underneath James’ window and were screaming louder, if that was possible.
As the dick unrolled, the girls were working themselves into a frenzy. They were jumping up and down, reaching up, waiting for the ‘Piece de Resistance’.
When the banner finally unfurled the entire way, there was a loud pop as the 40 foot dick was revealed in total, head and all.
I’ve never seen a group of girls lose their minds in ecstasy and I doubt I’ll ever see that scene again.
I pulled my head back into the room and went for a walk down the hall, the other way.
I heard what happened next.
One of the male Deans ran up 5 flights of stairs and was in James’ room before they could all scatter. He asked for all of their student ID’s. Conrad tried to say that he went to another university, but that didn’t work because the Dean knew of him.
Later that night, all of the residents from the 5th floor were gathered by the elevators. It was somber scene as the culprits all boarded the elevator to go to the Campus Police Station.
I’m standing there, looking on like everybody else when from the back of the elevator, Eric Tageson blurts out, “No Paul, you gotta go too. You knew about it!”
I could have kicked his Freshman ass for that. The little chicken shit wanted someone else in trouble because he was. The whole floor knew I was involved.
I told them to hold the elevator while I locked my door. When I came back to the elevators, they had already left.
I remember running at full sprint to get to the Police Station before I got into any more trouble because of Tageson.
When I arrive, they call all of us into this big office. The Dean is pissed, but none of us got expelled.
He made James use his art skills for a positive cause and had him make posters for all the schools groups. He made the rest of the guilty hang those posters all around the school.
When it was all over, I spoke up. I told the Dean that I knew about it beforehand. I was told to come by the Dean’s office the next day.
When we got outside, all of the guys, especially Tageson, were asking me why I did something so stupid.
Here’s why I did that. Tageson would have held that over my head the rest of his time there. And every time I told him to turn down his shitty music, he’d most likely tell me to fuck off or he’d tell on me for knowing about the 40 foot dick.
I’d rather lose my job than have it compromised by a little Freshman asshole.
The next day, I went to the Dean’s office. Here’s where I felt bad. I told the Dean that, yes, I knew of the dick beforehand but that I also confided in the first assistant House Director about it.
He didn’t do anything to me and said I could leave. Later I heard Jag got reprimanded but that was all.
In hindsight, I guess it’s better that I threw Jag under the bus because nothing happened to him, but they probably would have fired me.
The company I worked for in motorsports was called RaceWorks and we were a MotorSports Marketing Agency.
Our company spent a lot of money on uniform shirts. These first photos show those shirts.
This was at an event in Houston.
Here too.
We’re in Florida for a race in this photo.
This one is from Phoenix.
We’re at the Brickyard 400 in Indy for this pic.
We were at a Truck Race when this picture was taken.
Outside the Pennzoil hauler.
Dallas for the Texas NASCAR Race.
Phoenix again.
Indy for the 500.
With Bart Conner, Olympic Gold Medalist.
Karen and Kellie at the Indy 500.
Karen, Kellie, Moi’ and Tiffany.
Xiao Xiao and I at the Brickyard 400.
Kendra and I at the Brickyard 400.
Johnny and I at a Sport Compact Race in California.
Karen, Amanda and Moi’ at the Indy 500.
Here too.
These next few pix are from NYC.
Wendell and I at the NY Stock Exchange.
Kellie and I at the NY Stock Exchange.
When in NYC, I tried to make it to the Empire State Building when in town.
I’ve been to the top 2 or 3 times.
Times Square’s ‘The Naked Cowboy’.
NYC Finest.
Near the ferry that takes you to the Statue of Liberty.
Times Square.
Central Park.
Central park.
Central Park.
Handing out free Banners at the Indy 500.
XIao Xiao getting busy.
When flying, occasionally I flew in First Class. No better way to travel.
Pomona, California drag race.
Indy 500.
Phoenix, Arizona.
Pool party.
One of my first events.
Houston Raceway Park.
On a nature trail in Upstate New York.
After the drag races, I gave out free hats.
With Kenny Tran in San Antonio, Texas.
Shooting video with Kenny Tran.
Daytona 500.
Giving a Pit Tour.
Mark Parrish and I at the Texas NASCAR Race.
Karen, Kellie, David and John Barnes.
Kendra and I.
Karen and Kellie.
Daytona 500.
Doing a raffle at the Hospitality Tent.
Daytona 500, Winston Vision Hauler.
Signing trucks for fans.
Mark and his big rig.
Tricia putting on a barrel cover.
Pomona, California.
Phoenix International Raceway.
Indy 500.
Dinner party.
Indy Museum.
Horseback riding in the Pocono Mountains.
Shop talk.
Marilyn and Elvis impersonators.
Blues Brothers impersonators.
Atop the Sprint Vision hauler.
One August, I went to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally instead of the Brickyard 400.
While there, I visited Mt. Rushmore.
Tricia, Moi’ and Wendell.
Handing out Raffle Prizes.
Kellie and I.
Miami driving school.
Ronald McDonald.
One of my first assignments – NHRA Drag Racing.
Crazy Indy 500 fan.
While in Philly for a drag race, I visited the Liberty Bell.
Kendra and Xiao Xiao.
Fe and Me at a Sport Compact Race.
With Al Unser, Sr.
Tricia, Kellie, Johnny and Christy.
Kellie and I at the 500.
Kellie and I at a NASCAR Race.
At the Panther Racing shop.
With Bart Conner.
We’re in Memphis for this photo.
We enjoyed a lot of meals when we were out of town for a race.
This was in Miami.
Me, Debbie, Tricia, Kellie, Karen and Johnny.
Plus Wendell.
Here we are at St. Elmo’s Fire in Indy for the 500.
David, Debbie and myself.
Me and Park Miller.
Johnny and I in Florida.
Crazy race fan.
Indy 500.
Taking a carriage ride in Memphis.
At the Texas NASCAR Race.
I’m at the Houston NHRA Event with Jeannie.
Tending bar at a race.
Going on a Pit Tour during a Truck Race.
Wendell, Myself and Kellie in New York for the Awards Banquet.
We raced Go Karts in almost every town we traveled to.
Johnny seemed to win a lot.
Here we are at an Indy Karting track.
Kellie, Wendell and myself at the Awards Banquet in NYC.
Karen and Moi’ in the Texas suite.
We had our Xmas party, then went to see the Nutcracker.
Indy 500.
Phoenix International Raceway.
Karen and I atop the Winston Vision hauler.
Indy 500.
At a party at Panther Racing.
Giving a Pit Tour.
With Jennifer at the Daytona 500.
When I would travel, I tried to rent a convertible.
That’s a lot of luggage.
Debbie and I at the campgrounds in Indy for the 500.
I also promoted ContraGear, while handing out free banners to the fans.
On a Pit Tour at the Brickyard 400.
Karen and the Big Wigs.
Karen and Tiffany.
Kenny Bernstein and Karen.
I was in the centerfold photo for ESPN, the Magazine.
While working in the NHRA Sport Compact drag racing series, they asked me to run the Bikini Contests. What could I say?
The following photos are from some of those Bikini Contests.
Denver, Colorado.
Fontana, California.
Oregon.
New Jersey.
With Duane Sweeney, the Official Flag Man for the Indy 500.
Here’s his autograph card. They don’t stand on the track any longer to do this.
The Flyin’ Elvi. Elvi is plural for Elvis.
Johnny, Kellie, Moi’, Wendell and Tricia.
Me and Fe at an NHRA Event in Houston.
Tiffany and I at the Daytona 500.
Indy 500.
Phoenix International Raceway.
With a crazy race fan at the Indy 500.
Al Unser, Sr. gave me a ride around the Indy track to show me the racing lines.
Signing the Start/Finish Line.
I did this a lot with my Pit Tours.
And it never got old.
Rupert from the TV show, Survivor.
Ben Affleck at the Daytona 500.
One of my favorite actors, James Garner, was a guest of ours at a race in Phoenix.
My favorite James Garner movie is The Great Escape.
I also loved the Rockford Files.
Paul Newman was heavily involved in racing.
With Patrick Dempsey at the Indy 500.
Muhammad Ali loved the camera.
Jim Nabors aka Gomer Pyle at the Indy 500.
Jason Priestly.
Bart Conner.
Bart Conner, Karen and myself.
Bart, his wife, Nadia Comaneci and myself at Panther Racing.
Tommy Lee from Motley Crue.
I asked Ice Tea for a photo, then he posed like he was constipated. If that’s how he poses for photos I would have passed on him. I included it to show what an ass he is.
John Walsh, from America’s Most Wanted fame.
Jim Harbaugh.
Junior Seau and Jim Harbaugh.
Karen and I in Vegas.
Kellie, Tricia, Wendell and myself.
Mark Parrish and I.
At Daytona for the 500.
Indy 500.
Panther Racing party.
Jeff and Karen working on a commercial.
Kellie and the pilots.
Kellie n NYC.
In Miami for a driving school.
Partying in Miami.
Awards Banquet in NYC.
Johnny Montrose.
In Miami for the final race of the season.
After Go Karting.
In Hollywood.
Jerry and I at the Houston NHRA Event.
Wendell, Johnny, Kellie and I.
Indy 500.
We always had a blast on Halloween.
Braveheart and Kendra.
Johnny, Wendell, Kellie and myself.
I met these guys in a bar in Phoenix and had a blast with them.
Should have gotten arrested, lol.
With the FireHawk at the Indy 500.
Every time I saw Linda Vaughn, a famous model from back in the day, I always got a photo with her.
At the NHRA Awards Banquet in California.
Sin City, Vegas, baby.
Myself, Fe and Richard Brady.
Tiffany and I at Phoenix International Raceway.
Kellie and I taking a break.
Mr. Clean.
Indy 500.
John Sirois, Kellie and myself after our very first event.
I always had time for the models.
Gotta get those digits, lol.
The Indy 500 trophy.
NHRA Drag Race.
Mark Parrish and I.
Fe and I at a Sport Compact Event in Colorado.
Indy 500.
Now for some Victory Lane, Winner’s Circle photos.
Kortnie and I at a Sport Compact Event in New Jersey.
Karen and I at the Indy 500.
I hope you enjoyed seeing these pix. Racing was a great career for all of us.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
One racing season, Quaker State wanted to have a Dyno-Challenge at the races.
We hired a crew from Dallas to drive all over the country with their Dynamometer to measure the cars horsepower.
At the end of each race weekend, we gave out oil for prizes to the winners of each category.
We had a “Standings’ board so they’d know who was in the lead.
It always drew a good crowd.
The racers loved knowing what their horsepower was.
We even had models working with us.
Kortnie was the prettiest model on the entire circuit.
The race fans loved getting her autograph cards.
She would sign autographs and pose for photos.
Here she is with our booth.
And with a hot motorcycle.
She was always more attractive than the bikini girls… and taller.
Our models would pose with the Dyno-Challenge winners.
The racers loved that.
It was an easy gig for me. Hang out with models all day and then photograph winners.
Here’s Kortnie with a commentator, Steve.
With an NHRA Vice President at the annual awards ceremony. They asked her to be the Trophy Girl for the awards after they saw her in that dress.
I bought it for her on Hollywood Boulevard the day before.
We had fun after the awards.
Kortnie was always a knockout.
We had a lot of fun together.
Kortnie and I in New Jersey.
Urban Racer took some good pics of her.
You see, prettier than all the rest.
This HPD Officer loved getting a pic with Kort.
While we were in NYC, Gilbert Gottfried couldn’t keep his eyes off of her chest.
People began photographing Kort like it was a photoshoot.
The best pic of Kort and I.
It was fun traveling the country with the Dyno crew and Quaker State racer Kenny Tran.
Kenny Tran was the first racer to put my logo on his car.
We also ran a booth at the World of Outlaws series.
We’d pick a winner and give them VIP seats.
That completes this NHRA 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
Being an invited guest to a suite to watch a race is a great experience. Sometimes, there’s even a bus ride to the race included.
The following photos are of a few of the suites I worked while in Motorsports. This first one is from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We used this suite for the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400.
The bus would pick up the guests at their hotel and bring them to the race with a police escort to beat traffic. If you’ve ever been to a race like this before, then you know it’s the only way to go besides a helicopter.
We’d have breakfast ready when the guests arrived. There would be the morning’s paper and the TV would be on racing programming.
We changed drivers every so often, so we had to redecorate the suites also.
The guests would have breakfast and something to drink, then get ready to start their day at the races.
I would take those that wanted to go, on a Garage and Pit Tour. They’d learn a lot and get some great photos.
After the tours were over, it would be getting close to lunch time. Sometimes we had guests that ate a liquid lunch because all of the beer and cocktails were free from the bartender.
Here I am with our Driver, Greg Biffle, as he speaks to the guests.
Our bartender Paula, Karen and Kellie in our Indy suite.
Our staff was one of the nicest.
Paula, Karen and Kellie.
Paula, Moi’ and Kellie.
Karen, having a good time in the suite with the guests.
I liked getting to the track very early. Most times I’d be there to hear the cannon go off to signal the start of race day.
Here’s our view from the suite.
Quite a bit of difference when you add hundreds of thousands of people.
It’s a tranquil feeling early in the morning, mixed with excitement for what was about to unfold this day. History will be made.
Being on the front stretch was always great. The driver’s call this canyon of fans “The Million Dollar View’. I drove this track in a NASCAR race car, so I know what it feels like to drive it, but nothing like what a real race car driver sees with all of the fans present.
This next pic is from the Brickyard 400.
Now I’ll show you the suite at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Not as nice as Indy, but still great accommodations to watch a race.
Each guest also received a ‘Goodie Bag’ with things they could use throughout the day, i.e. a hat, a Koozie, a shirt, autograph cards, ear plugs if the suite had an outside observation deck, like Indy.
The breakfast, lunch and free beer and cocktails still applies, as well as the bus ride to the track from the hotel.
On hot days, it’s nice to watch a race from inside the air conditioning.
The item most used by our guests was the koozie. They always drank a lot of beer.
The TV’s allowed our guests to see the replays and hear the commentators call the race.
We had nice furniture to relax on.
And lunch was always hot and good.
During the Caution Flags, we’d hold a Raffle for Prizes to keep the guests entertained. A lot of times, I’d be the one to buy the Raffle Prizes and I always bought nice things… things that I’d like to win if I were a guest.
Atlanta had a little outside room next to the suite for smoking. That’s the view below.
This photo shows the disparity between the people in the air conditioned suite and those camping in the hot Infield.
Now we’ll take a look at Bristol Motor Speedway. Bristol is nicknamed ‘Thunder Valley’.
It’s like a bowl of thousands of people and loud ass race cars. The noise is deafening.
Here’s the campground nearby.
This view is from a photo I took at Phoenix International Raceway from our suite.
Here is the view from our Daytona suite.
It was a great place to see the Pre-Race festivities from.
I miss Daytona.
Kortnie and I in our suite at the Houston Raceway Park drag strip. I hope you enjoyed this brief look at a day in the suites.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
Oldest Winner: 50 years, 2 months, 11 days, Bobby Allison (1988)
Here is the Dale Earnhardt Memorial at Daytona International Speedway.
I tried to go by and photograph it every time I was there.
Dale died in a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500.
Big Bill France, the father of NASCAR, and his wife, Anne.
Here are 3 photos from 2 different years.
I witnessed a truck with a trailer get stuck in this tunnel.
Millions of fans wish they had access to the Infield through this tunnel.
The inside.
You always see the Blimp for a Daytona 500.
Cool Pace Car.
The cars on Pit Road.
Pre-Race festivities are always eye catching.
Ben Affleck started the race one year.
Right after 9/11, the security was beefed up.
Observers and snipers were on the buildings.
Pit Road gets extremely crowded.
Sometimes, it’s hard to move.
Imagine trying to work in this environment.
Before the race, drivers have time to chat.
Dale Jr. and Michael Waltrip.
Daytona International Speedway is 2.5 miles long.
A 500 mile race is 200 laps.
Daytona always has a crash called ‘The Big One’.
I met Jennifer on Pit Road, during the race.
Had to get a pic with her. She was a nice gal.
Victory Lane
Darrell Waltrip had good luck with the number 17 during his victory. He won on Feb. 17 in his No. 17 car during his 17th career attempt.
Spider Michaels, Bill Goldberg & Jeff Gordon. I hope you enjoyed reading this post.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
The following photos are of the big rigs used in NASCAR.
The first one is from when Nextel was the Primary Sponsor of the series. It’s the Registration hauler.
One time, we were so hungover and smelled of alcohol that they almost didn’t give us our credentials.
And here’s a Registration hauler when Sprint was the sponsor.
My friend drove the Sprint Vision rig all across the country from race to race. Shout out to Mark Parrish.
Next, we see the NASCAR Officials haulers. A driver never wants to get called into one of these haulers.
These haulers can cover as many as 70,000 miles a year.
This is a shot from Phoenix International Raceway. Notice the hill in the background. I took a golf cart up it for the view. It’s a bumpy ride, but the view is worth it. Phoenix Hill Views
When the haulers first arrive, they begin to unload.
Those silver rear doors, on the ground, are what is used to remove the race cars from the haulers.
This is a photo from a suite at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The rigs are parked according to the driver’s standings in the points.
This is a rare shot. Steve Park, Dale Jr. and Dale Sr.
Here are the silver doors in action.
Teams bring 2 cars to every race. A Primary and a Back Up.
Phoenix again.
Here’s a better view of the rear doors.
During practice, the teams monitor things from atop the haulers.
This is a pic before their set up is complete. Look in the reflection to see me taking the pic.
A photo of the inside of a hauler. I see the Dale Earnhardt logo in the back.
Crews arriving for work.
Dale Jr. was always a popular driver, now he’s a popular TV Analyst.
One of the best rear doors.
Now I’ll show you some Autograph card holders that are located by the haulers for people in the Garage Area to pick up cards from.
This is a cool one.
Good branding.
Good logos.
Appropriate.
Jeff had one of the best ones.
“Because we know a thing or two about NASCAR.”
Nicely themed.
I prefer it when the cards are positioned correctly, instead of sideways.
Fans love Autograph Cards. I hope you enjoyed this post.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
Many companies are involved with NASCAR. This post is about entertaining those companies guests while at the race.
Here is a NASCAR hospitality tent before we would put up the Banners, etc.
And just a short time later.
Again, a before shot.
And the after pic.
We would leave our hotel as early as 4am sometimes just to make the drive to the track and decorate.
Pennzoil / Quaker State, the companies I worked with, sponsored several drivers during my time in NASCAR.
On Race Day, our driver would make an appearance in the Hospitality Tent to speak about the race and answer questions.
Here’s Mark Martin.
This is our ‘Check In’ table.
Xiao Xiao and Christy.
Kellie and Christy.
Guests would sign up for my Pit & Garage Tours here.
A menu board told the guests what was for lunch.
At every NASCAR race, we hired a local florist to design our table centerpieces. Here are some of those.
We brought the black, red and checkered napkins. We had them dry cleaned and pressed every week.
Our guests loved the way our tents looked.
We had the chair backs custom made.
Race fans loved the Pennant Rope also and would ask for it.
We bought helium at every race to inflate the balloons. So making a trip to Party City was mandatory.
I think you’d be surprised at how fast we could transform a regular, white hospitality tent into a great party atmosphere for our guests.
A lot of Hospitality Tents had ‘Show Cars’ in front. We always did.
Here’s another NASCAR driver that came by the morning of the race and talked to our guests about the upcoming race, then he signed autographs.
I know I would have enjoyed myself, had I ever been invited to a NASCAR hospitality tent before I got into racing.
After getting up around 3:30am on race day, Bannering, setting up the tent, conducting several Pit & Garage Tours, I would help out with a raffle for prizes.
Before each NASCAR race, I would go shopping for cool gifts to give away during the raffle. I always purchased things I knew they would love to win.
We spent a lot of money on raffle prizes. There was no expense spared when it came to entertaining important guests, all in an effort to ensure they had a great time on their day at the races.
I wore so many hats in racing, and it all started by somebody saying to me, “Hey, go hang that Banner.”
I think I preferred NASCAR out of all the racing series’ I worked in. The days were long and tiring, but the reward was so very worth it.
The night before the race, we had ‘Turn Down’ service for our guests. It was a race package of gifts and info about the big race the next day.
It helped to remind the guests what time the bus was leaving, so they wouldn’t miss it.
They always loved the gifts.
Relaxing after a long day. I hope you enjoyed this look at Hospitality Marketing.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
Texas Motor Speedway is a speedway located in the northernmost portion of Fort Worth, Texas… the portion located in Denton County, Texas.
I was working at the Inaugural Race at TMS. It took us 3 hours to get off of track property because of the rain and traffic. What a day.
When you first arrive at Texas Motor Speedway, you usually go to the credentials office to pick up your pass for the race.
A friend I used to work with in motorsports always got me a ‘Hot Pass’ for the Garage and Pit Area. It’s the best way to go to a race.
The track and parking sit on 1,500 acres.
There’s a North and a South Tunnel to get to the Infield.
Here’s what it looks like coming out of the South Tunnel.
This is a Before Shot.
And here is a little later on.
This is during the race.
Sometimes I got rides in the Pace Car prior to Race Day.
The Blimp usually makes an appearance on Race Day.
The Garage Area is the Holy Grail, so to speak, for a lot of people.
The Texas Garage is 22,272 square feet large.
Texas Motor Speedway has 1,656 women’s restrooms and 843 men’s rooms.
Thousands of people go through the Garage Area over the course of a Race Weekend.
Here is a rarely seen shot of the inside row of the Garage Area.
A ‘Hot Pass’ allows you into this area also.
While the cars are practicing or racing, the garage is a ghost town.
This is a line of people on the fence without a Garage Pass. Millions want to get into the Garage Area and Pit Road during a race.
TMS has 24 Concession buildings and 23 Souvenir buildings.
The reconfigured track measures 1.44 miles with banked 20° in turns 1 and 2 and banked 24° in turns 3 and 4.
Here’s a robo-dinosaur they had to entertain the race fans prior to the race.
It demolished a car.
An interesting sight.
The Texas Infield has some of the craziest fans in NASCAR. See my post about it to see what I mean. Texas Motor Speedway Infield
I love seeing fans dress up for the race.
I always try to get a pic with the Pace Car, if I can.
I worked with Jeff Gordon’s team through Quaker State.
I even received a championship ring from Hendrick Motorsports. My Ring Collection
I’m always nice to the Gate Attendants. You never know when you might need their help.
My last photo is of me with Miss NASCAR.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
A big part of NASCAR is merchandising. The following photos are of some vintage merchandise haulers.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. always won the Most Popular Driver and his sales were enormous.
Jeff Gordon is another driver that was very popular during his driving career. Now, he and Dale Jr. are NASCAR commentators for television. And still very popular with the fans.
Merchandising haulers travel tens of thousands of miles every year attending every race of the season.
Budweiser never had it so good as when Dale Jr. was driving for them.
Here’s a shot of the haulers before they opened and before the crowds.
The average salary for a NASCAR truck driver is $38,717 per year.
That’s not a huge salary considering how important they are to the team, the driver and the sponsors.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. had an estimated net worth of $70 million at the time of his death at the Daytona 500 in 2001. Merchandising helped that a lot.
Dale Jr. has an estimated net worth of $300 million. Not bad for signing thousands of his race cars for fans, among other things.
Jeff Gordon’s net worth is estimated to be $200 million.
Dale Jr. ended his career driving for Hendrick Motorsports. Not as flashy as the Budweiser haulers.
In this photo on his hauler, Dale Jr. is signing some of those race cars I just spoke of.
NASCAR was invented February 21, 1948, Daytona Beach, FL.
A good shot of people enjoying spending money on NASCAR items.
Dale Jr.’s first name is Ralph and his nickname is Lil’ E. (For Earnhardt).
The only track Gordon didn’t win at during his career is Kentucky Speedway.
Dale Jr. only read a half of the book written about him. He says that since he already lived all the experiences, the interest level was just not there for him to continue the book. He still thinks the author did a good job, though.
Here’s a shot of Gordon’s hauler before the fans get there. Good pix.
Dale Jr. changed oil at his famous father’s Chevy dealership for two years before he started racing.
One of the best things about a NASCAR race is getting there early and going shopping for cool NASCAR stuff.
Here’s a photo of the Event Pins I have from some of the races I attended and worked.
I collected some of the cars I worked with during my time in NASCAR.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
This Blog Post is about the men and some women on the Pit Crews of NASCAR. This first photo is of the fans looking into the garage area at a race.
Millions of fans would love to have access to the garage and pit road areas. This post shows you what goes on in these two places.
Here we see the crews going to work in the morning.
It’s quite a scene to see all of these guys at once.
This is Pit Road at the Daytona 500. It’s quite a crowded area to try to work in.
I’ll refer to these crowded Pit Roads later on in this post.
The tires are oh so important in trying to win a race.
GoodYear provides the tires for the teams.
Prior to the race, the teams will prep the tires for the big event.
They clean the rims real well, then glue the lug nuts to the rims for speed reasons.
The tires have a tread thickness of only 1/8 of an inch.
The tires on a NASCAR car weigh 50 pounds each, and someone has to push them and carry them to the pits for all the changes.
The people who are changing these tires are chucking around these tires like they weigh nothing, and that is because the men who work on pits crews are in very good physical condition.
The tires can cost as much as $450, or $1,800 for a set of 4.
This blue signifies Richard Petty’s team, also the number 43.
Notice the small piece of yellow tape, not the long strip of yellow. I’ll talk about that later on.
The Pit Crews all line up for the National Anthem before the race.
I’m betting you’ll never see a NASCAR Pit Crew member taking a knee during the Anthem.
They’d probably be fired the next day.
NASCAR has too much Patriotism for anyone to decide to take a knee in protest of anything.
I think it looks cool to see them all lined up, showing respect for our country and its’ history.
Even the NASCAR crews line up.
I took this photo from the suite we had at the Phoenix International Raceway. It’s one of my favorite pics I ever took at a race.
Pit Crew members have to be in great shape to be on a team.
You’ll see them stretching and preparing before a race. Notice the silver trays taped down with red tape. I’ll discuss later in this post.
Conditioning is of the utmost importance for a Pit Crew Member.
In this photo, the 4 trays are yellow.
And people say these guys aren’t athletes, boo to them.
When I started out in Motorsports, the Pit Crews weren’t required to wear helmets.
Now every member of the Pit Crew going ‘Over the Wall’ must wear one.
A spinning tire on a race car could roll over some loose lug nuts on the road and launch them as a projectile. Helmets are valuable pieces of equipment.
Notice the radio receiver on the side of his helmet.
Now let’s talk a little about the fuel. Here are 2 Pit Crew members taking fuel cans for refill.
Now you can see how hard this would be with a very crowded Pit Road.
The specialized NASCAR fuel is Sunoco Green E15, a 98 octane, unleaded fuel blend specifically engineered for high-performance engines and race cars.
It’s called Green E15 because the racing fuel is actually green in color.
At race speeds, Cup Series cars get 2 to 5 miles per gallon.
After Pit Stops, there’s always a line at the Fuel Station.
Only a few years ago, NASCAR used leaded fuel in the cars that circled the racetrack each weekend.
However, in 2011 the sport made a significant change to the fuel used in its race cars, moving away from leaded fuel and turning to a greener, higher-performance option.
A NASCAR race car has a fuel cell in the trunk that holds 22 gallons of fuel, but that may change to 18 gallons in the near future.
Each Gas Can holds 11 gallons of fuel, so it takes 2 cans to fill up a race car.
Here’s a close up of the label on a Gas Can.
Now I’ll focus more on the tires. There’s 2 types of tires in a NASCAR race… Stickers and Scuffs.
These tires are Stickers because you can still see the new, white sticker on the tire.
This is a pic of the inner liner in every tire.
These tires are called Scuffs because the team drove them around the track during practice to break them in, so if the need called for a set of tires that were broken in, they’d have some.
These tire carriers are valuable in that they enable crew members to carry a set of 4 tires at one time.
I’ve almost been run over by one of these on Pit Road during a race.
Here are sets of Stickers and Scuffs. Notice the yellow tape.
This is a pic of the lug nuts already glued into place so the tire changer can tighten them up on the car quicker.
Now for the tape on the tire. The carriers use this tape to know where to grab the wheel in order to hang it correctly on the studs.
The good tire carriers can pick a tire up and hang it on the studs without having to spin it to line the holes up correctly. These tape marks help them find the right way to hold the tire to do so.
These are the trays or racks you saw earlier.
Do you have any idea what they’re for?
It’s 4 of them and I’m talking about tires so that’s a clue.
And here is what they’re for. Usually stickers are not lined up like this, because the tire trays are for tires that just came off of the car after a Pit Stop.
After a Pit Stop, a crew member will use a torch to scrape off all of the rubber accumulated when slowing down to come onto Pit Road.
After the little holes are exposed that run across the width of the tire, a crew member uses a device to measure the wear on the tire.
It takes a bit of time to clean all 4 tires to get ready to do this measurement.
The tires can pick up quite a bit of hot, sticky rubber when heading into the pits.
Here, one member scrapes while the other measures.
In this pic, you can see the tiny indentions in the tire that they use to measure wear.
Notice all of the little rubber bits stuck to the tires.
Most of the teams remove the air from the tires and replace it with nitrogen. Compressed nitrogen contains less moisture than compressed air.
When the tire heats up, moisture in the tire vaporizes and expands, causing the pressure inside the tire to increase.
Even small changes in tire pressure can noticeably affect the handling of the car.
By using nitrogen instead of air, the teams have more control over how much the pressure will increase when the tires heat up.
The teams can tell how the car is handling by looking at these numbers across the width of the tire.
Notice the difference between the inside and the outside of the tire… 68 to 65.
RR – Right Rear, RF – Right Front, LR – Left Rear, LF – Left front.
That’s 3 sets of 4 tires each at a cost of about $5,400.
Now you can really see the bits of rubber, from other cars, stuck to the tires after coming down Pit Road.
The rubber off of the race cars also accumulates under the race cars also. This can add weight to the car by the end of the race.
After the race is over, GoodYear collects all of the used and unused tires.
The Pit Crew members job consists of downtime chilling and an all out frenzy during the Pit Stops.
This pic is from Phoenix International Raceway.
Tires come in handy for seats also.
The Pit Crews always discuss what will happen during a Pit Stop.
Most times, they take 4 new tires and 2 cans of fuel, but sometimes it may be only 2 tires or just a splash of fuel.
In 12 to 14 seconds, seven people manage to completely refuel the car and change all four tires.
The Pit Crew members that go over the wall are: the front tire changer, the front tire carrier, the rear tire changer, the rear tire carrier, the jack man, the gas man and the gas catch can man.
During a race, the Pit Crew is responsible for changing tires, refueling, adjusting aerodynamics, checking and repairing parts, and getting the driver back on course in a matter of seconds
This member is the gas catch can man. More about that coming up.
The teams choose their Pit Stall by how they Qualify. The #1 Qualifier chooses first and so on.
This tape lets the driver know where to position his front left tire for the Pit Stop.
If the car is too close to the wall, the Jack man has a hard time lifting the car to change the tires on the left side.
A team will usually opt for a Pit Stall at the end of Pit Road to avoid traffic and save time getting off Pit Road.
The order of Qualifying is determined by a random drawing each race. Teams prefer to go later so they can see what time they need to win The Pole, #1 Qualifier.
The Jack is made of aluminum and weighs about 35 pounds. Considerably lighter than your average Shop Jack.
Once a Pit Crew member makes it on a regular basis with a Cup race team, and if they do, it usually takes three to four years.
The average salary is $80,000 to $120,000 a year. Pit Crew superstars can make anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000 a year.
Each team has a Fitness Coach that works with the Pit Crew for about 2 or 3 days a week. They work on Strength and Conditioning Drills as well as Hand / Eye Drills.
They especially work on actual Pit Stops behind the shops.
Now for some info about NASCAR.
Each track is measured 15 feet inside the outside wall.
The Drive Shaft is 4″ in diameter and rules specify that they must be painted White.
This is so if it becomes dislodged and loose on the track, other drivers can see it better to try and avoid it.
Now for the Gas Man and the Gas Catch Can man. As I mentioned earlier, the car holds 22 gallons fo fuel and each Gas Can holds 11 gallons, so it takes 2 cans to fill up a car.
There’s a spout that sticks out the rear of the car, near the fueling port.
In this next photo, the guy holding the empty Gas Can, on the far right, is also holding the Gas Catch Can in place as the Gas Man pours the 2nd can of fuel into the car.
Here’s a better view of the Gas Catch Can Man in action.
When the car is full of fuel, the excess will spurt out the rear spout and into the Gas Catch Can. It’s important to account for every bit of fuel.
Here, the Gas Catch Can Man finishes pouring the 1st Gas Can while still holding the Gas Catch Can in place with his leg and the Gas Man is loaded with the 2nd Gas Can that weighs 94 pounds, so it’s not light.
After the Pit Stop, the Pit Crew removes the nozzles on the Gas Cans.
The Pirate in me loves this guy’s Eye Patch.
The reason they remove the nozzles is because they’ll pour the overflow fuel in the Gas Catch Can back into the Gas Can.
That way, every drop of fuel is accounted for. There’s what’s back in the Gas Can and what’s in the car.
Here you see them emptying the Gas Catch Can into the Gas Can.
They weighed the Gas Can when it was full before the Pit Stop. It should have been around 94 pounds.
After they consolidate all of the gas back into the Gas Can, they weigh it again. Now they know how much fuel went into the car exactly, thus being able to calculate when the car would need to come back for more fuel.
They say the most important man on the entire team is the cook, usually the Hauler Driver also.
I love Track Food. It always reminds me of the Carnival.
I’m no Vegan and that looks delicious.
The crews work hard on the cars all week long, building up to Race Day.
Sometimes not even a great Pit Crew can save a car.
It’s a good thing teams produce 20 or more cars for a full race season.
Some cars are built for short tracks, road courses or Super Speedways.
There’s not much that’s salvageable off of this car.
And now for some of the other crews at a race.
This photo was taken shortly after 9/11 and they had Bomb Dogs everywhere.
Always be nice to the Gate personnel.
This guy reminds me of a friend of mine.
The crew at Indy setting up the Brickyard 400 Trophy early in the morning.
Prior to a night race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Every race needs Fire Staff.
And NASCAR Inspectors.
Love the Flag.
This is a good photo of these NASCAR Officials.
More Safety Personnel.
My man, the Guard at the Gate to the Garage Area.
Taken at Texas Motor Speedway, no doubt.
Here’s another pic from right after 9/11. Notice the metal detectors everyone has to pass through.
More Bomb Dogs after 9/11.
In the Infield.
Another NASCAR Inspector.
He’s now being filmed by a TV crew because of his Flag on his helmet. Again, right after 9/11.
The Infield Crew at Texas Motor Speedway.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this Blog Post. I had fun creating it. Lot’s of great memories as a Pit Tour Guide.
I hope you get to attend a race where you get to go on Pit Road during a race and see all of this stuff for yourself one day.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
This Blog Post is about all the crazy rides you see at a NASCAR race. Let’s take a look.
Here’s the U.S. Air Force cart. It’s a 6 seater for carrying lots of people. Notice how it is backed in.
Best Buy’s wheels are really cool. Looks like a 4 seater. Backed in.
This is a 7 seat cart that looks very comfortable.
I count 8 people. Gotta be some kind of record.
‘King Richard’ Petty’s race car, or should I say a replica.
This guy is giving me the Peace sign. Cool ride.
Now that’s a lift kit.
Always need Medics on hand at a NASCAR race.
Now that’s a cool limo.
I would love to see inside of it.
Atlanta’s Pace car.
Nobody wants to ride in this car.
Another replica, this time for Michael Waltrip and NAPA Auto Parts.
Great paint job.
Cruising in style.
Possibly used for deer hunting.
Another ride nobody wants.
Mickey!
I love big jeeps.
Texas Motor Speedway Pace Car.
Lenox likes Hummers.
I’d love to take a road trip with friends in this bad boy.
And of course some ladies, lol.
I wonder how old that kid is now.
All backed in.
Shamu car.
Shamu cars.
Very cool ride. Backed in.
Cool cop car.
Dale Earnhardt.
Side view.
Another Dale Earnhardt car.
Dale again.
Rock on!
Cool to ride around drinking beers to pick up ice on the infield of Texas Motor Speedway.
A fire vehicle.
Fun people.
Here’s another Lenox Hummer.
Nice jeep.
Pepsi 400 Pace Car.
‘It’s five o’clock somewhere’.
Another cool Dale Earnhardt car.
The coolest wheels in this post, hands down. I will own one before I die.
Not a real car, but worthy of this Blog Post about vehicles. Cook in the front.
Wood in the back.
Now for how the big wigs and NASCAR drivers get to the track… helicopters.
This pilot is chilling with the paper.
This is a very expensive helicopter.
Drivers and Executives don’t like to be stuck in long lines of traffic on race day, so they fly in.
Here’s a ‘Life Flight’ helicopter that no one wants to fly in.
Reminds me of the movie ‘Capricorn One’.
I’ve ridden in helicopters before and I love them.
If I had a choice of being a pilot for a plane or helicopter, I’d pick helicopter every time.
I love the control you have with a helicopter. Up, down, left, right, forward, backward, you can go everywhere.
Harrison Ford got certified to fly helicopters and even rescued a hiker off of a mountain. They didn’t know Harrison Ford was the pilot until told later.
This is the coolest helicopter pic I ever took at a NASCAR race. Race Day morning these birds are flying everywhere.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this Blog Post about cool conveyances of NASCAR.
Had to get a pic with this car.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
One of the first cars I worked with in NASCAR was the Pennzoil car. It was a DEI car (Dale Earnhardt Inc.) Steve Park was the driver.
At the time of this post Joey Logano now drives the Pennzoil car.
When I was with Pennzoil, I always had a ‘Hot Pass’ for the garage area and pit road.
And I always took full advantage of it. This pic is from the garage area at Texas Motor Speedway.
I like Steve Park. He was a nice guy to work with.
Steve had a bad crash and afterwards he spoke much more slowly.
He was cleared to drive again and this was after Dale Earnhardt had died. Dale had hired Steve.
On Steve’s return, everybody was wondering how he would do.
He ended up qualifying first, on the pole. Everybody was ecstatic.
Then on the first lap, into turn 1, there was a 3 car pile up and Steve was right in the middle of it.
Dale’s wife, Theresa, now running DEI after Dale’s death, fired Steve. We were heartbroken.
Steve went on to drive trucks and was one of the only few to have won a race in the Cup, Xfinity and truck series.
I still remember some of the pit crew. Walt always helped me with my notes for the pit tours.
Joey Logano won the Cup championship in 2018 and Pennzoil couldn’t be happier about it.
Notice the E for Earnhardt?
This pic is from the Indy Brickyard 400 race.
Fill ‘er up, boys and check the tires, lol.
Teams work so hard to prepare for race day.
Everything has to be right in order to win a race.
And with all of the teams trying to win, it’s very hard to do.
These next shots are from California Speedway.
Perched and ready.
A good 4 tire pit stop is about 16 seconds.
A pit stop has been called a ‘Mechanical Ballet’.
Everybody moving with precision and diligence.
Here we see the front tire carrier putting the tire in place for the front tire changer to tighten the nuts on it.
The jack man is ready to lower the car as soon as the tire changers and gas man are ready.
And he’s off.
After a pit stop, the pit crew watches the replay to see how they did and what they could improve upon.
They don’t study too long because they have to get ready for the next pit stop.
These next photos might be why Steve got fired.
He had a lot of crashes.
The team worked hard to try and get the car back on the track for those valuable finishing points.
A car like this would never win a race, but you can run laps if you can make the minimum speed.
And those points might make the difference in how you finish at the end of the season.
That’s why you see some drivers driving a beat up car with no chance to win.
It’s all about the points.
Every team has had to go through this because there’s no predicting what will happen during a NASCAR race.
It’s funny if it’s not your driver and car.
If it is, you’re pissed, sad, upset and bummed out.
I hope you enjoyed this look at the Pennzoil car.
I also worked for Quaker State.
Not many know this, but Pennzoil and Quaker State are both oil companies that are both owned by Shell.
I miss those days, but not the weekly travel and long hours.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
I’ve been lucky enough to have had a job that was all about traveling. I worked in Motorsports for about a decade and visited every major city in the U.S. several times a year.
This Blog Post is about some of those cities and even some places in Europe. I hope you enjoy reading about my journeys.
My sister wanted a pic at the airport in Houston as we were headed to California.
This time I was at Houston Intercontinental Airport.
Gotta love First Class travel. I wish I could afford it all of the time, lol.
I always enjoy the view from the plane.
The first place I’ll take you is to Philadelphia, the home of the Liberty Bell.
I was in town for a drag race, so I came in a day early just to tour the city.
Next, I’m at Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. I was in nearby Sturgis for the motorcycle rally, so I made the drive to see such a historic place.
This next pic is from a crane in Sturgis. I took a ride up to see the town from above.
Here I’m with Johnny and Wendy in Chicago on the pier.
Boston is a fun town to visit. And you’ve gotta have the lobster.
Johnny and I in Orlando, Florida.
Now I’ll take you to NYC for a few pix.
You can’t go to New York and not go see the Statue of Liberty.
Wendy and I at the NYC Stock Exchange during the holidays.
I always try to get a pic with the flag people. They stand on boxes.
This might be, well, it is, my favorite Silver Man. See the box.
This guy was on a box also.
I’ve visited the Empire State Building a couple of times and love going to the top.
Here’s from another visit.
The view is awesome.
Now let’s see some pix from Times Square.
You can’t mention Times Square and not talk about the Naked Cowboy. Can you say Ripped?
Winnie the Pooh and Elmo too.
Mario and Luigi.
Woody from Toy Story fame.
I love the Broadway people advertising different plays and shows.
Love the derby.
She is cute. Too bad the shade from the hat obscures her face.
This is one of my favorite NYC pics.
NYC’s Finest.
Men in Black.
I’ve actually never gone to his website.
And now a few more Silver Men from Times Square, NYC.
The Tin Man.
I wonder how much they make doing this. It looks like a lot of effort and a lot of clean up.
Brooklyn.
Taking a ride through Central Park with Kellie and Wendy.
Wendy and I in Central Park.
And Wendy and I in Times Square.
A shot from on top of Seattle’s Space Needle.
And now, let’s go to Sin City… Vegas, baby.
This is in front of Treasure Island Casino.
I was at a convention and got this shot. Fun girls.
Here I am inside of one of the casinos.
In front of Caesar’s Palace.
Next, I’d like to take you to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
This pic is from inside one of the many museums in town.
Having lunch with my sister.
In the plaza, listening to good music.
Brunch with my sister again.
This pic was taken some time later, as if you couldn’t tell from the hair, lol.
My sister and I went to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival and had a good time.
We took a tour of the city. Our Tour Guide works in movies in Santa Fe as a western extra. He looks the part.
At another museum in Santa Fe.
Having lunch with the sis again.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a shot of ‘The Protector’ sculpture in front of my sister’s Santa Fe house. Stunning. It looks better when it snows.
Arrested in New Orleans for Mardi Gras.
Nope, not arrested. Just kidding around.
I love these guy’s costumes. So much color.
Gotta love the motorcycle cops of NOLA.
And the cute Louisiana gals.
Gotta get me a colorful jacket like that.
It was her idea to pose like this. That’s why I’m laughing so hard.
This little guy was on the boardwalk in Monterrey, CA.
I definitely wanted a photo with this pirate.
Took a horseback ride in the Pocono Mountains.
Visited Graceland while in Memphis.
I was in Indy for the 500 when I got this pic.
This photo is from the Daytona 500 weekend.
My sister and I took the Paramount Pictures studio tour while in L.A. Here I am with Bumblebee, from the Transformers movies.
We enjoyed the tour quite a lot. If ever given the chance, you should do it.
I was in Galveston, TX for the Lone Star Rally in this next pic.
Also in Galveston, I caught this Great White off the shore.
Okay, I didn’t really catch a Great White, lol. It’s fake, in front of a store for photo ops.
Next, Tricia, Johnny and I took a hike on a nature trail in the Pocono Mountains.
It was a beautiful day and the scenery was great.
I got this pic right after the Indy 500 parade. Fun time.
I was in NYC for the NASCAR Awards Banquet and got this pic.
Back in Galveston for the Dickens on the Strand weekend.
Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.
I love this pic of the Phoenix race track.
I also enjoyed halloween in Phoenix one year.
As I toured the country, I was asked to help run the Extreme Bikini contests. How could I refuse, lol.
My co-workers and I rented a pontoon boat while in Arizona and had a great time.
I snapped this pic of the Golden Gate Bridge while riding a bicycle there from Fisherman’s Wharf. I’d never do that again. My legs were killing me.
Some San Francisco Silver Men.
Wonder how long to get it all off of your face and hands.
Colorful… and yes, gay.
Now I’d like to take you to Europe for a few of the cities I’ve visited there.
First is Paris and the famous Notre Dame cathedral.
One of my first selfies.
Beautiful.
My sister snapped a pic of me in the subway station.
This might be my favorite travel pic of them all. Love the Eiffel Tower in the background.
I’be been to the top of the tower and shot video and got photos.
I also took some photos from different angles.
This is a pic of the little apartment atop the Eiffel Tower.
During good weather months, the tower area is really crowded.
A pic from the top of the tower.
And straight down.
I love that it lights up at night, every hour on the hour.
Really beautiful.
One of my first pics with the tower.
Now, I’ll show you a few pix of the Louvre Museum.
I’ve been several times and it never gets old.
You could wander for days and still not see everything.
I always go see the Mona Lisa.
Here I am at the Palace of Versailles.
My sister and I took a Paris boat tour. It was enjoyable.
Another Paris selfie.
Having lunch in Paris.
At a Paris flea market.
I had to stop by the Paris Harley-Davidson shop.
This pic is from my first trip to Europe. I’m in Italy.
Another pic from the Italian Riviera. Portofino.
Now off to London, England.
This is the Tower Bridge, a very famous bridge. My friend and I took the tour of it and went through the top of it. Very cool.
Buckingham Palace.
Another of my first selfies.
Buckingham Palace during the holidays.
Kissed by a Beefeater.
I bet he gets tired of this, lol.
I couldn’t stand or sit on a horse and be perfectly still and not say a word all day… plus having strangers take pix of me all day.
And lastly, to my favorite European city, Amsterdam.
I’ve been here about as many times as I’ve been to Paris and I love it.
Notice all of the trash in the Red Light District?
They clean the streets every night. This pic is from early in the morning after they’ve cleaned up.
Enjoying a burger in an Amsterdam restaurant.
I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at pix from my travels. I’ll be adding as I take trips.
To begin this blog post about inspections, we should start at the car, the main focus here.
These are the templates that teams use to build the race cars.
And here’s what one looks like at the beginning of the process.
Now to the finished product.
Every team uses check lists to make double sure that everything is done on race day morning.
Some things are double checked and some things are quadruple checked.
There’s lots to do and check on a car before a race.
Some teams have less of a sheet.
And some teams have more of a sheet.
A crew chief looks over this checklist with a very discerning eye.
Sometimes last minute decisions can be made based on the checklist.
After the team feels the car is ready for inspection, they push it to the NASCAR Officials. You can see me in this next photo, conducting a Garage Tour by the Inspection station.
The teams can stress at times about their car passing inspection.
It’s like they’re pushing their baby in for a doctor’s exam and they’re hoping for a good outcome.
The inside room of a NASCAR Inspection is off limits to a lot of people. Let’s take a look at some rooms around the country.
The inspectors have their checklist also.
It can be a solemn room. One that can make or break your day.
They use these weight plates to measure the weight of the car across all four tires. There has to be a certain distribution. Not anymore on the left side, specifically.
The teams use lead bricks to counter the weight if it’s too low. Minimum weight used to be 3400 pounds, now it might be 3500.
The engine is a 358 cubic inch 5.8L V8.
A NASCAR race car can generate over 700 horsepower.
The race car is measured every which way you can think of.
Here’s a better look at the weight scales.
Simple, really. But it does the job.
Here’s a car going through the inspection at Texas Motor Speedway.
Teams and Sponsors never miss an opportunity to put a logo on something.
This is called the claw. It measures the overall dimensions of the car.
This is again at Texas Motor Speedway.
Bush’s beans. Where’s the dog?
The inspectors go over every detail of every race car they see.
And keep diligent notes.
Here are some parts NASCAR allows the teams to use.
And here are the weights teams use to increase the weight of the car if it’s underweight.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at a NASCAR Inspection. The winning car always gets a post race inspection also, along with a few other cars too.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
An NHRA Drag Race can take up a lot of ground. So much so, that many people feel the need to use a cart of some sort to get around.
And speaking from a person who has walked around a track and also ridden around a track… the riding is much more fun.
What follows is an article about all of the vehicles you see around an NHRA National Event.
This first cart is very stylish and can carry 4 people. It has a collapsible front windshield.
It also has a roof for sun shade and in case it rains. I bet this cart has the plastic side walls that would keep everyone dry in a downpour.
This cart can carry 4 but no roof. It’s got good seats and a high suspension for rough terrain. It especially has the Dale Earnhardt #3 on it.
This is a companies cart, not sure which. I see Good Year, Chevy and VP Fuels.
Here’s a nice one for Performance Parts.
No missing who this cart is for. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and at a drag race.
Check out this fake engine on this cart. Pretty funny. Look at the back fin. It’s an older model Chevy. Maybe ’57.
This is a cool cart. We were in Gainesville, Home of the Gators.
High suspension, roof, flames, 4 seater. Nice ride.
You rarely see a one front wheel cart. This is a throwback.
Here’s a Plain Jane cart for Summit. No frills.
At least Fram painted their cart in their Trademarked Orange color.
Notice the motorcycle matches the cart’s flames.
This is a racers cart. It looks like Ball Racing.
This cart had some loud speakers on it. Only a 2 seater. Boo.
Notice the surfboard. This was a high dollar cart when it first came out.
The maintenance guys have to get around too.
This was a cart set up that PowerADE did when it was the Primary Sponsor of the series.
They would load up fans and give them headphones for the noise.
Then drive them right up to the starting line and give them a front row seat.
Cool thing for the fans to see and experience.
Some dudes just ride their hunting ATV around.
Food service had a nice little truck.
With enough room to carry some things.
I missed them passing by me, but they had a nice cart. A 6 seater and a roof.
Nice paint scheme, only a 2 seater, but they crammed 3 in the one seat and I don’t like the pitch of the roof. Too low in front.
This was a cool cart.
Two guys from the Widow Maker racing team. Wonder how their wives feel about that name?
You saw this cart earlier and now these 3 guys are cruising the track.
I like the effort on the paint job, but the flames suck out loud.
Gator Boys!!
Here’s that 6 seat cart I missed earlier. This might be the nicest ride in this article. Check out the chrome rims and oversized tires, along with the Brush Guard in front. Great paint, great seats. Good Job.
Fram’s cart was really special also.
Great seats and colors.
I’m guessing really expensive.
And some guys ride alone, lol.
Now for the Kid Conveyances.
That baby can’t even be 1 year old yet. Start ’em young, I say.
A Radio Flyer with a twist. Nice job.
Now this kid had a set up. Simpson Racing seat, Ear Protection, Steering Wheel, Gauges, Stick shift and Racing Decals. Pretty cool. Sippin’ his Sunny Delight, rollin’.
This next photo wins for cuteness.
He even go a pic with a model.
This kid rode around like a king. Now that’s having it ‘made in the shade’, lol.
Everybody knows somebody that’s gone to an event and gotten so drunk they got arrested.
These next pix are of the PoPo, 5-0, Gmen, Coppers, Pigs, the Blue Force, you get the point.
Here’s a mobile Command Center.
Florida State Trooper.
Sheriff.
Sheriff.
Sheriff.
Police.
Sheriff.
Sheriff.
Police.
Police.
Motorcycle Cops.
I’ve thought motorcycle cops were coolest ever since CHiPS, the TV Show from the 70’s.
These are big, powerful motorcycles, capable of high speeds. Look at how big this next cop is. He dwarfs that big bike.
And look at how far he’d have to duck to get under the front windshield. He’s got to be 6’6” or taller.
This is a cool cart. Great logo’s and flags. Great pic.
Now this truck has seen its’ best days.
Now for some Firemen. At a drag race, you ALWAYS need Fire & Safety present. It’s a ‘Life and Death’ sport.
Probably a Captain’s car.
Ambulances are very necessary to have on hand.
I like how they took the time to paint the rims. It looks nice.
Now for the bigger vehicles.
Anybody remember the show from the 70’s called ‘Emergency 51’? With Gage and DeSoto as the paramedics in the field.
Everybody admires a good Fire Truck.
Ready in case of an emergency.
These next guys were nice enough to pose for me.
Cool design on their shirts.
This guy reminds me of Scruffy from Futurama, the animated series.
Big truck, big smile.
An EMT, emergency medical technician.
More EMT’s.
Chillin’ ’til ‘Go-Time’.
And Cookie, who used to clean the track after an oil down.
Now for some crazy rides.
I photographed a truck just like this one at Sturgis one year.
It’s too wide for a car lane, so they must take the tires off to transport it from place to place.
Pretty huge truck.
Remember the first Bigfoot Truck from the 70’s? I think it was blue. It made quite a splash and started a worldwide phenomenon… Monster Trucks.
So this is the new Bigfoot.
What if you rode to school in this bus?
All aboard… and buckle yo ass up!!
“Yes, yes, They’ll be to school on time. Early in fact.”
This made me laugh. A Cadillac race car, complete with sponsor decals.
Now this is no laughing matter.
That is a work of art.
And lastly, someone actually rides this little shit around. Well, I hope you enjoyed this trip to the drag strip and the pics you saw.
That completes this NHRA 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
Dale Jr. is the famous son of a great NASCAR driver, Dale Sr. In fact, Dale Sr. is tied for the most all time championships at 7. Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson also have 7.
Jr. went through the lower series’ in racing and made it into NASCAR, just like his dad still raced.
Dale had one of the best sponsors in racing and his fans loved that he was sponsored by Budweiser, their beer of choice.
Dale learned a great deal from his father.
There’s not too many that have felt the rush of racing alongside your father at 200 mph.
Jr. was good friends with all of the drivers because he grew up admiring them. Here he is with Jeff Gordon, a 4 time champion.
At the time, there was nothing more patriotic. This was before Budweiser sold out to foreign interests.
It was hard on Dale after his father died at the great Daytona 500, but Jr. got back into that race car and took care of business.
Dale Jr. was voted Most Popular Driver in NASCAR all of the time. The fans loved him and he inherited his father’s fans after he passed.
Some of the companies I worked with were sponsors on Dale’s car, so I got to work with him occasionally. He always had a smile and was easy to work with.
In this photo, Dale is about to ride around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to greet the fans before the Brickyard 400.
Many fans across this country got to go to a ‘Meet & Greet’ with Jr. He would sign items for them.
And pose for photos with them.
His fanbase was enormous. Several fans across the country painted their buses to look like his Budweiser race car. This was one of the better ones.
In this photo, you can clearly see The Outlaw logo on the rear quarter panel. That’s the product of the company I was working for.
Here you can see it in front of the tire well.
Dale signed a ton of diecast race cars in his day.
Jr. drove for his dad’s company, DEI. Dale Earnhardt, Inc. The companies I represented had contracts with DEI, so I was around their teams quite a lot.
I’ve been to the DEI shop. It’s so large and clean, they call it the Garage Mahal.
It’s been said that Dale Jr. is worth around $400 million, making him one of the richest athlete’s of all time… not only in NASCAR but all sports. See, signing all of those diecast cars paid off.
Dale drove for other sponsors after he left DEI, but I’ve chosen to focus on the time when he drove for Budweiser. It was a sort of Camelot, if you will.
Things were great for Jr. at this time. He was driving for his dad’s company and racing against him on weekends.
Jr. never won any championships like his father. His best finish was third in 2003.
He did win 2 championships in the Xfinity series, which is like the college ranks for NASCAR.
Dale did sign with Rick Hendrick after he left DEI and Budweiser. The problem?
He wouldn’t have the #8 car any longer. What could this mean?
Dale chose the number 88 at Hendrick Motorsports. Why do you ask?
He chose 88 so his fans could easily get their tattoos fixed to represent his new number, just add an 8, lol.
Here the teams are at Indy for the Brickyard 400, waiting to get inspected prior to racing.
Dale’s cars have been photographed tens of thousands of times over the years. Here are some photos the fans would have loved to be close enough to get.
The generator behind the car keeps the fluids warm and ready to race until the start.
Does anybody still wear Drakkar Noir?, lol.
This is at the Brickyard 400 at Indy.
Here they’re about to cover the car for rain.
And here’s a full rain cover in action. I think it looks pretty cool with that cover on.
Now for a few racing pix.
Dale drove cars with different paint schemes whenever his sponsors came up with a new promotion.
Dale only read a half a book about himself. It was written by someone else, and he didn’t even read the whole thing.
He says that since he already lived all the experiences, the interest level was just not there for him to continue the book. He still thinks the author did a good job, though.
Dale drove the number 8 car because it was his grandfather’s number, when he raced.
I was at the track the day Dale’s father died. It was terribly hard for Jr. He was at the hospital where his father was brought.
They told Dale Jr. the news and then he had to walk out of that hospital in front of all of the media. He kept a straight face, but inside he was torn up.
Imagine losing your father in that way and then, plus the fact that Dale Sr. was a living legend.
Every driver now wears a HANS device to prevent head and heck injuries. HANS stands for Head And Neck Support.
Here’s another story for you. Dale Jr. is the son of a 7 time champion. Adam Petty is the grandson of a 7 time champion, Richard Petty.
Adam Petty was in a race and came into the pits. While the car was jacked up, the crew chief dove under the car to check something.
The crew lowered the car on him and when it hit the ground, Adam floored it… driving over his crew chief and killing him.
I don’t know that Adam Petty ever recovered from that, but it goes to show that racing is a dangerous sport.
When I started in racing, the Pit Crews didn’t wear head gear. Now it’s a rule and every guy or gal over the wall has to have head protection.
And I say gal because there are a few women tough enough to go over the wall and work on a car.
I always enjoyed great views at the track.
After winning one race, Jr. rode around with a skull and crossbones pirate flag. I wish I could find that photo.
This is a shot that explains a lot.. It’s what fans loved about Dale Jr. He was a legacy, drove a car with their favorite beer and was very patriotic. This was America for millions of fans around the country.
Here’s Dale wearing an Outlaw hat and posing with the trophy from the Talladega Super Speedway.
Although Dale Jr. spends his time commentating now…
There’s no replacing the fun times he had as a racer.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
The Natl. Hot Rod Assoc. (NHRA) is not nearly as big as NASCAR but they’re a close second. In this post, we’ll look at some marketing that goes on in the NHRA.
First, we’ll start with Hospitality tents.
The tents are usually erected between the haulers.
This allows the fans an up close and personal view of the teams working on the cars.
They always seem to measure it out perfectly.
Now to begin the final touches.
Almost finished.
And now, with the inflatable, it’s finished.
It makes for a great environment to entertain your guests.
Here’s a few shots of the inside.
It’s amazing what some green and black material can do.
Plenty of tables and chairs to watch the action.
There’s a banner wrapped around the square trash box.
Come race weekend, the guests are all very happy to be in the shade enjoying their day.
Sometimes, they served themselves.
And sometimes, the staff served them.
The fans loved the closeness to the driver.
Fans lined up for a chance to meet a driver and get an autograph from him.
We also handed out bags for the fans to carry their Swag in.
Our bags were better than other companies, so we never had a problem flooding the race scene with Quaker State bags.
Everybody loved our bags.
And they could be seen all over the track all day long.
In the Sport Compact series, we had a display stand made to hold the bags.
Now let’s switch gears, as one in racing might say. Another part of hospitality marketing is putting up banners around the track and surrounding area.
This is a pre-school and they always let me put banners on their fences because they said the kids loved it.
I was the only Banner Boy to ever put banners on the train bridge.
I always asked the companies on the way to the track if I could put banners up. If you don’t ask, they’ll just come cut them down and you will have wasted your time and supplies.
Here’s my crew, utilizing a wooden fence by the track.
This is right in front of the track entrance.
Everybody coming and going will see these banners.
Here are some pix around the tracks.
This is actually a good placement to deter banner thieves. But a pro could steal this banner from the other side with ease.
The food court is always a good place to banner, considering everybody goes there.
Barrel covers make a huge difference instead of just trash cans.
Bannering the Food Court gives the event a fun, carnival atmosphere.
Now let’s take a look at the entrance to the suites.
Notice the signage on the awning? The bannering? The barrel cover?
Now, a few years later, with a different sponsor, they neglected to logo the awning and don’t use barrel covers.
Adding ‘Welcome Race Fans’ ups the ‘Cool Factor’ of a banner.
Race fans love to take banners that say that.
Here we see banners and inflatables.
Here’s some banners without ‘Welcome Race Fans’.
Bannering is an important job and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Companies depend on you to get the word out about their products.
And you can see how many different companies have Banner Boys.
I enjoyed being a Banner Boy. It was lots of fun and practical jokes.
Now for a couple of inflatable pix.
There’s always inflatables near the starting line.
This one is near the suites entrance.
Here’s a good pic of some inflatables lined up and ready for TV time.
Hospitality marketing doesn’t have anything to do with the signage on the suites, but it’s still a very important part of the overall marketing program.
I’ve hung banners all across America.
Most of the time, it’s early in the morning… with the morning dew.
I was able to travel quite a lot while being a Banner Boy.
Here, Johnny and I are decorating a restaurant for a party.
Gotta love pennant roping.
At a drag race, there’s always a Primary Sponsor. They get dibs on the best spot for a tent.
And most often they have interactive things to engage the fans.
I’ve had to organize many a line for driver autographs.
Here my sister stands by Tony Pedregon as he signs for the fans.
This little kid had saved coke cans to buy a go kart, then it was stolen from him.
Quaker State heard about it and invited him and his family out to the drag strip and gave him a new go kart. I remember driving around Topeka, KS in our big truck to pick it up.
That kid had the best day ever. We let him drive down the road in front of all of the fans cheering for him.
Now for some big boys marketing.
These teams travel with this hospitality tent set up week to week through the whole season.
They have some of the nicest supplies money can buy.
It makes going to the races a whole lot of fun.
Now for some lower budget set ups. Here’s the entrance to the hospitality area.
Not much by way of decorations.
And here’s a look at the inside. Pretty no frills atmosphere.
Now here’s something I can appreciate. Lots of companies use models in the NHRA.
And I don’t know anybody that doesn’t like that.
I worked with a model or two in my time.
Fe and I worked a lot of races together.
I represented Pennzoil and Quaker State., as well as other companies.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at NHRA Hospitality Marketing.
That completes this NHRA 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
The Indy 500 Parade is one of the high points leading up to The Great American Race.
Everybody turns out to see the sights. It’s a wonderful family affair.
These motorcycle cops are fantastic. Each has a letter or the number that spells out Indianapolis 500.
They rode in a pattern and were perfect.
This has to be the highlight of these motorcycle cop’s year.
It’s one of the coolest things about the Indy 500 parade.
Here’s the first car to ever win a 500 at Indy. Ray Harroun (January 12, 1879 – January 19, 1968) drove the #32 Mormon ‘Wasp” to victory in 1911.
And here’s some other former race cars from the big race.
The current drivers in the 500 get rides with their wives or girlfriends.
There’s always plenty of bands playing in the parade.
Here’s some more drivers.
I love the horses.
I think they ride in the parade in the position they’re going to race from.
Ruth Buzzi, a famous comedienne in her day.
Blow it, baby.
I didn’t have a hard time getting people to wave. I was practically in the street with them.
Horses with American flags is very cool.
More High School kids doing their part to make a great parade for the fans.
Another former race car.
He was nice enough to wave.
Standing up in the saddle is tough to do. They’re pros at it.
I love all of the colorful uniforms.
Rupert from the show Survivor.
He waved at me.
These mounted police officers were kind enough to wave also.
Being a mounted police officer must be cool. Look at them.
These next 2 pix are the best ones I took at the parade.
It reminds me of a Ticker Tape parade in NYC.
Lots of color, I love it.
Cool older vette.
Patrick Dempsey from Grey’s Anatomy. He remembered me from the night before in the bar talking with him, so he waved.
Here’s a tropical themed group.
Not sure what they were doing besides just dancing down the street.
Everybody loves Beauty Queens.
This float was full of them.
I wonder if the ones on top were more important… probably.
And here’s the last of the Beauty Queens.
An old time Fire Truck, very cool.
Never get tired of hearing the bands play as they pass.
Some old soldiers. Respect.
They marched right along the parade route and always got a big hand from the crowd.
Here’s their Flag Bearer.
Not sure who this was, but they waved.
I think this is an old Camaro.
A Tiger!
The Shriner’s on horseback.
I think these are some drivers from previous years.
The Chinese made an appearance.
This was a very cool balloon.
I think this is Chinese also.
The Flag Corps.
Here’s a slice of Americana, watching the parade.
And I know everybody loves cheerleaders.
Here’s some more famous people riding the parade route.
More older race cars.
The World’s Largest Drum.
I bet it would be fun to be in the parade and see all of the people cheering.
Another driver of the race.
These horses are huge… and beautiful.
Nice wave.
More cheerleaders.
And lastly, the Budweiser Clydesdales.
I hope you enjoyed this look at the Indy 500 parade.
That completes this IndyCar 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
A lot of things have to fall into place before a NASCAR race can happen. Here is a photo of the Pit Road at Texas Motor Speedway.
It’s amazing to think of all the activity about to happen in this area. Race cars, Pit Crews and thousands of fans will roam this area before and during a race.
Pit Boxes are an essential part of the equipment NASCAR teams use to try and win a race. They’re also called War Wagons.
The Pit Boxes are about the only thing that NASCAR teams don’t transport to the race themselves. They pay a company called Champion Tire & Wheel to do that.
It costs $4,540 per team, or $18,000 total, each week.
Why carry a Pit Boxes back and forth across America every week when nothing changes on it. That’s just extra weight, extra room and extra gas for the Hauler.
Here is what the front of a Pit Area looks like with a Pit Box and wall banner.
This area is logo’d for TV coverage. Never miss a chance to get your logo on the boob tube.
This Pit Box has an All Weather cover for the Crew Chief and other members.
The Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the only race where the track paints the driver info on the Pit Wall.
A pit box provides a high-tech way to monitor the car during a race — and keep a close eye on the weather, too.
A NASCAR crew’s Pit Box is sort of like the bridge of the starship Enterprise. It’s loaded with electronics, all of which relay important information to the crew.
Once a Pit Crew member makes it on a regular basis with a race team, and if they do, it usually takes three to four years. The average salary is $80,000 to $120,000 a year.
Pit Crew superstars can make anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000 a year.
It might be because I worked for Pennzoil, but I like their Pit Box very much. It’s a bright color and the logo-ing stands out and is eye catching.
McDonald’s has one of the nicest set ups.
Having the TV on the back enables the crew to watch the action, as well as fans on Pit Road.
Pit Boxes serve as the center of the pit crew’s universe, showing replays on television monitors, displaying scoring and lap times, and sometimes even providing that welcome bit of shade during a sunny race day.
Now this is fan friendly. People lucky enough to get on Pit Road during the race appreciate the TV’s.
The Geico Pit Box needs some color. The white is kind of bland.
Would look much better with blue instead of white.
This crew member is installing the satellite dish.
The M&M’s Pit Box would look better with the roof on. It just looks unfinished now.
Pit boxes also include the essential tools for the over-the-wall pit crews.
They hold the jacks, wrenches, duct tape and other essentials that drivers hope won’t have to be used during the race, like that dreaded big bat and sledge hammer.
Some of the pit boxes take hours to set up, with multiple satellite dishes and lots of technology. Others are much more simplistic, boasting the bare minimum of “bells and whistles”.
I have to give Burger King a failing grade for their logos… one logo. Hardly noticeable and when a crowd gathers, ti will be totally blocked.
Here’s another that could use an overhaul.
Cup war wagons start at around $55,000. Adding just a bit of technology can tack on another $25,000 to $40,000 per box.
NAPA’s set up looks great, very noticeable.
Even with a crowd in front of it.
It’s a good thing people know the Target logo.
Otherwise, no one would know what team this is because there’s no wording. Failing grade.
This next Pit Box has a high profile logo.
Too bad they don’t have any TV’s for the fans.
Mobil 1 & Office Depot have good logo’s.
The lady in the foreground has a great seat to enjoy all of the action during a race.
3M does it right.
Some pit boxes are incredibly elaborate, with multiple television screens, including race broadcasts, as well as satellite feed.
Many also include video cameras, VCRs, DVRs, computers and a warm up hub with lug nuts for the tire changers to practice before each pit stop.
Aaron’s has good logo’s.
I just wish they used a colored background instead of white. It just looks unfinished.
Best Buy has a nice set up, but notice the logos at the bottom.
During the race, they’re barely seen. They should have some logo’s by the TV’s.
Motorcraft started out with their roof on.
Then they took it off for the race. Notice the driver’s wife or girlfriend checking her phone instead of the race, lol.
I worked for Quaker State also and I like their Pit Box a lot too. The colors pop.
CAT has great logos, but no TV’s for the fans.
Here’s a Pit Box prepared for rain.
Now for the smaller teams. This team has no sponsors at all on their bare bones Pit Box.
Here’s another small time program.
Now, I’ll show you the progression of Pit Road.
Fans are taking pictures, going on Pit Tours and enjoying VIP access.
I had a great vantage point for these photos. I was on top of the NASCAR TV screen hauler.
A former co-worker now had a job driving this hauler for NASCAR. I always received a ‘Hot Pass’ and VIP access when I visited him at a race.
Here’s a pic of Pit Road during the race. I had just walked the distance and photographed all of the Pit Boxes during the race.
I hope you enjoyed this Blog Post about NASCAR War Wagon’s / Pit Boxes.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
I’ve led a pretty charmed life by most standards. I had a job as a professional lifeguard through college and that job lasted for 13 years. I had the most fun a person could have through college and my 20’s. I lived it up to the Max.
After lifeguarding, I began working in motorsports.
In this new job, I got to travel to every major city in the U.S. each year.
I’ve seen America from coast to coast and most in between. And I loved my job. Who wouldn’t?
I had a lot of responsibilities as a Marketing person working for a Motorsports Marketing Agency.
One of my many jobs was to travel all over the country and work these race car driving schools.
The company my agency represented would pay for their VIP guests to attend these driving schools as a perk or reward for something well done. Sometimes it would be really good customers. Other times it would be really good employees. But mostly it was sales reps and their clients.
I got to go to all of these major race tracks around the country to help facilitate the schools.
There would be about 30 people in attendance at each race track. I helped organize the event and sometimes I shot video of the people driving the cars. They loved getting a video of the day they drove a race car.
At every driving school there was some reason or another that they needed me to drive also.
Sometimes someone didn’t show up. Other times they needed someone to keep the cars in the correct rotation so the class would stay on track. Don’t ask me how this makes sense, but they ask me to drive and I jumped on the chances.
At the schools, they took your picture inside the car. Here are a few of mine.
The driving schools had their NASCAR race cars painted the same as the real cars, so it was really cool to say that I drove Jeff Gordon’s car at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
I was able to drive at the Daytona International Speedway three times. Twice in a NASCAR race car and once in an open wheel race car.
It’s important to stress that Daytona is an important track with a lot of history. Each year, the Daytona 500 is held there. And many drivers have died there. The most famous being Dale Earnhardt.
Here’s two pics from my Daytona experience.
I also got to drive a race car around the same track that hosts the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Here’s a pic from that.
Here’s a photo from the day I drove an open wheel race car at Daytona.
Driving open wheel race cars is a little bit different than driving a NASCAR race car, but they’re still a lot of fun.
Here’s a pic from my driving experience at the Phoenix International Raceway.
I have more photos from those days and one day I’ll look for them. Here’s a couple with the entire class.
I’m at the top of the picture, far left.
I’m in the middle, holding the banner.
I’m on the far right in this one.
I’m second from the right, holding the banner.
I’m on the far right. This was a road course in Dallas and I really enjoyed driving these cars.
These next two pics are from the track in Miami.
I also got rides by professional drivers when I was at the tracks. Here I am, in the back, getting a ride around the Miami track in an IRL race car. We went very fast.
Here’s my wall in my office area with all of the plaques from the driving schools.
I won’t say I’m even close to as good as a professional driver after going to all of these driving schools, but I’m a pretty good driver at high speeds.
Another video I made was of my Driving Schools experiences. I hope you enjoy these videos.
I had a lot of fun working in motorsports and also going to all of these driving schools for free. I could have never been able to afford the cost of all that travel and the price it costs to attend a professional race car driving school.
I’m thankful everyday for all of the good luck I’ve had, and continue to have, in life. I’ve had some lows, but my highs are sometimes much higher than most people.
I’ve heard good things come to good people, so I try to be a good person. And it’s worked out well so far.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
There are many people that have great ring collections. I don’t think mine is any better than most, but I happen to own some very special rings.
I’ve earned rings throughout my life and I’ve only lost one, my High School ring, and I will get that one replaced one day.
Below are some pictures with stories about my rings. I hope you enjoy it.
First up is my college ring. I graduated from McNeese State University in 1988. McNeese is in Lake Charles, LA. I grew up nearby.
It took me 4 and a half years to graduate because I bounced around between schools. I started out at McNeese, then transferred to the University of Louisiana. From there, I took some classes at Houston Community College so I could continue working at the waterpark I was working at year round. After all of that, I transferred back to McNeese and graduated.
After graduation from McNeese, I went to the University of Houston for Post – Baccalaureate work.
I enjoyed college and had some very fun times. I remember drinking lots of coffee and staying up all night to finish a project or cram for a test.
I made lots of friends in college and I often wonder what they’re up to. Maybe one day I’ll track them down and surprise them.
When I wear my college ring, I wear it with pride because I know how hard it is for some to afford college, or even make the grades to get into one. Hell, I got into four, lol.
I like my college ring because it reminds me of my friends from school, the good times and the hard work I put in to earn it.
This ring will always be very special to me.
I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, in 1988.
My next ring I earned while working at a waterpark called WaterWorld in Houston, TX.
I was on a lifeguard team that won 10 straight State Championships. We were awesome.
This is another ring that reminds me of good times and old friends. When we had our moment in the sun, we were the best and we reveled in it.
Not many can say that they were a champion lifeguard when they were in their youth.
I got my nickname, Spider, at the waterpark and we were called S.T.O.R.M. (Strong Team of Rescue Men).
After lifeguarding for over a decade, I went to work in motorsports.
It was my job to travel all over the U.S. and attend these big auto races and do marketing for really big companies.
I got to work hand in hand with the race teams and I got to know and like them all quite a lot.
I was with Sam Hornish, Jr.’s team, Panther Racing & Pennzoil, when he won his two IndyCar Championships. That’s how I received this next ring.
Working in the IndyCar series, I attended the Indy 500 every year and that was a blast.
I came close to being eligible for a team ring for the Indy 500.
Sam never won the Indy 500 while I was working with him, but after he changed teams he won The Great American Race, the Indy 500.
I like my IndyCar Championship ring. It reminds me of all the fun I had at the Indy 500 each year.
I have lots of photos and videos to remember those days, but my ring is most special to me.
I enjoyed my time with Panther Racing and the IndyCar League.
While working in motorsports, I also worked in NASCAR as well as IndyCar. I also worked in the NHRA too.
When I was working in NASCAR, I got to work with Jeff Gordon’s team doing Marketing work and entertaining their VIP guests.
I would take the VIP’s down into the Pit Area and Garage before the races and teach them all about NASCAR and racing.
What I taught them in about 30 to 45 minutes improved the quality of their race viewing that day because they understood better what was going on.
I traveled to many tracks across America to earn this ring and I’m probably most proud of it.
Jeff Gordon is a four time champion and I worked with his team for all four championships.
They say that there’s about 75 million NASCAR fans. I bet some would give their right arm to have had the chance to earn a ring like I did.
I’m one of the few people living that has earned a ring in the IndyCar Series and also NASCAR. Pretty rare, I have to say.
My Jeff Gordon Championship ring might be my favorite.
Here’s another ring from my NASCAR days. It’s from one of the bigger races in the season.
It’s from the Brickyard 400, which is run on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track.
So I got a ring from Indy after all, lol.
My Brickyard ring is pretty cool and I like it a lot.
I started out my career in Motorsports working in the NHRA (Natl. Hot Rod Assoc.). I’m happy to have a ring to remind me of all the good times and good friends I made in those days.
My first job in Motorsports was that of a Banner Boy. I loved it and would do it again.
In 1987, I got certified as a SCUBA Diver.
I went on several dives and loved diving.
I went down in the Bahamas, in the Florida Keys and some places in Texas.
I had this ring made for me specially because the Dive Organization doesn’t sell them.
One day, I’ll get them to use my design and sell it to other divers. I know other divers would love a dive ring once they got certified.
This first ring was just a test and it came out pretty good, although I don’t wear silver. 113 was my radio number at the waterpark. And PADI stands for Professional Assoc. of Diving Instructors.
Well, I contacted PADI and Jostens Rings to come up with this Dive Ring. I’m still working on getting it to all divers.
Jostens gave me the first ring off the production line for free.
This ring is much nicer. I was certified in 1987.
When I went to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, I came across this booth selling rings from the Rally, so I definitely got one to commemorate my experience there.
My Sturgis ring reminds me of some good times I had there.
Quite impressive when lined up side by side, if I do say so myself, lol. These rings represent lots of long, hot days on your feet all day. Also, lots of great friends and fond memories. And don’t forget all of the laughs I had along the way.
I have some other rings in my collection, but these are my favorites.
I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at my rings and reading about them.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
Born on August 4, 1971, in Vallejo, California, Jeff Gordon began competitive auto racing at age five.
He notched four Series Cup championships after joining NASCAR’s top circuit in 1992, his popularity helping to expand the sport’s appeal to a mainstream audience.
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. respected the young Gordon when he entered the series and began to win a lot of races.
Jeff was ‘The Man’ during his career. Many companies wanted to work with him.
Here’s Jeff at the Driver’s Meeting before the Brickyard 400. You’re not supposed to take photos in here, but my photographer didn’t know that, lol.
Among NASCAR’s all-time leaders in victories, Gordon announced he was stepping down as a full-time driver in early 2015.
Jeffrey Michael Gordon was born on August 4th, 1971, in Vallejo, CA.
Parents Will and Carol divorced shortly after he was born. Carol began dating a co-worker named John Bickford.
Bickford stoked Jeff’s interest in auto racing before becoming his stepfather.
Gordon began racing BMX bikes at age four, and the following year he slipped behind the wheel of a quarter midget for his first competitive driving experience.
He won the national quarter-midget championship at ages 8 and 10, and continued to dominate older children in go-kart events.
When Gordon was 13, the family moved to Pittsboro, Indiana, so he could race powerful sprint cars without the obstacle of a minimum age requirement.
After joining the United States Auto Club at 16, he won the organization’s National Midget championship at 19 and its’ Silver Crown championship the following year.
Having taken an interest in stock cars, Gordon earned a chance to race for owner Hugh Connerty in NASCAR’s Busch Grand National Series in 1990.
He joined Bill Davis’s team the following year, his first on the circuit full-time, and was named Rookie of the Year.
Gordon soon caught the eye of owner Rick Hendrick, who marveled at the young driver’s control of his vehicle.
Gordon signed with Hendrick in May 1992, and he made his Winston Cup Series debut that November in what turned out to be auto legend Richard Petty’s final NASCAR race.
Named the Winston Cup Rookie of the Year in 1993, Gordon broke through with victories in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1994.
With crew chief Ray Evernham and his “Rainbow Warriors” helping to keep the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet in top form, Gordon claimed his first series championship in 1995.
Gordon helped transform auto racing from a regional spectacle into a mainstream sport.
His corporate image rubbed some of racing’s old guard the wrong way, but even the critics had to acknowledge his immense skills.
Gordon became the youngest driver to triumph at the Daytona 500 in 1997 and tied a modern record with 13 victories in 1998, finishing both years as the series champion.
He notched a fourth championship in 2001 with new crew chief Robbie Loomis in tow, culminating an amazing stretch that produced 56 victories in seven years.
Here’s an autograph card made by Quaker State.
Jeff made hundreds of driver appearances over the years for all of his sponsors. Here we are in Arkansas, at a Wal-Mart.
Jeff’s merchandise hauler always had an eye catching design.
And there was always a crowd at his hauler, buying merchandise.
Jeff had fans of all ages and especially children.
Jeff was a lot like Dale Earnhardt, Sr., in that fans either loved him or loved to hate him.
A fifth championship proved elusive, but Gordon continued to rank among NASCAR’s elite.
He won his third Daytona 500 in 2005, and in 2007 he accumulated a modern-record 30 Top-10 finishes en route to a second-place finish in the standings.
Bothered by back problems in 2008, Jeff proved more than capable of keeping up with the sport’s young guns in 2014, notching a record fifth Brickyard 400 trophy among his four victories.
Gordon announced in January 2015 that the upcoming season would be his last as a full-time NASCAR driver.
At the time, his 92 career victories were third most all-time, and his four championships ranked fourth.
He launched the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation in 1999 to help fund pediatric cancer research. In 2006, he opened the Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital in Concord, North Carolina.
Previously married to Brooke Sealey, a former Miss Winston, Gordon married Belgian model Ingrid Vandebosch in 2006. They have two children, Ella and Leo.
These next 2 photos are from the Brickyard 400 in 2 different years.
Can you notice any differences?
This design looks great, but I prefer the flames.
Jeff was a fan favorite and a Media Darling. He was interviewed everywhere he went.
My photographer friend took these next 3 shots. I think they’re pretty good.
You never see photos like this.
Jeff was always easy to work with.
When I was working with Jeff, you always expected to stay late because of Winner’s Circle activities. We just thought Jeff would win at every race, and often he did.
The Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 were my favorite races to work. The photo below is from the Brickyard.
As well as this one also.
A lot of drivers in the veteran ranks didn’t care too much for Jeff’s pretty boy good looks, but the media loved him and he helped bring the sport into mainstream entertainment.
Jeff’s car is on display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
Jeff holds the record for most NASCAR wins at the Brickyard 400, which is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He has 5 victories.
Can you tell which championship this was?, lol.
Having an autographed champions photo is pretty cool.
I know a lot of people who would have loved to get into the garage area and get a photo next to their favorite drivers’ car.
This was the last time I was able to get a pic with Jeff’s car before he retired.
Driving instructors gave me rides around tracks all over the country when I was there for the Driving School.
I was able to drive the number 24 car around Charlotte Motor Speedway, in the heart of NASCAR country.
I was involved in several Winner’s Circles over the years.
It was my job, on this day of the Daytona 500, to chaperone Bill Goldberg, the wrestler, around the track. He was happy Jeff won and thought going to Winner’s Circle was very cool.
This was Jeff’s 4th championship. I’m happy to have a photo of Jeff, Rick Hendrick and I.
Hendrick Motorsports gave out championship rings to a lot of people involved with the team. My sister received a championship pendant.
Some of the corporate people got rings as well, sized to their fingers and with their names on them.
It burned my ass to see some guys selling their rings online. I’ll never get rid of mine. I worked too hard for it.
I worked the Brickyard 400 every year, so it was nice to get a ring with my name on it.
Working with Sam Hornish, Jr. in the IndyCar series was fun and winning two championships was even better.
The side panel of my ring has both years on it… ’01 & ’02.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
After my lifeguarding days, I started to work in motorsports. I would attend an auto race almost every weekend in a different large city across America.
I enjoyed the travel and seeing all of the major cities in the U.S., several times over the years that I worked this job.
When I first started this job, I knew nothing about racing. I had to learn pretty quick because I was given the task of taking VIP guests into the pit and garage areas of these major race tracks and showing them around.
At all of these races, I was given credentials that let me go anywhere around the track, before, during and after the race.
I used this credential to go around and interview people and take notes. I talked with Pit Crew Members, the Goodyear tire specialists, mechanics, the fuel workers and anyone else I thought had some good information for me.
I took all of these notes and wrote out a manual, so to speak. This little pamphlet had all of the important information listed in the order that you would talk about while in the pits and garage areas.
My notes were so good, other companies were asking for a copy of them. I was told by my boss not to give out my notes.
It’s hard not to sound egotistical when I say I was one of the, if not the best, tour guides during my days working in motorsports, but I did have great notes, and was animated and fun during my tours.
Also, my company received lots of emails to my boss saying how good I was and how much they enjoyed the tour.
In this next photo, I am explaining where the driver wants to put his front tire when coming in for a Pit Stop.
The teams don’t want the car too close to the wall, so the Jack Man can use his jack to lift the car. If the car is too close to the wall, it makes it hard on the Jack Man and possibly slows down the Pit Stop.
Also, the teams videotape every Pit Stop to see how they did. The camera is on a yellow pole hanging over the Pit Stall, aimed straight down.
Since it is aimed straight down, you can’t tell what track you’re at. So the teams write on the ground so they know where the footage came from.
In this picture, you see CHI for Chicago.
The VIP guests loved being near all of the race cars and trucks.
Here I am at a race, letting people pose for photos in front of a racing truck.
I gave copies of my notes to my co-workers and told them how to give a good Pit Tour. Soon, they were giving good Pit Tours and it took some of the burden off of me.
My tours were so informative, that I was asked several times if I had been a driver. Some kid even asked for my autograph.
Some people brought their video cams and taped my tours. So there are videos all over America of me talking about racing.
I was told several times, over the years, that I should write a book because I knew so much about racing from my notes.
A Pit Tour Guide book would be fun to write, but I haven’t considered doing that thus far in my life. Also, a lot of information may change from year to year, so I would have to constantly upgrade my notes.
I wish I had kept a Journal, where I had notes about every race I attended. I’d like to read through it and laugh about all of the practical jokes we played on each other while traveling and all the cities I visited.
I have lots of photos, but having the stories would be great because over the years I’ve forgotten so much stuff that happened.
I got to meet a lot of drivers while I was working in this job.
Here I am with Al Unser, Sr. He gave me a ride around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where they race the Indy 500.
After the tours were done for the morning, I would help out in the Hospitality Tent.
Here I am helping a driver while he autographs some things for the guests.
We would hold raffles and give away lots of prizes.
Getting the prizes together was easy. Even though they weren’t for me, spending company money on prizes was always fun.
Over the years, I did amass quite a collection of racing memorabilia.
I sold most of it to a true race fan after I was out of motorsports.
Sometimes, after a race, I would throw out hats to the race fans. They loved free stuff.
Being a lifeguard, then a Tour Guide are the two major jobs I’ve held in my life and both were a blast. I worked these two jobs for almost 25 years and I’m 50 now, so that’s half of my life either swimming or traveling.
I liked lifeguarding because of the tan and bikinis, but traveling all over America is hard to beat.
I got to experience things that many can only dream about. And for that I’m very grateful.
I hope you love your jobs as much as I have loved mine.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
In all of my years of working in motorsports, I’ve noticed things and did a little research.
The following photos are from all over the country. Pirates love racing. And these are just the ones I saw. How many more are out there?
This Pirate Flag doesn’t stand out like the first one, but it’s still noticeable.
Number three is very easy to see.
The fourth flag stands out quite nicely. When you’re photographing a moving flag, you never know what you will get.
There are so many Jolly Roger’s out there, it would be impossible to know for sure how many ‘New Age Pirates’ are out there. If I only had a way to get all of these Pirate fans to check out my sites and logos.
If you haven’t heard of a ‘New Age’ Pirate, that’s because I coined the phrase to help define an attitude that some have about life… and death in the 21st century.
It stands out when it’s by itself.
Here it is again.
A little hard to see, but it’s there.
Maybe one day, they’ll be flyin’ my flags.
Another easy to see one.
America, racing and pirate flags.
The merchandisers get in the spirit also.
Even the smaller tents have Pirates in them.
Talking about Pirate Flags and Banners started me thinking. I just took a coffee break and designed a pretty good Banner for the race fans.
The logo is cool. The lettering matches the skull logo. It has the all important word Racing. But notice mine has the word Team added.
You never see companies making Banners that say Racing Team. I’d bet a lot of money that if you gave a racing fan the option of any other company’s Banner or mine.
Well, you just might lose big. If it’s one thing I know, it’s what racing fans like. I made this Banner in about 20 minutes. And most of that was shopping online for some new fonts.
I’m sure I’ll see more Motorsports Pirates during my trips to the race tracks, so I’ll add to this post periodically. Check back for updates.
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
Of the many things I did in motorsports, one of the most fun was being a Banner Boy. I coined that name. I even developed a cartoon strip to chronicle the adventures of Banner Boy & the Cable Tie Kid, lol.
Every company in racing has several Banner Boys. All of us would prepare our hundreds of Banners ahead of time for race day morning.
Some got on the road at about 5am or 6am. They were too late. I had started at 3am on almost all the days that I hung Banners, as we called it. The Banner Boys would load their vans or trucks with all of these Banners and start driving towards the race track.
Then, every so often, we’d stop, get out, put up some Banners, drive a little, stop and do it again. The location dictated how many Banners you could put up. If you came across a nice fence, that was great.
I’ve been out in the dark, with a head light to see by. The head light that fits on your forehead with an elastic band. Try pounding stakes in the dark and the cold sometimes, with your light shaking with every blow. Sometimes you hit the stake, and sometimes not.
In my years as a Banner Boy, I’ve hung banners on chain link fences, wood fences, wooden stakes, metal poles, buildings, on the way to the track, at the track, restaurants, Driver appearances, contests, Winner’s Circle, Victory Lane and everywhere in between.
I only made the mistake once of drinking the night before Banner Day aka Race Day. I was in Dallas and that was a long road to the track. I had lots of banners, stakes, mallet, cable ties, staple gun and some duct tape loaded in the rental truck.
I was ready for Sunday morning, so I went to the hotel bar and hung out for a bit. At 3am I was still sitting in the bar drinking. I can still remember the guy’s name my sister and I were hanging out with… Myles, from GMAC I think.
The irony is that we were making all kinds of jokes up for the adventures of Banner Boy & the Cable Tie Kid. We laughed all night.
At 3am, I showered, dressed and left to Banner the route to the track. I was by myself this time. I would have loved to have had help, especially in my state.
That day, at the Texas NASCAR race, I had to work another 17 hour day. I was so tired when I got back to the hotel. I swore that I would never drink on Banner Day’s Eve again, lol.
And if I ever see Myles again, I’m going to kick him in his ass for getting me drunk the night before a big day for me.
As I said earlier, I was an early riser. I usually had Bannered all of the good spots along the route to the track by the time the other companies were just starting.
Then the race fans, tens of thousands, would drive by and see my Banners. I know the other Banner Boys were pissed to see my Banners in all of the good spots.
It was always a great feeling when my superiors came up to me and mentioned how well I had Bannered the route. After Bannering, I’d be at the track early, get my coffee and walk around, watching this very epic and exciting day unfold.
It was an unwritten rule that you never took another companies Banners down to put yours up. Now as far as the race fans, they take anything.
Here is the definition of Futile… I’m putting up Banners on the way to the track early in the morning. As I’m working, something catches my eye, so I look over to see race fans 100 yards away taking the Banners I just hung.
The morning of the race, traffic gets backed up terribly in some cities. The Texas NASCAR race is like that. So, race fans are in stand still traffic, trying to get to the race. They’re stuck in their car, sitting still.
They look over and see Banners on the fences, so they hop out and go cut them down. This is the bane of a Banner Boy’s existence.
Banner Boy & the Cable Tie Kid have many ‘run ins’ with race fans over stealing Banners. Banner Boy takes Banner Thievery very seriously, as do I.
Race fans can get someone fired. Say they take all of the Banners along the route to the track and even at the track. What will happen to that Banner Boy when his boss doesn’t see but 2 Banners along the whole route.
I enjoyed Bannering. It’s one of the first things I did when I started out in motorsports. There’s something to be said for a sense of accomplishment and with Bannering, you had that. You could physically, see what you had just done.
Get a photo to show your boss because the race fans are coming, lol.
At the Indy 500, I had a great assignment. Go to the campground and hand out free racing Banners to wild and crazy race fans. I loved it.
As you can see, Pennzoil was one of the companies I represented.
The second we would pull up, they’d come get the freebies to decorate their campsites.
One time, we were at the airport with hundreds of Banners in the back of the minivan. Then we had a flat. A nice Indy cop let us change the tire there in the pick up lanes.
The really suck part about it was that the jack and spare tire were in the floor panel, under hundreds of Banners. We had to unload on the sidewalk, right in the middle of the airport, on Indy 500 weekend, to get the job done.
Imagine, a pile of bright yellow Banners, hundreds of them, in a large pile in the very busy Indy Airport pick up lanes. Our minivan was parked next to a sidewalk, thankfully. So we were able to unload onto the sidewalk.
Just think if we weren’t near the sidewalk. I guess drive that bitch until the wheel comes off or you get somewhere that we could change it.
Every year, I met lots of people. And every year we were offered beers. Usually, I never took a drink, but when we were offered Bloody Mary’s, I accepted. They were great.
We’d open the side door of the van, for easy access to the Banners, then just drive around the campground, giving away promotional materials.
I say promo materials because on occasion we had Pennant Rope to accompany the Banners, as well as Decals, at times.
It’s like Xmas for race fans when you give away cool promotional items.
This is a nice photo because you can see the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the background.
In this next pic, you can see the Pennzoil Pennant Rope I handed out the previous year.
If I ever made some ContraGear Racing Banners, I’d personally give them out at this campground. They’d go crazy for my Banners.
I’ve been noticing things and doing a little research. The following photos are from all over the country. And these are just the ones I saw. How many more are out there?
This Pirate Flag doesn’t stand out like the first one, but it’s still noticeable.
Number three is very easy to see.
The fourth flag stands out quite nicely. When you’re photographing a moving flag, you never know what you will get.
There are so many Jolly Roger’s out there, it would be impossible to know for sure how many ‘New Age Pirates’ are out there. If I only had a way to get all of these Pirate fans to check out my sites and logos.
If you haven’t heard of a ‘New Age’ Pirate, that’s because I coined the phrase to help define an attitude that some have about life… and death in the 21st century.
It stands out when it’s by itself.
A little hard to see, but it’s there.
Maybe one day, they’ll be flyin’ my flags.
Even the smaller tents have Pirates in them.
Talking about Pirate Flags and Banners started me thinking. I just took a coffee break and designed a pretty good Banner for the race fans.
The logo is cool. The lettering matches the skull logo. It has the all important word Racing. But notice mine has the word Team added.
You never see companies making Banners that say Racing Team. I’d bet a lot of money that if you gave a racing fan the option of any other company’s Banner or mine.
Well, you just might lose big. If it’s one thing I know, it’s what racing fans like. I made this Banner in about 20 minutes. And most of that was shopping online for some new fonts.
This old bus wouldn’t look as nice without the racing Banners and Pennant Rope. They look like true race fans. And you’d be surprised at this.
If a company doesn’t put the word Racing on their Banners, the race fans won’t want them as much as a Racing Banner.
What is a campsite without a comfy old couch? I almost wrote sofa, but that is definitely a couch, lol.
I always tried to get good group photos for two reasons. One, we used the photos in our ‘After Event Reports’ to corporate, to show them what we were doing in the field and how we were promoting their brand and products.
Two, was that I’ve had my websites for years now and I always handed out a card with my website on it. A few days after the race, they could visit my site and download their photo for free. I was the only Banner Boy offering that service.
So when you look at these next photos, think about me getting the photo right so they’d have a good memory of their race weekend. All of the people came to my site and got their pics. I imagine some got framed and are in the living room somewhere.
Even the ladies got into the Banner Battles.
Sitting around your campsite with family and good friends, drinking while you wait for the Greatest American Race. Not a bad way to pass the time.
Yo whaddup?
As a Banner Boy, part of your job description is pulling practical jokes. Or at least that’s what I thought, lol.
My cohort and I used to pull a great trick on the girls that worked with us. Somehow, we got the keys to their vehicle, most times a van. A van made it easy to get their keys because we always said we had to go load the van with race day supplies.
Johnny and I would take some baby powder and straws to their vehicle. Then, we would load up the air vents, using the straws, to put baby powder in these AC vents.
You turn the AC controls to high, so the next morning, the girls get in, start the van, the AC kicks in on high, and the girls get covered with white powder. Man would they get pissed every time they fell for it.
This next pic makes me laugh. The guy taking a drink of his beer just as the photo was taken, in particular.
He had a checklist for Race Day. Wear a NASCAR shirt to the Indy 500. Check. Get a photo of me drinking my beer. Check.
These next people had the right idea. Party in the shade.
These people definitely liked this photo.
And these guys weren’t having any fun at all, lol. One guy asked if he could take his dick out.
This is a great picture.
While working on this post, I’m missing racing, then I think of the constant traveling, long hours and how it wears you down. I’d love to go back to this campground area again. It’s just as fun for the NASCAR Brickyard 400.
I made it possible for all of these race fans and many more, all across this country, to get fun photos from the races they attended. You know, I never got one single email. Not a single thank you or even bitching about the pic.
I guess they were pleased. Believe me, these days, people bitch at the drop of a hat.
Everybody wants to raise their shirt or show me their garnubles and batons.
Pay close attention to that particular banner. It almost got me fired, lol.
You definitely notice all different levels of camping when you go to the campground. Some have good set ups, while others are ‘roughing it’ a bit more.
You will see most anything and everything at the campground.
Notice this year of bannering, they took the word Racing off of their banners. People still wanted them, but just the word Racing makes it that much cooler.
This guy had a motorized recliner to cruise around on.
I had some beers with these guys. This was his imitation of a driver in turn 4.
This was one of my favorite photos from handing out Banners.
Hey, fix that banner, bunch of slackers, lol.
How would that picture look if they were standing next to three ContraGear Banners?
Even the guys wanted to show me tit.
Hold on there.
Watch out, now.
Banner Boy has fans countrywide. They love to dress up, with the trademark Banner cape, to look like Banner Boy, lol.
That’s me helping Banner a wire. Again, the word Racing makes them look so much better.
These would be taken overnight by someone from the campground across the street if they had Racing on them.
That’s bad for the company who buys them because they’re not up very long if they’re cool Banners. But that company’s Banners are hung up in garages, businesses, man caves, etc. all over the country.
Here I am arranging a group photo.
I think it came out great. I know they loved this pic.
Aw hell, sumbody done done it.
And then they doubled down.
And it’s not even Mardi Gras, lol.
Okay, now here’s where I begin to sweat. I had brought my photographer friend to Indy with me to cover the weekend in photos.
And yes, that’s a dildo. Notice the cardboard sign says, ‘Chicks Ride Free’.
Now is when I was sure I was getting fired. These girls starting showing everything, the crowd was snapping photos and all right in front of my Banners.
At this point, I know I’m going to be working on my resume. Look at this next photo real well.
Yep, that’s a Beer Bong through her legs. That banner was placed so well and here it is, the reason I get shit canned.
And my photographer friend was snapping away with his camera, along with a large crowd of race fans, doing the same thing.
I was worried about nothing. Nothing came up, so I guess it was a case of race fans doing what race fans do, have unadulterated fun.
I think she lost a contact.
Well, that was a look at the wild campground next to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
I also promoted my company when I was talking to all of those race fans.
I hope you were entertained while reading on this article. You see, even Banner Boys get to pose with the trophy, lol.
Until next time, be safe and have a chill day.
That completes this IndyCar 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
Hello, I worked in racing for about a decade. I used to joke that I had amassed enough experience and knowledge that I had earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Motorsports.
I have completed work on a course curriculum for earning a degree in Motorsports. This course load will cover NASCAR, IndyCar and the NHRA (Natl. Hot Rod Assoc.).
Here are the 3 areas of study. Click on them to see the different courses.
Congratulations for seeking a degree from the Universite de Arachnida.
This is the NHRA (Natl. Hot Rod Assoc.) track in Baytown, TX, outside of Houston. On the NHRA schedule it says Houston, so everybody says that and not Baytown.
Lots of companies use models to promote their products or services. The NHRA is no different. I hired a model to help me for a weekend at the Spring Nationals. Here’s how it went.
O’Reilly Auto Parts sponsors a lot of NHRA Events throughout the year.
The NHRA has a great Manufacturer’s Midway. Lots of interactive things for the fans to participate in.
POWERade was a Major Sponsor for a time.
There’s something about pretty girls and motorcycles. The combination always makes a good photo.
And when it’s 2 bikes and they’re Harley’s, well it’s great looking.
It’s tough to say which Harley photo I like best.
Okay, it’s this one.
We worked for Quaker State and Pennzoil this weekend. Here we are in Tony Pedregon’s Funny Car Pit Area. This was the photo used on Fe’s Autograph cards.
Fe is wearing the Event Hat that they produce every year. They stand out and are great collectibles for those Hat Aficionado’s.
The thing I always wondered about bikes like this… you can’t give beautiful girls a ride.
You’d be very surprised at how many cops want to be Drag Racers.
Houston has more than its’ share of Speed Demon Cops.
I like looking at them all.
This is my favorite so far.
Okay, scratch that. Any Bandit car from ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ always wins in my book
Drag Racing Fans take the used tires from the race cars and bring them home.
Then they turn the tire on its’ side in front of the couch and put a piece of glass on it and call it a living room table.
Pretty innovative and shows your friends and family your Racing Style. Fe and this Fan are comparing Driver Autographs on their backs. Hers on her shirt and his on his chair.
Fe had Autograph Cards and some Sharpies to sign them with. Notice the Pennzoil Banner we put up. That will be discussed in NHRA 101: Branding.
Racers love models. We had no problem getting a photo with any of them.
The Media Team wanted a pic with Fe in their golf carts.
I love the flags on his Quad Runner and the wind was blowing just right for this photo.
We had a golf cart also and everywhere we stopped, a crowd gathered around Fe.
Pay attention to my photography at times. I could have cropped the picture for a ‘Close Up’ of Fe and the Fans, but I didn’t want to cut out the Harley-Davidson and Vance & Hines logos.
Photography is important in all aspects of Motorsports. If you’re not good, practice.
Fe was great with the fans and they loved her.
Fe posed for a pic with the Miller Lite Girls.
I think Motorcycle Cops are the coolest cops there are and this one looks pretty cool posing with Fe and his bike.
These guys flew the helicopters over the Track before racing began. The crowd loved it. And those hats are boss.
Here’s Fe with the whole crew. In the background are 3 Inflatables. The orange one for Fram filters. The blue one for POWERade and the yellow one we put up for Pennzoil.
They are Trackside to be seen by the fans in the bleachers and most importantly, the TV Cameras. Air time is money. Remember that.
I love seeing the Military enjoying themselves. People love men in uniforms.
In the NHRA, the Drivers are much more approachable. Fans can get anything autographed by a driver if they go to his Pit Area and catch them between rounds.
I mentioned this before, but I love Fe in that Sponsors hat.
Racing Sponsors spend millions of dollars to get their logos, products and/or services exposed to the public in the hopes of increasing sales.
As I mentioned earlier, Fe and I were at the races to work for Pennzoil and Quaker State, two major oil companies.
When Fe was going to take the photo, I told her to cover up his Valvoline logo on his shirt so we couldn’t see it in the photo. Valvoline being another competing oil company.
When working in Motorsports, you have to constantly be aware of your surroundings and your job. An opportunity can arise at any time.
At the end of the day, Fe had accumulated quite a lot of autographs on her shirt.
The guys working for the NHRA were all nice enough to stop and pose for a quick pic.
Tony Bartone was walking by so we stopped and asked for a photo and he was nice enough to oblige.
Here is Fe and the Harley-Davidson guys. Can you guess what category they compete in? Look at their awning and how they logo’d it with that purpose in mind.
This is a great photo for Fe and I. The fans are wearing Pennzoil shirts and carrying Quaker State bags. Win win for everyone. Oh, and so you know, Pennzoil and Quaker State are owned by the same company. They still compete against each other as separate entities, but the money goes to the same bank acount.
In this photo, notice how I cropped the picture to leave in the Quaker State logo on the Team Hauler.
Right now, the team is in their Pit Area, working on their Race Car, while fans accumulate to watch and wait for Autographs.
Companies love cute kid photos because they create that ‘Warm & Fuzzy’ feeling, to put it in Marketing terms, lol.
Kids today are spenders ‘On the Way’. Don’t use that, I just coined it.
Notice in this pic how I cropped the photo but left his little brother in it.
As far as ‘Warm & Fuzzy’, this pic has it. Go on and say it, “Aww.”
Some fans wanted their own photo instead of downloading one from my site. At every event that I attended, I always took lots of pictures.
And every time it was people, I gave them my card so they could visit my site and get their photos for free. Lots of people across America have pictures from my site.
Parents love when you show their children some attention, but it has to be authentic. You can’t be an asshole, then try to ‘act’ nice. You have to ‘be’ nice, or they see right through you.
The NHRA is the only racing where they sell Gas Masks because of the fumes in the Pit Areas.
Some people don’t care for Track Food or Carnival Food. After eating it for about a decade, I’ve grown to love it, even crave it.
Turkey legs are very popular at a lot of Tracks.
Models are like magnets and the men and boys are drawn to them. Make sure you’re using models in the right way and not just for Sex Appeal.
People would crowd around Fe, so much so, that at times it was hard to see her. I see Quaker State Bags. Somebody’s been working.
Some guys got a little too ‘Touchy Feely’ for my tastes. Notice he’s on his tiptoes. O’Reilly Auto Parts didn’t make Table Covers for their Display Area, so the made due with a Banner folded in a certain way to resemble a Table Cover.
Here’s another guy with both his arms around her and rubbing up on her body. If it wasn’t educational, I would have left it out.
See the Quaker State Bag in this next photo? Companies love to create ‘Good Impressions’ with ‘Future Consumers’ and hope they have ‘Brand Loyalty’.
Some consumers start out buying a product when they have their own money and will stay with that company a lifetime. That’s why companies can’t have cartoon characters to try and sell cigarettes, like Camel’s Smoking Joe Cool.
I’m glad we brought enough Autograph Cards because Fe was signing all day long.
And she signed a lot of shirts.
Another Quaker State Bag.
The kid on the right already has his hat off and ready to be signed.
This guy’s shirt was signed by a driver earlier.
He’s wearing a POWERade logo’d hat.
The Army is a big Sponsor in Motorsports.
A good ‘Father & Son’ picture from their Day at the Races.
Fe had a lot of Driver’s autographs on her back.
Notice the cropping so the logo on the Team Hauler is visible.
Can you find the Quaker State Logo?
More Quaker State Bags in this next pic. I’ll discuss this more in NHRA 101: Branding, but I’ll say it here also.
The Quaker State Bags were better that the other companies bags. Look at the white Summit and the white POWERade bags.
They don’t have a nice plastic handle like the QS bag. QS spent the extra money for a quality bag and it paid off.
When fans walk by, QS people would open a QS bag and swallow up the person’s other bag, like a whale swallowing a smaller fish. And the fans loved a bag with a handle.
And then the day got good for me.
She was there to watch a Pro Stock Motorcycle Racer and dressed for the occasion. His name was Geno and she was ‘Jeannie for Geno’.
I didn’t care if she was ‘Jeannie for Joe Blow’, she was an attractive woman. Remember what I said about women being magnets?
Fe and I enjoyed our weekend at the Races immensely.
And then we went to the Winner’s Circle on Sunday.
The NHRA might not be as big as NASCAR or IndyCar, but it’s a very enjoyable weekend.
Richard Brady’s relative was the famous Brady that photographed the Civl War. Richard shot photos of cars going 300+ mph.
Notice Fe is now wearing a white shirt and in the earlier photos she was wearing black and an Event Hat.
This is now Sunday and the day of the Finals. She is also wearing a PZL hat. Richard is pointing at her shirt logo. At least I think he is, lol.
Now you can see the front of the Inflatables. I shot these photos from this angle to get them in the background.
When taking pics in the field, always use your camera or phone as an asset or very important tool.
Fe looks great in her white PZL shirt and black PZL hat in front of the PZL Inflatable.
In this pic, I made sure to include the PZL Track Signage.
These kids remembered their Day at the Races for a long time because of this photo.
Even ladies wanted their pic with Ms. Pennzoil.
If you ever attend an NHRA Event, try to notice the things I’ve mentioned. And practice taking photos with your camera or phone.
That completes this NHRA 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
In this NASCAR 101 Course, we’ll take a trip through a NASCAR Infield to see what we can see. And you will see how hard it is to get drunk NASCAR fans to wave on the count of three. It’s not as easy as you think.
First, as I said, they’re drunk. Or at least been drinking a lot.
And Second, you’re in the Infield and the noise is loud. Ever try yelling over race cars?
The following photos show you how much fun a race fan can have while at a NASCAR race. These pix were taken at Texas Motor Speedway, so thanx to the Texans, who always show up big.
Companies in Racing, spend tens of millions of dollars to promote their particular product or services.
One of the multitude of things they spend money on is Bannering. They hand out thousands of Banners each year.
When a Race Fan is lucky enough to get a cool one, they hang on to it and use it at every race for decorations of their camps.
If it’s one thing NASCAR fans are, it’s Patriotic. Their blood runs Red, White and Blue.
Notice they’re using some of the Pennant Rope I gave out.
Do you think they were Dale Jr. fans? Still are, even though he’s no longer racing. Across the country, there were quite a few fans who painted their buses in Tribute to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. This was one of the finest I ever came across.
The most important thing about this design? A secure railing. I think it needs more rails before I’d drink up there and try to sit down.
I’ve thought for a long time, that NASCAR has surpassed Baseball as America’s Pastime. Get on that.
This is one of the funniest I’ve seen. Oh and, don’t ask this type to wave. You’re wasting your time.
The best ones always get 2 shots of it.
Here’s another one that I wouldn’t personally get on top off. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like hospital trips while I’m gettin’ my NASCAR on.
Fonzie’s cousin loves racing.
Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but there’s quite a few campers or platforms that I wouldn’t get on top off.
This is a high dollar Banner. It’s a good color, it’s Budweiser so it’s cool because of that, it’s got a great logo of a gold crown, it says Racing and it’s a Welcome Race Fans Banner. Budweiser gets a Passing Grade for this Banner.
Now here’s what I’ve been doing. I yell up my intentions of getting a photo when they cheer.
Some hear me, some don’t. If you are a shy person and can’t talk to strangers, much less yell up to 20 or 30 of them, then Motorsports isn’t for you.
It’s a good feeling when it pays off.
These next 2 photos are of Banners I passed out in previous years.
Good Banners have a long life. And if they’re great Banners, they’ll last a long time or until they’re stolen.
These 2 groups had a nice set-up.
They had a good system working. Since there is no way they could ever get a Liquor License, they just gave the beers and drinks away. The catch, people were tipping them $3.00 for a beer and $5.00 for a mixed drink.
I love when campers use a lot of Flags. It really makes it feel like an Event.
This was a nice set-up. Two Motorhomes for sleeping and getting out of the heat and a great Partying area out front. Considering this and the Flags, they get a high mark for this camp.
If you decide to camp out in the infield of any track across the country, be prepared to know your neighbor quite well. The camps can be close at times.
But you can have a pool… until Ernie pees in it again, lol.
Some like the ‘Comforts of Home’. Why not bring your living room to the track? Great for chillin’.
But when you have gas, they make you sit over here.
Don’t come a knockin’ if the camper is rockin’.
You could meet Bo Derek in the Infield.
I got a nice shot of these gals with a great background of the Tower, the Flag and the crowded seats.
Then they asked for a ‘Close Up’. I like their choice better.
The reason NASCAR and the companies associated with it love Race Fans is because they spend money. With their jackets, hats, shirts and whatever is in their bags, they are carrying close to $2,000 worth of Racing Gear.
I’m always happy to see servicemen and servicewomen enjoying some valuable time off from protecting this Great Nation.
I like that they bring guns for their presentation to the audience.
That truck has been autographed a couple of times.
It’s funny because Jeff Gordon never drove the truck in the Truck Series.
He was more than proud to turn his head to the side so I could get a good shot of the truck.
I count 8 people on this golf cart. Tough number to beat.
Where else can you wear a Beer Hat and no one takes a second look.
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. was a great driver that is tied for all time championships with Richard Petty and Jimmie Johnson. All three have 7 titles.
Dale was killed in a terrible crash at the Daytona 500. Millions of Race Fans mourned that day.
To this day, fans pay tribute to Dale, ‘The Intimidator’ Earnhardt. He drove a black car and was NASCAR’s ‘Man in Black’.
These next few photos are of some people’s tribute to #3, Dale Earnhardt.
Cooking in the front.
Wood in the back.
This is a Volkswagen ‘Thing’. I shit you not. And what’s worse is it came factory orange, not kidding. This is absolutely the coolest Thing I’ve ever seen.
This is a very cool hood.
Here is the side of it.
Notice the #3 on the rear Quarter Panel for Dale and the #8, for Dale Jr., on the back seat.
You can’t miss his #3 for sure. The side of the car has a #20 for Tony Stewart, another driver.
This Jeep is one of the best vehicles I’ve ever seen at a track. What a cool way to get around. This is my Fantasy Car.
Here’s a pretty good way to Drink & Ride while in the Infield. Plus, he’s wearing Mardi Gras beads and flashing me the ‘Rock n Roll’ sign.
And no, those aren’t sodas in those cans. It’s got to be a pretty laid back atmosphere in the Infield when you can go get ice while drinking your beers.
You didn’t think I was going to leave without a pic with the Thing, did you?-
That completes this NASCAR 101 Course. Give yourself 3 Credits towards Graduation. Congratulations on your Quest for a Degree from The Universite de Arachnida.
To see other course requirements for your degree, see next link.
Hollywood is known in every country as the ‘Movie Making Capital of the World’.
The Hollywood sign is iconic and recognized the globe over. it was originally an outdoor ad campaign for a suburban housing development called Hollywoodland and erected in 1923.
It’s aspirational message remains the same, “This is a place where magic is possible, where dreams can come true”.
In 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce began to repair and rebuild the sign. The contract with the Los Angeles Parks Department stipulated that “Land” be removed to spell “Hollywood” so it would represent the district and not the housing development. And so history is made.
This article will focus on Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the Walk of Fame.
Sid Grauman and a friend went to check out his new house one day and when Sid stepped in the wet cement he got the idea to create the famous impressions in front of his theater.
Mary Pickford was the first person to leave an impression in the forecourt of the theater. Millions have visited the Chinese theater just to see the stars footprints, handprints and signatures.
Charlton Heston is in some of my favorite movies that I watched while growing up. He was in The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, The Omega Man, Solient Green and especially The Planet of the Apes, just to name a few. He won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in Ben Hur in 1960.
He has one of the more recognizable signatures at Grauman’s.
Sophia Loren has been a sex symbol her entire life. She’s an Italian born actress that began her acting career at 14 after winning a beauty pageant in 1949.
Sophia won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1962 for her role as Cesira in the foreign language film “Two Women”.
She has one of the neatest signatures at Grauman’s.
Kirk Douglas, and his dimpled chin, became a leading box office star in the 50’s and 60’s. He appeared in more than 90 films. I really liked his Western movies.
He made his impressions the same year as Sophia Loren.
Jimmy Stewart is in one of my favorite films, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. The movie plays several times a year during the Holidays and I always try to watch it at least once.
He is another person who made an impression that is easy to read. He also put the day in the date… Fri – 13.
Steve McQueen is another of my favorite actors. My favorite movie that he is in is “The Great Escape”. At one point he steals a German motorcycle and tries to ride to freedom. This is a high point in the movie for me and millions.
He made his “T” in Thanks look like a “J”.
Samuel L. Jackson is a very well-known actor. Some have said he’s in every great movie of his generation. My favorite movie of his is “Pulp Fiction”.
He’s the only person that I saw that wrote out the month in word form for his impression.
Michael Keaton was a surprise choice for his role in Batman but he did a great job as the caped crusader. There’s a lot of his films that I like. “Beetlejuice” is a great one and so is “Nightshift” but you can’t forget how funny he was in “Mr. Mom”.
I also heard that his movie “Birdman” was really good and he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. He lost out to Eddie Redmayne, who played Stephen Hawking.
It looks like he ran out of room for his date. He should have written the date below his shoes and he would have had plenty of room.
Bruce Willis became a star after his role in “Diehard”. He went on to make several more in the franchise as well as many other great movies. I think “Diehard” is my favorite though.
He wrote his catchphrase from “Diehard”. Yippie Ki Yay! He’s one of many impressions that have cracks in the cement.
Jim Carrey made the jump from T.V. to movie stardom. I like his comedies and also his more dramatic films.
He wrote “MERRILY MERRILY MERRILY MERRILY” in his impression. The rest of that is “Life is but a dream”.
Tom Hanks won two Oscars and is a well respected actor. He’s another who made the jump from T.V. to movie success. My favorite Tom Hanks movie is probably “Saving Private Ryan”.
Check out how thin his shoes were when he made his impressions. He must have small feet.
Jane Russell was a sex symbol in her movie career and made many men’s heart throb. Howard Hughes developed the underwire support bra for Jane because of her amble bosom.
jane and Marilyn Monroe made their impressions together and signed it with a movie they made together, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”.
Marilyn Monroe is everybody’s favorite actress. She’s still popular today and many people get a tattoo of her on their bodies.
My favorite Marilyn movie is “The Seven Year Itch”. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it.
Marilyn wanted to make a butt impression and have Jane make a boob impression but they were nixed on the idea.
Marilyn left a Rhinestone to dot the “i” in her name but a souvenir hunter later chipped it out and stole it. You can see where it was in the picture below.
Here’s a photo of Marilyn and Jane leaving the impressions in 1953.
This is what the two impression look like side by side. You can tell they were wearing high heels when they did their feet.
This was a great day for both women. I wonder if they went out and partied afterwards.
Before I start showing you the ‘Stars’ on the Hollywood ‘Walk of Fame’ I have to tell this story.
Johnny Grant is the MC for all of the events at Grauman’s Chinese Theater for making impressions in the concrete and also for the ‘Stars’ on the ‘Walk of Fame’ ceremonies.
When he got the chance to make an impression in the concrete at Grauman’s… he misspelled his own name.
He wrote Johny Grant. He forgot the second “n” in his first name. It’s a little hard to make out in my photo but if you try you can see the error.
Can you just imagine… You get the chance to be immortalized with all of the Hollywood “Greats” and you screw up your own name for everybody to see FOREVER!
I have more photos of cement impressions from Grauman’s Chinese Theater on my website but now I’d like to show you some of the “Stars” on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame”.
John Lennon became famous while he was in the Beatles and later had a successful solo career. Many people blame Yoko Ono for breaking up the Beatles and many still dislike her today for it.
My favorite John Lennon song is “Imagine”.
You’ll notice that John has a record with a needle on his star because he received it for his music.
Jimi Hendrix died too soon. I would have loved to see what he would have done musically had he lived to old age.
He has the record and needle for his music as well.
B.B. King just passed away recently and had a very long and successful career. I would have liked to see him play live but never got the chance.
He had his famous guitar named “Lucille” with him until the end. He also has the record and needle on his star.
Walt Disney is world famous for creating Mickey Mouse and other notable Disney Characters. His name is also well known because of the theme parks.
As a child, I used to hate Sunday evenings because school was the next day. The bright spot was that I could watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and then The Wonderful World of Disney next on Sunday evenings. I never missed either show.
Walt has a T.V. on his star because of his work in television.
Many don’t know the face of this next person. Care to venture a guess?
It’s Gene Roddenberry, the creator of T.V.’s Star Trek series. He’s got the T.V. on his star also.
Everybody knows this next person. It’s Leonard Nimoy, better known as Spock from Star Trek.
Leonard just recently passed away but will always be remembered for Star Trek and also from his star on the “Walk of Fame”.
He has a movie camera for his work in movies. Some entertainers have multiple stars on the “Walk of Fame”. Leonard may have another with a T.V. for his work in television.
George Takei played Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek series on T.V. He’s now more famous than ever and regularly makes public appearances at Comic Con type conventions around the world.
He’s got a T.V. too.
Johnny Carson is known as the most popular late night television host ever. I used to watch his show regularly and would laugh a lot. My favorite character he played was Floyd R. Turbo.
Some of his funniest moments were when he would invite animal experts on his show and he would interact with the animals. I think a monkey peed on his head one time.
Katherine Hepburn is another one of my favorite actresses. She and Spencer Tracy made a lot of good movies together.
She has a movie camera because she was a big time movie star of her generation.
Bob Hope was an entertainer all the way up until he couldn’t do it anymore. Not only did he make funny as hell movies, sometimes with Bing Crosby, and also host the Oscars the longest stretch, he also did USO tours for the troops overseas.
Bob is remembered with a movie camera on his star for his work in film.
Dean Martin is another of my favorite entertainers as a child. I’d watch his movies and television show. He also was a member of the “Rat Pack”. I bet he did an awful lot of partying in his day.
I think Dean is one of the celebrities that have multiple stars on the “Walk of Fame”. I think he also has one for his music career. “When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie… that’s amore” was a famous line from one of his songs.
Sammy Davis, Jr. was another member of the famous “Rat Pack”. He converted to Judaism and married a white woman during his career and in those days this didn’t sit well with many.
Sammy has a star for his music career and maybe one for movies too.
Grace Kelly was a beautiful actress that married into royalty from another country and quit acting. That’s too bad and I bet many hated that she retired from acting at such an early age.
I loved her in “To Catch a Thief” with Cary Grant.
Kirk Douglas is one of the people that have an impression at Grauman’s Chinese Theater and also a star on the “Walk of Fame”. Basically, everyone from Grauman’s also has a star as well.
Kirk Douglas was a stud actor that had great looks and great talent. My favorite movie of his is “There was a Crooked Man” I think.
On Saturday morning’s I’d wake up early, grab a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal and plant myself in front of the T.V. for the cartoons.
After Bugs Bunny and Scooby Doo, I’d love it when a Tarzan movie came on. I watched and loved them all.
Everyone of my age and older remembers Johnny Weissmuller as the original and only Tarzan.
Johnny was the best Tarzan, in my opinion, because he was a swimming champion. He was one of the world’s fastest swimmers in the 1920’s. He won 5 gold medals in the Olympics and one bronze for water polo.
He won 52 U.S. National Championships and set more than 50 world records, both in freestyle and backstroke. He was also purportedly undefeated in official competition during his entire competitive career. You name me another Tarzan that has the same credentials and I’ll mow your lawn for a year.
Harrison Ford will always be known as Han Solo to many millions even though he has had a spectacular acting career.
Star Wars was his break out role and he’ll always be remembered for it first when thinking of Harrison.
Other than Star Wars, my favorite Harrison Ford movie is the Indiana Jones franchise.
The “Walk of Fame” even has a dog with a star. Rin Tin Tin was a German Shepherd that was rescued from a World War I battlefield by an American soldier named Lee Duncan.
Duncan trained him and he began to work in Hollywood.
Rin Tin Tin was an immediate box office success and went on to star in 27 films during his career that gained him worldwide fame.
If Rin Tin Tin has a star you should assume that Lassie has one too. And you’d be correct.
In front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater you see many different people dressed up like characters that are famous and / or from the movies.
Here I am interviewing Elvis and Marilyn Monroe.
I met with “Charlie Chaplin” also. He kept putting his had out for me to shake it then he would pull it away just as I reached for it. Such a smart ass, lol.
“Crocodile Dundee” was cool. And he really looked like Paul Hogan as the character.
I got to interview “SuperGirl” as well. I thought she looked cute in her outfit.
Something worth mentioning, as I wrap up this article, is the mural just off of Hollywood Boulevard. It has all of these famous actors and actresses seated in a theater. Can you pick out Marilyn Monroe?
This next photo was from when I was invited to an Awards Banquet in Hollywood for a Screenplay I had written. It was a fun trip and I enjoyed receiving the award for my hard work.
The photo below is just down the block from Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading a little about Hollywood. Until next time, have a chill day.
I was working on a section in my other site, SpiderMichaels.com about the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and I got to a photo of this girl and her two friends. Then I remembered something that I had forgotten a long time ago.
I went to Sturgis, SD for the rally several years ago. I stayed the full week of the rally. I wanted to see it all. I brought a friend, Matt, with me. I gave him a camera and a videocam.
Each day, we would separate on Main Street and go on a quest to get great photos and video of the rally at it’s best. We went everywhere there was something going on and covered it for my websites.
We got so many different pics from the rally that when I returned to Houston, I had to categorize the photos in order to write blog posts about them.
On this blog, you will see posts about Sturgis in the column on the right of every page. These posts cover: Women of Sturgis (My most popular blog post – it’s been viewed over 50,000 times), Nice bikes of Sturgis, Unique Headwear of Sturgis, and many more.
Anyway, I just went a long way around to get to the point of this post. At the end of my week there, I met another cute girl and we made a date for our last night in town. She’s the one in the hat. She said that hat was her trademark.
She was staying in Deadwood, so I drove over that evening. When I met her at her hotel, we decided to go to Saloon #10.
Saloon #10 is famous for being known as the place where Wild Bill Hickok was killed.
In 1876, Hickok was shot from behind and killed while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory (present-day South Dakota) by Jack McCall, an unsuccessful gambler. The hand of cards which he supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the dead man’s hand: two pair, aces and eights.
Here’s a photo from inside Saloon #10.
We drank shots, laughed and had a great time in Saloon #10 that night. We talked a lot about Wild Bill Hickok and drank more and more shots.
When it was time to close, we walked, make that stumbled, back to her hotel. She invited me up for another shot so I went. What followed was the wildest night of my life.
She kept yelling, “Do me, Wild Bill!”, “Ride me, Wild Bill!” and other stuff like that. We did it on the bed, the couch, the floor, up against the wall, everywhere in that room.
At one point, the manager came to the door and said that a lot of guests were complaining about her yelling.
The next day, I was walking funny when I left her hotel. My legs were so sore from ‘riding’ all night. When I was walking through the crowded lobby the next morning, she yelled over to me, “See you later, Wild Bill.” Every eyeball in that large room went directly to me, Wild Bill. And then they saw me hobble out, lol.
Okay, I have to be honest. None of that ‘Do me, Wild Bill’ story is true. I just made it up to make you laugh. Pretty funny though, huh? I did have a date with her and we did drink in Saloon #10, but there was no riding going on, sadly to say.
I did it in honor of Wild Bill. I think if he ever read this, he’d laugh. I’d like to party with Bill some day. Maybe we’d double date and they could yell out ‘Do me, Wild Bill’ for him and ‘Do me, Buffalo Bill’ for me, lol.
I’d like to go back to the Sturgis Rally, but I’ll wait until they invite me back.
I visited three museums on my first trip to Santa Fe. This museum was probably my favorite.
When you first walk into one section of the museum, you’re taken aback by so many crucified Jesus’.
To have this old wagon on display is a very cool thing.
There’s lots of things associated with cowboys and their equipment, like these saddles.
This old drum has some serious mileage on it.
Having these old playing cards on display was pretty cool.
I liked that with the uniform they had a portrait of him wearing it. This was a good display.
The museum had lots of guns on display. There’s no getting around the fact that New Mexico was part of the Wild West.
This is a replica of the gun the revolutionaries used. Their supporters would hide bullets in loafs of bread to supply them with ammo.
The first gold strike in the Old West was made by Jose Ortiz in 1832 south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in what would quickly become the boom town of Delores.
The era known as the Wild West began after the Civil War in 1865.
The period ended around 1895, lasting for 30 years.
The most famous gunslingers in the Wild West were James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok and William H. Bonney aka “Billy the Kid”.
The Santa Fe Trail ran 900 miles from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe (now New Mexico). The Santa Fe Trail was one of America’s great trade routes until 1880, when it was replaced by the railroad.
There are young people today that don’t know what this is, or how to use it.
I can’t imagine the hardships of crossing America in a covered wagon. Rough and tough times for the frontier people.
This is a cool picture they had on display.
I enjoyed looking at this painting.
It looks like this woman is baking something in this photo.
Never a shortage on religious items.
Here’s a nice set of very old silverware from back in the day.
This is Pancho Villa’s death mask after he was shot and killed.
At the end of the second section, they had lots of photographs about things in New Mexico.
The photos were fun to look at.
In a third, smaller section of the museum, I saw this old printing press and had to get a picture.
The museum has some interesting things to occupy your time. The photos you’ve just seen are of the things I thought were most interesting. A lot of the other stuff wasn’t photo worthy.
I’m standing in front of a very large map of New Mexico that has lots of info on it about the state. It was very interesting to look at.
You should try to visit as many museums as you can. You see all sorts of interesting things and learn some great facts.
Overall, the New Mexico History Museum was definitely worth visiting.
On one of my visits to San Francisco, I decided to go see Alcatraz Island.
Myself, and a few friends I was working with at the time, took the tour boat over from the Fisherman’s Wharf area.
It’s a short ride and before you know it, you’re there.
The federal prison on Alcatraz Island in the chilly waters of California’s San Francisco Bay housed some of America’s most difficult and dangerous felons during its’ years of operation from 1934 to 1963.
No inmate ever successfully escaped The Rock, as the prison was nicknamed, although more than a dozen known attempts were made over the years.
Today, historic Alcatraz Island, which was also the site of a U.S. military prison from the late 1850s to 1933, is a popular tourist destination.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons viewed Alcatraz as “the prison system’s prison,” a place where the most disruptive inmates could be sent to live under sparse conditions with few privileges in order to learn how to follow rules, at which point, they could be transferred to other federal prisons to complete their sentences.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Alcatraz typically held some 260 to 275 prisoners, which represented less than 1 percent of the entire federal inmate population.
There was one area that we visited that was the Solitary Confinement area. That’s the next photo.
It was here that it got especially cold with the doors facing the wind and large gaps under the doors.
One of the worst things about Alcatraz is the noise. By that I mean, the prisoners could hear people across the water partying, drinking and carrying on at night.
What a totally depressing thing. You’re locked up for a long time, or even for life in some cases, and you have to hear people nearby, across the water, having the time of their lives while you rot in prison.
Many don’t know this but the guards and their families also lived on the island. Can you imagine growing up on Alcatraz Island as a kid. What a very unique experience.
Here’s a photo of the prisoners in the dining area. I bet the food was horrible.
The prisoners also had jobs while incarcerated. Here they are sewing something,
This next photo is of the hospital. I can’t imagine you received real good medical care while at Alcatraz.
This is a picture of the yard. You’ll notice the prisoners wearing coats because it’s chilly even in Summer in San Francisco.
Here’s some photos of the cells. If you do the crime, you better be ready to do the time.
Can you just imagine what life in a small cell like this was like. Prison is not supposed to be easy, in order to punish someone for their crimes. Alcatraz was not easy.
I bet these toilets were horrible and personal hygiene was hard to stay on top of.
You basically exist in a small bathroom, smells and all. No Glade back then, lol.
On June 11, 1962 three men escaped from Alcatraz: Frank Lee Morris, John William Anglin and Clarence Anglin.
If there was ever an inmate who was destined to escape from Alcatraz, it was Frank Lee Morris.
In the movie entitled “Escape from Alcatraz” starring actor Clint Eastwood, Morris was accurately portrayed as the keen and brilliant mastermind of one of the most famous prison escapes in history.
The escape plan took several months to design, and it would necessitate the fabrication of clever decoys and water survival gear.
Here’s a photo of the holes they made. Notice the fake wall to the left of the hole. That was used to conceal the hole from the guards while they worked on it.
Frank Lee Morris had spent a lifetime navigating the prison system before his arrival on Alcatraz.
Morris was credited by prison officials as possessing superior intelligence, and he earned his ticket to Alcatraz by building an impressive resume of escapes.
Here’s the other cell with a hole.
In case you’re wondering how these holes could have been concealed so well… here’s a photo of one of their cells. Lots of clutter to help hide their work.
The plan was extremely complex and involved the design and fabrication of ingenious lifelike dummies, water rafts, and life preservers, fashioned from over fifty rain coats that had been acquired from other inmates – some donated and some stolen.
The heads were crude but lifelike, and were constructed from a homemade cement-powder mixture that included such innocuous materials as soap and toilet paper.
They were decorated with flesh-tone paint from prison art kits, and human hair from the barbershop.
Here’s one of the heads they made to fool the guards. It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention. They needed to escape and they came up with these heads to aid them in their quest.
This is a photo of one of the dummies in bed as the guards would have seen them. It looks realistic and would fool a lot of people.
The FBI doesn’t believe that they made a successful escape. Here’s some of their reasoning why the escape didn’t work.
The formal plan was to steal a car and then perpetrate a burglary at a clothing store. No reports of any such crimes were filed in Marin County within a twelve-day period following the escape.
Sources reported that these three men had neither friends nor relatives with the financial resources to come to San Francisco and assist in the escape.
There would have been no way to communicate with outside contacts in order to confirm the date of the break and the progress of their preparations.
I guess you could assume that they drowned, but their bodies would have been found floating in the area.
And last, they could have been eaten by sharks.
Here’s all three heads.
I’ve saved one of the best facts about Alcatraz for last.
Among those who did time at The Rock was the notorious Prohibition-era gangster Al “Scarface” Capone, who spent four-and-a-half years there during the 1930s.
According to the biography “Capone” by John Kobler, Capone once told the warden, “It looks like Alcatraz has got me licked.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at Alcatraz Island. I enjoyed my visit there and would go back again. If you’re ever in the Golden Gate area, you should visit Alcatraz. I know you’ll enjoy the tour.
I always look forward to the Pirate weekend at the Texas Renaissance Festival. The festival opens at 9am. I left my place at 10am and it usually takes me about an hour to get there.
On this day, it took me 3 1/2 hours in bumper to bumper slow moving traffic. It was a beautiful day and Pirate weekend is really popular so I guess everybody wanted to go this day.
After 3 1/2 hours in traffic, I was burned out by the time I got there so I didn’t stay too long. The last thing I wanted was to get into traffic on the way home too. I still enjoyed my time there.
These two were having a good time.
I love taking group shots of people enjoying themselves.
This girl was busting out of her top, literally.
Here’s a good shot of a family. The dad had his whole head painted.
This couple looked great.
Here’s my favorite family shot. The little girl is holding up her hook hand. This gives me pleasure to provide a good memory for people. They’ll enjoy this picture for years to come.
These two girls were cute in their pirate gear.
This one girl is wearing fairy wings. They also have a fairy weekend too.
Notice how thin this ladies waist is with her corset on. Wow.
These two looked great also.
This was another nice group shot they’ll cherish.
I liked this girl’s face painting.
There were also barbarians there.
And Romans too.
Plenty of places to sit and eat. I love the food there.
I especially love the “Steak on a Stick”.
Here was a girl made up like a statue. She looked awesome.
This guy with the horse body is always there posing for pictures.
This lady was lying on the ground and when she moved and growled a little kid started screaming and crying. It was funny.
If I go next year, I’m leaving much earlier to avoid the traffic. But I’ll definitely be back.
I went to the downtown Houston Bayou City Art Festival and it didn’t disappoint. There were lots of booths and people walking around.
This artist used repurposed items to create some really cool stuff.
I didn’t ask the price but from my experience these pieces cost a lot.
Here’s a large rooster with lots of color.
They also had giraffes.
And in Texas, you know you’ll see longhorns.
This painting is of Rio and very cool.
There were lots of food trucks there also.
These skateboards with faces painted on them were awesome.
This was the first art I saw about Day of the Dead.
This mask with feathers was pretty cool looking.
The festival covered several streets in downtown.
Then I saw another booth with Day of the Dead paintings.
I love Day of the Dead items.
These paintings were really beautiful.
If I were a collector, I’d have bought some of these.
This one might have been my favorite.
It was a beautiful day to stroll through the booths looking at all kinds of art and jewelry. If you’re ever in town during the art festival, you should go. You’ll enjoy yourself.
While in college, I was staying in the dorms at the University of Louisiana. During my time there, my roommate signed up to apply for a Residence Advisor position. If you were selected, you received free room and food plus a monthly payment of $40. This was in the late ’80’s but $40 was still nothing.
The tires on a NASCAR car weigh 50 pounds each, and someone has to push them and carry them to the pits for all the changes.
The specialized NASCAR fuel is Sunoco Green E15, a 98 octane, unleaded fuel blend specifically engineered for high-performance engines and race cars.
Only a few years ago, NASCAR used leaded fuel in the cars that circled the racetrack each weekend.
All backed in.
Not many know this, but Pennzoil and Quaker State are both oil companies that are both owned by Shell.
And Wendy and I in Times Square.
A shot from on top of Seattle’s Space Needle.
Here I am inside of one of the casinos.
Dale only read a half a book about himself. It was written by someone else, and he didn’t even read the whole thing.
Racing Sponsors spend millions of dollars to get their logos, products and/or services exposed to the public in the hopes of increasing sales.
