Indianapolis, Indiana (September 14-17, 2012)

With the end of our journey a month away, we made the decision back in Wisconsin to pick one place in every state we had not yet visited and spend several days exploring it. With only four more states we picked Indianapolis, Indiana as our first stop. Joyce and I are both motor-heads and we had been wanting to visit the Indianapolis Speedway for a very long time. This was our chance. We allocated two full days to tour the city and see its sights.

On our first day we drove around the city and outlying neighborhoods. Like most other big cities it had its good and not-so-good places. The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art was one of our stopping points, but, alas, it being a Saturday there were a half dozen tour buses in the lot and a long line waiting to get in. Nope, another time, maybe. Off to the Indianapolis Zoo.

We arrived at the zoo parking area and immediately realized this was not going to be a fun experience. Like the previous museum, the zoo was packed with people. The line at the ticket booth was going to be a 20 minute wait for the nearly $30 per ticket price tag. Again, nope. We were not aware that Indianapolis was such a coveted tourist destination, but, obviously, it is. Since the zoo was in the White River State Park and we had already paid for parking we decided to walk along the river and just enjoy the day and then back to the RV to spend the rest of the afternoon with the furkids.

Looking through"the things to do in Indianapolis", we discovered their foodie tours so we booked one for that evening. This one was the Mass. Ave. (walking) Food Tour. It was a 3.5 hour walking tour in a very popular area of the city. The tour wound around the district for a mile and a half with stops at five different establishments serving everything from German food, local food, sweets, and even a beer tasting. It was an awesome time and at the end of the tour we even meet another Doodle. Made the day.

Famous Pork Loin Sandwich

Beer tasting time.

Awesome sweets for an awesome evening.

Loved this Doodle.

We arrived back at the RV just before sunset and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting outside in the cool evening weather. Although, we weren't able to do some of the things we had planned on, the day was very good. Tomorrow, the "Speedway."

The morning was cool when we departed for the Indianapolis Speedway. Jacket weather, actually. Could not have asked for a more beautiful morning to tour one of our most "wanted-to-visit" destination.

It was about a 30 minute drive from our RV park to the Speedway and, it being an early Sunday morning, the traffic was light. We had booked a 10:00 AM tour of the track and we arrived well in advance of that. We walked around the grounds for a bit taking pictures and gazing at this most incredible piece of real estate. It was not hard to believe that this place hosts the highest-capacity sports venue in the world with a total capacity of over 400,000 thousand attendees. Many times it has reached that capacity.

The Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum

The Brickyard

We started out in their tour bus and entered the track with the tour guide giving us a very thorough history of the arena.We drove slowly around the track while he explained various features and uses of the facility. Quite interesting was the fact that when the original bricks were paved over they left 36 inches (one yard) of bricks exposed at the start/finish line to retain the name of "The Brickyard" (now yard of bricks). All-in-all it was a great tour and well worth the time and expense.

                                                        The Panasonic Pagoda

The Pylon

The "Yard of Bricks."

After the tour we entered the Speedway Hall of Fame. This was an amazing collection of race cars and other memorabilia. We spent several hours gazing at both historic cars  to the cars of today. It is hard to comprehend that drivers of these older cars actually raced them with such little protection, and survived.

 

The Trophy.

Excellent morning as was the previous day. Even though we did not get to visit some of the place we had wanted to, all-in-all, this stop was one of the better ones in a long time. Now, back to the RV and our kids to prepare for our next destination, Louisville, Kentucky.