Hendrick Motorsports & Family time

Barbara and Henry dropped by the motorhome Saturday morning for a visit and we wound up spending the day with them.  Lots of catching up and chatter.

We went to the Harrisburg Family House Restaurant for lunch a little after 1:00pm and it the parking lot was almost full and there were cars in the overflow parking.  Oh, Oh!  Not a good sign for getting a table, but we walked in and were seated quickly.  That was a relief since neither Henry nor I have much patience waiting for seating in restaurants.  We had a very nice meal and wound up with the same waitress from our trips there last summer.   No pictures of the food or people though.  Maybe next time.


After lunch we wound up at Hendrick Motorsports Museum and Team Store so Henry could pick up something.  They have a number of cars in there that were owned by Hendrick and many of them were retired to the museum.

As soon as you walk in the door, there are a number of cars on the left and we took advantage of them to get a couple photos of the group. 

Henry & Barbara

Gerry and Me.

Barbara & Henry are really into the NASCAR races and spent some time with us in Tucson last spring inbetween going to the races in Phoenix and Las Vegas.   They are working on attending every track where NASCAR races are held and are well along the way to seeing all of them.  Another "bucket list" for them.

They have the actual wrecked car of Ken Schrader at the museum where he flipped the car end over end and it became airborne.  Due to the construction of the roll cage and other safety features, Schrader walked away unhurt, but shaken up.  How would you like to have been along for the ride in this? 

My sister-in-law, Darlene Mc is a big Jimmy Johnson fan and a devoted follower of him.  I don't know if it's because he is handsome or just a good driver, but I have to include a picture of the car in which he won the 2007 NASCAR points series.  This one's for you Darlene.

At the present time Hendrick employs Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Gordon.  Barbara likes Kasey Kahne now since Ricky Rudd retired.

Jeff Gordon race car

One of Barbara's favorite drivers was Ricky Rudd and he drove the Number 17 car that was sponsored by Tide.  It always stood out due to it's bright colors on the paint job.  Ricky retired and others drove the car after him, but Tide dropped the sponsorship a few years ago.  Considering it costs $5-35 million to sponsor a car in NASCAR, it's no wonder they dropped out.


 

After visiting the Hendrick store we split up and Gerry & Barbara went grocery shopping,

while Henry and I went to their house and had a few brews.  The girls finally returned and we sat and talked out on the patio for hours.  Henry prepared some ribs on his new grill and we sat on the their patio enjoying some adult beverages and chatting the whole time.  As a matter of fact, Henry brought up the issue of gun control and we had to educate him on the issue.  Not sure we convinced him of anything, but we had some spirited conversation and still left as friends.  At least I think we are still friends!  After spending the day with them we returned to the motorhome  after midnight.