Indy 500!

What a weekend! This was a great, four-day, weekend. We had Friday off because it was Carboration Day in Indianapolis. I am not totally sure what this means, but there was a huge celebration at the Track. We didn't go, but it was nice to have the day off. We went to the movies Thursday night and then shopping at the outlets all day Friday. On Saturday some of us went to a local pool and laid out. It was really nice to be by a pool and enjoying the sunshine. Today we just hung around and watched movies. It is currently raining and has felt like it was going to all day.

But yesterday we went to the Indy 500! It was a great experience. I will admit I was sort of apprehensive about the whole thing because it just seemed like it was going to be a mad house, but it wasn't too bad.

We left our "apartment" at 8:30 a.m. and had a cooler full of bottled water, sandwiches and a bunch of snacks. We only hit a little traffic and ended up parking about a mile away (the closest we could get) and our spot was on someone's lawn. Everyone was out having people pay to park on their lawn. Apparently some people make so much by doing that for that one day that they can pay their mortgage payment for the month from it.

Then we started walking to the stadium. There were people everywhere, but it wasn't as crazy as we thought. We got into the stadium around 10 a.m. or so. We ended up getting a nice spot in the infield by the fourth turn. There were already some people there (apparently people get there at 4 a.m. for a spot) so we were fine with our area. You can either buy a general ticket (which is what we did) for the infield or you can buy a seat ticket (which are much more expensive and much hotter to sit through the entire race in!).

We hung out for a couple hours, but a couple of things happened sporadically to keep people entertained. They had a ton of trucks drive around with the armed forces on the back to honor them. Then a bunch of celebrities drove around on the back of convertible cars (we saw the Kardashian sisters!). They also had the "Indy Princesses" drive around (a big honor for college women).

Then the race began. It was really neat! Jewel sung the National Anthem but her mic didn't work (you think they would've figured that out before!). Then the announcer said Start Your Engines and they were off.

Within the first lap there was a crash and the caution flag went up! It was rather loud when they came around at full speed but not during caution. The race lasted for about three hours. It was fun to sit there and watch it but it was also more fun to take in the scenery around us. People were going crazy! We didn't drink while we were there (it was 95 degrees - the hottest race in history... and we made it through!) But the majority of people seemed to be there for the scene than the race. Three hours later in the sweltering heat, you could only imagine how people were acting. Nothing really happened next to us, but there were fights everywhere, a marachi band appeared and started playing the whole race on the lawn near us to make money, people were getting heat stroke everywhere - it was really crazy to watch everything happen.

Finally, the race was in the 199th lap. The track is 2.5 miles and they have to go 500 miles, so they go 200 laps. The last 20 laps were really exciting, especially the last few. A couple cars ran out of gas because they were trying to get away without a pit stop and make it - but they didn't. In the final lap, the craziest thing happened! One car went flying through the air, over a car that had no gas and into a wall. It was as the car was making it around the 4th turn (where we were) and heading to the final stretch to make it to the finish line. The car desintigrated into a million pieces, we were certain the driver died. They didn't show this on the big screen (which we were also near so we could hear and see everything) because the finisher crossed the line right after. However, due to the accident the race went under caution which meant that the cars cannot change positions but must slow down. So all of the cars ended up crossing the finish line going slowly - but it was still neat to see them win. The driver in the accident ended up breaking his leg (a miracle) but was air lifted out. You can find some video footage of it online - it was nuts!

We ended up making it back to the car and out of traffic about an hour and half later. It was great to have gone but also nice to have it end. I wouldn't do it again but I am glad I did it!