Day: May 30, 2019

May 21 and 22, 2017

I visited Austin two more times while I was in the area, to eat at a few more recommended venues and see one or two more sites.

First, some clouds I saw in the sky while driving back downtown from a great tamale restaurant on the northwest side of town.  I don’t recall ever seeing clouds with “waves” on the bottom of them.  I hope the pictures do them justice:

Back in town I visited a few funky stores on a commercial strip south of town.  I saw them earlier in the week while I was in town and wanted to walk up and down that street and stop in a few of them.  That is where I saw this colorful man making balloon animals for kids:

And I saw this t-shirt in one of the more unusual toy stores:

And I saw this large piece of art on one of the side streets:

The last day I was in Austin I visited the Congress Avenue Bridge (now named for Ann Richards, a Texas politician perhaps best known for her witty jab at President George H. W. Bush). This bridge is famous for the roughly million and a half Mexican free-tailed bats who live underneath it during the day and come out to hunt for food at night.  The nightly (March through early Fall) ritual is viewed by thousands of people each year.

This sculpture was up at street level approaching the bridge from the south:

I knew about the bat flights but chose not to stick around to see it happen at sunset and then have to drive back to where I was staying.  Here are some photos of the nightly ritual I found in a park under the bridge.  If you are interested in seeing video of the bats in flight there are several of them on YouTube.

Part of my final day was also dedicated to doing more mundane tasks such as laundry and having some routine car maintenance performed.

 

 

 

On day five of my trip to south-central Texas I headed north towards Austin.  First thing in the morning, though, I actually headed east from where I was staying in Buda to the town of Elroy to tour the beautiful Formula 1 racetrack called “Circuit of the Americas”.  F1, as it is known, which races at venues all over the world, used to run their United States race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (I almost went one year but didn’t).  In 2010 they announced that they’d be building their own track, thank you very much, near Austin, Texas – far enough south that they wouldn’t have to worry about cold winter temperatures buckling the track surface.  The track opened in 2012.  It’s future is uncertain, however.  They have commitments through 2021 but are seeking $25 million from the State of Texas to help support the facility and have so far been turned down.  This a state-of-the-art F1, FIA Class 1 facility which was built at no small expense specifically for racing and I can’t imagine F1, who, as I like to say, “has more money than God,” letting it go.  I certainly hope not.

I tried to find a map online showing both Austin and the track but was unsuccessful.  CoTA, as it is known, is about 15 miles southeast of downtown Austin, about 5 miles past the airport.

Here is a map of the track configuration:

(Photo credit: Teslarati.com)

The track is 3.427 miles in length, has 20 turns, and features 133 feet of elevation changes.  To best illustrate those elevation changes here is a photo I found online published by a motorcycle magazine for one of their articles about a bike race held at CoTA.  It shows the track surface as if it were a roller coaster, a pretty clever idea I must say.  Please note that the elevation changes are exaggerated (at least for Turn 1) but this gets the point across.

(Photo credit: CoTA and cycleworld.com)

I knew I’d be doing the tour one day while I was in the area so I actually swung by the track at the end of my first day in Austin a few days earlier to make sure I knew how to get to it and roughly how long it would take from where I was staying.  I got a picture of the back of the grandstands and the track logo while I was there:

I got to the track about a half-hour early the day of my tour and ended up getting a private tour because I was the only customer they had for 10’oclock!  A very nice and well-informed woman drove me around the outside of the track and explained some of the history of the facility which has only been open a few years.

The most prominent feature of the track, which you’ll see in many of my photos, is the 251-foot tall Observation Tower.  Because if it’s popularity fans must pay to go up in it during a race and may only stay a certain amount of time.  My tour guide told me a story about Bernie Ecclestone, the former President of F1, kicking all the fans out so he could entertain his friends up there (and what Bernie wanted, Bernie got).  Needless to say those fans who had ponied up good money were NOT happy! We were not allowed to go up in it during the tour (the only disappointment).  Well, we couldn’t go on the track itself either, since the Porsche club was having an event and we were in a non-Porsche van, so I guess there were two disappointments….

The last shot in this post is looking down toward the main straightaway and start/finish from up at Turn 1.  Race vehicles run counterclockwise around the track so they would be coming towards me from this vantage point.

Next we go to the main grandstand and then cross under the track to the infield (see CoTA Post 2 of 2).

May 21, 2017

On day five of my trip to south-central Texas I headed north towards Austin.  First thing in the morning I actually headed east from where I was staying in Buda to the town of Elroy to tour the beautiful Formula 1 racetrack called “Circuit of the Americas” near there.

Here are more photos taken during my “private tour” of the facility.

These are views from the main grandstand on the front stretch, where the races start and finish (race vehicles traveling counter-clockwise).  There are also private suites on the top level which I am standing in front of.

We then went through a tunnel under the track surface to the infield where we’d visit other parts of the facility.  First stop over there – Race Control.  They were running a small event for the Porsche Club so there was only a small crew of officials working there.  Believe me, on a major race day it would be packed and visitors wouldn’t get near the place.

Race Control has monitors which can view every part of the track and officials have radio contact with track and safety workers at areas all around the track.

As we walked through the corridors of the building inside the track (which houses hospitality suites, offices, and has garages at ground level) I saw this photo of the Observation Tower lit up during a night race.  If you look closely you’ll see the reflection of me taking the picture and my trusty tour guide standing next to me.

Here is a better picture of her (sorry, I don’t recall her name) standing in Victory Lane (in F1 they call it “the podium” and is occupied by the top 3 race finishers, like at the Olympics).  She is standing next to a life-sized cardboard standup of Lewis Hamilton, my favorite F1 driver.  They had standups of most of the drivers so visitors could have their photo taken with their favorite.  She took one of me but it will never see the light of day…

This is the view of the front stretch from the paddock (garage) side of the track and you can see the podium on the left.  Pit road is between where I’m standing on the track from this vantage point and you can see the track climb up to Turn 1 in the distance.

Before we went back outside the track we saw a small, permanent music amphitheater located behind the Observation Tower.

For bigger concerts a big stage can be constructed between turns 11 and 12 (across from 9 & 10, near the letter H, but inside the track).

(Photo credit: Teslarati.com)

And finally, one last view of a car on the track before I left.

This tour, and the chance to see this gorgeous facility up close, is definitely on the short list of the many highlights of my recent trips.

If you want to watch this year’s F1 race from COTA tune to ESPN on Sunday, November 3 at 2pm Eastern time.  This track now hosts the IndyCar series as well.  They had their inaugural race back in March.  I doubt if NASCAR will ever race here.  There is an ongoing dispute between the sanctioning bodies as November 3 is the same date they run the Fall race at the NASCAR track up in Fort Worth.  Although they probably draw totally different crowds, Bruton Smith (who owns Texas Motor Speedway) is not at all pleased that they run the Formula 1 race in Texas on the same day, at overlapping times.

May 20, 2017

Day four of my week in south-central trip meant a trip back south to San Antonio.  It was threatening to rain (though it never did…) and I try to limit indoor activities to days that are rainy or too hot.  I visited the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio and enjoyed it very much.

The photo above is actually the sink in the Men’s room!  It has to be the most unusual one I have ever seen…

The curved thing in the photo above is actually balancing on the tabletop at just one point.  It would move with the air current just enough to convince you it wasn’t fixed in place.  There were signs advising guests not to touch it (and, lest you be tempted, someone was watching…).

May 20, 2017

Day four of my week in south-central Texas meant a trip back down to San Antonio.  It was threatening to rain (though it never did…) and I try to limit indoor activities to days that are rainy or too hot.  I visited the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio and enjoyed it very much.

Looking through my pictures it appears that, while the museum had some outstanding works of art on display, I was rather taken by the architecture style and tile work of the building and grounds themselves.

My notes say I also visited the San Antonio Museum of Art and I remember being at that building but for the life of me can’t find any pictures!  Perhaps I just wasn’t inspired by anything I saw, though I can usually admire just about anyone’s effort to create something from nothing.  If I find any photos I’ll post them in the future.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon at a restaurant a friend recommended (excellent and substantial hamburger!) and driving around New Braunfels before going back to Buda for the night.  I had a busy schedule for the next day and wanted to be fully rested.