just lurking?

lurker goes to the races

This is the Indianapolis part of my vacation. Ok, here's the story and I'm sticking to it. Friday May 28 I picked daughter Vicky (almost 16) up at her house in Manhattan, Ks. and we went shopping. Bought clothes and shoes for summer and headed home. Spent the evening packing and planning the trip we would start early in the morning. About 11 p.m. I went to bed. Woke up at 4 a.m. and loaded the van including Bertha (my cat). Woke Vicky up at a few minutes to 5 and left. The trip was uneventful, but I was tired and had to stop frequently for caffeine. Two hours to Kansas City, 4 1/2 more hours to St. Louis. Noticed the grandstands at Gateway Speedway in Madison, Illinois near St. Louis were about half empty as we drove by. The CART wannabees were racing there. Guess nobody cared! If the eventual winner of that race, a guy named Andretti, had chosen he could have made his 14th unsuccessful appearance at Indianapolis the next day. Drove across Illinois and noticed many kinds race cars and racing teams were headed to tracks both ways on I 70. Memorial Day is a real racing weekend in the USA. As we neared Indianapolis, 11 1/2 hours and about 600 miles after starting out I started to get excited. I was going to see the Indy 500! Drove into the strange town with only a map I got from the internet and drove right to the correct exit from the interstate highway. We were supposed to meet my son Joseph and his friend Megan at a shopping mall near the track at 6:30 or 7 p.m. We tried to call his cell phone to tell him we were there but couldn't get through. Decided to drive the last mile or so to the track and check it out. As we drove down Crawfordsville Road I realized for the first time that there were thousands of people here already, parked in cars and campers all along the road. Everyone was in high spirits, the party had been going on for some time and people were lined up along the street and in lawn chairs waving and shouting to us and everyone that passed. We took a tunnel under the track and drove around there awhile and parked at the museum. Bought Vicky a souvenir t-shirt, but later found out it was from last year's race. We spent some time in the museum and again I was really excited to see in person dozens of cars I had seen in the races I've been watching on television ever since the race has been broadcast. AJ Foyt's cars, Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti, and so many more, most of them the very cars I loved and built models of as a child. We forgot to take a camera in but that's ok because we'll be back tomorrow. Next we got on a bus and took a ride around the track. Around the track! I kept giggling and punching Vicky in the shoulder. WE"RE ON THE TRACK! The driver stopped at the last remaining bricks that gave the brickyard its name. I had tears in my eyes. Back to the van and headed for the mall to meet Joe. Drove back down the same street and decided this is the place we will try to camp for the night. The track opens at 5 a.m. but you are not allowed to get in line until a cannon goes off at about 4:30 a.m. The party is getting bigger. Some of the streets are closed to traffic now and there is a constant parade of cars going both ways. Everyone is shouting to each other. Police are everywhere, directing traffic, foot traffic and roaming through the crowds in large groups. People are being arrested for misbehaving. We get back to the mall and park in the pre arranged spot to wait for Joe. His cellphone is still not getting through to him. Hoping he will find us. I talk to a ticket scalper and find out the race is sold out already and only general admission is available. We don't have tickets yet. Joe comes down the ramp from the interstate at the appointed time and spots me right away. We confer a few minutes and he thinks we shouldn't pay the inflated prices for tickets the scalpers are asking, at least not yet. Turns out later he was right. We head back down Crawfordsville road again and get as close to the Speedway as we can but still seeing parking available on the strip called R.R. parking. It seems to be an old railroad right of way parallel the street, but the tracks are gone, just a gravel strip down the center and grass on each side. About a block from the speedway is the last entrance to R.R. parking so I pull in. The man says yes he has space for my van and Joe's Jeep, $80.00 each for the night. Short discussion, we have to have a place so we pay and park, backing the van up to the street. First we decide to walk to the Speedway and we join the party as soon as we start walking. The street is full of cars now, barely moving and going both ways two lanes wide. I'm wondering where they are all going and where they will park. We walk down the closed street outside the west side of the Speedway, there are thousands and thousands of people here now. Everyone is excited and partying and many are being arrested as we walk by. We decide not to try to go all the way around the Speedway when we get to the fourth turn (we are going backwards) and turn around and head back to the van. We got out chairs and grill and coolers and get ready for a long night. We had enough food and soda and beer for a small army and soon meet our neighbors. We greeted everyone driving by us and soon I realized that the same people were going by, they were making a big circle through the party that took about an hour and a half to complete. We saw some of them four or five times. Midnight... man am I tired, drove 600 miles this day and had started 20 hours ago. We decided to go to the big party down the street again. I talk to a man driving by in a 69 Camaro convertible and walked along with him. I inadvertently step over the white line while walking and am nearly arrested, police being very rude and calling me names (they especially didn't like my hair and cowboy hat). I am very polite despite this and they don't arrest me. Thank goodness! The port-a potties are overflowing so badly I have to get permission for Vicky to use a private facility. About 3 a.m. Vicky, Joe and Megan go to sleep in the van and I make one more tour of the parties and buy more t-shirts. By 4 a.m. the traffic on the street is thinning so I go to bed. Woke up at 8 a.m., too late to get in line for the infield parking for the day so we decide to stay parked here and walk to the race and hope to find discounted tickets for seats. Joe needs money so he and Megan walk to the nearest store with a money machine, two miles away in the wrong direction. They get back and Vicky decides she has to shave her legs if she is going to wear shorts. We are getting late. A scalper comes by and sells us tickets with a face value of $65 for $30 each. Finally we're ready. We get to the entrance just as a Stealth bomber flies over head nearly deafening us. It is huge and scary. Right after that fighters do a low altitude flyover that does deafen us. Glad we brought earplugs, even though we don't have them on yet. Our seats are on the far end of the track from where we are and that's over a mile away so I try to hurry the others. They won't hurry so I take my ticket and tell them I'll see them at the seats. I start to jog. It's warm already and humid and really crowded. I'd run, I'd walk when out of breath. Glad Joe is carrying the cameras, binoculars, beer, food and earplugs and everything else we need in his backpack. "Back Home Again In Indiana", oh well I've heard it before and probably couldn't see Jim Nabors from our seats anyway. "Gentlemen start your engines!". Parade laps. Damn, how far is it anyway? Hey, wait a minute! I went too far! I'm on the backstretch! Turn around and head back. The race starts. I get to my gate but no hurry now as I am panting and dripping sweat so I buy a bottle of water for $2.50 and sit in the shade. Joe and Vicky should catch up soon. I wait a long time, and cool down, no sign of them. Could they have gotten here before me and gone in? I go in and see the crowd for the first time. I am overwhelmed. You can't see to the other side of the track, its too far, but as far as I can see there are people crowded shoulder to shoulder, stacked sixty or so high. I look for Joe. DUH! I go to my seat and there is but one empty place in the middle of the crowd, Joe is nowhere to be seen. I climb over everybody and make a guy move his cooler out of my seat and sit down. There must have been a yellow already cause its still about the tenth lap. I'm sitting high up in the entrance to turn four. The scoreboard and the big TV are too far for me to see. Cars go by so fast I can't tell who they are. I watch till about lap 60 and climb over everybody again and go under the stands where there is shade and buy another water. Where is Joe? Well I'm not going to find him, so I decide to go into the infield to look around. I find a place near the TV and scoreboard. Wish I had the camera. Wish I had binoculars. Wish I had a beer. WISH I HAD EARPLUGS. Wish I had a beer. I watch for a while and decide to make the best of it and start to get the excitement back. I'm standing near the inside of turn 4 now and can see a TV real good. There's no shade though so I head for turn 1. A long walk. No shade here, so I go into a tunnel under the track but I can still see a TV so its pretty good. Uh-oh, I wonder how Bertha is, she's of course in the van. I leave the track and head back to parking at about 175 laps, I don't have a clue of what's going on anyway, maybe I can get the race on the TV in the van, and hey, there air conditioning there too. Stop to buy Vicky a souvenir shirt for this year and get to the van. Bertha is fine. It's not too hot in the van and I turn on the air, the race is not on the TV here though, but at last I have a radio and for the first time today I have some idea of what's going on. People are streaming out of the Speedway and sitting on top of the van it feels just like sitting on a bridge over a river, it seem that I'm moving and they are standing still. The stream gets heavier and heavier. Eight laps left, cars are starting to fill the streets. Half an hour later I spot Joe walking down the street, he has Vicky and Megan so we all made it safely but why didn't they meet me at the seats? Joe made a mistake reading his ticket so he just went into the first entrance with a section 24. It was in the paddock area, across from the pits on the main straight, and in the shade, with a nice breeze. At lap 160 they decided to look for me and Joe went to the proper seats but of course I was long gone. Joe bought Vicky a shirt from this years race to replace the one I bought yesterday. Oh well at least they saw the start of the race. We drive out of Indy under the direction of the police and head to my mom and dad's new house about two hours away. More to come. Lurker

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page