racecar spelled backwards is racecar

Today mom and I went to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Lenox Tools 301 Sprint Cup race!  I had gotten the tickets free from my in-laws who has won them, somehow, at the Oxford Casino.

We headed out early at 615am and made good time getting to the track and parked by 1030am. We parked by the south gate then made the over 1 mile trek to the track.  We stopped on the way at the sponsor booths and got some free stuff.  3M was giving away whole container of cleaning wipes, packages of 3 blue painters tape normal size rolls and other stuff.
From AAA I won a lens cleaner and got some ear plugs for free, which I used later.
We walked around the other sponsor trucks then headed into the track area.  We check out the driver trucks and mom had to gawk at the Tony Stewart ones, eventually buying her self a t-shirt.

We got to our seats, it was bright and sunny and just freaking hot out!! Off to our rights in the clouds was a partial rainbow.  It was so odd as it was just a strip of colors that was only in the clouds and was not a typical rainbow, but it was beautiful. 

The race started about 115pm and of course everyone stood for the first few laps.  This is my 5th going to New Hampshire for a Cup race, and honestly, even though I had a great time with my Mom it was such a boring race.

Denny Hamlin lead 240 laps while Kasey Kahne lead the final 61 laps winning the race.  Basically the guys ran in a single file line for the entire race,  no crashes, 3 cautions because there was "debris" on the track. 

I saw so many oddities, beyond the normal smelly shirtless men with no teeth drinking to excess.  It was apparently bare your midriff day as a good majority of the ladies where either wearing bikini tops of had rolled their shirts up inside so only their bra was covered.  I also have never seen so many women with multiple leg tattoos, one to the point I would call her a legs a "sleeve" as every inch of her visible legs were covered in tattoo's.  The coup de grace however goes to the young lady wearing a tube top and,  with no hands free as she's holding  a chicken finger basket in one hand and eating with the other, nestled her bud light can between her breast with a straw in the can!  

We got back to the the vehicle and got in line of the near motionless traffic.  After about 25 minutes we made it the 2 tenths of a mile to the main road where all lanes were east bound with no west bound traffic allowed.

For dinner I picked out Bonanza in Sanford. It is the only Bonanza left in New England and is still just as fantastic as I remember!!  Such a great place to eat!! My food was great, steak and chicken monterey, mashed potato w/ gravy and carrots.  Plus the endless salad and hot food buffet. 

I worked at the Bonanza in Augusta for a short time back in late 1998.  Here's another fact, Dan Blocker who played Hoss Cartwright on the TV show Bonanza opened the first Bonanza Restaurant in 1963 in Westport, CT.

That's all for now

Later Readers

Mike 

Ocean Adventures

It was an outstanding day to say the least!  Mom, Irving and I met Jason, Jillian & their boys in Boothbay Harbor at Pier 8 for some mackerel fishing!

We were fishing with Balmy Day Cruises and our boat was the Miss Boothbay.  Along with Irving, Jason, Bailey & myself were about a dozen other people that we didn't know.

We headed out at 1230 for our 2 hour trip.  After about 15 minutes then engines were cut and drifted in the water jigging for Mackerel.  They use no bait just a weighted hook that apparently works extremely well!

Jason, Bailey & I all easily caught over 40 fish each while Irving did well himself, but he wasn't putting in the effort like the rest of us.

At first the fish weren't biting, then suddenly everyone was pulling them in left and right.  After a while the boat was moved to another location for even more successful fishing!  A seal was even spotted.  There was some great sites along the way including Burnt Island Lighthouse and a really cool looking tree!

After about 1 hour 45 minutes we reeled in and headed for shore.  It truly was a great time!!  Mom, Irving and I ate a late lunch/early dinner at the Sea Basket in Wiscasset then headed home.  Mom told Jason that she would watch the boys so they could go out.  So I decided that I needed to go out.  

My best friend John was busy with his game night so I turned to my trusty friend Kate who originally was unavailable, but then things changed and she was free.

I really wanted to go to Moody's Diner for some walnut pie!!  The drive over was nice as the weather was gorgeous as it has been all week!  We headed towards Pemaquid, where we going to go after having awesome pie to find another location to eat.  

On Route 1 in Damariscotta we discovered The Mediterranean Kitchen, it's a Pizza, Gyro, sandwich and more place.  We both got salads, Greek for Kate and Grilled Chicken for me.  The chicken was phenomenal!!  I had feta cheese all over!! We bought baklava on the way out, I've never had it, holy shit is it good!

Then we headed down to Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.  It was so beautiful, weather was awesome, the views were awesome, I got some great shots of Pemaquid!

When we got there the light was off, but it came on before we left which made the pictures even better!  Kate had never been to Fort William Henry so we headed over there next.

Finally we stopped at Pemaquid Beach.  The gate was closed so we walked in.  The sand was soft and water was not to bad at all.  I took of my sneakers and socks and we walked along the shore for a while.  It was a wicked nice night!

It was a fun filled day and I'm going to close this blog out with a kick ass song that we heard on the way back Florence & The Machine:  No Light, No Light 

Later Readers

Mike

don't for get to check out the new Jenna Marlbes vlog!

A Traipse through the Witching Hour

I had a interview today with Delta Ambulance in Waterville for a per diam Emergency Medical Dispatcher.  I felt that the interview went well and I have a good feeling about it!

Then I did some shopping, which is unusual for me, at TJ Maxx, Mardens, WalMart & Barnes & Noble.   I came home watched some tube and cooked me some angel hair. 

Mom spend the day with Jason and his family and Irving had a load to Mass so I was by myself all evening.  I felt restless all day and just really wanted to do something with someone else.

As it turns out I wasn't the only one itching to get out as my good friend Kate and I decided to take a late night stroll on the Rail Trail.

We walked 2 miles down the trail then sat on a stone bench and looked at the stars.  Kate asked about a particular W shaped one curious what it was.  Thanks to the power of my kick ass phone I queued up Google Sky and we were able to see it!!

Cassiopeia

Cassiopeia is named after a queen in Greek Mythology.  We then checked out several other constellations and it was truly very cool!  Others included:

Aquila

Hercules

Aquila, Hercules, & Scorpion.  All very , very cool!  We, of course, saw a boatload more stars!! It was  great walk and a beautiful night for it!

Later Readers!!

Mike

Ricker-Heinold Respite Day 1

Today I awoke a bit past 8am and within the next few minutes I was dressed and heading to Portland with my mom to meet my brother and his family for what turned out to be and impromptu and unexpected day of fun!

First up was the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum in Portland.  Today was one of the rare days where they run the Steam Engine.  The train ride, which takes about 35 minutes, is nice and runs a couple miles on the Portland Waterfront in a mostly straight line.

It was great seeing my brother Jason, his wife Jillian and their three kids Bailey, Ethan, & Aidan.  Next we popped over the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse that is only about 5 miles away.  Jillian wanted to see a Lighthouse that she hadn't seen before.

 Today was an open house but the little kids weren't allowed to go in.  That coupled with the dangerous gaps in the breakwater only Bailey and I forged ahead to take the tour.

The breakwater looking back to land from the light

The Lighthouse itself is was first lite in 1897 with the breakwater added in 1951.  The lighthouse has a basement and 4 levels plus the lantern room.  The first level is the common area with the kitchen, the second level is the head lightkeepers quarters.  The 3rd level is the assistant keepers quarters and the 4th level is called the watch room.

Kitchen

Head Light Keepers Quarters

Assistant Keepers Quarters

While we were in the light the others check out Fort Preble and the shore line.  We could see Portland Headlight from here as well.

Next up we hit the Sea Dog for lunch after the wait to Becky's Diner was too long.  We then traveled to Gray to take in the Maine Wildlife Park because Jillian had never seen a Moose before and really wanted to...plus the kids would probably like it.  

I didn't take as many pictures because most of the shots would have been the animals in the background and mesh fence in the foreground.  Ethan just kept asking too see the bears over and over, and when we finally did he was so excited.

There was a black and a brown bear.  We then headed over the the moose and the bull was laying down on the far side of his area.  You could see him just not as well as we would have liked. 

One of the cooler animals there was this albino Raccoon! 

It was a great day!!  Bailey road with us for the majority of it and the weather was beautiful.  When we got back I assist Gram-Gram in getting her wi-fi up and running which consisted of another call to Time Warner Cable.  Jason & Jillian got her an IPAD and she appears to love it.

I found out today that Bailey is huge Rush fan, which is odd because he just turned 12, but he does have awesome taste in music.  So this it Rush track has been stuck in brain all day and this particular clip has a pretty bad ass opening bit!

That's all for now, have a great day!

Later Readers!!

Mike