(click on the thumbnail for a track layout)
Next, the Big Pine Key Adventure Tour Bus took us to Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL., 420 miles from the home offices at Big Pine Key, NC.
It was a Herculean effort the staff at Big Pine Key Adventure Tours put forth in arranging this trip. Now, we on the Big Pine Key Motorsports and Synchronized Swimming team have a sense of the logistical problems the F1 teams have to solve on their jaunts around the globe. After witnessing this I understand why the staff at Big Pine Key Adventure Tours makes the big bucks.
We stopped at Talladega on the way to the Barber.
Okay, if I had to describe Barber in one word it would be: "It's absolutely picture perfect, and I want to be buried there when I die!"
After experiencing Barber, I don't know whether to say, "it's a great museum with noteworthy artwork strewn throughout the grounds that happens to be surrounded by a fabulous racetrack,"
(Below is a 20 foot bronze spider sculpture and a web planted in grass.
And a gate with the motorcycle silhouette)
or "it's a fantastic racetrack that complements a stunning museum with expensive artwork scattered around for everyone to enjoy." In either case, my life was made richer by my 2 day visit there.
Guys, as an ultimate trip this should rank right up there with touring Dolly Parton's underwear drawer. It has to be on your "Must Do" list. Sell, trade, mortgage or give away whatever you have to so you can make the trip, but, as 'Tater Salad Oxendine down at the bait shop says, "git 'er done!" Believe me, you'll thank yourself afterwards. This place is phenomenal, it is the Tiffany jewel of race tracks.
Here's what it looks like from our Big Pine Key Race Car during a race in Oct. 2006: