This musical mural greeted us upon our arrival at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

New Orleans is one of my favorite restaurant towns. We were planning to eat at Charlie's Steak House. However, when we arrived we found this. The restaurant was closed by the flood waters caused by Hurricane Katrina in September, 2005. We were told it will re-open under new ownership soon.

Nevertheless, we were in luck. Pascal's Manale, another of my New Orleans favorites is located just down the street from Charlie's. The BBQ shrimp are huge and the French bread just keeps on coming. They even have to give their diners a bib for self-protection!

I'm doing my best to teach Carol to eat high calorie, high fat meals. I tell her it's good for her.

We used www.priceline.com to get our hotel room at the Whitby Wyndham Historic Hotel. This used to be the Whitby National Bank building.

Our room's decor was fantastic. This was a great value for a hotel in downtown New Orleans.

We had to make a stop at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter. They have the #1 rated jazz band in all of New Orleans. Sorry, but flash pictures were not allowed.

Our second day in New Orleans found us on a "Tour by Isabelle". The most popular tours in New Orleans nowadays are tours of the Katrina hurricane damage.

Not all of New Orleans was affected by flood waters. Classic homes like this didn't have any damage at all.

These are the levee walls that were designed to hold back floor waters. These walls weren't very high or very sturdy.













When things like this happen, people want to blame someone.

I was surprised at how many home sites have been leveled. I estimate that less than 25% of the homes that received flood damage that we saw on this tour were occupied. I found that amazing for a natural disaster that occurred more than two years ago.

We did see some evidence of rebuilding, but not as much as one might expect.

Musician Harry Connick is leading an effort to build homes for New Orleans musicians so the city does not lose it's connection with its jazz and music history. These are all new homes that have been built for these folks. Note they built the homes 3-4 feet above ground.

These new homes were the best project we saw all day in New Orleans' attempt to make a comeback.
DAY 1 – IT’S EATIN’ TIME TRACKCHASING TOUR
AND THE READERS RESPOND
From time to time interested readers write me about one thing or another. Many times, I feel that my other readers would be interested, informed and/or amused by the comments I get. Here’s what a
“I don't know how you do it with all the traveling, but I'm glad you do. I'm always excited to receive one of your Trackchasing Reports. Kinda like living vicariously through you.”
EDITOR’S NOTE
It’s always fun to get notes like this one. I realize that not everyone can travel as much as I do or would even want too if they could. I may even go to some places that my readers would have no interest in ever visiting. Nevertheless, I’m glad you might choose to read about someone who does go to these places.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
Carol went trackchasing in her 48th different state tonight.....................more in “The Objective”.
Are you interested in getting a four-star hotel for less than half-price? …………..details in “The Trip”.
We were able to see the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina up close and personal in the “Big easy”…………..details in “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction”.
Click on this link or paste it in your browser to take you to today’s Trackchaser Report via my website at
http://www.ranlayracing.com/nov242007.htm
GREETINGS FROM
WE WOKE UP IN
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
The Objective
Carol and I are always trying to advance in the trackchaser rankings in any category that seems worthwhile. Today we’re in
Today,
Today is my 147th new track in 2007. This ties the second highest number of tracks ever seen in a year by an individual trackchaser. The all-time record for tracks seen in one season was in 2005. That year I was able to see a somewhat incredible 182 new tracks.
The Trip
I am pleased to announce that effective November 1, 2007, United Airlines will move up from an associate trackchasing sponsor to join SkyWest Airlines as a primary sponsor of RANLAY Racing.
Today’s trip started with a non-stop flight to the city of
Editor’s note: Kindred, do you remember when Stephanie pulled out a handgun on one of our trips here?
For a fifty-eight year old, I do my very best to keep up with the times. With computers first became available to the corporate world, I was about 35 years old. Many people my age and especially older were reluctant to jump into the “wired” (or at the very least cabled) world back then. I glad I got on that bandwagon. At first, I owed Procter & Gamble for encouraging me to learn all I could about the informational power that these machines could provide. They even paid me to learn! During the last five years, our children and most recently J.J. have kept me up to speed in the world of technology. I knew I would get a return on 12 years of tuition and room and board payments to UCLA!!!!!
When Carol comes on a trackchasing trip, I get to stay in some pretty nice places. In the past, I have been reluctant to use www.priceline.com. I didn’t like their policy of not being able to cancel or walk away from reservations at the last minute. When I travel by myself, a simple phone call can end up moving me from
I absolutely knew (once we got on the airplane) that we would be spending the night in
I went on Priceline.com and made an offer on a four-star hotel (the hotel is not named during the bidding process) at Priceline. By the way, four-stars was the highest class of hotel offered. My bid was declined. That just made it all the more fun.
I’m going to share some confidential information with you. You deserve it. You’ve been loyal readers of the Trackchaser Report for lo these many years. Yes, you deserve it.
There is a website, www.biddingfortravel.com that explains the proper strategies to maximize your efforts on www.priceline.com. As my tagline says, “Everything I know, I learned from someone else”. I was first tuned into the bidding for travel site by Midwestern reader, Pryce Boeye as well as J.J. It took me awhile to take their advice, but once I did, I was better for it.
I am frequently asked why I share such information when my fellow trackchasing competitors could use it to make their trackchasing more efficient and therefore become fiercer competitors. I have the same philosophy as the great
Using my newfound “free re-bidding” strategies from www.biddingfortravel.com with www.priceline.com I was able to secure a reservation at the Whitby Wyndham Historic Hotel in downtown
For the financially responsible among the group (which, of course, all of you are or you never would have passed the Trackchaser Report admission test) here are the pricing details. I paid $70 plus tax for our room. Checking Wyndham’s website told me the very same room cost $125 per night if you paid on a “non-cancelable” basis or $139 per night if you made a reservation that allowed cancellations. Of course, 10-12% room taxes on higher room rates can drive the savings up even more. I met my objective. I was able to “buy good things cheap”.
I must admit that I am still learning the ropes that www.biddingfortravel.com is teaching me. Nevertheless, I am a willing student and will do even better as I continue to educate myself.
The People
The people in
TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION #1
My fellow Richardson-Vicks homeboys will remember Charlie’s Steak House in
Nevertheless, we were in luck. It just turns out that Pascal’s Manale server of the best BBQ shrimp I have ever eaten is a block down the street from Charlie’s. Yes, I remembered that from when I first started coming here in 1972. Carol and I ate at Pascal’s in March of this year. Please go to the home page of www.ranlayracing.com for a great photo of those BBQ shrimp.
Following dinner, we checked into the Whitby Wyndham Historic Hotel. It was everything I expected. The hotel is a former seven-story bank building. They have a small private dining room that seats 8-10 that used to be the bank’s vault! They still have the huge bank vault door at the entrance to the private room.
Of course, our room was stately. It did make my Motel 6/Super 8 rooms look like exactly what they were, spartan! Carol was quite pleased with her accommodations. Regardless of the price paid, that’s all of the approval I needed.
From there we walked down into the French Quarter. I do believe the “Quarter” has changed some in the 35 years since I first came here. It’s a wild place where you can buy shots or hurricanes that will soon make you scream like several other patrons who reached
Nevertheless, I had consulted the website, http://goneworleans.about.com/od/nightlife/tp/JazzinNo.htm, and confirmed that Preservation Hall was rated #1 for jazz in
This place sits on
I didn’t know what to expect and ended up being surprised. After we paid a $10 per person cover charge, we entered what appeared to be a room from a 1930s building stripped down to the studs on the interior. It was very dark and hot. Four ceiling fans provided a warm breeze and a couple of dimly lit lights provided the illumination.
The room was not any bigger than our great room. It was about 25 feet wide and 40-50 feet long. The place accommodated 75-100 people. A little more than half of those were seated on wooden benches. The rest of the people, including us, stood behind those benches. It wasn’t long before seven members of the “
The men, (five black, two white) entertained us for about 30 minutes. They were great. We enjoyed the music even though the venue was less than rustic. It was warm and crowded. Maybe that’s how jazz clubs were back in the day. Preservation Hall does not sell drinks. They do sell souvenir t-shirts and hats in the foyer. I’m glad we went; it was what
On Friday morning, we had more local attractions to see. You all know that Hurricane Katrina helped reek havoc on
Katrina first hit
I use on-line resources to give me recommendations for nearly every thing I use or buy. A quick Google search told me that “
Upon landing in the city, I confirmed our reservation with Isabelle. For the princely sum of $58 per person, we would be transported around in a van to all of the sights the aforementioned devastation had to offer. I must say that Grayline had tours of the city and the flood area for just $35 but their description didn’t sound as good. Remember, I don’t want to buy bad things cheap.
At 8:20 a.m., the tour bus picked us up in front of the hotel. There was going to be one minor (major?) drawback to today’s tour that had been explained to me when I made the reservation. This was going to be a bi-lingual tour. Of the nine passengers making the trip, four were from
Nevertheless, we saw just about everything there was to see from the
From time to time, I will recommend you look at the pictures from a trackchasing trip on www.ranlayracing.com. I do not make these recommendations lightly. I think you will be both entertained and informed by viewing the pictures I was able to take from the “
After the tour, we went back to the French Quarter for one last
Farewell
STATE RANKINGS
This was Carol’s first ever trackchasing visit to
This was my fourth lifetime track to see in
RACE REVIEW
I wasn’t certain what to expect with the first ever “Cajun Indoor Kart Nationals”. This race was talked up a good bit on the internet. No other trackchaser has ever seen a countable race at this facility. As far as I know, no other trackchaser was in attendance tonight other than Carol and me.
The program was scheduled to begin with qualifying in the afternoon. Actual wheel-to-wheel racing was set for 6 p.m. This is a two-day race program. They have ten classes of karts racing tonight and ten different classes racing on Saturday night. For trackchasers, there was one countable class racing each night. Tonight it was the Senior Champ lites and tomorrow night it will be the Senior Champ heavies. The only difference between these classes is weight. The lites bolt about 30 pounds of lead weight and they become “heavies”. It’s not a lot different than visiting the Waffle House a few times.
Carol and I arrived at 4 p.m. We found an open gate and walked into the arena without charge. We found a very modern building that probably has seen its share of rodeos. The temperature outside and therefore inside was very comfortable at somewhere in the low 70-degree range.
There was a nearly flat 1/10th mile (estimate) dirt oval in place. The track has taken on rubber and there was no dust whatsoever all night. There also were no fumes to deal with. Sometimes fumes can be a real problem in these indoor races. The P.A. was generally good. They even had the P.A. announcer’s words being broadcast on a local FM radio station.
We watched some of the afternoon qualifying for the flat karts. Then we toured the pit area (without wristbands), meeting and talking with the senior champ kart drivers. We picked up the names of several champ kart tracks in the
In a stroke of very good luck, we knew that tonight’s senior champ lite division would be the first of ten classes racing. That was a break as we had a long drive ahead of us to get to our next track located in
Between qualifying and racing, we drove over to Cabela’s. The store was just a mile away. I was looking for something to buy for Carol to celebrate her 48th trackchasing state. We settled on some chocolate mint freeze-dried ice cream. Yes, at $2.99 per package I can be a big spender. I also dropped $149.99 on a range finder. No, I will not be looking to see how far some helpless deer is from the barrel of my thirty ought six. I’ll use the range finder on the golf course.
We arrived back at the track by 5:45 p.m. They were having the driver’s meet in the infield so they could give them qualifying awards. Unfortunately, this lasted until nearly 6:45 p.m. Yes, they would be starting the program 45 minutes late. Why should a first time kart track be any different than their bigger and older brethren?
The champ karts began their 20-lap feature event with ten entrants. The building’s lighting was excellent and we had seats only five feet from the track surface. There were 5-6 yellow flag periods. The racing was very competitive but beyond that nothing special.
We enjoyed three more features before deciding to get a head start on our drive up toward
CAROL’S COMMENTS
We were lucky the senior champ lites were the first race of the night. We didn’t get a chance at door prizes because they didn’t have tickets with numbers on both ends. This was great for an indoor arena. My eyes didn’t burn and it was a very nice track. I kept thinking that Randy must have miscalculated, because I thought I would have had Louisiana by now since we’re been to New Orleans so often.
RENTAL CAR UPDATE
Juggling rental cars on this trip required some mental dexterity. Once you pick up a rental car, you cannot change the drop-off location without incurring a hefty surcharge. I didn’t know for certain where I would prefer to drop the car. Everything hinged on the availability of flights. Finally, I bit the bullet, and declared
Our car for the first part of our trip would be a National Rental Car Racing
Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
Everything I know, I learned from someone else.
TRAVEL DETAILS
AIRPLANE
Los Angeles, CA – New Orleans, LA – 1,628 miles
RENTAL CAR
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:
RANKINGS
LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:
There are no trackchasers currently within 100 tracks of my lifetime total.
1. Randy Lewis,
Other notables
These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total.
27. Ken Schrader,
28. Max Allender,
29. Carol Lewis,
2007 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS
1. Randy Lewis,
2. Ed Esser,
2. Roland Vanden Eynde,
4. Mike Knappenberger,
5. Paul Weisel,
6. Pam Smith, Effort,
7. Guy Smith, Effort,
8. Carol Lewis,
9. Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs,
10. Roger Ferrell,
Tracks have been reported by 40 different worldwide trackchasers this season.
LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS
Results current thru 10/28/07**
1. Randy Lewis,
2. Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs,
3. Allan Brown,
** Results are unofficial.
Some of the data in this report comes from www.trackchaser.net
and my Garmin GPS
1,139. Meremere Dirt Track Club,
1,140. Meeanee Speedway,
1,141. Top of the South Speedway,
1,142. Woodford Glen Speedway,
1,143. Robertson Holden International
1,144.
1,145.
1,146. Angels Stadium of
1,147. Angels Stadium of
1,148.
1,149.
1,150. Grand Prix De Lanaudiere,
1,151. Ste-Eulalie Ice Track,
1,152. St Guillaume, St
1,153.
1,154.
1,155. Northeast Pond Ice Track,
1,156. Lee Pond Ice Track,
1,157. New Hendry Country
1,158.
1,159. Honeoye Lake Ice Track – Road Course,
1,160.
1,161.
1,162. Dawgwood Speedway,
1,163. Toccoa Speedway,
1,164. Tazewell Speedway,
1,165.
1,166. Dacosa Speedway,
1,167. Swinging Bridge Raceway,
1,168.
1,169. Foothills Raceway,
1,170. Mileback Speedway,
1,171. Grand Prix of
1,172. Vegas Grand Prix,
1,173.
1,174. Low Country Kartway,
1,175. Dillon Motor
1,176. Valley Dirt Riders,
1,177.
1,178. Sertoma Speedway,
1,179.
1,180.
1,181. Hollywood Hills
1,182. Meridian
1,183.
1,184. Rocky Mountain Raceways (oval),
1,185. Rocky Mountain Raceways (figure 8),
1,186. Modoc
1,187.
1,188.
1,189. Fairplex at the
1,190. Lowes Motor
1,191. Lowes Motor
1,192.
**
1,193. Thunderbird Stadium (figure 8),
1,194. Thunderbird Stadium (oval),
1,195. Whispering
1,196.
1,197.
1,198.
1,199.
1,200. Castrol Raceway,
1,201. Hidden
1,202. Boyd’s
1,203. Fayette County Fairgrounds,
1,204.
1,205.
1,206. Vinton Speedway,
1,207. Hilltop
1,208. I-70
1,209. L A Raceway, La Monte,
1,210. Valley
1,211.
1,212.