We had our 4th "rest day" here in Indianapolis. I've ridden 2794 miles in the last 5+ weeks, and we have another 2 weeks to go, with 13 more days of cycling.
We had a special treat thanks to Wayne's connections here. He arranged for us to ride the track at the Indianapolis speedway, and about 1/2 of the riders rode to the track. After a six mile ride through Indianapolis, we met Wayne (who drove his car, which his wife, Karen, drove from Lexington). Now Brian, from Manchester, England, has been collecting old license plates from the states through which we've cycled, and any other states as well. He plans to put them on the wall in his garage at home (which he pronounces "GARE-ij"). I don't think Wayne appreciated Brian's subtle try for a "not so old" Kentucky license plate!
Unfortunately things were a little hectic, so we couldn't get a photo of all the riders who rode the track. Pictured in the middle are most of the cyclists. This photo was taken by Bob's wife, who is visiting from the D.C. area.
The lower photo again shows Wayne and Brian with me inside the speedway. Notice I had to keep them far apart after Brian's attempted heist! BTW, don't you think that orange bike on the far left is sharp looking?
Once on the track, we had lots of fun. It is 2 1/2 miles long. The surface is really smooth, and the four turns are banked, but not nearly at the angle that the much shorter velodrome was banked yesterday. We had a "hoot" riding around the track (I took over 25 photos, and wish I could post more), going up and down the curves. The Indy cars reach speeds of about 270 miles on the straightaways. Not sure what the big deal is--I reached well over 10 % of that speed on my bike!
The rest of the day was spent on the usual "rest day" chores--I caught another movie as well. Downtown Indianapolis has been fun to explore. It's another of the many places I'd like to return to with my family in the future.
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