Indiana

November 30, 2018

Michael and Ed 

Indiana

Sometimes life finds you having to make unexpected journeys and when it happens to me, I always try and make the best of whatever situation that I find myself in. I had to make a sudden and unexpected trip to Indianapolis this month due to the passing of my brother-in-law, Jerome Noel. I ended up flying directly from Miami after the Elton John concert to Indianapolis to attend the memorial service. I arrived a couple of days early for the service and stayed at my friend John’s house thanks to his generous hospitality.

 

In addition to the family commitments that I had to attend to, I also made sure to find time to enjoy something that I really have not had much chance to over the past years and that is being in Indiana during the winter, it is a rare event indeed for me to be in Indianapolis in December and I wanted to make sure to take some time to explore the city of my birth with cold temperatures, some snow and the holiday spirit in the air.

 

I flew in early Sunday afternoon and decided to try to catch the Indianapolis Colts home game against the Miami Dolphins, which was fortunately a late afternoon kickoff at Lucas Oil Stadium. I was able to find a 300 level ticket from a scalper at a discounted price and spent time pregaming at the large tailgating party that was being held outside the stadium.

 

It was pretty cool as they had the Budweiser Clydesdales on hand where fans could get up close and personal with the magnificent horses. They are truly beautiful animals and I always enjoy the opportunity to see them. I had fairly decent seats for a last minute purchase and made my way into the stadium just prior to kick-off.

 

The Colts, after many years of being a pretty poor excuse for a football team, have been showing signs of life this season, with the return of star quarterback Andrew Luck from injury and an improved defense. This game was not one of their better performances of the year as after being tied at 14 at halftime, the Colts fell behind by 10, 24-14 early in the fourth quarter.

 

From that point on, the game belonged to the Colts as Luck lead a furious comeback scoring 10 points to tie the game before the defense held the Dolphins on their final possession and Luck drove the Colts down into field goal range as the clock ticked down. The Colts claimed victory with a 32 yard Adam Vinatieri field goal as time expired for a thrilling 27-24 victory. It was sweet. 

In addition to the game, I was able to watch my friend Ted who works as a runner for the Associated Press, running memory cards with game photos from the sidelines to a side office where they are sent off almost as soon as plays are completed. Ted has incredible access and stalks around the field throughout the game, getting a birds eye view of what is happening- pretty cool stuff.

 

Ted

After the game, I wondered around downtown Indianapolis checking out the holiday decorations, as always, Monument Circle has been transformed into the World’s largest Christmas Tree, and holiday lights and decorations transform the downtown into a winter wonderland, it is beautiful and brings back so many great memories from my childhood, as driving downtown to see the lights was a regular part of our holiday traditions.

 

The next morning I was up early and at a cool little breakfast café called Nine Lives Café. The cat café has a room full of cats up for adoption by the Indianapolis Humane Society where you can go and sit and drink coffee and play with the cats at the same time. It is a marvelous concept and even better in person. My oldest childhood friend, Ed visits the café almost every day before heading to work and has posted about the place numerous times on facebook and I finally decided to show up and surprise him and sure enough he was there.

Michael and Ed