As our hockey season continued to fade, I became slightly more excited at nothing more than the prospect of going on a trip. Unfortunately, our trip was to a state I can only describe as eh- The Hoosier State!
We dropped off the dogs at a fancy doggy hotel for the night and following day and we made our way out of the city. This is embarrassing to admit but it took us three attempts to get on the Indiana toll road. Why are the highways so confusing here? Express lanes? Not easy but third time was the charm. Now came the part where we had to pay the toll. The only other experience we have had with toll roads are to and from Ikea; a whoppin sixty cents. Still too expensive if you ask me, but it's sixty cents. Justin and I spent all day rounding up our quarters into the container in the car for toll purposes but we were shocked when we found out that our first toll was $3.50. There went more than half of our quarter collection. No more than two miles later, we approached another toll. Ridiculous! I can't remember the exact amount but it was under two dollars. These two Californians are still not accustomed to this paying to use the highway nonsense.
The least memorable part of our trip was our last minute decision to stay at a motel an hour outside of Indy. It was terrible and I will leave it at that.
We checked out of our fine overnight facility and joined the rest of the Indy 500 crowd on the highway. We survived the traffic, parked at a local high school and made the long trek to the speedway. We arrived a few hours early and walked around before the cars started making their way to the track.
What felt like two-miles later, we made it to our seats. To my surprise, we were on pit row, right in front of the pits of the drivers that qualified in the first row. I learned later that the downside to our seats would be that the cars drive ridiculously fast down the straight-away, making it very difficult to see the cars as they whizzed on by.
With it being Memorial Day, we sat through the singing of every patriotic song possible. This included Kelly Clarkson and Seal performing the Star Spangled Banner together.
At some point, I realized that 350,000 people is a lot of people.
The balloons were off and things finally started to get exciting. All day I freaked myself out about how loud the cars would be when they started their engines. I am happy to report that it wasn't bad and I survived without earplugs.
I decided that I would choose the only Asian driver as my favorite. Well, guess who crashed in the first few laps? My fellow Asian. But! I witnessed my first live crash. Pretty scary stuff but I would be a liar if I claimed that I did not feel the excitement.
The race continued and finally some action in the pit. This included the top three cars (at the time) pitting (is that the right term?) at once!
Around lap 100, as I had feared, I began to lose interest. Honestly, I could have taken a nap. But then lap-150 came around and things began to get exciting. I am no Danica Patrick fan but I was shocked to hear most people boo-ing her when they introduced the drivers before the race. Justin gave me some spiel about her being a whiny, snobby driver but I knew it was more than that. I am certain that the boos came from sexist men who still choose not to accept women in the racing world. Throughout the race, I kept track of her position (her car is neon green and hard to miss). Every time she moved up in position, I shot Justin a smirk. It had nothing to do with me being a woman- I just wanted her to prove all the haters wrong. She did not disappoint and made the top ten. Take that!
Because I just realized it is 1:30 in the morning, not to mention too many hours past my bedtime, I will pass on the recap but the finish was phenomenal. Exciting. And confusing! Indy 500, you surprised me.
Dan Wheldon from Team William Rast- the winner!
(Warning: this post was going to be comprehensive but will now be brief[er])
I wish I could go into detail about a story about a hat but hey, it's Ashley Judd!
We waited for the majority of the fans to leave. Why sit in traffic? Out of a dozen pictures, I finally got a clear shot of Justin. He goes out of his way to make it difficult.
Thank goodness we stayed because they let everyone on the track! Pretty awesome if you ask me.
We made one last stop at the Museum. Justin found it interesting, I tolerated it. Racing history just doesn't do it for me.
The walk back to the car was simply miserable. It was hot and long and required a siesta mid-way.
Finally, it was time to head home. It only takes 24 hours of any other mid-west state to miss the city. But to be fair.. only in the middle of some Indiana highway would you see an adorable gigantic dog on top of a car! And the people inside it holding up tacky signs (see drivers window). Go Hoosiers!
Until next year..
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