Sometime during the planning of our trip, we realized that we would be passing through Austin on the Friday before the United States Formula One Race at the pretentiously named The Circuit of The Americas (COTA) near Austin. Since Friday is Practice Day, Michele suggested that we go. I was reluctant, primarily I think, because I have convinced myself that Auto Racing is a sport best seen on TV, but Michele was insistent so we went and I am glad of it. It was great fun. I still think it is easier to follow a race on TV but it was neat seeing and hearing the real cars, and we got a much better sense of the track by being there so watching the race on TV, Sunday night in San Angelo TX, was more fun. We were so thrilled to see The Master, Lewis Hamilton in a Petronas Mercedes, driving noticeably faster than anyone else that we left talking about coming back next year to see the actual race. BTW, much to my surprise, we both left thinking COTA is the best race circuit we have ever seen and it and Austin are perfect hosts. 
I, on the other hand, felt that I had a much better sense of what was going on being at the track than watching on TV, but partially that was because Steve suggested we stop at one of the places approaching CODA selling tickets and we ended up sitting in much better seats than we would have if we had just purchased the least expensive tickets at the gate. We could see across the track and watch a large section from one vantage point. What I didn’t expect was to be able to tell that Lewis Hamilton was driving faster than anyone else. But he clearly was watching car after car go by the same point. To be able to watch each car go through the same turn over and over, I really got a sense of the different drivers in a way I could never could on TV. And, as I overheard someone telling his friends who had some accent I could not identify, the venue was “an ‘only in America’ place; they could not pull this off in South Russia.”