An Indy-500 Things to Do Week

Given the week’s rainy start, I’ve decided to bag a whole lot of touring and turn my week in Indianapolis into some sightseeing plus everyday living. Did some shopping at Camping World and Home Depot for a small side table and an air compressor and other goodies for the rig. A Goodwill drop off (still downsizing) and a couple of trips to the post office (still trying to get my trailer registration completed—one snafu after another). Got a delicious blueberry fritter from a local bakery in Greenfield, and am sorry now that I didn’t get two. Took a couple of short drives to Rushville, some antique stores, and a stop at a little place called Knightstown for a look at a still working local railroad. Mostly reading and puttering and sitting outside with Patchouli in my off time.

A few impressions on my drives through Indiana country: A folded-up, white-haired lady in her 70s steering a riding mower down the grassy median strip past Knightstown. “Nameless Creek” on highway 40. Highway 40 itself, an historic national road, proclaimed as the “Highway That Built a Nation.” Corn fields. Expansive lawns everywhere, with very few fences around houses or yards. “Barnyard Sale” signs instead of “Garage Sale” signs. Corn fields. A pair of longhorn steer horns set as a hood ornament on a red convertible Cadillac, as wide as the car hood and as pointy as the fins at the back. And did I mention corn fields?

Rushville business was half alive...

...and half deceased.

Former Rushville merchant art.

In the back streets of Knightstown, the Carthage Knightstown Shirley RR still chugs tourists about four times a week along the 5-mile Big Four Route...

...which currently runs straight through people’s backyards.

“That’s my first wife,” conductor Tom Allison joked in his tiny railroad museum. “I liked her so much that I had her stuffed.”

Wednesday was the busiest of the week. When in Indy, you do the Indy, so I wove my way through town to find the Indy 500 Speedway. The tour there includes a bus jaunt on the actual racetrack, which provides a unique first-hand look at what those racers zip around at 200+mph. The driver said that during the same time we did a single lap, the racer would have done almost thirteen. Yikes. The rest of the museum is a fascinating collection of race cars and other vehicles. I, of course, was most enthralled with the older ones, and the tune of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” couldn’t help but play in my head the whole time.

On the speedway.

Yes, that’s a golf course in the middle of the oval.

I should have blurred this picture of the grandstand for a more realistic view.

All that’s left of the original "Brickyard" track (it used to be all brick) is at the start/finish line. Improving and smoothing the road was a major factor of increased lap times.

Annual Indy 500 winners are immortalized on this revolving silver trophy.

I found the images a little disturbing, though, like something out of Dante’s Inferno.

The Wasp, winner of the first 500 mile race, 1911, average speed 74.59 mph. Ray Harroun drove it without a second man (mechanic) on board, and other racers were so worried that he wouldn’t see cars coming behind him that he installed a rear-view mirror...purportedly the first one on any automobile.

Hood latch on the Wasp.

A more contemporary racing (and marketing) vehicle.

1912 second place winner...a Fiat. Chain drive, canvas covered wooden flooring, plush leather seats.

1909 Haynes, built in Indiana.

When you travel alone, you get self-portraits wherever you can. :)

Daimler and Benz were both patenting motorized vehicles in 1886, the beginning of the horseless carriage era. This is the Benz version.

One cool roadster, 1914.

Holy moly, crafted wooden spokes.

Tired of oily smelling cars, I headed for a brief visit to the Indianapolis Museum of Art gardens (fabulous) and the onsite Lilly House (as in Lilly Pharmaceuticals fame).

“Memory Cloud” in the lobby of the art museum. These are little plastic 35mm slide viewers, each with an image from the 1950s, ’60s, or ’70s that the artist picked up at flea markets and antique stores. Visitors are invited to peek into the Christmases, proms, and new-car purchase days of other people’s past.

The famous LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana is under restoration in the gardens.

Lilly House, renovated to the 1930s, when the Lillys lived here.

View into their backyard. The gardens were one big nothing when they started. A canal runs along the ravine below. Too many mosquitoes that day to make hanging around the woods very pleasant.

Five hours on my feet, and I was ready for another yummy dinner with Dean. This time we walked to his favorite pizza joint, Jocko’s Pizza, for a half all-meat, half chicken-with-basil, thin crust pizza that was so big that we each had a meal of leftovers to take home. And oh, so good—I’d definitely do this place again. We split three local (Indiana and Wisconsin) beers and walked home under a bright fat moon. The trees were still down all over his neighborhood from Tuesday’s storm. More wine and talk at his place, until 1:00a again. For a couple of usually homebound hermits, we sure can do a lot of visiting!