Party Time

May 26, 2009

Blades & Rizzo

Rick & Becky



Party Time

Kristi & Stephanie

The Indy 500 provides just about the entire city of Indianapolis an excuse to have a month long party. It is hard to explain just how big an influence that the race has on the community. There are thousands of parties and events related to the race, ranging from the super fancy celebrity filled bashes to the smaller more intimate gatherings of friends that can be found all over the city.

The Quinto family



It is all about tradition and history as families have been hosting get-togethers that go back generations and are passed along to each new family member as important an important legacy. Tickets to the race itself are similarly treasured and passed through generations, often becoming the point of nasty dissention in break-ups and divorces.

Kelly & Madeline



I am very fortunate to have a huge group of wonderful friends who still call Indianapolis home and who honor the tradition of the Indy 500. It really makes my trips back for the race all the more special and it gives me a plethora of options over race weekend.



This year the day before the race had two competing events, both of which I really wanted to attend which by fortunate coincidence were close enough that I was able to get to both and thus see twice the amount of friends.



Rosie at the Monkey's Tail

The first party was the annual crawfish boil hosted by my friends Rick & Becky Henss. This party has found a permanent place on my must do list as it is packed with friends and their families in a wonderful gathering. Their home is on the boundary of Broadway Park, making it a perfect location for the many, many children who pack the place and who run free through the park while their parents enjoy delicious food and beer from the two best brew pubs in Indiana, Brugge and The Broad Ripple Brew Pub.

Deemer, Ted & Kevin plot strategy

The party is high-lighted by yet another gambling Calcutta in which the drivers in the race are auctioned off in a highly competitive and quite enjoyable auction that closes out the party each year. This year I opted to take it easy a little on the bidding, going in with a couple of friends to purchase Will Power as our driver and sticking with that.





Stephanie & Rosie

In the middle of the crawfish boil, I drove the short distance through Broad Ripple to the Monkey’s Tale bar, where a new tradition was under way. The “Indy in May” reunion was organized by my friend Rosie O’Hara using the power of facebook and it brought together a large group of friends who all hung out together in Broad Ripple back in the 80s. It was great to see so many familiar faces, many who I had not seen in 20 plus years. The event was a great success and I can see it easily becoming a new annual tradition.

Rizzo, Kevin, Michael & Kristi

Laura, Scotty, Erin & Stephanie

Catching up with friends is great, especially since I had actually re-connected with many via facebook, but had not actually seen in many years. It made for a long, fun evening, one that sadly went by far too fast, especially since I was due to get up early the next morning to attend the actual race.



Kristi & Ellen

Carb Day Mayhem

May 24, 2209





Carb Day Mayhem



The final practice day for the Indy 500 has been known for years as Carb Day. It is a misnomer since the cars that compete in the race do not actually have carburetors but people don’t seem to mind. For many years the festivities were held on the Thursday prior to the race but for the past few years they have switched things to Friday and added a bunch more to the entertainment bill in hope of drawing larger crowds. This year provided a perfect confluence of perfect weather, great entertainment and a fast and deep field of drivers.



Jason & Michael



For the past few years, I have joined my friends Mark Wolfe, Kevin Love, Pat Davis and JR Lynch in attending carb day which has become more of a raucous party than anything that focuses too much on racing. Pat & I got there early enough to go through the garage area before securing a space along the main straight to watch the single hour of final practice along with over 100,000 fans who crammed into the speedway.

So Easy A Caveman.....





The practice itself was over quickly as all 33 drivers made their final preparations before the race. The practice was followed by the Freedom 100, a sort of minor league race for the Indy Lights cars that was won by Wade Cunningham. Next up was the Miller Lite Pit Stop completion which was won by team Penske and Helio Castroneves.

Pat

3 Doors Down



After the pit stop competition, we made our way over to the Carb Day concert to watch the amazingly drunken mayhem that was the concert by 3 Doors Down. There was a massive, wild crowd complete with drunken fights. We saw one poor guy who had been hit over the head with a bottle and just wanted to keep partying when offered a choice by police to either seek medical attention or go to jail.

3 Doors Down at Carb Day

As fun as the activities were, Pat & I ducked out early so that we could join his mother and his sister Evelyn and her family for dinner at Bravo on 86th Street. It was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends that I hadn’t seen in ages and about a million miles away from what was happening at the track. Visiting with old friends is what makes coming back year after year to the race extra rewarding and the Davis family are among my closest friends.

The Davis clan

100 lap club shirt

Eric & Tim



Speaking of close friends, I joined a bunch more that evening as I returned to the old neighborhood first to meet up with the Micheli brothers, Tim & Eric who were hosting their annual carb day cookout before heading off to another race weekend ritual, the Calcutta gambling event at the K of C. Generations of Michelis all gather with their friends each race weekend for a variety of events and activities.





Eric and his friends even have the prestigious “100 lap club” that has been attending races together for years. The Calcutta was as fun as always, we managed to raise enough cash to bid on only the lowly row 10 of the field, but it seems to matter less and less each year as the big money seems to dominate.

The best donuts in Indy

Beth & Lance

Hoosier Holiday

May 23, 2009

Wolf Park





Hoosier Holiday

My annual trek to the Memorial Day weekend classic, The Indianapolis 500, started a day earlier than usual this year and it gave me an extra day in Indiana before the race festivities got going. That left me with an entire day to select something of interest to do.

Prophetstown



While I attended college at Purdue University, which is about an hour north of Indianapolis, I never really found much time to explore the area around the school. I guess that I either spent my time studying or more likely…partying to really examine the environs. There are a number of places in Tippecanoe county that now, after all these years, I have an interest to see, so I headed up I-65 after my arrival in Indiana to check out a few places in the area of Battle Ground, Indiana.





My first stop was Prophetstown State Park which is the site of Historic Prophetstown which features a working 1920s era farm as well as the remnants of a famous Native American settlement. Prophetstown was the site where the infamous Shawnee spiritual leader Tecumseh (known as the Prophet) created a settlement from which he led an attack on US forces at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. US forces defeated Tecumseh and his warriors and went on to destroy the settlement at Prophetstown.





The Native American portion of the park was somewhat of a disappointment, but the 1920s farm was pretty cool. They had all sorts of farm animals and the set up was impressive. My next stop was the actual battlefield park, located about 10 miles away.







I visited the museum and the battlefield as well as the small nature center.
The final stop of the day was perhaps the most interesting. Wolf Park is huge facility that is home to a large collection of gray wolves, bison and foxes, most living in a wonderful natural setting. I once visited the park when I was about 8 years old as part of a cub scout field trip and I had always wanted to return but never got around to it.







I had no real recollection other than the opportunity to get up close and personal with the amazing and beautiful creatures in the wolf pack. It is really an awesome experience and the park itself is fantastic. I spent a few hours taking the tour and just watching the wolves before heading back to Indianapolis.






Prophetstown

Tippecanoe Battlefield

Wolf Park