DRAG RACES IN LAS VEGAS

Last Sunday, we attended the NHRA professional drag races at the Las Vegas Speedway.  There is a quarter mile strip where they race Top Fuel cars, funny cars, pro stock cars and pro stock motorcycles.

The event was attended by thousands of people and you could tell all the experienced attendees by the size of their ear plugs.  When the Top Fuel cars explode off the starting line it is extremely loud and you can feel the vibrations like thunder throughout your whole body.  The noise doesn’t last all that long as they complete the quarter mile in less than 4 seconds and reach speeds of around 320 mph.  Their engines, which burn up to 90% nitromethane, produce between 8500 and 10,000 horsepower.

Top Fuel

Funny cars

Pro stock

We were at the event for about 8 hours which seemed like a long time by the end of the day.  As they worked into the semi-finals, there was more “down” time between races but they did have some side shows (remote control trucks jumping off ramps) to entertain the crowd.  It was a great opportunity to see something new.

We stayed one more day in Boulder City and then drove to The Palms RV Resort in Yuma on November 1.  We arrived in the early afternoon and were able to get parked and set up within a few hours.  The rest of the unpacking (like putting together the bikes and setting out the patio carpets) took place over the next few days and we did some shopping to stock up our shelves.  We are still amazed at the cheap prices for some grocery items here--$1.57 for a gallon of milk and chicken at $1 a pound.  Some items have increased in price since last year but not as much as at home.

We’ve had sunny and warm weather until yesterday evening when a rain and wind storm blew in for a couple of hours.  We had only seen significant rain here once last year so maybe this was the storm of the winter.  It was 8 degrees this morning but should warm up to 22 later today.