Gone Fishin'

Happy Hour with Dave and Joyce

Well, it’s May again and time for our annual pilgrimage to the Indianapolis 500 for the 99^th running of the race. However, this year, because of schedule conflicts, we had to forgo attending qualifications the weekend before the race, even though we had purchased the tickets. We sent the tickets to our Indiana boater friends, Dave and Joyce Johnson, to use or give away to their children. It probably worked out for the better as qualifying weekend was literally washed out by rainy weather. Dave and Joyce ended up giving the tickets to their daughter who lives in Indianapolis. Leaving on May 20^th, we figured we would return home around the third or fourth week of June, but nothing was set in stone except the reservations for the cabins.

A pretty car on Carb Day

As has become our travel habit, we use the race as a launching point for some additional travel, and this year we had planned our usual family-visiting trip to Ohio, a fishing trip to Ely, MN, followed by a trip into Canada to travel the northern rim of Lake Superior, and then to another reserved cabin on a lake in northern Arkansas near the Missouri border.

We arrived at Dave and Joyce’s for a two day stay.

Vintage Lotus Fords from the 60's

It was great to visit with them and the awesome food that was prepared and put before us has furthered the cooking rivalry that we were able to reciprocate when they visited us in Louisiana last fall. It was a short, but delightful visit with us heading to the track for Carb Day (Indy Lites 100 race, the pit stop challenge, and practice, but not the concerts with the drunken and doped up crazies), before moving into a motel so Dave and Joyce could spend Memorial Day weekend with their family. We had our first negative issue with the speedway when we arrived for Carb Day only to be denied access to our parking lot even though we had purchased a 3-day pass. Lot #2 was notably staffed this year with young, black attendants, something we haven’t seen before. We suspect that they ignored the number of reserved spaces and oversold the lot to people coming to Carb Day. We sent a text to the IMS official complaint number, but never got a response.

Waiting to go in for the race

So, IMS, OK, we just aired the issue here, so bring back the white boys. We had purchased tickets for Saturday’s Legend Days, so the next morning we were back to the track to see the driver’s meeting and visit the vendors in Fan’s Village. Indy always does some things so it so right.

All checkered up for race day!

Race Day and we are at the track and in Lot #2 at 0730.

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We decided to forgo our traditional American Legion breakfast this year, opting instead to just sit and read the paper and people watch at our parking space. We went into the track at 1015 and found our seats around the time the pre-race festivities were getting full swing.

Releasing the baloons

The Purdue band, the Corvette club parade, vintage race cars, the seemingly endless parade of military personnel, and the traditional singing of America the Beautiful, the national anthem, and Back Home Again in Indiana bring us the introduction of the drivers and call to start the engines and the race. And they’re off for 200 laps around the oval. It was one of the more exciting races we have seen as there were several wrecks, lead changes, and displays of great driving as evidenced by the winner, Juan Pablo Montoya, who went from next to last 32^nd place to win.

We left Indianapolis and travelled to Ohio to visit Captain Larry’s nephew’s family as we have done in past years. We enjoyed spending time with Brian, Janelle, and daughter Edie and just kicking back and relaxing at their home. Brian took us to Waldo, OH, for the famous fried bologna sandwich lunch one day which was a real treat, and we took them out for an Italian dinner one evening. Edie was overjoyed receiving all the presents that Jane had brought for her.