Day #3 - Qualification Day

Today was qualifying day, so we got up somewhat early (5:45 or so) and headed down to the track. We got ourselves some nice seats up in turn one (section E penthouse). I started taking a couple of pictures of the track when one of the ushers asked me if I wanted to go up to the roof and take some pics from there. Can't pass up a chance like that! So, he removed the "Do Not Cross" rope and we climbed the ladder up to the roof of the grandstands where the spotters stand. The view from up their was spectacular!! I'll post some pictures later, though they really don't do the view justice.

After qualifying, we walked around the infield for a while and checked out the new Chevy cars and trucks. After that, we came back to the hotel for some relaxation and swimming. Tonight, we'll probably just eat somewhere here in Crawfordsville, and then hang out and relax. Tomorrow will be a busy day.

Day #2 - Indianapolis Indians, More Road Construction...

Today started out cloudy but turned in to a beautiful day. We started out by taking a short hike on the Sugar Creek Trail. We then had lunch at a nice local Mexican restaurant in downtown Crawfordsville.

After relaxing a bit, we went to Indianapolis and walked around the White River State Park and then walked around downtown for a bit. We stopped to eat dinner at the Claddagh Irish Pub. After dinner, it was back over to the White River State Park area to catch an Indianapolis Indians game at Victory Field. It was an exciting game, and the Indians beat the Syracuse Chiefs by a score of 2 - 10.

All in all, it was a great day, even through at the end of it all we managed to find yet more road construction on the way back from the ballpark. Ugh!!

Uhg! Nothing but Road Construction...

Well, we are down in Indiana for our annual trip to the Brickyard-400. Hopefully the rest of the vacation will be more pleasant than the trip down here was. I swear that there was nothing but road construction from the WI/IL boarder to the north end of downtown Chicago. Basically, all of the Edens Expressway is tore up, but once you get to the Kennedy, everything is cool all the way through downtown until you get to Gary, IN. Then, the really insane detours begin...

Once we got through Gary, though, everything was cool. The trip from Gary to Crawfordsville (where we stay for the extended weekend) was really smooth. So, here we are. Today, we will just relax, go out to dinner, have a few beers, and relax some more. Tomorrow, we will probably head down to Indianapolis. Depends on the weather.

Race Day!!

Today's post is a day late for obvious reasons...

The AM hours:

4:30 - wakey wakey, get dressed, eat breakfast,  and get everything together.

5:25 - hit the road

6:20 - get to the track, park in lot 2, talk to some of the others out tailgating

7:00 - cannon sounds which means the gate are open, stay in lot

8:30 - enter the track and go to the infield, walk around an look at everything

9:45 - eat lunch, but without a beer since it isn't 10:00am yet, and Indiana evidently has some communist laws pertaining to alcohol sales on Sunday morning.

11:30 - after walking all around the infield (literally), head to our seats since they are in the shade and the infield is not.

The afternoon hours

Noon - watch cars being pushed to the grid, talk to other folks in our section, etc.

13:30 - driver introductions

14:00 - God Bless America, Invocational Prayer, National Anthem, etc.

14:15 or so - Green Flag!!

The Good:

JPM and Jeff Gordon both had strong finished (2nd and 3rd, respectively)

The hated Dale Jr. ran strong all day and then blew and engine towards the end, hehe!!

The Bad:

Matt Kenseth was a middle of the pack runner for most of the day

Kasey Kahne crashed out fairly early

18:15 - back to the parking lot, wait around about 45 minutes for traffic to start to move, then get in the car, get in line, and be part of a huge traffic mess

21:00 - back at the hotel.  Clean up, drink some beers, watch drunk people swimming in the pool.

22:15 - someone from the front office comes out to ruin everyone's fun, everyone ignores her

22:30 - cops show up to break up the fun

22:45 - fun continues, but outside of the pool

In years past, the pool partiers were still going when we went to bed.  They probably let them go until midnight or so, and they certainly never called the cops on them.  Seems our hotel is now run by communist bastards...

Day Three - Qualifying

Short post today, folks...

Due to the rain yesterday, practice was postponed until today, today's qualifying was moved to the afternoon, and the final practice was cancelled.  Well, at least that was the plan...

As it turned out, this morning was hazy and wet, which pushed off practice even later, which also resulted in qualifying being pushed later.  The day started early and ended late.  I am tired and need to rest for tomorrow (race day!!!  Yeah!!!)...

Day Two - Downtown Indy

From Indianapolis

Today, Lisa and I spent the day in downtown Indianapolis. We usually do this on Friday while we are down here. It was rather overcast today, and drizzled a couple of times, was otherwise OK. Hopefully we will not have these problems tomorrow and Sunday. The weather people claim race weekend should be free from rain, but we'll see.

We started out at the Circle Centre, which is a beautiful downtown mall. After that, we took a walk down Maridian Street to South Street, and then over to Capitol Avenue, where they are building the new home of the Indianapolis Cols, Lucas Oil Stadium. We then circled back and walked through the Pan American Plaza, and then back to the Circle Centre to eat lunch at the Alcatraz Brewing Company. The food and beer were both wonderful.

After lunch, we walked over to University Park and hung out for a bit. While Lisa relaxed, I went across the street to the Indiana World War Memorial, climbed the stairs, and walked around taking pictures and doing other tourist stuff. Pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ken.sodemann/Indianapolis (the sunny ones are from a few years ago, the rest are from today). We capped off the day listening to a guy play classical guitar while we ate ice cream.



Well, that's enough writing for today.

Vacation Day One

Today was day one of our fifth annual vacation to Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400.

The day didn't start all that great.  First, it was raining hard in the morning.  I took the dog for a walk between showers, but didn't exactly get back before the next shower started.  Then, when I get home, Lisa is sick.  So, I load up the car and let Lisa rest.  I then go grab some breakfast alone so Lisa doesn't have to watch me eat.  When I got back, Lisa was feeling better, and hasn't have any problems since, so hopefully that will be it for people getting sick.

We are staying in Crawfordsville again, and the drive down here was completely uneventful.  Once we got here and unpacked, it was time to hit the exercise room.  I only made it 25 minutes on the stair climber, but it felt good after driving all morning.

For dinner, we decided to do something different, and drive down to Greencastle, which is about 30 miles south of Crawfordsville.  There we ate at a restaurant called Almost Home.  I had a steak covered with sauteed crab and a chili-lime sauce.  Lisa had a half rack of ribs.  The restaurant was very nice, and the food was terrific.  One strike against them, however, is that they had a mini Cubs shrine on one wall.  Still, it was certainly worth the extra driving.

Well, that's enough for today.  Tomorrow, we will probably head to Indy and hang around down town.