Travel Day & Arrival Day, May 24, 2023
We made it! We arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway around 3 pm this afternoon. Again, we were thankful for an easy, no-issues, travel day.
We left our campground by 6:30 am, knowing that we’d be crossing time zones and would lose an hour fairly quickly. We started the day thinking we wanted to get into Charlotte early enough to see a few sights in the afternoon but our plans quickly got side-tracked when we saw the exit for Taccoa on the highway.
I know, many of you have no idea what that means, but our 11-year-old knew exactly what it was. To say he is a World War II buff is an understatement. The kid is obsessed with all things WWII, and one of his absolute favorite movies is Band of Brothers, which focuses on the 101st Airborne during WWII. The 101st Airborne did their training at Camp Toccoa in Georgia. We just happened to be driving right by it. So, a quick 30-minute detour off the interstate and we were at the gates for Camp Toccoa. You should have seen his face! I think we made his whole trip with this one stop. Unfortunately, the camp is only open for tours on the weekend but we still were able to see through the gates to the barracks they have preserved, saw a C-47 parked at the entrance, and saw the memorials they had set up outside the gates.
We finished our detour and then hit the road again to head straight to Charlotte. We arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway around 3 pm. We spent the rest of the afternoon settling into our campsite, which is located just outside the racetrack. We are dry camping, which means no electricity, sewer, or water! Granted, we have a generator, which we use when necessary, and we did fill the camper full of water before arriving, though we have to use it sparingly, and there are shower houses available. So, we aren’t completely roughing it, though if you ask Macy she may disagree! Once we were settled in JB & I went for a much-needed run after two days of travel, we cooked dinner, then enjoyed the evening playing Baggo and watching the campfire.
Tomorrow we start exploring Charlotte, including a visit to Richard Childress Racing with a guided tour of the facilities. Stay tuned!