Indy, Chicago, and Madison (cont'd)

Okay, this is a continuation from last night, when my Web connection was weak and intemittent.

Back at the Indy Motor Speedway, this is the flagman's perch. This is used for the Indy 500 as well as the Brickyard 400 (Nascar), but not used in the U.S. Grand Prix (Formula 1), as F1 is a dead-start. Of course, as RickB mentioned, the U.S. Grand Prix is not coming back to Indy next year.




















There were several Richard Petty Drive-along/Drive-yourself cars out right after our tour van drove off the track. They were practicing at about 160 mph. And it was nice and loud. Although not as loud as when you are at a Nascar race and the entire pack of 43 cars zooms by.
















Here is our guide, explaining the video room which is monitored by several people for incidents on the track. Each screen in the pic displays the video from a camera on-track, 16 cameras total. Each camera can be individually panned and zoomed. This allows monitoring of debris on the track during the race, as well as reviewing accidents and questionable passing. A VCR for each camera records the entire race.

















And on to Chicago...



I wanted to stop and take a quick look at Lake Michigan from Navy Pier. I have been there a few times before, but it has been a few years.































A quick shot from the car of a piece of Soldier Field.
















We hit the 1000 mile mark on the odometer on the way to Madison, Wiscaaaahnson. My baby is growing up very fast! Sorry for the blur - this was a one-handed shot.


That's about it for Day 4. We arrived at our Marriott in Madison to find a major renovation in progress. They are spending $5M to redo the entire courtyard area, torn down to the bare cement. But they stopped at 8 pm, so no big deal. Although the entire place was kind of dusty.

Tomorrow (Friday), we drive from Madison to Sioux Falls, SD.


Cheers,
Jeff
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