DAY 1 – WEST INDIES CARRIBEAN TRACKCHASING TOUR
MAJOR EDITOR’S NOTE
As you know, I go trackchasing all the time. Sometimes the trip can get to be somewhat routine. When you have done something like this as frequently as I do, I think you can understand what I mean. However, this weekend’s trip was one of the most unusual and entertaining of any trackchasing trip I have taken in my career. I think you will see why as you read today’s Trackchaser Report.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
This weekend I would be trackchasing in my 11th different country, Barbados. Let me tell you a little bit about Barbados....................more in “The Trip”.
Do you know which famous celebrity was married in Barbados in 2004?.........…………..details in “The Trip – Sunday Morning”.
Do you know what a ‘Chefette is? Hint: It is not a small Chevrolet…………..details in “The Trip – Sunday morning”.
I had never before seen this animal in the wild before. What was it? …………..details in “The Trip – Sunday afternoon”.
Click on this link or paste it in your browser to take you to today’s Trackchaser Report via my website at
www.ranlayracing.com
GREETINGS FROM BARBADOS.
I WOKE UP IN SAN CLEMENTE, CALIFORNIA. I WENT TO SLEEP IN DOVER, BARBADOS. I HUNG OUT IN BARBADOS FOR TWO DAYS BEFORE RETURNING TO SAN CLEMENTE, CALIFORNIA. THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY.
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
The Objective
You all know that I have multiple trackchasing objectives when it comes to counting racetracks. I am trying to see more lifetime racetracks than anybody else does. In 2007, I am also trying to gain my fourth consecutive season trackchasing championship. Then there’s the drive in the Far Western U.S. to get as many #1 rankings as I can as well as the lifetime National Geographic Diversity championship battle. Sometimes these objectives butt heads with each other.
Recently, I’ve taken a liking to attempting to build my foreign countries track total. Up until this weekend, I have been trackchasing in ten different countries. These include:
Australia
Belgium
Canada
France
Germany
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
United Kingdom
United States
That’s a pretty good list. I would have added the Dominican Republic last week except for a very last minute cancellation by the track. I rank behind only Roland Vanden Eynde and Will White in countries seen by non-race driver trackchasers. I plan to add new countries whenever I can. I suspect that many of Carol’s 2008 trips will involve new countries.
Of course, I cannot spend all of my time simply seeking out different countries for my trackchasing pursuits. There are several drawbacks to that idea. First, it would be expensive. It would also involve a good deal of travel hassle, much more than I have right now. Finally, it would play into the hands of my fellow competitors. My track production would fall and they would gain a competitive advantage. Nevertheless, I plan to continue to travel the world as I play with my hobby.
The Trip
The trip preamble
Following a little wine, good food and birthday celebration with Trackchasing’s First Mother on Friday night, it was a short night of sleep before I was Barbados bound. My alarm went off at 3:41 a.m. for my 4,058-mile one-way flight to Barbados. The flight availability looked good. In fact, it was so good I garnered a first class seat from Atlanta (ATL) into Barbados (BGI). I’m looking forward to a fabulous trip. Remember, I do this so you don’t have too.
This is my third visit to Barbados, but my first ever trackchasing trip here. When our kids were in the 8-14 age range, we made a trip down here for a Lewis family vacation. I must confess that our trip was cut short. This was the only trip that we ever came home early from. Let me tell you why.
On the flight into Barbados, our daughter Kristy’s bag went missing at the airport. It showed up a day or two later with all of her new clothes gone. We had rented a private villa. Although that might sound “hoity-toity”, in reality the place was only a small house. Its one redeeming feature was that it was on the water and had its own private snorkeling cove. This was the one and only time I have successfully snorkeled!
However, the house did not have air-conditioning. It was very hot, humid, and buggy. The ceiling fans could not reduce our discomfort. Where we were located, there wasn’t much to do. After just four days of our 7-day vacation, we couldn’t take it anymore. We headed home leaving our villa to be unused even though we have paid for seven days of accommodation. I’m hoping this trip will be better!
Tell me about Barbados
Barbados is an island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Venezuela. Barbados is part of the North American continent, even though it is within shouting distance of South America. It’s more that a four hour flight (1,945 miles) from Los Angeles to Atlanta. You can imagine my shock when I learned while flying to Atlanta today, that it was going to be another 2,113 flying miles from Atlanta to Barbados. I’m going to shoot my travel agent!
The capital of Barbados is Bridgetown. The official language of the island is English. They use the Barbados dollar down here. One U.S. dollar will buy 1.99 Barbados dollars. Barbados is an independent state and is the easternmost island of the West Indies. The island is small. It is only 21 miles long and 14 miles wide at its widest part.
Barbados is generally flat along the coast and hilly in the interior. Mount Hillaby (no, I didn’t make up that name) is the highest point on the island at 1,104 feet. The climate is tropical, tempered by sea breezes; the mean annual temperature is about 79 degrees Fahrenheit. The rainy season runs from June to December with an average rainfall of 40 inches on the coast and 90 inches on the central ridge. That rainfall differential is rather amazing considering how small the island is. Hurricanes occasionally fly through Barbados. There isn’t much wildlife on the island, but they do have hares, monkeys, mongooses and tree frogs. Surprisingly, nearly all the natural vegetation has been cleared for cultivation.
The population of Barbados in 1990 was 257,082. The average population density is 1,482 people per square mile, which is high considering the predominantly rural agriculture character of the island. The population of Barbados has not grown much over the past thirty years due to out-migration. More than 93% percent of the total population is black. More than 50 percent of the people are Anglicans.
Education is free for children between the ages of 5 and 16. The culture of Barbados combines English institutions, which evolved through more than three centuries of English rule, with a folk culture of African origin. The economy of Barbados has traditionally been dependent on the growing of sugarcane. Sugarcane is grown mainly on large estates rather than on small farms. Efforts have been made by the government to reduce the dependency of sugarcane products. Newly discovered reserves of petroleum and natural gas are being exploited. Fishing has also increased in importance. Since the late 1960s, tourism has earned more foreign revenue than sugar products.
It is believed that Portuguese explorers landed on Barbados in the 16th century, but the first settlement was not established until 1627 and then by English colonists. It was made a Crown possession in 1663. Slavery on the island was abolished in 1834. Severe riots occurred in 1876, when the British government proposed a confederation of Barbados and the Windward Islands. In the following decades the African and mixed majority slowly rose to political power, eventually outnumbering the white landholders in the legislature.
In 1937, poor economic conditions caused serious unrest, and a British Royal Commission was sent to Barbados. As a result, social and political reforms were gradually introduced. In 1951, universal adult suffrage was achieved. During the 1958-1962 periods, Barbados joined the Federation of the West Indies, which also included Trinidad and Tobago. The country is a member of the United Nations. Barbados has enjoyed a stable democratic government that was peacefully achieved in 1976.
Saturday night
My flight landed at 9:10 p.m. from Atlanta. Delta Airlines has just one flight into and one flight out of Barbados. The flight into Barbados operates just four days a week (Thr-Sun). I’ll be returning to Atlanta on Monday morning. It was with some surprise that I learned that flight operates just four days per week (Fri-Mon). If I don’t get on the flight Monday morning, the next flight is Friday!! Of course, I will be flying standby on Monday morning. If you’re going to be a trackchaser, you have to be willing to take risks.
When you think of the climate in Barbados, think Hawaii. It’s warm and humid, even at night. The average daytime temperature runs from 80-87 degrees Fahrenheit. Flying first class into Barbados allowed me to reach customs first as well. Clearing customs was a snap. I simply provided my passport and immigration form to the customs agent. The entire process took less than 30 seconds. I wasn’t asked any questions at all.
The Grantley Adams International Airport looks to be nearly brand new. Like the Honolulu airport, much of it is outside. There are very view exterior walls. My first stop after customs was to get some local cash. It didn’t take long to find a suitable ATM. I quickly grabbed $150 in Bajan currency. That’s about $75 U.S. I didn’t know how much cash I would need, nor did I know what the ATM charge was.
I had decided in advance to take a cab from the airport to my hotel. I will be staying at the Ocean 11 Apart/Hotel. Before I hopped into my taxi, I confirmed the fare would be $30 Barbados. The driver told me I could pay with U.S. or Barbados money.
Rental cars are expensive, coming in at $80 U.S. per day. I figured I could save some money by hiring a taxi for just $15 U.S. Then, on Sunday morning, the folks at Venture Rentals would bring a car by my hotel. I could use the car to get to the track and then do some sightseeing on the island. On Monday morning, I could drop the car back at the airport before my flight. This way I would have the advantages of a rental car, but only be charged for one day’s use.
My hotel is west of the airport in Dover, which is nearly at the Southern tip of the island. In 15 minutes, we had traveled from the airport to the Ocean 11. I quizzed my driver all along the way. He told me that a normal home in Barbados runs about $200,000 in local currency. A big smile came across his face when I told him I had been to 1,295 different racetracks. In a full Bajan accent he said, “Mon, you must be one travelin’ mon!” No, it did not take him long to size up the situation.
When I arrived at the Ocean 11, I first met Patrick, the bartender. The hotel has a bar that stays open until 11 p.m. They also have a pool and restaurant. I met the owner who welcomed me to Barbados. I had first learned of this hotel from some racing people located in the Caribbean. They had used the place on their trips to the Bushy Park Circuit and liked it. For just $75 U.S., it appeared very reasonably priced when the resort hotels were charging $300-400 per night or more. I had paid in advance over the phone with my credit card. The owner game me my room key with zero paperwork and no I.D. required.
The Ocean 11 Hotel gets its name from the fact that it has eleven rooms. I’m in room #4. This room is on the second floor. I have a nice balcony that overlooks the bar and pool area. It is a large room and it has air-conditioning! This is a requirement in a climate like this. The room also has a very outdated kitchenette area. I won’t be using that.
The room has a full-sized yellow refrigerator as well as a microwave oven. A note attached to the fridge says that air-conditioning will be shut down from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to save on electricity. For an extra 10 bucks, a guest can get some juice during this time. That’s not a problem for me. I won’t be in the room during the day.
Barbados electricity is compatible with my laptop. The guidebooks say it’s O.K. to drink the tap water. The TV is small, about 13”, but it is color. I was surprised to see they were broadcasting the HBO pay per view telecast of the Floyd Meriwether championship-boxing match. Back in the states, that pay per view was going for $54.95.
Before I came down here, I had found the longitude/latitude coordinates for the airport, the hotel and the racetrack. I figured if I could always find those three locations, I couldn’t get that far off the beaten path. I was thinking that “Dusty” would be able to take me from wherever I was to one of these three locations. Wrong! Yes, I had correctly programmed in the longitude/latitude information. It’s just that my GPS doesn’t have roadmap information from where I’m at to the three programmed points. I checked the nearest gas station and found it to be in the Virgin Islands nearly 500 miles away! No, it is not easy doing what I do, but then it’s not impossible either.
I went down to the bar to have a nightcap. A “Jack and 7” was nine bucks ($4.50 U.S.). That’s not too bad. Patrick and I talked a bit, until I noticed I was getting bit around my ankles and arms. Whenever there are bugs, mosquitoes or whatever, I am the first to get attacked. This was a signal that I should escape the humidity and return to my room.
Barbados is four hours ahead of Pacific Time. I find traveling to the East to be much tougher than traveling West. I suffered for years with this problem with Procter & Gamble’s headquarters being in Cincinnati in the Eastern time zone. When it was midnight in the Queen city, it was only 9 p.m. back home in California. Even though it was late in the East, it was too early my time to be able to go to bed. Then, the problem compounded itself in the morning. A 7 a.m. breakfast meeting meant I needed to get up around 6 a.m. Eastern time, which was 3 a.m. California time. I could never fully express how much I detested that!
Before I hit the sack, I was reminded of one negative item about this area that we had experienced twenty years ago. The frog sounds at night are continuous and loud. After a while, they sound like a squeaky wheel. They do not stop. The drone of the air-conditioner helps somewhat but not nearly enough.
Sunday morning
For some unknown reason I woke up at 7:15 a.m. local time (3:15 a.m. San Clemente time) and couldn’t go back to sleep. My first appointment of the day was with Paul Hutchinson of Venture Rental Car. Paul was going to deliver my car to the Ocean 11 Hotel. How’s that for service!
He came knocking on my door five minutes before our 9 a.m. meeting time. Remember, if you’re not early you are late! I had reserved an economy car, the cheapest available. I figured I would be driving less than 50 miles so I didn’t need a larger, more comfortable car. Paul had a slight change in our plan. It seems the economy cars were sold out. He would have to give me a larger car, a Toyota Corolla for the price of the economy car. Rats. I hate when that happens!
In Barbados, folks drive on the LEFT side of the road. The steering wheel is on the RIGHT side of the car. Fortunately, I have driven thousands of miles in England to prepare myself for situations like this. Carol and I have a saying, “lefts are easy, rights are scary”. When I pull out into an intersection, I repeat this saying to myself until I am safely integrated into traffic flow.
After I was checked out with my rental car and had purchased a $10 Barbados driving permit, I walked to the beach. The Ocean 11 Hotel is about 100 yards from the water. That’s the same distance my home in San Clemente is from the Pacific Ocean.
I took a short walk down the street to the “Bean and Bagel” for breakfast. This place offered both indoor and outdoor seating. I chose outdoors, even though it was already warmer than 80 degrees and humid.
I ordered the “Big Island” breakfast. This included: two eggs, bacon, hash browns, Bajan style Plantains (fried bananas), baked beans and a bagel. The price? $21.98! Of course, that price is in Barbados dollars, but it was still expensive. My “fresh squeezed” O.J. went for $7 and it didn’t even seem like it WAS fresh squeezed. I had gotten $150 Barbados dollars to begin the trip. If breakfast was going to cost nearly $30, my cash was going to evaporate quickly.
After breakfast, I headed out to the track. It was about 10 a.m. I had a good paper map of Barbados. Remember, the island is only 21 miles by 14 miles wide. Nevertheless, I was soon lost. Where was “Dusty”, my GPS? I came across the Sandy Lane Country Club. Anybody know what this place is famous for? Anybody? Tiger Woods was married here in 2004! That was great, except I wasn’t that close to the race track. Not to worry. They would be racing all day at the Bushy Park Circuit.
During my entire 36-hour stay on Barbados, I saw only one American fast food franchise, KFC. However, Barbados has its own fast food chain. It is called “Chefette”. There are 13 Chefettes on the island. It seemed like I was passing one all the time.
As part of my trackchaser research, I had to check Chefette out. The store looks much like American fast food outlets. However, they offer a much broader menu. They have fried chicken, pizza, ice cream and lots of other stuff. I got in some minor trouble by taking a picture inside the store of the menu. Don’t worry. I do these things so you don’t have too. Check out www.ranlayracing.com. for more than 70 photos of this Chefette outlet and everything I talk about with my trip to Barbados. Since I had just had my breakfast I settled for a chicken breast and Diet Coke. It was all good!
Sunday afternoon
There were no directions to the racetrack today. I could see “Bushy Park” on my map, but that was about it. This is sugar cane country. I was driving on a nearly one lane, heavily pot-holed road when I noticed the activity of the track. I would have made a sharp right-hand turn into the track, but I had a motorcycle cop on my tail. My car’s rear bumper bore the words, “Venture Rental Car Company”. I don’t know if that is meant to warn people that they are following a rookie driver or to alert thieves that there’s “food for the takin”.
Nevertheless, I drove onto the track’s property. I bought my ticket from the car. Bajans speak English, but not MY kind of English. I have to listen closely to understand what they are saying. Languages are not my strong suit. I was being asked if I wanted to pay $25 for the “clubhouse” or, I think, $15 for an “outside” seating area. I figured I would only be coming to Barbados once for trackchasing. That line of thinking convinced me to buy the “clubhouse” ticket.
By the way, I was fully expecting to find another world ranked trackchaser, and maybe more at today’s event. The RANLAY Racing research staff keeps it’s collective ear to the ground on other trackchaser’s behavior patterns. Yes, I am frequently disappointed in some trackchaser’s behavior, but that is not the point of this paragraph. I looked all over the grounds for the trackchaser (s) I was expecting but I didn’t see anyone.
It was actually rather easy to search for any of the world ranked trackchasers. You see the top 40 worldwide trackchasers are all white people. I guess if I wanted to be politically correct, I would call them Caucasian. However, I am retired, I don’t have to be politically correct but I would never want to be hurtful.
Today’s audience was much different in one way from the crowds I see in the U.S. The difference I’m talking about is the color of their skin. In the U.S., I might see a black person at about every 20th or 30th track that I visit. Even in that circumstance, I might only see one or two black people at an American track.
Today, the crowd was about 99% black. This made it easy to scope out the few pale faces in the crowd. This is noteworthy for just one reason. If I went to a racetrack and everyone was wearing canary yellow moo moos, I think that would be worthy of note. I have now been to 1,296 different racetracks. I have never seen a track where most of the audience had black skin. I wish that American racetracks attracted a more diverse group, but they don’t. I hope no one has been offended by the above. I’m talking about colors, not people or personalities or anything else.
The “clubhouse” turned out to be more of a covered grandstand than anything else. However, it was nearly 90 degrees. The roof overhang was a welcome relief from the direct sunlight.
Please look at the “Race Review” below to read about my observations of the racing and the track that I visited today. You will hear a 100% different view of road courses, from anything I have talked about previously.
Following the races, I took a quick drive to the Harrison Caves. On the flight into Barbados, I sat next to a Delta flight attendant who was returning to her native country for a Christmas visit. Even though she lives in Atlanta, she comes back home to Barbados once a month. I asked her what should not be missed during my brief Bajan visit. Her reply was simply, “Harrison Caves”. I have been in a few of the most famous U.S. caves and enjoyed them very much, so I wanted to check this one out.
However, after a 30-minute drive up to Harrison Caves, I was disappointed to see they were closed. The sign did not tell me any more than the obvious. I used the time to explore different neighborhoods and take pictures of typical life in Barbados.
During my entire stay in Barbados, I don’t think I saw one dog or cat. However, when I was out in the Harrison Cave area, I saw an animal that I had never seen in the “wild” below. It was a monkey! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Of course, by the time I grabbed my camera he had run back into the woods. Very cool!
There was still some time before sunset, so I headed down to Bridgetown. Bridgetown is the capital of Barbados. I figured I would nose around and do some shopping. First, I drove through the main downtown area to get my bearings and then found a place to park.
The streets were packed with Christmas shoppers. On some small side streets, where vendors were selling a bag of cherries and white sugar as a treat, it was nearly wall-to-wall people. The one thing that made my shopping experience extremely unusual amongst this throng of people was something that I had never experienced before. For as far as the eye could see in this Christmas rush, I was the only white person. You might think my presence would have been noted. To be honest, I don’t think I saw one person who even noticed me. I liked that feeling.
In one shop, I wanted to purchase a small world globe paperweight. It was absolutely beautiful and made from onyx. One store clerk had come up and asked if I needed help during my browsing phase. I told her I was just looking and she finally went away. Later, when I decided to make my purchase I took the globe to a sales clerk who was just standing idly beside her cash register.
For some seemingly unknown reason, she couldn’t ring up my purchase even though she wasn’t doing anything else. She walked me to the other end of the store and told me the salesperson who had greeted me when I first started shopping would handle the sale. Of course, that sales clerk was now in the middle of a transaction and examining passports, etc. I waited for a couple of minutes and left without my purchase. It’s a shame when corporate policies (in this case sales commissions) get in the way of customer service.
I found even better Christmas purchases at some other stores. Now, the challenge is to stuff it all in my one rolling carryon bag. I also purchased a post card for Carol. I paid $1.40 Barbados for the stamp and only one dollar for the postcard!
I spent the last few minutes of sunlight watching the sun fall over the Caribbean Sea. It was still about 80 degrees and a beautiful evening. On the way to the car, I stopped and talked to two younger boys who were fishing off the pier. They each had a piece of fishing line, a sinker and a hook. Like each Bajan I met, they were more than friendly.
Sunday evening
I returned to the Ocean 11 Hotel just as dark had fallen. With the hotel so close to the ocean, I knew if I hugged the water on my drive back from Bridgetown, I would find the place sooner or later. The plan worked perfectly and soon I was back “home”.
I had been out in the sun all day. It had been warm and humid. I was tired and somewhat dehydrated. I returned to my room. It would have been easy to just call it a night and hit the sack. However, the RANLAY (speaking in the third person, which is different than speaking in the fourth person as in “Randy’s friend said”) does not roll that way. I may never be back in Barbados. I wouldn’t want to miss anything.
I had seen a string of upscale restaurants just north of my hotel about five blocks away. I decided I would walk up in that direction for dinner. I did encounter a rather aggressive group of four twenty-something men. The group’s spokesman asked me if I was “looking for anything he had”. That seemed like a leading question and I assured him I was not and kept walking.
I passed up a few good looking restaurants until I came upon the Southern Palms Hotel. This hotel is located directly on the white sand beach of the Caribbean Sea. I would eat and drink here.
I selected a small table for two at the sand’s edge. The weather had now cooled down to the mid-70s. With a slight sea breeze, it was absolutely perfect. The only thing missing was young Carol, but she can’t be everywhere at once. I noticed a fellow diner was drinking
