26 March ‘09 Thursday
Leaving Atlanta in heavy rain and right at morning rush hour just wasn’t what I wanted to do, so we just poked around yesterday morning until 10:30. Fortunately by that time, the rain let up and the traffic turned out to be light. Our drive took us through Atlanta, turned west on I-20, and headed for Anniston Alabama. We’re now back on Central time again…I’ve never had to change the time on my watch so many times. Just prior to getting to Anniston we saw a road sign indicating that we were just 20 miles north of Talladega Super Speedway, and if your that close and don’t stop by and check it out...well that would be a shame. Where is Talladega Speedway?...In Talladega of course… NOT TRUE !!! It’s in Lincoln, and where is Lincoln? About 15 miles west of Talladega… And the speedway really isn’t in Lincoln either. I would say that Talladega Speedway is in “TALLADEGA SPEEDWAY City”… That complex is so large that it is a city in its self.
Leaving Atlanta in heavy rain and right at morning rush hour just wasn’t what I wanted to do, so we just poked around yesterday morning until 10:30. Fortunately by that time, the rain let up and the traffic turned out to be light. Our drive took us through Atlanta, turned west on I-20, and headed for Anniston Alabama. We’re now back on Central time again…I’ve never had to change the time on my watch so many times. Just prior to getting to Anniston we saw a road sign indicating that we were just 20 miles north of Talladega Super Speedway, and if your that close and don’t stop by and check it out...well that would be a shame. Where is Talladega Speedway?...In Talladega of course… NOT TRUE !!! It’s in Lincoln, and where is Lincoln? About 15 miles west of Talladega… And the speedway really isn’t in Lincoln either. I would say that Talladega Speedway is in “TALLADEGA SPEEDWAY City”… That complex is so large that it is a city in its self.
I was totally amazed at the size of the grandstand and the amount of fans that it can hold…170,000 !!! And then on the opposite side of the 2 ½ mile track is another grandstand that holds 40,000 more. I remember watching the races on TV, but I had no idea that they crowds of that size. Circling the speedway are so many RV campgrounds that it was hard to count them all. All I can say is, taking in an event such as this must be exciting. The International Motor Sports hall of Fame is also located on the grounds.
This is a huge thing to have here and they did an excellent job of putting it together. We were surprised that there was more than NASCAR being represented there. It just so happens that the only requirements are that it must have a motor or propulsion unit of some type. Names that we recognized from outside of the motor car circuits were from the hydro racing circuit…Bill Muncey and Chip Hanauer. After spending a couple of hours in the Motor Sports Museum, we checked out the possibility of seeing the track at Talladega. Unfortunately MALBORO had leased the track out for the week to test some of their new cars and it was LOCKED OUT to all others but them. Hell, we couldn’t even get a good picture of the grandstands in the distance. Oh well, we’ll just have to come back for a race some day. Now it’s time to head on. Following Hwy 77 out of Lincoln, we soon found ourselves pulling into Gadsden. It was getting close to 6pm so we decided to find our stand-by campground (Wal-Mart) and stay the night. When I went into the store for permission to stay the night, the young lady I was talking with gave me a suggestion for a place to visit while in town. Noccalula Falls. The legend has it that the young daughter Noccalula, of a great Indian Chief, tossed herself off the cliff over the falls to end the possibility of marrying another Indian Chief.
This Chief was very wealthy but not one that Noccalula wanted to be with the rest of her life.