Day 11 - Today It's Race Cars And Architecture With A Boring Ride In Between


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June 4th 2017
Published: June 5th 2017
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Day 11 - Indianapolis, IN to Speedway to Frank Lloyd Wright to Downers Grove


Today we continue to venture north, but no trip to Indianapolis would be complete without visiting the Brickyard. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum and Hall of Fame was only 10 minutes from our hotel so we had to stop before we continued our journey. Speaking of our hotel last night, we stayed at a La Quinta near the airport, and the room was fine, a little noisy with people running up and down the halls and talking loudly but no more than usual. That is until about 10:30 when someone either had a fight with his girlfriend or was just bored sitting in his room, but he decided to get in his car, open up the doors and crank up his stereo so he could jam to some tunes while playing with his phone. Of course, we were on the first floor, and all this was happening right outside our window. I tried to call down to the front desk to complain, but the phone in the room didn't work. We waited a few more minutes with no signs of stopping, so I ended up walking down to the front desk, in my pajamas, barefoot and toothless, and asked her to do something about it. She said she would get security to handle it and sure enough about 5 minutes later the noise abruptly ended. He was young, and it probably never occurred to him that people in a hotel might be trying to get some sleep!

But back to our journey, we headed over to the speedway at about 8:45 as the museum opens at 9:00. We found that the museum was located in the infield between turns 1 and 2 and you had to go in the main entrance, through the tunnel that passes under the road surface at turn 1 to get there. We were the first ones there on a Sunday morning at 9:00, and when I asked where to park, the security guard proudly pointed at the designated motorcycle parking area. I drove in and quickly realized it was gravel! Now there were rows of concrete strips for kickstands, but it seemed really odd to me that the car parking would be paved and the motorcycle parking would be on gravel. But we parked there anyway and headed inside. Admission was only $10, and we were going to spring the extra $8 for the narrated bus ride around the track, but the only tour they were offering was the $20 "Kiss the Bricks" tour, and neither of us were really interested in doing any brick kissing this morning, so we passed on the tour. Having been in Daytona many times, the most interesting thing about Indy is how flat the turns are. There's a bank, but nothing like the super speedway banks of Daytona.

Once inside the museum they were having a special A.J.Foyt exhibition and it was really interesting to see. There were about 40 of his personal cars in the collection from midget racers, dirt cars, NASCAR stock cars, to the Indy cars. About halfway through looking at the A.J.Foyt collection, one of the museum guys came over and let us know that he had started up the 9 minute movie loop in the theater and we were welcome to watch. No ones to miss an obligatory movie, of course we stopped and watched the movie. It's really amazing how much the cars have changed over the years. Even in just the career of A.J.Foyt the cars changed dramatically.

The permanent collection contained a most of the Indy 500 winners from 1909 to present day. It's not just the performance of the cars that changed over the years, but the physical size also changed dramatically. The very earliest cars were big and heavy, with huge narrow tires. Over the years, the cars got bigger and smaller as the technologies changed, but the earliest cars always thought they would be safer by making everything heaver and stronger. In the later cars, and especially the most modern, it amazing just how flimsy the suspension pieces are to cut down on sprung weight, and the emphasis now is on a crash box for the driver and energy absorbing parts on the vehicle that absorb the energy of the crash to protect the driver much as in the modern automobile.

By 10:30 we were ready to hit the road, and when we figured out the path to the hotel last night, we realized that we were getting there too early in the afternoon and would have time for a quick stop somewhere interesting. That's when we realized that the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Museum were on the way, and only about 20 minutes from the hotel. So when we left the Speedway, that was to be our destination. The trip to the Frank Lloyd Wright house was about as boring as a motorcycle ride can be. The ride this far up to Indianapolis had been scenic for the most part, but northwest Indiana reminded us a lot of Iowa and southern Illinois that we rode through on our last trip. It's mostly just flat and straight with farm after farm. Since there are no trees, the wind is severe all the time. And of course, where ever they have fertilized it smells like manure. The small towns between the farms were interesting, mostly single street downtown areas that had been around for years. The small town of Plymouth, IN was one of the prettier ones. As we approached the Illinois border, the farms disappeared and were replaced with suburban sprawl. The road passed through one town after another with noting but shopping malls and strip malls on both sides of the street. It seemed like within a mile we had seen every chain store and restaurant known to man.

The we crossed into Illinois and all commercial activity ceased as we were back into farmland again. There must be some tax advantage to shopping in Indiana to have so many stores located just across the border. Eventually the farms gave way as we made our way through Chicago Heights. It was a little scary looking, and normally I would have locked the doors, but that's a little tough on a bike. So we just kept going and eventually the scenery looked a little better. From there to the Frank Lloyd Wright house, it looked just like Hwy 50 in Orlando. Typical suburban sprawl, mostly strip malls now, not nearly as concentrated as on the Indiana border and eventually we arrived at the Frank Lloyd Wright house at just before 3:00.

We parked the bike on the street outside and went inside to ask about tours, and they told us the 3:00 tour was just getting started so they caught us up with the tour right after the "don't touch anything" briefing and before the explanations of what we were about to see. The Frank Lloyd Wright House and Studio Museum was Frank Lloyd Wright's personal residence with an office and studio where he created his masterpieces of American architecture. It's all in craftsman style, which is one of Jody and my favorites. The tour guide was a young Indian man, who was very articulate and knowledgeable about the house and both told the history of how the house was originally built and remodeled during Frank Lloyd Wrights lifetime and occupancy and the restoration efforts it took to bring the house back to original. He was also great at pointing out the architectural details and some of the influences that brought about the design.

We finished the Frank Lloyd Wright tour a little after 4:00 and made it to the hotel by 4:30. We're staying in a DoubleTree and it's really nice. - Thanks Maureen! There isn't anywhere to eat within walking distance, and the hotel restaurant is super expensive, so we popped back on the bike for a 1 mile ride down the road to a local sports bar called the Brickhouse Pub that got good reviews. The food was good, Fish & Chips for me and Chicken Sandwich for Jody. They has a dish called Chicken and Waffles which is exactly what it sounds like, 2 Belgian waffles with chicken tenders on top covered in syrup. It is supposed to be good, but just a little too adventurous for our tastes.

Tomorrow we are off to downtown Chicago and a visit to the Museum of Science & Industry. It's supposed to be great and we are both looking forward to seeing it. When we return we are supposed to meet up with Jody's cousin Amy and her family for dinner. It should be fun!

259.0 Miles Today

1761.7 Miles Total

4.475 Gallons Today

42.165 Gallons Total


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Photos: 48, Displayed: 27


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