The Indiana Sate Fairgrounds campground didn’t improve overnight. We found the showers interesting this morning. The shower building is constructed of cinderblock. Even the shower stalls are cinderblock. There is one drain in the middle of the common dressing area. The water runs out of the shower, across the room, then down that one drain. The room was clean appearing except for the crud that had built up in the common drain. It reminds me of the accommodations the Navy provided back in the early 60’s. I don’t want reminders of that time. We were both thankful when we drove out this morning, not to return --- Ever.
Our first stop after breakfast at McDonalds (we are in a rut) is Indianapolis International Speedway. There are so many things we wanted to do here. For one, I wanted to take the drive around the track. But that wasn’t to be. Guys in yellow shirts were everywhere, limiting access to almost everyplace that would have provided a vantage place to the track. It’s just too close to race time to continue some of their tourist activities. We parked in the infield parking area and walked along gasoline alley.
Our first stop after breakfast at McDonalds (we are in a rut) is Indianapolis International Speedway. There are so many things we wanted to do here. For one, I wanted to take the drive around the track. But that wasn’t to be. Guys in yellow shirts were everywhere, limiting access to almost everyplace that would have provided a vantage place to the track. It’s just too close to race time to continue some of their tourist activities. We parked in the infield parking area and walked along gasoline alley.
The Indianapolis 500 museum is located in center field and was open. For $3 we got to see an amazing display of racing cars dating back into the late 1800’s. We both had the same favorite car, the Stoddard Dayton that was the pace car for the first 500 mile race in 1911.
This year’s pace car was on display; a shiny new Corvette. The guard near the car told us that the pace car is no longer given to the winning driver because it has a high performance engine and therefore is not street legal.
The Roadtrek was just about running on fumes by the time we left the Speedway. We stopped at a station and pumped 24+ gallons. The pump cut off at $75, the limit for credit card purchases. The price was $3.089. We went to the post office a couple blocks away and when we drove past that same station, the price had gone up to $3.399 over that 10-minute period. Good thing we got gas before going to the post office.
We had lunch at the Panera Bread in 86th street. We find if we want a good lunch with good coffee and have WiFi thrown in, we just search for Panera in our GPS and press the go button. This Panera was comfortable and the food was good.
Ken and Dee have been following our blog and when Ken saw the tracker indicated we were in Indianapolis, he called our cell phone to arrange to get together at lunch. Ken and Dee arrived in their 1999 Dodge 190P. We talked for an hour about Roadtreks, travel, and life in general. It was a nice afternoon. Ken and Dee are both hams and we hope to get together again at the Hamvention in Dayton this weekend.
We did a little shopping at the Traders Joe’s next to the Panera and Dee told us about a Costco a few blocks away. We picked up a Caesar Salad for dinner at Costco and headed to a Flying J’s a few miles to the east.
At the Flying J, we topped off the gas tank and had our propane filled --- better make that overfilled. The attendant was training another person and wasn’t paying attention until the propane tank gauge peaked at almost 98% full. I bleed off some of the excess and now have both stove burners on hoping to bring the tank level back to a safe point.
We are spending the night at the Flying J. It has much better facilities than the campground we woke up in this morning. A thunderstorm arrived with a good display of lighting. We went to sleep to the sound of rain falling on the Roadtrek’s roof.
