Indianapolis 500 CARB DAY
May 25, 2012
ET came into town at midnight and we were up till 3 a.m.
The plan was to leave at noon and make it to the track in
time to watch the Indy Lights race.  Of course that didn't
happen.

About 3 hours later, Tony and Sam showed up at my house
and then we headed to the track.  We drove through the
city with the top down.

The infield parking was full of course.  We were lucky and
got to park across the street as close as you could hope for.

We trekked in the entrance in the south short chute off of
16th street.

It was 3:30 p.m. and we arrived in the concert area just in
time to hear Lynyrd Skynyrd sing their first song.

I made sure everyone had their cellphone and told them to
watch each other so we didn't lose each other before we
found the spot where we'd watch the show from.
Five minutes later, I turned around and
all three of them were gone.

I walked around and back-tracked trying
to find them.

I walked back toward the entrance.  At
one point we reached each other over the
phone, but we couldn't hear each other
due to the loud music.

I finally found a reason to use texting.
Unfortunately, I had that function removed
from my cell service so I received no texts
from them and I had no idea where they
were.

I learned an important lesson:
CARRY YOUR OWN BEER IN!!

Before we left, we tried to consolidate
our coolers as we couldn't use the trunk
in my car because the folding hard-top
takes up the entire trunk when it is down.  
I put all my good European beer in Tony's
cooler and now, they had all the beer and
I had none.  

There were only two beer stands at the
very back of the concert area.  The line
moved slow because they checked
everyone's I.D. and made you remove
your sunglasses to compare the photo
on your I.D.  Also, they would only sell
you two Miller beers at a time.  There
were lots of complaints about all this, but
I didn't care.  

Being by myself ended up being more
fun.  I wandered through the crowd and
got up pretty close to the band.  Then,
I wandered back to the beer stand and
the process would repeat.

I saw lots of interesting people, clothing
and tattoos.

I met some guys from England who I
talked to for awhile.  They asked about
race relations in America and about
religion.  They were athiests.
LYNYRD SKYNYRD!
I was quite surprised when Skynyrd
played their last song, "Free Bird" so
early.

There was no warm-up band this year
though.
I met up with my passengers back
at the car.   

Two of my other friends, Jerome and
DR saw us and they came over on their
bikes.

It never ceases to amaze me that I usually
run into my friends when I'm at the track
among hundreds of thousands of people
on 400 acres.
While we talked and waited for the traffic
to die down, young Sam gobbled down
about 3 corn dogs.

Back at my house, other friends who
attended Carb Day began to show up
and we had a fun party.

E.T. lost his wallet...
This guy's whole back was a tattoo
tribute to the Indy 500.
This guy had a cool side-car for his
girlfriend who was handicapped.
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E.T., D.R., Jerome, Tony
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