BfloGirlTravel: 2016 sports bus trips with Know How Tours

Visit Watkins Glen International with Know How Tours
credit: paulathompsonfreelance.com

Know How Tours is offering a number of sports bus tours for the 2016 season, including trips to three baseball stadiums and a NASCAR race.

• Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays – on Saturday, April 9, head across the border to catch the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays in a 1:07 p.m. game. Cost is $115 per person and includes round-trip motorcoach and ticket to the game.
• Los Angeles Angels at Pittsburgh Pirates – on Saturday, June 4, the Angels visit Pittsburgh for a 4 p.m. game. This package – cost is $129 per person – includes round-trip motorcoach, ticket to the game in section 204 and an all-you-can-eat package with hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos, popcorn, peanuts and more.
• New York Yankees at Cleveland Indians – on Sunday, July 10, the Yankees and Indians match up for the final game of a four-game stand at 1:10 p.m. Cost is $135 per person and includes round-trip motorcoach, ticket to the game and an all-you-can-eat package with hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, peanuts and Pepsi products.
• Cheez-It 355 @ The Glen – NASCAR visits the Finger Lakes region on Sunday, August 7. Cost is $125 per person adult and $95 per person child 19 and under, and includes round-trip motorcoach, frontstretch grandstand seating and the pre-race Fan Walk ticket.
• New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays – on Saturday, September 25, cross the border to catch the Yankees and Blue Jays in a 1:07 p.m. game. Cost is $115 per person and includes round-trip motorcoach and ticket to the game.

BfloGirlTravel: 2016 sports bus trips with D&F Travel

The view from the "suite" seats in Cleveland - 2015
credit: paulathompsonfreelance.com

D&F Travel doesn’t specialize in sports bus trips, but it does know how to make each sporting adventure a great one. Here are some of this year’s trips for sports fans:

• New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays – there are two dates for fans on this one – Thursday, April 14 (7:07 p.m. game) and Saturday, September 24 (1:07 p.m. game). Each trip is $99 per person and includes round-trip motorcoach and ticket to the game.
• New York Yankees at Cleveland Indians – catch one or all four games in this series, with trips scheduled for July 7, 8, 9 and 10 (Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) to Progressive Field. These trips include round-trip motorcoach, “suite” seat to the game and all-you-can-eat food and non-alcohol beverages until the middle of the 7^th inning – this is a great deal at $130 per person! (I’ve done this trip the last two seasons – great seats and lots of great ballpark food and more!)
• Cheez-It 355 @ The Glen – NASCAR visits the Finger Lakes region for one of two annual road course races on the Sprint Cup Series schedule on Sunday, August 7. Cost is $125 per person and includes round-trip motorcoach, grandstand seating and the pre-race Fan Walk ticket. 

24 hours of summer, four-wheel style

Last year, Labor Day weekend was marked by four days of four-wheel fun – auto racing and car shows. This year, we’re cutting it down to two days – Friday night at Oswego Speedway in Central NY and the Olcott Beach Car Show in Niagara County on Saturday.

The trip to Oswego itself is something to talk about as a racing fan, because the route we take goes through Cato, NY – home of Xfinity Series driver Regan Smith.

The race has become a tradition – a stop by the Race of Champions Modifieds plus qualifying action for the Supermodifieds and SBS Modifieds. I’ve become a bit spoiled, having spent the season on the infield at Lancaster, and now catchfences just bother me…

Andy Jankowiak won the RoC race, followed by Matt Hirschman and Tony Hanbury.

Andy Jankowiak

Matt Hirschman

Tony Hanbury

The Supermodifieds are really cool and really quick, and have their own celebrities: No. 00, Joe Gosek – known as “Double-0 Joe” – raced in the 1996 Indy 500, and Indy Racing League veteran and IndyCar Series co-owner Davey Hamilton (No. 6 Supermodified) raced in 11 Indy 500s.

Davey Hamilton

On Saturday, we took the trek to Olcott Beach – it was a beautiful day for a car show, and there were plenty of cars to be seen: more than 800! It was about 10 degrees cooler than it was when we left Amherst, and there was a breeze – it felt soooooo nice!

all photos: paulathompsonfreelance.com

BfloGirlSports: Race of Champions at Lancaster Speedway – August 15th, 2015

Matt Hirschman (left) and Team 49 Racing (three on right)
They're unofficial members of Dad's team when they're at Lancaster!

It was a much better showing and a much better race for the Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour at Lancaster Speedway on Saturday, August 15^th. The annual Tommy Druar /Tony Jankowiak Memorial 110 was won by Patrick Emerling, followed by Chuck Hossfeld, Andy Jankowiak, Matt Hirschman and Tony Hanbury.

Bobby Holmes

Patrick Emerling

Matt Hirschman

The Street Stocks and 4-Cylinders were also in action, and the crowd on hand was HUGE! It was great to see, since about a year ago the future of Lancaster was up in the air – Modified racing will bring folks from all around!

The Modifieds will be back as part of the US Open in September.

all photos: paulathompsonfreelance.com

Watkins Glen International in pictures

Toyota's cool ferris wheel

Matt Kenseth

I don’t care what some people say – road courses are freakin’ awesome! Especially when there’s one in your “backyard” (i.e. – a couple hours away). Watkins Glen International is that track for me, and the best way to get there – unless you’re staying there – is on a bus trip: dropped off right in front of the grandstand gate, with lots of time to go explore the midway area (but still never enough!). Here are a few pictures from this year’s event.

Newman!

Casey Mears

Clint Bowyer

on pit road

mmmm...M&Ms!

on the starting grid

heading to the green flag

random tire rolling along (yes, the frontstretch was cheering on the tire!)

Joey Logano on fire! (literally)

all photos: paulathompsonfreelance.com

**note – Mom and I went with D&F Travel – all travel was paid for by me, and all opinions are my own.**

Pocono Raceway in pictures - July 31st-August 1st, 2015

This was the 14^th year I’ve been to Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania for the second Cup Series race – when I started going there it was still the WINSTON Cup Series! I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it forever – if you go to Pocono, GET THE PIT/PADDOCK PASS!! It’s well worth the $50 to see what goes on in the garage area, from crews at work and drivers clowning around to tech inspections and standing behind the pit wall during practice and qualifying. Here are a few of my photos from the “other side.”

On the grandstand side, I was able to get some great photos of Kyle Busch’s post-race smoke show – i.e. victory burnout! 

yes, I did crop this! :)

all photos: paulathompsonfreelance.com

Discover Buffalo 2015: 30 Hours in Buffalo, Part 1

(Because I’m sure this won’t be the only time this happens this summer!)

From last Friday (July 17) at 3 p.m. to Saturday (July 18) at 9 p.m., I felt like I didn’t sleep – THAT is what summer in Buffalo is all about!

It all started at the Eastern Hills Mall, where the Snap-On Road Show was getting set up throughout the day – Mom, Dad and I went there around 3 p.m. to see the goodies (for me – the OCC chopper and Cruz Pedregon’s Funny Car, for Dad – the chopper and the tool boxes, Mom…well, she was along for the ride – and to make sure Dad didn’t buy anything!).

After a quick bite to eat, I headed up to Main-Transit Fire Dept. (Dad was already there) for their annual Firematic Tournament, which is a lot of fun if you’ve never seen one.

On Saturday, we got the Ponies and a race car ready and headed to East Amherst Fire Dept. for the Man Up! Car and Bike Show, and Mom and I hit the Village of Williamsville Garden Walk (this happened while Dad and the team were up at the car show with the cars!). I then headed back to the car show to bring one of the cars home (the other two left so they could get to the race track for practice!).

Saturday night, I headed to Lancaster Speedway for Autograph Night, 4-Cylinders and Sportsman, plus the Big 10 Super Stocks and Late Models – by 9 p.m. (when the 4-Cylinders ended), I was beat!

I could’ve added one or two more things to Sunday, but a girl has to stop somewhere! There’s always next weekend, anyway!

all photos: paulathompsonfreelance.com.