Pictures of Things I've Done Recently

I haven't posted pictures for awhile. So here are a bunch!

Andy graduated! We're by the flowers in front of Northrup.

Aunt Jean in front of Rick's tree in Rockville.

Mark, Nancy, Mom and I at the Indy 500.

Top three: Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan on a yellow.

Our view of the pagoda during clean

Chip and I took a walk and this field hasn't been planted yet.

Probably the cutest picture of Chip ever taken.

Little Chip in a big wide world.

Back Home Again in Indiana

Saturday morning Andy, Pete, and I got up excruciatingly early to take a train trip down to Indiana to visit my family. Andy was more than excited for the train and was practically giddy by the time we boarded. Turns out, trains are really fun to take. Sure, it's a longer trip. But you can get up and walk around to stretch, go visit the observation car or the dining car, AND you get a seat with more room than first class on an airplane. Plus, you don't have to buckle in. The trip into Chicago was mildly uneventful and relaxing.

Chicago itself was busy. Union station was packed with people and no one knew where to go or what to do. The three of us managed to get outside to grab some food down the street and check out the Sears Tower. After that we stood in a long and confusing line, and then hopped on the train to LaFayette. This leg of the journey promised to be even more uneventful as the three of us were not sitting together. However, just outside of the second stop our train hit a car. We were stopped for about an hour, and thankfully the driver managed to walk out of the car alright. It was a bit jarring to be apart of that experience though. We finally made it home in time for some good, old fashioned sleep.

Sunday we enjoyed a lunch with Grandpa, Jean, Mary, and Dale. It was a delicious cook out with corn, green beans, burgers, and tomatoes picked from the garden. Later Pete and Andy went four wheeling as I walked around in the woods and was generally fearful for their safety. Pete managed to make it all the way across the abandoned railroad bridge. A feat that no other guest has accomplished. After dinner at the Overpass, we three enjoyed a friendly game of Boggle and unknowingly expanded our vocabulary.

Today it was raining pretty hard, so we ditched plans for kayaking and canoing in the Wabash for some drier activities. We drove out to Indianapolis for a tour of the speedway and a look through the museum. Then we wandered through Circle Center and saw what a mall in the downtown of a city is supposed to be like. After that we dined at the Alcatraz Brewhouse and drank home made beers. Yum! On the way home we stopped for some ice cream and took a hike through the woods to the infamous location of my four wheeling accident. It doesn't look like too many people have traveled through there recently.

At the moment we're enjoying a relaxing bit of reading in the sun room. I'll add pictures when I get them uploaded.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

... I have a headache. But enough about me, start your engines and lets get this show on the road. As some of you may know, the main reason for my trip down to Indiana was to see the Indy 500 with my mom. Ever since I was a wee child I've sort have been involved in racing. It all started when my mom would ready Tony and I the autobiography of Mario Andretti. I actually got to meet him at the Mall of America one day, Mom and I went out to get autographs. After seeing the Indy 500 on TV for most of my life, and having been to a few other races, it was about time to see the greatest spectacle in racing. Seeing is a bit of an understatement, it's more of a full sensory experience. You can see the cars yes, but you can also feel them go by, the noise is exhilarating and rather deafening, and the smell of gas and rubber from the tires permeates the air. It's quite something.

Mom, her cousin Janeen, and her daughter Meagan (who's also my cousin), and I drove out to Indianapolis for the big day. Our seats were in the southwest corner in turn 2. They were up really high, so we could see a lot of the track. It was also a good position to see the 6 crashes that occurred before the rain delay.

I don't think this is the main entrance, but this is the one we went through. The sign in the lower right corner is one of a crazy religious person telling race fans they need to be saved. Most ignored them.

The pace car leading the first lap. Patrick Dempsey of a show I've never watched drove the pace car. Meagan was really excited about that. I think I'd be a bit freaked out leading all those cars.

And they're off! First lap without the pace car, everyone is still pretty close together. This is the back stretch.

Here is the second crash. The road crew guys just stand out in the middle of the track telling the drivers not to run over them or the debris. I would pee myself.

I got really excited about taking pictures of the cars and everything else, then I realized each shot kind of looked the same as the others. So then I took video, so that everyone else can hear how loud the cars are, and Janeen. This is entertaining: