INDY 500 PARADE DAY

This is a story that Clyde should be telling you, but he doesn't blog. The pictures were all taken by the two Clydes, so essentially they are telling it.

The Indy 500 race is "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" and Clyde (the older) has followed it ever since he was a kid and listened to it on the radio with his dad every Memorial Day. When Clyde (the younger) entered our lives, he and his dad watched it on TV every year if they were together, and phoned each other on-and-off throughout the race while watching it if in separate cities.

Since marrying Clyde, I've learned all about it and watched every year and Meredith joined in the fun after marrying her Clyde. Now Sofia is in on it as well.

Last year I gave Clyde a gift certificate for a trip to Indianapolis to see the Indy 500 in person with his son. It had to cover his birthday, Christmas, anniversary and another birthday, and according to him, it was the best present he ever got. Both he and Clyde agreed that, although some live events don't live up to one's expectations when seen in person, this was "AWESOME"!

The day before the race, Clyde and Clyde had tickets to the parade in downtown Indianapolis . . .

The parade route, bordered by racing's traditional black-and-white checkered flag . . .

. . . with balloons (in this case, an indy driver) . . .

. . . bands . . .

. . . floats . . .

. . . little Indy cars . . .

. . . and all eleven rows of drivers introduced in trucks en route: in the middle of this row is Clyde Sr.'s heart-throb, Danica Patrick . . .

. . . in this truck is young Clyde's, Meredith's, Sofia's and my favorite, Scott Dixon (a Kiwi) . . .

. . .the pace car. It keeps the drivers in check until the green flag gives them the go-ahead to start racing . . .

After the parade, they did some sightseeing and visited a brew pub (it's no surprise that they located all the breweries in Indianapolis, although only had time to visit two). This was the Rock Bottom Brewery and Restaurant . . .

Then on to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum . . .

The Borg-Warner Trophy . . .
They actually got to ride around the speedway track -- but not at 224 miles per hour . . .
The Pagoda . . .
Originally the entire racetrack was brick, and is known as "The Brickyard". It has since been covered over many times with asphalt, but a yard of the original bricks remains as the starting/finishing line . . .

Stayed tuned for another blog of race day.