Where are we????????

Turn left, turn left, turn left, and then . . . turn left! WHERE AM I? If you answer “The Brickyard,” you are correct!

Nita, my sister, and her husband, Jim, have great seats for the Nascar race in Indy and invited us to go with them. We had never been to a Nascar race before, but we always watch them on TV. We thought this would be a great time to go with them.

Saturday afternoon we drove down to their house south of Warsaw and planned to spend the evening playing cards with them and Mom and Dad. But Mom was not feeling well, so the four of us went out to dinner at Mad Anthony's in Warsaw. It's a great place to eat with really good food and when we got back to their house, we went to bed. It was just 9 p.m., but we were getting up at 2:45 a.m. in order to leave at 3:30 a.m. We slept in the downstairs theatre/game room and it was very comfortable, but I don't really think I slept much. We left on time at 3:30 and we arrived in Indy by 5:30 only to find few restaurants open for breakfast. The IHOP which had an “Open 24 hours” sign had a note on the door saying they wouldn't be open till 6 a.m. We finally opted for Steak and Shake, knowing they were open. When we went in, they said they didn't start serving breakfast until 6 a.m. We decided to stay since we had plenty of time and got a good breakfast.

We drove straight from there to the track and arrived around 7:30 a.m. We parked in the infield near the short chute between turns 3 and 4. We parked the truck, then set up the canopy for shade and plopped down in our lawn chairs. A friend of theirs came over to visit and they talked while we tried to catch a few minutes of sleep. About 10:30, Jim got the grill out and fired it up. We grilled burgers and had an early lunch before packing everything back up in the truck and hiking to our seats.

The seats are in the Penthouse section, which is very high up and in the first turn. Situated up high, we had a nice breeze all day and were totally in the shade. This was good because the heat index was 105 and it was even hotter down at the track. We had a good position to see the entire straightaway, turn 1, and the short chute into turn 2. I don't think we could have had better seats.

Reba McIntire sang several patriotic songs and Rascal Flats sang the Star Spangled Banner. It was very moving watching an American flag in the shape of the U.S. unfurl and being held by service veterans.

The race started and we were there for the duration. There were no wrecks, which is a bit unusual, but there were a couple spin outs and a few drivers tapped the wall, but it was a safe race. Paul Menard won, with Jeff Gordon a close second. It was exciting to be there and see the race in person, but I think we probably see more of the race when we watch it on television.

We waited in our seats awhile before heading back to the car. It was easier walking and they opened part of the track allowing us to walk through and thereby cut off a good bit of walking around the track for us. It was a shorter walk back to the truck and once we got there, we got out the lawn chairs again and sat and relaxed while all the other cars and trucks were sitting impatiently stalled in long lines. Once the way was clear, we hopped in the truck and left. On the way home we stopped at Joe's Crab Shack for supper. We got back to their house around 9:30 p.m. Nita and I went over to Mom's and visited briefly before Terry and I started back to Goshen. It was a long exhausting day, but we had fun and were glad we had the chance to do something we had always wanted to do. A big thank you to my sister and her husband for taking us and spending the day with us. It was a very special time.

One disappointment for me was the amount of trash left behind by the crowd. They think nothing of throwing their cans/bottles/food wrappers/containers, etc., on the ground, in the stands, etc. I took my trash out with me and didn't expect anyone else to handle it. We truly have become a throw-away society and the bad part is that we will throw it anywhere.

I'm sorry, but I don't know how to turn the video around!

Till next time. . .

Dale