The 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500

It’s May and we’re off again to the 100^th running of the Indianapolis 500. On our way to the race, we spent a night in Casey, IL, which promotes itself as "a small town with big things."

Biggest wind chime

We saw the world's largest wind chime and rocking chair. Again we visited our boater friends, Dave & Joyce Johnson and had a wonderful reunion. They again showered us with excessive hospitality and wonderful meals. We visited their son’s, Keith, farm and newly finished man-made pond.

Biggest rocking chair

Next year we’ll need a day on the water. Wanting to see the Thursday practice, we only spent one night with them. We arrived at the track, paid our $20 admission fee, and within one minute upon entering, spotted a Michigan “Yellowshirt” volunteer we had befriended. He told us that a weather system was approaching from the west and the stands were going to be closed in the next 10 minutes. We headed back to the gate to see if we could get a refund. No dice. But we were able to stop another family from paying the non-refundable entrance fee.

Legends Day drivers meeting

They closed the stands due to lightening. We rode the storm out in the parking lot until it became obvious that they would not reopen practice that day.

Check out lines at the gift shop

Friday was Carb Day and what a day it was. We have been coming to Carb Day for the past 11 years and we have never seen such a large crowd. If this was indicative of what we would see on race day because of the 100^th running of the race, we would have to rethink our race day strategy. Obviously, we would have to start our schedule a lot earlier than previous years. Carb Day was a hoot! We saw a great Indycar practice session and witnessed really competitive Indy Lights Freedom 100 race (these dudes really due battle!), ending with Helio Castrenoves winning the Pit Stop Competition for the 9^th time. We didn’t hang around for the Journey concert that was the Carb Day feature as most of the attendees were way to sloppy drunk.

Vintage cars on Legends Day

We don’t mind drunks, just not sloppy ones! We headed back to our motel and relaxed for the evening.

Another oldie!

Saturday, Legends Day, saw us again back at the track. We immediately headed for the IMS gift shops hoping to avoid the crowds. Jane wanted to purchase some centennial souvenirs on Carb Day, but the checkout lines were just too long. While the lines were shorter, she was disappointed to find measly quantities of merchandise and clothing only available in certain sizes (and not hers!). We made some purchases and headed over to the Tower Terrace for the Driver’s Meeting. The meeting featured a little more hoopla this year, being the 100^th running of the race.

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Not having visited the museum for the past 10 years, Capt. Larry thought a visit in this milestone year would be worth the money and time to see what changes had been put in place.

1966- the year the Saints entered the NFL

On our way to the museum, we were sidetracked to an exhibition of vintage cars that had been brought in by private owners—something we might not see again. We viewed the entire inventory. Satisfied that we had seen a really unique exhibit that might not return to the track until another anniversary year, we decided to skip the museum.

1965 STP Special

We were tired and reasoned that we could see the museum exhibits next year. Returning to our motel, we readied ourselves to go out for a Mexican dinner (and a chance for Capt. Larry to practice his Spanish). The pork carnitas were fantastic!

Race Day! We are up earlier than usual for an earlier arrival at the track in an effort to beat the sellout crowd and the anticipated traffic jams that would accompany a later departure.

Big race day crowds

The exterior parking lots were opened one-half hour earlier than usual with the gates opening at 0600. We left our motel almost one hour earlier that we usually do. But it didn’t do us any good. A couple of wrecks along our route essentially wiped out that 1-hour head start.

We had a blimp this year

We arrived about our usual time and parked almost twice the usual distance from the gate entrance! Breakfasting at the American Legion Post 500, we felt we should go into the track almost 2 hours earlier than usual. Settled in our seats we watched the pre-race festivities and then the race. What a race it was!

Up go the balloons!

It was very competitive with more lead changes than usual, last year’s winner being the first car out (and last place position), and the race won by an American (a minority of drivers) rookie who ran out of fuel on the last lap and coasted to a victory! For our likes, that’s racing! One never knows what will happen.

A memorable race

We waited for 2 hours for the traffic to clear before we attempted our return to the motel.

The next morning we left Indianapolis and headed to Ohio to visit Capt. Larry’s nephew and family. It was great to see them, and we spent the day catching up with each other and enjoying some really wonderful meals. The next day we left for Niagara Falls. It was a much shorter visit than usual, but on our way to visit Capt. Larry’s 94-year old aunt, we decided to retrace our route along the Erie Canal that we navigated in our boat on our Great Loop adventure in 2011. We had befriended a boater couple, Don and Kathy from St. Louis that we kept in touch with and who visited us twice when they came to Florida, and we had learned that they would be on the canal again at the same time we were.