Intermission #3

After a quick stop in Milwaukee, we headed up to northern Wisconsin to spend the summer. More on that shortly - but we unhitched and made a quick turn-around back "down south" to Indianapolis, Indiana, for a single purpose, the Indy 500! Our son Josh has an ongoing fascination with this race and has attended a number of times but this would be our first. Tradition meant that we would arrive the night before the Sunday race, get up early to catch breakfast at Charlie Brown's Pancake and Steak House prior to entering the Speedway in plenty of time for all of the pageantry. Watching the Derby a few weeks prior and now the 500 checked two bucket list

items off the list! The 500 was much more casual and we were allowed to bring in "adult refreshments" and food into the track, as we took our seats in the bleachers in turn two. From there, we could see turn one and two and the back straight away into turn three. The infield was full of fans, the stands were also full and it was time for the singing of "Back Home In Indiana".

A fly-over was scheduled and we were certainly surprised when the event consisted of four different planes doing a first-ever "double" flyover with two of them (an F-16 and an A-10) doing a complete lap around the oval. As they disappeared, we closed our mouths but immediately heard the ear-splitting sound of the birds returning - as they did, the F-16 took off STRAIGHT UP INTO THE CLOUDS at a heart-pounding speed until it disappeared. The sound of the crowd at it's loudest could not match the sound of this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Then, it was "Gentleman, start your engines!" as the pre-race laps were completed, the cars going sideways at times in order to warm up their tires. The green flag flew to start the race, and the names of the drivers on the bright cars were a blur as they went by turn two. Round and round, over and over - I know that most in the stands were cheering for their favorite and I was knowledgable of some of the drivers, but I chose to follow the lead of Josh and Jonah and

helped cheer for THEIR favorites! The few clouds in the sky disappeared mid-race and it was a spectacularly beautiful day at the track.

While there were a few stoppages for track debris, no serious crashes occurred (thankfully) - that said, the end of the race was run under the yellow flag for too many laps, in our humble opinions, and, by the time the green flag again flew, the race was all but over. Simon Pagenaud took the lead with one lap to go after leading for most of the race. He was a popular winner for Team Penske and the Wisconsin connection was that it was a Menard's sponsorship of the Penske car, the first "win" for this northern Wisconsin mainstay.

From start to finish, it was a wonderful day! I'd go again - but I'd pretty much go anywhere with the family. Who wants to join us in 2020?