We're At It Again!

We're on the road again for another adventure. For the past year we've been working with our travel agent on  a trip to Alaska. One of the bucket list items is to visit all of the national parks, and many of you have followed this crusade as we tick off various parks. Well, Alaska has 8 national parks that are generally more difficult to get to. Only 3 of the parks are accessible by road, so we will be bush-flying, float-planing, or boating into the other five. We will be staying overnight in 4 of the parks. But the real kicker is that we will be there around the summer solstice. That means 24 hours of daylight when we are above the Arctic Circle, and 21-22 hours of daylight around the Anchorage area. It should be a hoot! On the way up, we plan to visit 3 national parks (Mammoth Cave, KY; Wind Cave, SD; Badlands, SD) and then drive through the Canadian plains of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and finally going through the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia and the Yukon. On the way home we will be collecting some more stamps at national parks in California and Nevada.

400 miles and counting

But the visit to Alaska is via our annual trek to the Indianapolis 500 time trials and race. We will once again hook up again with our Looper friends, Dave and Joyce Johnson, who live just outside Indianapolis, and then visit some family in Ohio. On the way up to Indy, we stopped off at Mammoth Cave National Park.
We had both previously visited this park, but the return trip was to collect the stamp. We were surprised to learn that length of explored corridors had grown from about 200 miles when we visited years ago to around 400 miles today.

Capt. Dave and Capt. Larry

And exploration is still ongoing. There is also a new visitor's center with some really great informational exhibits. Since we can pass this anytime we go to Indy, we just may have to return to do the whole thing again.

We arrived at the Johnson's the day before Qualifying Weekend at the track. It was a great visit the Dave and Joyce really can put out a great spread at mealtime. We caught up on new news and reminisced about old times and our "loop" trip together.

The Sarah Fisher car gets attention

After a great extended "happy hour" and a restful night's sleep, we headed over to the speedway for "Fast Friday." This event is a practice session for the following qualifying day, but we enjoy seeing the teams try all sorts of things to increase their speed and some of the fastest speeds are are recorded during these sessions. We watched E.J. Viso of Andretti Motorsports have the fastest time for the day of 229.543 m.p.h.

Chevy Camaros parading

However, halfway through the session the spring rains rolled in and inundated the event. We left and headed for our motel. The next day was Pole Day where the cars attempt to qualify for the first eight rows or 24 positions.

It's all about the cars

We started the day with a number of track events, one of which was a parade lap of over 300 Chevrolet Camaros, of various vintages, around the track.

The Pagoda

At the end of the day, the fastest nine qualifiers' times are erased and they participate in a "shoot-out" with the fastest qualifier winning the pole position. We like this day because there are a lot of other events at the track and we enjoy watching the cars post some really fast speeds. When it was all over a local favorite, Ed Carpenter, won the pole with a speed of 228.762 m.p.h. This found favor with the crowd as he is a one car owner/driver team and was able to beat out the bigger and more monied teams.

Jane and the perfect swamp truck

On Sunday, Armed Forces Bump Day, the rest of the field was set and we enjoyed the events and exhibits at the the track.

Danny, Sherrie, and Capt. Larry

We were also met by long-time family friends, Sherrie and Danny Johnson, whom we were able to catch up with at the track and with appetizers at a nearby restaurant. It was great to see them and we enjoyed their company.

We left Indianapolis on Monday and headed for Ohio to visit with Capt. Larry's nephew, Brian and his family, Janelle and daughter Edra, who live in Delaware.

Our favorite cherub!

We enjoyed three days of gourmet meals, sightseeing Delaware, and enjoying good conversation and the adorable antics of three-year old Edie. We also had a minor setback.

Let's skinny dip

Our car experienced an electronic sensor failure that caused the cruise control to become inoperative. Because we were going to drive some very long distances on our way to Alaska, it was pretty important to have it fixed.

Jane and Edie being creative

We had a little difficulty with the dealership, but after 3 days and $400, the problem was fixed. Jane delighted Edie with presents every day, and we found out that Brian and Janelle can throw a very entertaining happy hour.

Go Bucks!

Jane and Janelle had manicures and pedicures resulting in Jane's electric blue nails, and Brian, a drummer in a blues band, took Capt. Larry to a jam session at a local bar where he got to see him play a set. It was a great visit and we were sad to see it end. We were saddened to have to leave their great hospitality, but had to leave to get back to Indy for the race.

Brian, Jane, and Edie