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My seats were underneath some of the penthouse boxes and up high enough that I had a constant breeze, so Sunday was really nice. It got a little warm for me on Saturday when I was wandering aimlessly around the place, but overall it wasn't too bad.
I did get into a conversation with some people that were sitting around me about how miserable it looked at Le Mans. But they were talking about how utterly miserable the US Grand Prix was when they used to hold it in September.
Laura
2007 US Grand Prix Photos
More about the photos later.
I hit the road at 5:00 am on Friday and headed up Highway 71 to Texarkana where I took I-30 to I-40 to I-55- to I-70 and Indianapolis. In Arkansas I ran into the dumbest State Trooper ever. First, this guy dives out of the median with no warning, into the middle of traffic on I-30. Everyone had to dive out of his way. Then the guy finds his culprit and pulls the guy over on a bridge, so everyone had to dive around him again. What an idiot!!!
I hit Memphis around 11:00, stopped at the visitors center and made my way to Graceland, but there was a 1 hour wait and I just didn't have the time. Back on the road I got. Next stop was St. Louis at 5:00 where I visited the famous Arch and museum, but didn't have time to take the tram ride to the top. I pulled into Indianapolis at 10:00 after a large supper at a Bob Evans in Terre Haute (Bob is a US Grand Prix tradition for me - so I just had to stop there for supper). Around midnight my parents finally hunted down my poor cousin whom I was staying. Apparently they had some kind of panic attack and freaked out because I had turned my phone on to vibrate and didn't hear it in my exhaustion induced slumber.
Next morning - hit the Track for some racing. Had a wonderful time watching all the different kinds of cars and baking in the sun in a vain attempt to gain some color. Pretty much the same scenario for Sunday while I waited for the race. Several Foster's consumed along with lots of Goldfish crackers and tomatoes. I'm going to have to expand my food choices for next year. Not exactly a well balanced diet there.
On Sunday I watched Lewis Hamilton win his second Grand Prix and finally found my way back to my cousin's after the Indianapolis Police tried their best to get me and several other tourists lost in downtown Indy. For some reason, instead of guiding everyone to the Interstates whether they wanted to go there or not, they dumped us off in the middle of downtown along a street with no Interstate entraces. Instead you just kept passing under the interstates in some kind of version of Hell for racing fans. I finally joined a caravan with several other tourists and we wandered around until we found an entrance onto an Interstate.
I decided that my best bet for getting home before Midnight on Monday was to go ahead and head out on Sunday night. I made it to Elizabethtown, Kentucky at 10:00 and slept at a Comfort Inn. I was rather disappointed not to see Orlando Bloom or Kirsten Dunst. In case you haven't seen it yet- the movie Elizabethtown is a great Roadtrip Movie.
I headed out early on Monday morning. Somewhere between Elizabethtown and Bowling Green I noticed this annoying bug flying around my head and it kept sitting in the middle of my line of vision through the windshield. I attempted to kill and instead wound up whacking my car into a guardrail. Freaking out a little, I ceased my bug murdering, pulled the car over to the side of the interstate and surveyed the damage. Not too bad, not great, but not horrific either. The only real issues are that the seal on my passenger door isn't that great anymore and I seemed to have screwed up my cars compass. It thinks I'm always heading North now. Hmmm.
After that lovely awakening - I headed South (although the car swore I was driving north) into Tennessee where I decided that a nice long breakfast was needed. I stopped at a Flying J and just sat there for an hour sipping hot tea and eating an omelet while I let my breathing return to normal. The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful except for the rain that I kept running in to.
Some thoughts from the road.
1. Leave the bugs in your car alone - Kurt Busch impressions are not pleasant
2. I must get a copy of Yo Yo Ma's recording of the Dvorak Cello concerto
with the New York Philharmonic - People thought I was nuts when I found
this on a station coming out of Memphis and starting conducting in my car.
3. I loved driving by myself, but 1,830 mile over two days and three hours
was a little much. I still have a cramp in my right calf from pressing down
the gas peddle. But It was still a lot of fun.
4. I realized, yet again, why I don't have a fancy car. People are always
asking me why I don't get a cool car since I like racing and driving so
much. The series of damages caused to my car over 4 summers of
roadtripping are evidence of why I drive a Taurus. Plus it's a really fast and
oddly indestructible car.
5. Musicals are a great way to stay awake - especially The Phantom of the
Opera and anything that includes Michael Ball.
Now I'm really getting excited for my Minnesota and turn left trip that starts on the 4th of July.
Laura
Glad that you enjoyed your trip, glad that you ran into the rain too (haha - serves you right for laughing at me!) but not glad you dinged the car. Ooops. What's the deal over there? Do you have to report that sort of thing? We are supposed to here but, let's be honest, unless the politzei happen to turn up, then most of us are just gonna get the hell out of there prompto!
I knew you'd enjoy travelling on your own, it's great isn't it? My next trip (the Bristol one) is with a mate but the one after that is definately going to be solo. I have a few ideas but was worrying maybe I was biting off more than I could chew with 4,500 miles... but 1,830 in two days is seriously worrying!!
Yeah, I probably should have done a smaller or at least more spread out trip for my first overnight solo roadtrip. But that just wouldn't be Laura. I always have to do to insane thing that always makes me look back and say "well, I survived that, so this should be a piece of cake".
About the "incident", I'm really not sure. I didn't damage the guardrail and only slightly damaged the car. US cops usually just want to know if there was blood involved. Also, I really didn't want this to get onto my insurance. Not fun when that happens. You want to know what's really sad? ... It was perfectly clear when I did that. By the time the rain hit I was hyper-aware of my surroundings.
You wanna know something even worse than dinging your own car? I almost totalled my old man's $150K motorhome halfway through France... :o Plodding along around 80mph and closing on some ridiculous 100 year old brown Citroen van thing. Looked in my mirror, three Ferraris racing up at stupid speed, indicated to let them know I needed to pull out, first one blew by but the second flashed his lights to let me out. As I started to pull out I looked forward again and, to my horror, I was closing on the van at a speed about 60mph faster than him and he was mere feet in front. I yanked the wheel to the left and, according to my mate who was following, I did everything but get 5 tonnes of motorhome onto two wheels!! I managed to miss him, and the armco, and decided to ignore those in the back who were whining about me not going fast enough after that. Come to think of it, they stopped whining after that anyway!
What's the point in the story? Simple... **** happens, don't worry about it, it just adds to the flavour of the story you tell your friends when you get back home :)
Either "stuff" just happens or you and I should not be allowed anywhere near motorized vehicles after attending races. :)
That is always possible. Either way, don't loose sleep over it! I've checked out your photos now and have uploaded a few of my own from Le Mans. I've got to be honest though and say it was a pretty poor effort this year... I took a total of 60 photos, as opposed to 600 last year!
Remind me never to let your friend Andy anywhere near me with a lighted match.
Other than the rather frightening pyro-maniac pictures you got some cool shots. I loved all the views of pit lane.
Laura