INDY F1 trip 2007

F1 is a always a great experience...lots and lots of people, lots of sun and hence lots of beer...and in the end its lots of fun.

The whole plan was made just 10 days before the race.. When I was lamenting that I couldn't go to the race this year because of lack of company, KLN and prasanna suggested that they are in fact interested in watching the race and might join me for the trip. We just needed one or two more persons, so that the entire trip expense could be shared by four or five. Finally after much persuasion Gunjan agreed to come with us. So tickets were bought for four of us and plan was cast such that we would leave Manhattan on Sunday early AM so that we would be there for the race day.

Then the whole scenario changed when we came to know that "sivaji" is being screened at St. Louis on Saturday afternoon. So we decided we will leave Manhattan on saturday morning, reach St. Louis, watch the movie and then proceed to Indianapolis.

So on Saturday, everything were on line, not because we were going for the race, but because we were going to watch the movie. It was a six hour drive and we just took one 5 min break in between. We reached St. Louis 30 mins before the movie actually started. But it was an awesome experience standing in line to get inside the theater, reminding me of the glorious chennai days!!!!

After the movie, we waited at the airport for KLN, who was with his parents at KC airport till 4.30 PM. He then drove from KC to St. Louis and parked his car and got in with us. So our actual trip started from STL airport at around 6.30 PM.

We decided it might not be a fair idea for us to drive all the way to Indy without taking a break. Help came to us from Florence, KY as always. And as always, We reached their house in the wee- hours of sunday morning. We had great food (Dinner!!!), some beer and went to sleep.

Within 2 hours, alarm rang from all sides and all angles. We got up, had typical Indian breakfast (it's been eons since I had Idly- sambhar in the morning!!!!) and we started our trip to Indianapolis. As we were near the speedway, we could witness a typical carnival atmosphere.

part II of the trip experience later......