Monday 7th June: USA Trip

This update has been a long time coming but as always we have just been too busy to get this written, as some of you may remember we went to the USA in March to watch the Gator Nationals and visit the Garlits museum. Well believe me when I say we didn't waste any time at all, we were up at the crack of dawn every day and not going to bed till the early hours, no point wasting time out there.

The trip started early one morning on our way to Gatwick airport, one thing we did do which was an absolute treat was to book in online
and then cut the check in time to about 2 minutes, really relaxing way to go about it. Once our bags we gone we proceeded to have a
walk around the shops and then went to get some breakfast, might as well start as we mean to go on!

We then has the usual wait and the boredom before we went to the gate to board the plane, great flight and we landed at Orlando at
around 3pm US time. Came through immigration etc without any bother and went to collect our hire car, ended up with a Ford Explorer
(only a V6) but a nice ride and plenty big enough for us all. I was the first to drive and I have to say that the roads out there a so easy
to drive on, they all just flow and make sense, like turning right if the light is red, great idea to keep it all moving along. First thing on the
agenda was to find our villa, went to the main villa office,
collected keys and we were on our way, again very east to find and first thing we all did was to jump in the pool....sadly I didn't really
check the depth of the pool first and promptly nearly broke my ankle, great, had a cracking limp for 3 days after that. The villa was a
cracker, bloody huge and had everything we wanted for the time there.

That evening we met our good friends Robo and Sam and went for a really nice meal out and a few drinks, then back to the villa for
some shut eye.
The next morning, after a visit to Denny's we were on the road for the space centre, what a great day this was, incredible engineering throughout and really enjoyed by us all, the sheer size of the Saturn 5 rocket was just amazing, a real testament to the NASA engineers who built it. As you can see from the photo below, gives an idea of the scale of it.

We were there for the whole day till they pretty much chucked us out, but if anyone is heading over there soon, then a visit is comes highly recommended, really great day......apart from the ankle pain anyway.

The next day yet again up early we went to a quick mall visit to pick up presents for the other halves so we were kept in the good
books, then a quick stop to get some petrol and we noticed a sign near the garage for helicopter rides, so off we went for ago, really
great views of Florida and the usual tourist places like Sea world and that. What surprised as all was how the helicopter handled, it
turned in the air so sharply and quickly, was really enjoyable.

Then we were off to my favourite part of the trip by a long way, this part meant alot to me as I had pretty much dreamed of going here
while I was on chemo, that place was the Garlits museum. Seemed to take us forever to get there but soon as we pulled into those
gates we all got excited like kids, my old man had been years ago but me and Adam had only ever looked at photos, first things first we
went to buy our entrance tickets and go to the toilet before we started, we then got the offer from Don Garlits to buy a book called
Crazy Horses, we declined as we already have it, and then mentioned that were also in the book, Don then asked us to show him so
we found the photo and chatted about the car and what ET's etc we have ran.

We then decided it best to walk around the antique car museum first and save the best till last, soon as we got in there we all just
dribbled, such a great place filled with so many iconic cars.

Spent an hour or so in there then we could wait no more and headed to the race museum, soon as you walk in your greeted by Swamp Rat I and the feeling in there is great, looking at the amazing history and innovation that Garlits achieved, the things he tried are brilliant.

I cannot explain in writing how much this meant to me to be there, it was an ambition of mine very much forfilled and Id like to thank my family once again for helping me get there, without there support Id be 6 foot under now. Talk about dream come true. Thank you.

We then spent the rest of the day in here, looking at every single car in there, its a fantastic place and we would advise anyone who loves the sport like we do to visit there without a shadow of doubt. We took so many photos (all on our website) while walking round, and these dont really capture the feeling and grandure of the place. Great time.

Lucky for us and the reason we went on the Wednesday was in the evening there was to be a cackle fest in the car park of the museum, so once they kindly asked us to leave the
museum we popped over to the taco bell near by then wandered back to see the car that had been brought out, just the cars on display was a treat but the fact they would be fired
later on was great.

Now before this trip I wasn't that keen on slingshots but having seen Swamp Rat VII in the flesh I now want one, well I want that car
but that's a little unlikely! such a pretty car, the perfect stance.

What we also noticed and loved was that 90% of the people there were all the old boys from racing, great to see them all chatting and
catching up and reminiscing about days gone by. Time seemed to fly by and it was time to fire the cars, obviously they did them one by
one and every single car sounded great, we took so many photos and video but it was all well worth it, a true privilege to have been
there.

The best bit for me was when the last car was turned off, Garlits just murmured to himself, 'rights that's it, shows over' and an
amazing show it was.

This was now about half nine so we though some food was needed so what better place to head for a meal than Hooters, we heard
that the food there was nice so off we went. I need say no more about this place as everyone knows the score!

Next morning we were off to the Gators, again as you can guess, all excited and couldn't wait to get there, arrived to it raining like mad,
but thought it might clear, silly Brits, should of stayed away but we went in bought some ponchos and walked around the pits, quiet day but nice to see the teams more relaxed and unpacking all the gear. We left it till around 1 ish then headed off a little damp. We headed back to the villa and showered and got some dry clothes then headed down to Kissamee to the fairground, went go karting and then for some grub.

Next day the weather was so much better and nice to be dry again, headed into the Top Eliminator stands and got settled, it was then that it really dawned on me and Adam (dad had been before) that we were here at the Gators, so chuffed. As the first pair of Nitro funny cars started all the hairs on my neck stood up, the whole days was so slick and went very well, have to say that the NHRA looked after that track like a baby.

One thing I do need to mention that we were so surprised by was the complete lack of interest for the methanol classes, we just couldn't understand why everyone went (even the NHRA and the big tele screens shut down) when they started, how can anyone not appreciate A fuel cars running 5.20's and Frank Manzo running a 5.4 it totally baffled us.

Same with the pro mods, the crowd just didn't seem interested, its so weird. One car we have to mention as we don't really ever mention other cars is the pro mod of Brad Personet, what a car. we were gutted when he went out, really loved the sound of that car on the line.

Back to the racing, we didn't leave the stands all weekend, other than downtime when we hit the pits where we got a gators t shirt signed by every single driver we could, its going to look good on the workshop wall.

Saturday night we headed back to Kissamee as there is a weekly car show we wanted to see, got back abit late to see all the cars but there were still some very nice cars there, as ever with cars we spent a few hours there looking at them all then headed back to the villa for some sleep.

Couldn't believe it was Sunday already, but we were back at the Gators, gutted it was the last days racing but turned out to be a great event and the weather turned out really well after the soaking on Thursday too.

We also took part in a first for the NHRA, a track walk in aid of the Darrell Gwynn foundation, this was brilliant, walking the track was great but alot of the NHRA stars took part too, my old man walked the whole 1/4 with Brandon Bernstein and Doug Kallita, both great guys.

Monday morning we were up early to pack and tidy the villa up and checked into our flights on-line, Robo and Sam then came to meet us and we were not sure what we were going to do, firstly we went to another mall, then Robo came up with the great idea of a gun range, so off we went. For anyone who has never fired a gun, it really is a good laugh but needs 100% concentration at all times, the power that these things have is frightening. We had a little competition too which my old man won (git), think he only missed the centre of the target once.

One other random thing we saw out there, shown below is that Milk per gallon is dearer than Petrol!

We then said our goodbyes to Robo and Sam, took the villa keys back and headed for the airport, we then slipped into that usual semi depression of going home, we loved it there, not just the racing and everything we did but the attitude of the people there, no one wants to fight you, when we went anywhere people were so polite, even the amount of people coming out the car park for Gainesville, everyone let someone out so it just flowed, not like the UK where no one lets anyone out.

Anyway my fingers are aching now, so going to stop typing but thanks for reading, hope you liked it.

For more photos visit our website at the link here http://www.bennettracing.co.uk/#/usa-trip-2010/4539803587