What to do in Sacramento

[SShep71]

I am FINALLY going to be sent home, but I have to spend about a week in Sacramento. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to burn some time the First week in March?

[Ron Sutton]

The great thing about Sacramento is it's within 1-2 hours you can be at ocean, mountains, snow, skiing, lakes, beach, gambling, etc. The bad thing about Sacramento is the ocean, mountains, snow, skiing, lakes, beach, gambling, etc. are all 1-2 hours away.

Seriously ... (click on links for more info)
Sacramento is known as "River City" with two rivers running through it & converging (the American River is blue water & the Sacramento River is red water.) Old Sacramento is a quaint walk around town on the Sacramento River with stores, restaurants, bars, shopping ... plus you can see the river, gold bridge, river boat called the Delta King & the train museum is there. A walk way/tunnel takes you under the freeway to Sacramento Downtown Plaza mall. Great brewery/restaurant there called River City Brewing.

On I-5 between Old Sacramento & the Airport there is an exit "Garden Highway" with several cool bar/restaurants on the river. Crawdads is always hoppin' & Chevy's is a good Tex-Mex chain.

Going East on Highway 50, out in Rancho Cordova, is a place called Vintage Ford. It is like a hot rodders museum & heaven. No racing going on then ... wrong time of year. But there is a big indoor karting center, also in Rancho Cordova called K1 Speed.

There are two Pro-Touring shops in town. Marquez Design is out near Old Sacramento. Gearhead Garage is towards Roseville. If you need to do some shopping for gifts, the Roseville Galleria mall is best. Lots of restaurants nearby too.

A cool West Coast NASCAR race team shop is also in Roseville, Bill McAnally Racing. If you want a quick tour, I can arrange it for you. In the building is a racing souvenoir shop called Hunt's Race World. Tell Jeanie I said "Hi."

Since the Kings Basketball team was purchased by a new group, the quality of players & games went up significantly. You can check out their schedule here. They play Minnesota on 3/1 & New Orleans on 3/3. We have a minor league baseball team, that plays at Raley Field. Their season doesn't start until April, but there may a college game playing. Get details & tickets here.

Several bars/clubs have nightlife, dancing, music, bands, etc. If you're interested in that, let me know what specifically.

Reno Casinos, Lake Tahoe Casinos, the Sierra Mountains for snow & skiing ... and we FINALLY got some rain here & snow in the mountains. San Francisco, Fisher's Wharf, Pacific Ocean beaches & Napa Valley Wine Country are all within 1-2 hours. Let me know if you have an interest in specific ones & I'll plug you in.

[HarleyR]

That's funny you mentioned Bill McAnally.. I started working for him when his race shop was at his house in the garage... I have since moved on to
Bigger and better things but we Still have remained great friends.. I owe him a lot..
I lived up in the area for a little while back in 98/99 I always enjoyed the train museum

[struck by Lightning]

Drag Racing at Sacramento Raceway http://www.sacramentoraceway.com/ or autocross http://www.baautox.com/forum/index.p...frm_id=2&rid=0 or California Automobile Museum http://www.calautomuseum.org/

[Ron Sutton]

That's funny you mentioned Bill McAnally.. I started working for him when his race shop was at his house in the garage... I have since moved on to
Bigger and better things but we Still have remained great friends.. I owe him a lot..
I lived up in the area for a little while back in 98/99 I always enjoyed the train museum

Cool. Bill is a good guy. He's done a lot for me too. Still does in fact.

It's funny, but "train museum" sounds boring, but it's pretty cool.

.

[Ron Sutton]

Drag Racing at Sacramento Raceway http://www.sacramentoraceway.com/ or autocross http://www.baautox.com/forum/index.p...frm_id=2&rid=0 or California Automobile Museum http://www.calautomuseum.org/

Nice additions George.

[Space Dynamics]

Thunder Hill Raceway has a open track day hosted by NCRC later in the month. They are doing a Driving School with it if you never had your car on the track before. Even uf you don't plan to run it is a fun place to check out. They also have a shop that will dyno your car for $60 If you wanna find out how much it puts out! Fun stuff.

[rustomatic]

Ron is admittedly a good tour guide, but you can't miss the following: Get in your rental car, find either Pilot Hill or Coloma on a map, and get there via I-80 or US 50. This is of course if you're into a good road, for about 30 miles, on which you can dream of using your pro-touring car's tricks as they were made to perform (or just get passed by a maniac on a bike or in a Ferrari)...

If you want to make your passenger sick, if you have one, just connect US 50 to I-80 via El Dorado Hills, or vice versa, via Auburn.

[rustomatic]

Hey Ron,

I'm related to Eric Holmes (Bill's winning driver) by marriage; I guess he's like a cousin-in-law or something... It's a small world...

Cool. Bill is a good guy. He's done a lot for me too. Still does in fact.

It's funny, but "train museum" sounds boring, but it's pretty cool.

.

[Ron Sutton]

Hey Ron,

I'm related to Eric Holmes (Bill's winning driver) by marriage; I guess he's like a cousin-in-law or something... It's a small world...

That's cool.

I just saw Eric at the Autorama car show. He was helping Alan Beebe in their display booth & we talked for awhile. Eric was one of the 12 driver coaches I used in my driver development program. He is so good at teaching little "feel" things in the car.

Back in 2009, when I needed an experienced driver to give me feedback on my high travel/low roll/bump stop set-up in my new Modifieds, Eric drove for me & we had the dominant car before the race weekend was over. His feedback is unreal. He actually said, "I think we need to move the roll center 3-4" farther to the left."

Unfortunately, it sheared off a drive plate cruising in second in the main. Holmes is one cool customer.