(Click on the thumbnails or links to see full size image) Updated

This year I left the house at around 4pm, looking forward to a 1,021 mile drive to Austin. I used my TomTom GPS unit this year and decided I would follow it's instruction, rather than ignore it and go my own route (like last year). I also packed much lighter this year.

First leg of the journey, just South of Red Rock, AZ. Just North of Tucson Approx. 3 hours into the trip, New Mexico. I decided I would stop at Fort Stockton, TX. and sleep in the car until sunrise and then drive the rest of the journey. Which meant most of the first part of the journey would be in the dark, but as the scenery is not much different all the way, that was fine with me.
Staring the second leg from Ft. Stockton around 6:20am 5 minutes later down the road this is just outside Bakersfield, TX.  
3 hours later entering Mason on Hwy 377/29 Not too many towns along the way, or traffic. Clear roads picked by my TomTom proved to be a much better route than I used last year, arriving in Cedar Park, where our Hotel is, way too early, around 12:30pm local time. And COLD! about 50 degrees F. I'm in shorts and a T-shirt.............Freezing!

Don got stuck in traffic around Ft. Worth, so was running late. He arrived about 4:30pm.

Friday November 15th: Click here to see all Friday pictures.
Man! Cold morning, foggy. We knew from experience it would only take 45 minutes to get to the track. We were in the same parking lot "L" as last year. As we arrived the fog was still laying around, which delayed the start of 1st practice because the Helicopters could not fly. So this is what turn 11 looked like as we entered the track We headed off to find our seats in the stands at turn 4. At the top of the page is the view across the track from the seats. We could see turn 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, so not too bad.

We took a wonder over the bridge to the "Courtyard" entrance, to check out the clothing and other race items. I cannot believe they sell baseball caps for $50.00! I did buy a program ($20.00) I have to have one from ever GP I go to, and the sew-on patch for this years GP, which will join the others on my F1 Jacket.
Don bought a Sauber hat and shirt. He wanted to get Hulkenberg to sign the shirt as there was to be an autograph session, so he went off and stood in line at the "360 Amphitheatre", and I met with Jack and his wife Jinel, from Iowa, they had just arrived and Jack was fuming about the tickets he had been sent. They were just plain "Ticketmaster" tickets, (definitely NOT what you want for spending that kind of money) whereas  mine and Don's looked like the image at the top of this page. Practice had started so Jack and Jinel went off to their seats and I went roaming.

I took some pictures around GA area between turn 18 and 19, Riciardo , Botas cooking the front brakes and looking to turn 20 (last turn onto the Pit straight). This year they had put a "Hospitallity" stand in the middle of the GA area. They removed the long stand between turns 19 and 20, which they had last year. This is Rosberg coming out of turn 18 From the same spot you can see turn 1 that is where we were last year, on the grass at the top. This is more like the view you would see from where I took the picture Right next to me is the entrance to the Hospitality stand. One of the girls seems more interested in what she found on the end of her finger, while the other did watch the cars.

I decided to see how Don was getting on with the Autograph session, which was supposed to be going on behind me down in the Amphitheatre. It was already 30 minutes past the time the drivers were supposed to arrive and everyone had been standing around, waiting including Don, that's him smack in the middle. Finally the drivers arrived, almost 1 hour late but rather than start the autograph session, the organizers decided to have the Q and A first, then tried to make them look fools "Ropin" Finally they got around to the drivers signing autographs, and Don got his We met up with Jack and Jinel again at the eating area before heading back to our seats for practice 2.

Just a few shots I took from our seats, Massa , Webber , Button , Hamilton , Heikki

After FP2 the Historic cars came out. Man! So much slower! LOL! There seemed to be less this year and no real stand-out classic F1 cars.  
            

Below is the map of the circuit so you can see where we were sitting and roughly where the pictures were taken. All Friday pictures here

Leaving the track this year was a LOT different from last year. I guess they decided they knew what they were doing now, so directed traffic in such a way that it all converged in slightly different places resulting in one large traffic jam. And this was only Friday! Maybe Saturday will be better.
Last year, although it was the first event, traffic flowed so smoothly out of the track, and we were back at the Hotel in the same amount of time as it took to get to the track; approx. 45 minutes.