I went to Petty Fest 2023

Pardon me for the unexpected post but I figured if I don’t do it now, then when would I?  Who’s ready for a little chair side travel?  Make sure you have a cup of coffee in your hand ‘coz this is gonna be a loooong post. 

The weekend before last, DH and I broke from our usual routine to join Nascar fans to celebrate the 13th annual event known as Petty Fest in Level Cross, North Carolina, but I’ll get to that in a little while.  We left Knoxville early on Friday with our list of things we hope to do in this short getaway.  Our first major stop was in Statesville, North Carolina where we visited Legacy Motor Club GMS Racing.  This is where Richard Petty’s race cars #42 and #43 are built.  

The lobby of Legacy Motor Clubs contained Nascar memorabilia and last year’s Darlington race winning car, # 43 driven by Erik Jones.  The receptionist was a very nice young lady.  I called the day before wondering if she knew a place we could get a picture of Richard to take to Petty Fest for his autograph.  She said they have hero cards that she could give us but she only had a few and said she’d put them aside for us. 

What you can’t see from our stop at GMS Racing is while we were snapping pictures, a guy said to DH something along the line he noticed him taking pictures of the car breaks and asked if he’d like to see where they’re built.  His answer was YES!  The fella escorted us to a part of the building that’s off limits to the public.  No photographs were allowed.  That’s all top secret stuff you know. *giggles*  Anyway he showed us around explaining things. My poor hearing caused me to miss a lot of the conversation but I felt DH’s excitement.  Not wanting to do anything wrong or to get this guy into trouble, DH asked if it’s okay to touch the 43 car being built.  He took us to where they were working on it and we both placed our hands on the engine casting our good luck wishes on it. 😀   I asked when would that car be racing.  Our impromptu tour guide replied Talladega.  That’s the race from this past Sunday and while #43 didn’t win, the driver Erik Jones took 5th place.  

From Statesville, we stopped west of Winston Salem to try Abbott’s Frozen Custard in Clemmons.  I thought it interesting to learn that Abbott’s has been around since 1902.  There were two people running the business. I presume the owners but I didn’t ask. The woman wore a t-shirt with the logo “Been dipping since 1902”.  I couldn’t resist asking her had she found the fountain of youth because she really looked good for her age. It took her moment to figure out what I was talking about. lol  I wish I had taken a picture of the shirt.  We shared a double, not swirled, vanilla and chocolate.  It was good stuff unless things have changed Freddy’s Frozen Custard is still our favorite. That being said, we certainly would not turn down Abbott’s and if you ever stumble on one, then you might want to give them a try! 

We hadn’t looked for it since DH had already done it before the trip but in the same plaza shared by Abbott’s wouldn’t you know it, there stood a bakery.  Hello pastries!  The glass display showcased a lot of tempting goodies.  DH obliged his sweet tooth ordering a slice of Italian Cream Cake, a cinnamon roll, several cookies – chocolate chewy, white chocolate macadamia, oatmeal sandwich, a pecan finger, and a lemon bar in the bag, and a cup of coffee pictured below at Ketchie Creek Bakery, Deli, & Coffee.

Y’all thought I was exaggerating his sweet cravings, didn’t you?  The one thing I do not like about bakery items is they use margarin or hydrogenated oils like Crisco in their frosting (and cookies).  No matter how good the sweets are I always notice this first thing.  The best part of our stop was the coffee.  I give it two thumbs up!  That being said, it was a lot of fun to sample the baked goods and I’m very happy we did.  That’s just part of it all when you’re exploring new places. 

We were about an hour and half from Greensboro.  From here, we just drove straight to our room.  Much to our disappointment the Econo Lodge on Seneca Rd did not live up to the images on the website.  All I’m going to say about this place is we won’t make the same mistake twice and I caution anyone considering this motel chain.  At least we had a room for the night.

For dinner, we ate at Smithfield’s Chicken ‘n Bar-B-Q.  Normally, we share one entree.  This time, we each tried something new.  I got the chicken tenders plate with fries, cole slaw, and hushpuppies an DH got the barbecue pork, fries, baked beans, and hushpuppies.  Smithfield’s food was on the plain side.  Chicken needed some seasonings in their batter and the pork wasn’t anything special.  Our local Buddy’s BBQ, pulled pork platter is a whole lot better than Smithfield’s and just about any KFC chicken tenders meal beats them, too.  

After we ate, we went to Walmart to get facial tissue for our room.  Econo Lodge didn’t have any in the room and when we asked, they said they don’t have any.  Oops, I mentioned our room situation. We got what we wanted then headed to the gas station before going to our room.  While DH was tanking up, buckets of rain fell from the sky.  The parking lot was flooding as well as the street.  Two girls walking on the side walk were getting drenched from on-coming cars splashing water upon them along with the heavy down pour. What a mess! The motel was just across the street.  By the time we parked, the rain let up enough for us to unload our bag, and head inside.  I was ready tired and ready to call it a day.

Early on Saturday we got up while it was still dark outside.  No breakfast, no coffee, and no showers.  Yeah, I don’t wanna talk about the bathroom problems.  Remember, I don’t want to mention our room situation. Despite the negatives, we focused on why we came the hope to meet someone special and to have a good time!

The line to get a wristband to see Richard Petty had already formed when we got around 7am. We were told some folks might show up at 5am.  It was a chilly breezy morning and we didn’t have jackets.  After a while, I reluctantly retreated to the car upon DH’s urging.  He even said I should take a little nap.  That didn’t happen, though.  I was too excited. I took the first picture from the car.   When we planned this trip, I doubted we had a chance at getting wristbands knowing some people are super early birds ours but the line was small and I became hopeful of our chances to get them.  I stayed in the car for an hour before growing restless.  I wanted to be part of the mingling.  Those we stood closest to were friendly easy to talk to people.  The second line shot closer to 9am because as soon as I snapped the picture I noticed a woman with a handful of wristbands and I thought YAY!

The wait seemed forever.  It took no time for the lady to pass out wristbands with us being one of the lucky 100 individuals to receive them.  We left our car parked near where we were to walk to the museum a quarter mile up away. In pictures three and four you can see that traffic on that country road was congested going our way, mostly people who decided to park on the museum grounds.  I think our idea was the best as did a few others when I turned to capture the traffic to my back. 

In picture five is Lee Petty’s house with one of Richard’s car.  In case you don’t know Lee Petty was also a Nascar driver.  His number was 42.  The rest of the photos I have some crowd shots but most were taken inside the museum.  We were pressed for time to take things at our leisure since we needed to get in line to meet Richard and Kyle.  DH got me a t-shirt to get signed, a refrigerator magnet to remember the event, and a 43 Matchbox car Nascar already autographed by Richard that we’ll give our grandson when he’s born.  

I took more pictures but I’m not sure how much of this sort of thing you would find interesting.  Petty Museum has more than what I’ve shown. There are additional buildings like Lee Petty’s garage and another larger building with all the Petty boys (Lee, Richard, Kyle, and Adam) mementos. Adam is Kyle’s son killed years during a practice season in 2000. 

Ever since we learned about Petty Museum, we wanted to visit.  Their hours of operation are Monday through Friday makes it difficult for us to just hop in the car and go without a bit of planning. It was great reading about Petty Fest in one of my recent visits scheduled on Saturday this year and the museum would be open to visitors then, too. This was a win-win combination that we jumped on!  We hope to do a repeat visit next year if possible or at the very least go back to spend more time in the museum. 

I hope you didn’t mind the long winded post. Later this afternoon I have chair side date of the not so fun nature with my dentist.  Who knows what kind of wreck I’ll be after such tortures but I’ll do my best to respond and do return visits tomorrow. 

I hope y’all will swing by on Monday for a double headliner with my May 1st Battle of the Bands set to publish at 12am followed with Monday’s Music Moves Me at 6am. Have a terrific Thursday, my friends!