Day 240 - IndyCar at Chicagoland

Chicago seems a lot farther away when you're in a car with 4 other dudes. And even longer when you're in the back seat.

No matter, 'cause I was preparing for another day of emersion in one of my favorite pastimes. I was on my way to see the IndyCar race.

Chicago is well known in the IndyCar world for great races. Wheel to wheel, 3-wide, fast and furious and clamp-your-sphincter excitement

And likely the will be the last time the pointy cars will be here. At least for the near future.

So when Mike said that he and his buds were making the trek, I was in. We even recruited a NASCAR-loving coworker.

The drive up was, um, cozy. But mercifully quick and filled with IndyCar fanboy chatter, and lots of discussion about the wind farms. Lots and lots of discussion about those.

Once parked, we setup the tent, chairs, and cooler. Sweet Eddie Sachs we had it made.

Then "Indy Bob" sidled up. Indy Bob was wuh-eird. And that's in the context of a sea of IndyCar dorks.

He talked at us without bothering to determine if we were interested. Or listening. He's (purportedly) been to 50 Indy 500s and 24 different races this year. And that apparently gives him the right to stand over us and blabber on, and on, and on.

Lucky for me my sister butt-dialed me, giving me an out. I used that out to check out Bob's truck. Really creepy. I'm pretty sure Bob lives in his truck. He had bedding, clothes, food, and a trashcan.

Oh, and an extensive bread bag closure collection.

Yikes.

Burgered up, we headed in, picked a row as high up as we could climb without supplemental oxygen, and settled in for the race. And it was a hell of a show. Think bull fight at 220mph. Under the lights. Unreal.

On the way out, we saw this guy. Totally boozed out.  Only drunk person I saw the whole time we were there. We was drunk enough for several. The creepy thing was that his eyes were still open.

The trip back was even cozier. (Why did the two biggest guys sit in the back with me?) And there was even more chatter about the current state and future of IndyCar, and even more wind farm talk. (Did you know that at night the red airplane warning lights on top of the turbines all blink in unison? They do, and it is amazing to see. Seriously.)

Just got home at 2a. 14 hours with fellow IndyCar geeks. Totally worth it.

Good running,
Doug

Numbers: 3.1 miles on streets with dog.