Going to Indy- Again!

It's that time of year again with Memorial Day arriving and us making our now annual pilgrimage to Indianapolis for the Indianapolis 500 Indycar race. This is one of our short vacations that we look forward to every year, and this year we were particularly excited. The race had a new qualifying format that glued us to the TV for two straight days the week before the race. Pole day produced an exciting duel between the top teams, Team Penske and Target-Ganassi. Interestingly though, the top nine positions also included some drivers from the smaller teams which are always darkhorse favorites. After the new pole shootout session was over though, Helio Castronoves (Jane's favorite because of his stint on Dancing with the Stars) and Will Power (one of Larry's upcoming favorites) from Team Penske and Dario Franchitti (who Jane will tell you is married to Ashley Judd!) from Target-Ganassi filled out the front row. So some of the qualifying was business as usual, but some of the top drivers really had a difficult time qualifying (Tony Kanaan, Danica Patrick, and Paul Tracy). The results would provide for an interesting race.

One of the highlights we have enjoyed the past few years is the Miller Lite Carb Day which is held on the Friday before the Sunday (May 30) race. This meant that we had to leave Louisiana on Thursday. So up we get at 3 a.m. to leave by 4 a.m. to drive the 854 miles to our motel. It's really not as grueling as it sounds, though. We put on some good music from the satellite radio, take turns driving stretches, and pack a gallon of Larry's Bloody Marys. Before we know it we're in Indy! We arrived at our parking lot on Carb Day around 10 a.m. And the weather, unlike the rain we experienced last year, was perfect. The race field practice began at 11 a.m. and it was interesting to see the times the drivers posted with their race setups. Some of the very fast qualifiers were considerably slower and vice versa. It proved that the race should be a lot tighter and interesting than the qualifying times would indicate. After the practice session was over we got to watch the Indy Lites Firestone Freedom 100 race. For the very first time a woman was on the pole, but she was unfortunately knocked out of the race on the second lap. Since they only go 100 miles, it only takes about 45 minutes to complete the entire race, including yellow flags. After the race we watched the Pit Competition. For a while it looked like a couple of the smaller teams would prevail, but eventually the competition was won by Helio Castronoves and Team Penske (again!). After the Pit Competition we walked over to the Miller Lite Stage to see this year's band, ZZ Top. It took us almost 20 minutes to get into the gate, it was so packed. To make matters worse, cars were trying to get out of the gate and an ambulance with lights flashing was trying to get in. On top of everything, everyone was drunk!

The state troopers had their hands full. When we finally made it in we started walking over the golf course to get to a spot where we could see the band. When we finally got to the top of the levee that borders the concert area, we found that we were almost behind the stage! We couldn't see the band and the speakers were directed toward the main crowd and away from us, so the audio was poor. After about 45 minutes in the grueling sun, 3 beers, and watching everyone around us deteriorate in drunken stupors, we decided to leave. We absolutely did not want to engage this crowd at the exits or on the highway. We made it back to our room and cleaned up, then we went out to a great little Mexican restaurant we found last year and enjoyed a great meal.

On Saturday we made our way south of Indianapolis to visit our friends, Sherrie and Danny Johnson. We met Sherry and Danny when they visited Milana and Tracy over the past couple of years, and had them and Danny's parents over to our place in Ft. Walton Beach when Danny graduated from school in Pensacola last year. They have a lovely house, very well off the beaten path, and after we got caught up on recent events they suggested we take a short drive to the French Lick resort area for lunch. We were in for a real treat because the focal point of the area is two, very old grand hotels that have undergone extensive restoration. The first hotel was called West Baden Springs Hotel (http://www.frenchlick.com/hotels/westBaden/index.jsp) and featured the largest, single-spanned domed roof in the world. It was awesome. After lunch we roamed the interior taking in the magnificent artwork and period pieces. The photo gallery of this beautiful resort can be viewed at the link above. We left and toured the grounds and then ducked into a rival hotel, The French Lick Springs Hotel that has also been restored to its former grandeur (http://www.frenchlick.com/hotels/frenchLick/index.jsp). The decoration and restoration were just awesome. We were shown the general resort village and then made a stop at the French Lick Winery where free samples were freely flowing (http://www.frenchlickwinery.com/). We don't know if they can ship their goods, but if you get a chance to visit, stock up on the "French Lick Red" which is particularly good. Sherrie and Danny took us back to their place where we said goodbye, then we headed back to our motel. It was a really great day and visit.

Sunday, race day! We wait all year for the excitement of this day. We arrived early at the track to avoid the aggravation of race day traffic, and set up our chairs by the car and read newspapers and people watched until it was time to go to our seats. The pre-race festivities don't really begin until around 11:00 a.m. so we have about 3 hours to kill. We walked over to some vendor stands and purchased some souvenir t-shirts for the kids and grand kids, then went back to the car to load everything up that we would be taking into the race. We enjoyed again the festivities with Indiana natives Florence Henderson's rendition of "God Bless America" and Jim Nabors singing "Back Home Again in Indiana." These annual performances always gets the crowd excited. The national anthem and flyover didn't work out so well this year. The singer's (Jewel) microphone didn't work until half way through the anthem, and we guess the air force jets couldn't hear her either, because they came roaring over the track about 30 seconds after the singing was over. Anyway the "most famous words in all of racing" got the engines started and the field was off with a Jack Nicholson waving the green flag a couple of warmup laps later. The race was exciting with the usual crashes and pit action, but no more so than previous years, with the exception of the final portion of the race where fuel strategy produced a lot of position changes. Dario Franchitti (and Ashley!) finally won (his second) with some surprising performances in the top 10 positions.

We headed back to Louisiana on Memorial Day and made it home in the early evening. We will miss the race next year, because we will be on our looper cruise somewhere between the Chesapeake Bay and New York Harbor. Life's tough...