Wrap up of the 2016 Power Tour

Sunday June 19th

We spent the night in Lansing KS, a suburb of Kansas City,  on Friday after the Power Tour festivities were over. 

We slept in a little before getting ready to hit the road and start home.  While we were loading the car we were approached by a older lady that was also staying in the hotel.  She needed help with some things in back of her suburban that had shifted around and were too heavy for her to move.  So, David helped her and heard all about the trip she is on and the trouble they have had.  Then we headed across the street to IHOP for breakfast.  We decided we needed a "real" breakfast after a week of quick hotel breakfast everyday. 

By the time we finished breakfast, got gas and got on the road it was around 10:30.  The GPS said that it would take 7 hours, driving time, to get home. 

We took the turnpike all the way through Kansas and made a few observations:

• Kansas doesn't spend a lot of money on speed limit signs
• The turnpike goes completely around all of the cities and towns.  We never actually saw Kansas City, Topeka or any of the small towns.
• There were not any Rest Areas like we have along highways in Texas
• The view is nothing but wide open country.  I can't even begin to imagine the bravery of our forefathers that settled this land, never knowing what or who was waiting and watching over the next hill.  It is truly amazing to think about what those people must have endured.   

By around 2 o'clock we were getting ready for lunch so we pulled off at Wellington KS.  The lady in the toll booth suggested "Penny's Diner" for a good lunch.  She was right, they made a really good burger and chicken fried steak sandwich.

We crossed over into Oklahoma around 3:15.  We watched rain in the distance all around us most of the day but only had a few sprinkles.  It felt like the roads in OK stretched as we drove, the miles were not going by very fast. 

We saw a few fellow Power Tour cars as we traveled through Kansas and Oklahoma.  It was really strange pulling in to get gas and not seeing the place full of other Power Tour cars.  I told David I wasn't sure what to do without having, printed instructions telling me every turn to take, names of the next towns and what signs to look for.  It's hard to get our of navigator mode after 7 days. 

On the way home, we came up with our list of the Best of 2016 Power Tour
     Best Hotel - Springhill Suites in Gonzalez LA
     Best Venue - Trader's Village in Grand Prairie TX
     Best Small Town Welcome - tie between Taylor TX and Blackwell OK
     Best Meal - BBQ sandwiches at 4H BBQ between Beaumont and Winnie TX
     Best Portion of the Route - Baytown to Austin TX
     Best People to Hangout with on the side of the road - all the people from Pro Touring Texas

 

We decided to make a short detour on Route 66 north of Oklahoma City and stop in at "Pop's" in Arcadia OK.  We had heard about the place for a long time and it seemed like a good time to stop in. 

This is a neon soda bottle in front of Pop's

By the time we were leaving Pop's it was around 5:30 and we were ready to be out of the car for a little while so we decided to spend the night in Oklahoma City, in the Bricktown area.  We had a hard time getting going on Sunday morning.  By the time we left the hotel and had breakfast it was already after 11.  We made it to my parents around 1:30 to pick up Fezzik (I sure missed that fuzzy face) and then finally got home around 2:30.

Day 7 Wichita KS to Kansas City KS

Friday June 17th

We began the final leg of the 2016 Power Tour at around 8:30 this morning.  We traveled through some beautiful country on the back roads of Kansas. 

 

This picture doesn't do it justice but here are some "Amber waves of grain" from American's heartland.

There was a lot of open road today, some of the towns seemed pretty far apart.  Even in the middle of no where there were people out waiting and watching for all of us to come by.  In one area they had 2 signs that made me laugh.  "Car Gazers Ahead" and "We still plan with old cars too".

We went through Strong City KS, a very small town that was completely over whelmed by the number of cars coming through.  It took us 30 to 45 minutes just to get through.  A lot of cars were getting hot since it was such a long wait and several had to pull off the road. 

There was another really long back up trying to get through the next town, about 20 miles down the road.  While all the cars were waiting to get into town, a lot of people were getting out of their cars taking pictures, getting drinks, talking to the next car, it was like a parking lot except we were on the highway. 

This guy was following us all morning.

We stopped in Council Grove KS for lunch at a little sandwich shop.  It was a good time to let the vehicles cool off a little.

Sam & Ashley started having car trouble again shortly after that.  We stopped in Stanton KS at Carl's Tire & Lube.  Those guys were great and really tried to help and loaned him some tools and stuff to work on the suburban.  Since it took a while we decided to go over to the highway instead of sticking to the route.  Sam ended up not making it to the venue and had to get his truck towed.  I hate it that they didn't have a good Power Tour experience! 

We finally made it to the venue, the Kansas Speedway, around 4:30.  We checked in and were able to get to the venders that we needed to see and then collect our "Long Hauler" awards. We left the venue around 6. 

We were completely exhausted and melted from the heat, no shade and not much breeze when we arrived at our hotel around 6:30. 

After cooling off we went to a local place near the hotel for dinner and then stopped at Freddy's Custard for dessert.

This is David's favorite car in our hotel parking lot tonight.

It has been a long, tiring week but it has also been a wonderful trip!!

Day 6 Oklahoma City to Wichita KS

Thursday June 16th
Sorry I didn't post this last night but there was an issue with the internet at the hotel we were in last night.

So the day started well, we were on the road by 8:30 and had no problem getting out of OKC.  Not far up the road is the town of Guthrie OK.  We began the days travel with a long traffic back up in Guthrie.  So what do you do when there is a back up like that?  You pull off and wash your car.

A little further up the road is Perry OK.  They were really into the Power Tour coming through their town.  The local police were out directing traffic and trying to get a couple thousand cars through the town with as little traffic problems as possible.  The next little town was Mulhall OK, I think every person in town was out lining the street cheering us on.  Tonkowa OK has a nice park where they were giving away hot dogs, water & cookies.  This entire town came together to make us feel very welcome.  We didn't stop but a lot of other Power Tour people did.  All of these little towns had some great old buildings.

 We did stop in Blackwell OK and had lunch at Bob's Grill.  The food was really good and the prices were very reasonable.  They also really turned out for us.  There was a huge US flag hanging over the road, they were handing out bottles of water and lined the streets cheering us on.  We were back on the road around 12:30

 

Leaving Blackwell the road that we were supposed to take was closed to due a semi truck accident, not related to the Power Tour. So we jumped over to I 35 and took it into Wichita KS. 

We made it to the venue around 1:30 or 2 and stayed until around 3:30.  When we were pulling into the venue our friends Joe & Linda were watching from near the fence and were waving to us.  Sam & Ashley made it to the venue and were at the Motor Medic area trying to find out what was wrong with their suburban.  We still haven't seen David's other friend from work, Mark Jackson and his family.  They have also done the entire tour and we saw their car at one of the venues but still haven't seen them. 

When we got to the hotel, a nice, newer Springhill Suites we were hot and exhausted.  David and Sam were trying to track down a fuel pump for his suburban and were not having much luck.  We decided to go to the place next to the hotel and enjoyed some pretty good pizza.  After we got done Sam & David decided to follow up on a lead for a fuel pump and were able to get it and get it changed out. 

I saw on the news that the Wichita KS and a lot of the area was under an excessive heat warning and will continue through the weekend.  From what we have experienced we have not problem believing that!

Day 5 Grand Prairie TX to Oklahoma City OK

Wednesday June 15th

We were on the road around 8:45 this morning.  It took about 45 minutes to get through the Dallas Ft Worth Metroplex and out onto the open road.  The traffic wasn't bad at all.

This Power Tour has become the "Framily" tour.  Today we went through Bowie TX which is about 60 miles away from home.  One of David's cousins and his Uncle Darrell came to Bowie to watch all the cars come through and we stopped and chatted for a few minutes.  While in Bowie David decided that he needed to pick up a quart of oil because we seem to be losing just a little.  After our little stop we were back on the road by about 10:45.  Here are a couple shots I took in Bowie.

Next our good friends Jim and Kassy Bever decided to drive over to Ringold OK and watch the cars come by.   

They followed us on in to Duncan OK and we were able to have lunch together before they headed home and we continued on the route to Oklahoma City around 1 PM.

The route up Highway 81 from Bowie to Chickasha OK was a really nice run.  It was totally different scenery but still very pretty.  One thing we noticed today is that no one seemed to be running in big packs today.  All of the cars were stretched out.  They were some smaller groups but no large packs.  Traveling in a pack is a lot of fun.  As far as you can see in front and behind you are other cars on the tour.  Hope it is back to that tomorrow.

We finally arrived to the venue, Remington Park in Oklahoma City around 2:45.  This is the latest that we have been all week so the line to get in was pretty long and required some patience.  When we were pulling in and looking for a place to park we almost immediately saw some friends from home, that David works with.  We went into the venue, got checked in and walked around a little.  Since it was later in the day it was really hot and I was melting very quickly.  After about an hour we were heading for the car and ran into our friends again.  So we visited for a while and finally headed out to find our hotel a little after 4. 

After cooling off at the hotel for a little while we decided to wander over to Bricktown and have dinner at Toby Keith's I Love that Bar & Grill.

Derrick's Friends Sam & Ashley live in OKC and plan to do the last couple of days of the Power Tour with us.  He has been having trouble with this 72 Suburban so David and I went over there after dinner to try to help.  We will see in the morning if they fixed it.

Here are a couple shots from the parking lot party at tonight's hotel.  Almost every vehicle is from the Power Tour.

We are heading to Wichita KS tomorrow.  We don't know of any friends or family in that area.  It will be the first day that we haven't met up with someone.

Day 4 Austin to Grand Prairie Tx

Tuesday June 14th 

We were on the road around 8 this morning.  We took the new(ish) road around Austin that has an 80 MPH speed limit.  Let me tell you how much David hated that  ... LOL.  It worked out really well and we avoided traffic issues.  A lot of other power tour participants took this road also.  We caught up with the route at Hutto TX. 

We went through the town of Taylor TX.  It had a really cute downtown area and there were people all through the town sitting and watching and waiving as we came through.  At the main intersection downtown where we had to make a turn the towns people were handing out bottles of water to the power tour participants.  A little further down at another intersection a local police office was working the traffic lights so that we had a green light and avoided a lot of long waits for us.  Taylor was a pretty cool little town!

Our first stop was on the outskirts of Temple.  The convenience store that a lot of us stopped at was completely over run but the workers there handled it like pro's, they did an awesome job.

We then went through McGregor TX which also had a neat downtown area.  Here is a picture of one of the really cool old buildings.  We had to laugh at the sign in the window that said "Hillary for Prison 2016".  The entire downtown area was lined with American flags, it was a great sight.

We traveled some great back roads today and couldn't help but notice the difference in the trees.  They were getting smaller and fewer as we traveled north.  TX Hwy 56 was a very scenic, curvy, hill country road.  The Hot Rod magazine people that picked this road did a great good.

We followed this beauty for awhile this morning.

We passed through Crawford Tx but didn't see George or Laura. 

We crossed Lake Whitney over the dam into the Bosque River.  The flood gates were open and they were moving a lot of water.  There was flooding in the area around Laguna Park. 

Lunch was a quick stop in Hillsboro and then we made it to the venue, Traders Village in Grand Prairie around 1:30.  The weather was much better today.  No rain and much lower humidity.  It was hot but bearable.  We stayed at the venue longer today.  This is the venue that we didn't think would be set up well, boy were we wrong!  This was the best one of the week so far.  The parking for participants wasn't very far from the main area.  There were plenty of gates for people to get in and out.  There were several food and drink vendors on site and their prices were pretty reasonable.  They also had really nice, big, clean restrooms. 

We checked into our hotel around 4.  After cooling off for awhile we met David's cousin, Marty and his wife Dee Dee for dinner.  We had a really nice dinner and enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with them.  Thanks for taking time out to see us!!!

We are off to Oklahoma City tomorrow and look forward to another great day.

Day 3 Baytown to Austin

 Monday June 13th

Let's start with Big Dave's lessons learned on this Power Tour
1. David doesn't need to drive in big city traffic; it doesn't bring out the best in him
2. Take plenty of cash.  Repairs are not cheap and not everyone takes credit/debit cards
3. Law enforcement officers can be really cool and helpful
4. Bring a low profile jack
5. Bring hand cleaner
6. Bring Teflon tape
7. Bring jack stands
8. Persevere.   Never give up ... never surrender

I'm sure that more will be added to this list as the week goes on. 

Today has been a good day with no major problems and no rain ... finally.  We needed a good day!

We planned to get a little later start this morning but were still up by 6:30.  We took our time getting ready and after a quick fuel stop got on the road a little before 9.  It took us right at an hour to get from Baytown all the way through Houston.  This is where we learned that David isn't at his best in big city traffic.  Most of the time the traffic wasn't that bad.  The few times that people cut us off or wouldn't stay in their lane or were more interested in their phone than the road, yeah, those times keeps it interesting.

We were able to run the route today.  The car did well.  The air bag was leaking down but would air right back up so it was all good.  We love rolling down the back roads with all of the other Power Tour cars.  There were several places where people on the side of the road waving and cheering as we all drove by.  That makes it really fun!

Here are a few pictures from a pit stop in La Grange, TX.  There was so many Power Tour cars pulling in and out it was it's own car show.

  We went thru a town, Round Top TX, that looks like a great area to come back and visit.  It was full of cute old homes and antique stores.  If we come back we may need to have a trailer, I could probably find a few things that I need.

Todays run was only about 175 miles so we made it to the venue, Circuit of the America's Raceway in Austin Tx  a little before 1 PM.  We checked in and visited a few venders and decided it was entirely too hot and humid so we headed to the hotel around 2 - 2:30.  The set up and at this venue was not the best.  The vendors were pretty far from where they made us park, there wasn't a good way to get everyone to and from the vendor area.  So it got really congested.  Anyway, we made it and had a good day.

This is the line of cars behind us waiting to get in

This is pulling into Circuit of the America's. 

Notice the temp and it was only around  PM

This is looking down the race track

Our hotel was only about 15 minutes from the venue.  It is a Holiday Inn Express.  It is an older hotel but has been recently updated, not bad.  We relaxed and cooled off for a little while then David went to fix the problem with the air bag leaking down.  It is holding air just fine now, YEAH!!

David's cousin, Dawn that met up with us in Baytown yesterday, was in Austin today for work.  We were able to meet up for dinner, that worked out great and enjoyed getting to visit. 

Here are a few shots of some of the vehicles in tonight's hotel parking lot.

This is one of David's favorite cars on the tour

Tomorrow we are headed to the Dallas - Fort Worth metroplex.

Day 2 Gonzalez LA to Baytown TX

Sunday June 11th

I forgot to mention in my last post that at packet pickup yesterday morning we ran into our new friends from Fort Worth that stopped to help us on Friday.  They seemed genuinely happy to see us and that we made it.

We were up by 6:30 this morning.  The run from Gonzalez to Baytown is the longest one of the tour this year.  We had breakfast at the hotel and were on the road by 7:45.  Our first stop was in Lafayette LA around 9 AM, this is where the route got off of I 10 and got onto some smaller state highways. 

We pulled out of the station and went down a couple blocks to make the turn and we heard an air leak sound so we pulled into a parking lot, it wasn't it a really great area of town.  A young man and his Dad from Iowa stopped to help us and ended up leaving one of their jack stands with us.  We need to catch up with them and return it. 

We don't know who took this picture of us in the parking lot but it showed up on Facebook. It looks like I am mad but I wasn't.

Anyway, David pulled off the right rear tire and found out that the bracket for the air bag was broken and had punctured the air bag.  He was able to pull off the broken bracket and air bag.  We were able to get back on the road around 10.  We decided that it would be best to not follow the route the rest of the way so we went back to I 10 and took it all the way to Baytown.  No air bag = a VERY rough ride!

We decided that we may need to rename this adventure the "Hard Luck Tour".  I told David that his mistress (AKA the car) is being too needy and a needy mistress is not a good thing.  LOL

Let me tell you something about roads in LA.  #1 most of them are not real smooth, #2 a lot of them are not really roads but just really long bridges.  We went over a stretch of road that was at least 25 to 30 miles of nothing but a bridge.  The bridge was so long that it had high bridges on it to go over ship channels and rivers.  Now, bridges are not my thing, especially high ones and when we had to travel on a bridge that had more bridges, let me tell you, I didn't like it!! 

We finally crossed back into Texas around 11:30, I was not sad to have Louisiana in the rear view.  Surely, Texas will be much kinder to us!

We made a brief pit stop in Beaumont Tx and were looking for someplace to grab a quick lunch.  We didn't really seem anything around but saw a Beaumont PD so we asked him.  He recommended a little store about 5 miles down the road that makes excellent BBQ sandwiches.  It is between Beaumont and Winnie TX, called Bar-H BBQ.  Boy was he right!!  I had a turkey sandwich and David had pork.  They were both huge and fantastic.  It really pays to ask the locals where to go.

We made it to the venue, Royal Purple Raceway but I didn't pay attention to the time.  We had driven through a few rain showers on the way, nothing bad but the skies looked like it was going to get worse.  We rushed over and checked in and went to the Air Ride booth to talk to them about the air bag problem.  They just so happened to have one (and only one) of the air bags that we needed.  The guy there told us to go over to the Mobile Medics and see if they could weld the broken bracket. 

David's cousin, Dawn that lives in the Houston area drove over and hung out with us for a while.   Thank you Dawn, it was great to see you!!!

Thankfully, they were able to weld the bracket.  We had to wait our turn so it took awhile but they got it done and David was able to start putting it all back together.  While he was working on it the sky was getting darker and darker and it started to sprinkle and then rain.  By the time he was finishing up it was raining really hard and the lightening was getting pretty close also.  We once again got soaked trying to finish up and put everything away. 

We headed out to find our hotel in the pouring rain.  Thankfully, it was only about 4 miles to the Holiday Inn Express.  This is a nice newish hotel, no complaints.  After checking in and getting dried off and cleaned up we asked at the front desk for suggestions on places to go for dinner.  The girl gave several suggestions.  We decided Mexican food sounded good and set off for El Toro, just a few blocks up the road.  The food and service were both well above average, we were very pleased and very full even though we shared an entrée. 

 

We plan on leaving a little later in the morning since we have to go all the way around Houston and don't want to do that at 8 AM on Monday.  Looking forward to a much less eventful day tomorrow as we travel to Austin.