Colleen's Posts : INDIANAPOLIS

Indianapolis …. The good, the bad and the ugly !

Rick's Blog ...

The Good ….

Having been a car racing fan since 1954, Indy has always been near the top of my “bucket list”. Since Indianapolis was on our route home from Ohio, I wanted to visit the track, race or not. We got there in the early afternoon and got into a huge crowd of young farmers…there was a FFA convention at the fairgrounds that weekend and the track was overrun. We hopped on a tour bus, took a ride around the track, stopped at the yard of bricks at the finish line and toured the garages, the pagoda, the press room ( huuuuuggge ! ) and back to the museum. It was full of cars that won at the track and raced around the world. One of the cars, a Mercedes Benz W196 streamlined was the first race car that caught my interest in 1954 and started my fascination with racing, aerodynamics, et al. It is even more amazing in person than in pictures. Way ahead of it’s time! The track is so huge that you could fit Vatican City, the Coliseum, the Rose Bowl, All of Wimbledon and more inside it with room to spare. Frankly, the track is too big. The racing is boring and you really can only see a little of the track from most seats. The tradition and lore are better than the reality.

The Bad ….

On the way to the RV park, which happened to be the State Fair Grounds in Indy, we ended up on some narrow residential streets. A Salvation Army truck was parked at the curb, but it’s mirror hung over into the second lane, and on my left was a Honda pilot too close for me to move over. Our right mirror hit the Salvation Army truck's left mirror, destroying both. After stopping and exchanging info., we crawled our way back to the fairgrounds and RV campground. After disassembling the mirror and finding out what parts I needed to fix it, the search began. Dozens of phone calls and running around later, I found a local dealer that could order the parts from Wisconsin and have them in by Saturday noon. $ 250 and a day later, I had my parts and set about repairing the mirror. We would be ready to take off Sunday morning.

The Ugly…

On going out to the Honda to get some parts and other stuff, I found the right front tire flat. Wunnerful! So, I had to put on the goofy spare and go get parts and find someone to fix the tire. I was directed to a tire repair store not far away. It was in a very bad part of town and I was the only Caucasian in sight. I got the tire plugged, paid my bill and got the heck out of there, asap.

We're outta here !

Finally, Sunday morning and Indianapolis is in our rear view mirrors !!! It will be a long time before I return there !