Rob, the world traveler... (KT, the jealous!)
This post probably won't mean much to anyone who doesn't follow F1, but I just had to write it somewhere! I know that Karin and Daniel will at least "get it"... The rest of you? Just read it anyway! :)
Some of you may know that Rob has been doing some freelance video work for a local video production company that has some major corporate contracts, some of which involve a bit of travel... He's been to various parts of the US to shoot Harley-Davidson events over the past 6 months or so, Birmingham AL, Knoxville TX, Charlotte NC, and more... Well earlier this spring, he got offered a freelance job in St. Tropez for this weekend, another Harley event... As soon as he realized he was going to be in the French Riviera on Formula 1's Monaco race weekend, (the grandest, most glamorous and highest revered of all the races on the F1 calendar), and the proximity of St. Tropez to Monte Carlo, he arranged to fly out a day early with hopes of getting to Monaco to at least watch the F1 practice session since he'll be shooting in St. Tropez on raceday.
Rob left Detroit yesterday morning for the long flight to Nice, via a layover at JFK in New York. His plane arrived in France (according to my text message update from Delta Airlines!) about 8am Thursday morning, or the middle of the night, Wednesday, for me...
I hadn't heard from him all day today and started to worry a bit after work tonight when I realized it was nearly midnight there, when my phone finally rang. Turns out that, although it is a world-band phone, the cell he brought isn't unlocked in the right way to take a European sim card so he had no way to call me earlier. His call had to be brief as he was using his co-worker's US phone, at a cost of about $1.50 a minute! (He's hoping to run across a wireless store in their travels tomorrow and buy a generic prepaid phone for the rest of the trip...)
Rob let me know that he did make it to Monte Carlo today, straight from the airport, but didn't end up buying a ticket for any of the grandstands like he'd planned. Monaco, being a rather wealthy (but tiny!) country is the most expensive race to attend, the tickets are not cheap - just for practice they run about $100 for the day! Instead he and his co-worker were able to walk around the city, take in the atmosphere and see the on-track action from quite few different vantage points!! So not only did he save some big bucks, he got to see more as well! w00t!
He said it was just incredible to see/hear the cars in Monaco. We've been to Indy for the past 2 years, so he's familiar with the sights and sounds of live F1 cars on track, but it is a completely different experience knowing that you're seeing them in Monaco! Of course, he took a lot of good pics but said he probably won't be able to send them home because the hotel they are staying in doesn't have internet and he hasn't yet seen an internet cafe nearby...
To say I am extremely jealous is the understatement of the year... Sure, I'm jealous but I am also extremely happy for him to have had this experience! For an F1 fan, seeing the race in Monaco is almost like travelling to Mecca or reaching Nirvana! It's the one race that just about all F1 fans will say "I just hope to see a race at Monaco before I die"! I was feeling kinda bad that I am going to the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal next month and he wasn't going to get to see a race at all this year since he couldn't get that time off... But now it's all good, better for him in fact! I have to admit that seeing a few laps of free practice in Monaco completely trumps my entire Montreal weekend on the F1-Awesomeness scale!
The "track" at Monaco is a street course, where they close down most of the city and the cars race on the narrow and winding city streets though the ritzy shopping districts, past the Casino (as in Casino Royalle) and along the harbor full of multi-million dollar yachts.
For a quick sample of some the appeal of the race in Monaco, here are a few shots from today that I found online:
OK, no more boring you with silly F1-talk! I'm off to watch my DVR of practice from the Speed Channel to look for Rob in the crowd shots!
Some of you may know that Rob has been doing some freelance video work for a local video production company that has some major corporate contracts, some of which involve a bit of travel... He's been to various parts of the US to shoot Harley-Davidson events over the past 6 months or so, Birmingham AL, Knoxville TX, Charlotte NC, and more... Well earlier this spring, he got offered a freelance job in St. Tropez for this weekend, another Harley event... As soon as he realized he was going to be in the French Riviera on Formula 1's Monaco race weekend, (the grandest, most glamorous and highest revered of all the races on the F1 calendar), and the proximity of St. Tropez to Monte Carlo, he arranged to fly out a day early with hopes of getting to Monaco to at least watch the F1 practice session since he'll be shooting in St. Tropez on raceday.
Rob left Detroit yesterday morning for the long flight to Nice, via a layover at JFK in New York. His plane arrived in France (according to my text message update from Delta Airlines!) about 8am Thursday morning, or the middle of the night, Wednesday, for me...
I hadn't heard from him all day today and started to worry a bit after work tonight when I realized it was nearly midnight there, when my phone finally rang. Turns out that, although it is a world-band phone, the cell he brought isn't unlocked in the right way to take a European sim card so he had no way to call me earlier. His call had to be brief as he was using his co-worker's US phone, at a cost of about $1.50 a minute! (He's hoping to run across a wireless store in their travels tomorrow and buy a generic prepaid phone for the rest of the trip...)
Rob let me know that he did make it to Monte Carlo today, straight from the airport, but didn't end up buying a ticket for any of the grandstands like he'd planned. Monaco, being a rather wealthy (but tiny!) country is the most expensive race to attend, the tickets are not cheap - just for practice they run about $100 for the day! Instead he and his co-worker were able to walk around the city, take in the atmosphere and see the on-track action from quite few different vantage points!! So not only did he save some big bucks, he got to see more as well! w00t!
He said it was just incredible to see/hear the cars in Monaco. We've been to Indy for the past 2 years, so he's familiar with the sights and sounds of live F1 cars on track, but it is a completely different experience knowing that you're seeing them in Monaco! Of course, he took a lot of good pics but said he probably won't be able to send them home because the hotel they are staying in doesn't have internet and he hasn't yet seen an internet cafe nearby...
To say I am extremely jealous is the understatement of the year... Sure, I'm jealous but I am also extremely happy for him to have had this experience! For an F1 fan, seeing the race in Monaco is almost like travelling to Mecca or reaching Nirvana! It's the one race that just about all F1 fans will say "I just hope to see a race at Monaco before I die"! I was feeling kinda bad that I am going to the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal next month and he wasn't going to get to see a race at all this year since he couldn't get that time off... But now it's all good, better for him in fact! I have to admit that seeing a few laps of free practice in Monaco completely trumps my entire Montreal weekend on the F1-Awesomeness scale!
The "track" at Monaco is a street course, where they close down most of the city and the cars race on the narrow and winding city streets though the ritzy shopping districts, past the Casino (as in Casino Royalle) and along the harbor full of multi-million dollar yachts.
For a quick sample of some the appeal of the race in Monaco, here are a few shots from today that I found online:
OK, no more boring you with silly F1-talk! I'm off to watch my DVR of practice from the Speed Channel to look for Rob in the crowd shots!