Indy 500, Indianapolis, Indiana

The Indy 500 is called the greatest spectacle in racing, it's the largest single-day sporting event in the world, and the winner celebrates by drinking an ice cold bottle of milk!

This is a long tradition, started by driver Louis Meyer in 1936.

Each year, two Indiana dairy farmers carry out the 'Winners Drink Milk' tradition.

A rookie farmer is selected each year to deliver bottles of milk to the winning chief mechanic and team owner. The following year the rookie becomes the official milk person and is given the honor of handing the bottle of milk to the winning driver. (They also do a ton of interviews and videos and publicity!)

Kris is an officer of the national promotion board, so we along with other farmers from across the country got the chance to support dairy at this event!

I've never seen a race before, and all the traditions and pomp and circumstance were so great. The race itself was incredibly exciting, and the atmosphere was electric. And - it was the closest finish in race history! Watching Ashley and Brian present milk to Felix Rosenqvist and his team - and the fact that the milk celebration is the crowning event - was amazing. Winners Drink Milk! And pour some over their heads too.

Great job to the Indiana and DMI promotion teams, who pay attention to every single detail.

Here’s a little rundown.

Friday

We drove to Indianapolis and had dinner at St Elmo’s with our group of dairy farmers and staff. St Elmo’s has a special place in my heart, because it’s where I started eating meat after 18 years of not liking it. We listened to the past Milk Presenter, farmers, and staff, and 2013 winner Tony Kanaan. He and his wife Lauren talked afterward, and it was apparent what family-type people they are.

Afterward, a group of us went to the Slippery Noodle, which is a really popular place in Indianapolis.

Saturday

Kris and I walked around White River State Park, which had nice sculptures and pretty pools of water. We had a meeting with everyone to discuss current dairy issues and solutions. In 1984 in the Netherlands, farmers were limited on the amount of milk they could produce, so many of them moved to the US. I particularly liked hearing from the Dutch farmers on how they consider the US the land of opportunity and now have some of the largest farms in the country.

We had some free time, so Lotte, Tyler, (cool Michigan farmers) Kris and I walked to the park to rent bikes – and they had a 4-person surrey! It was pretty funny, because all of us could pedal, but there were two steering wheels. One worked, and one didn’t, but it was impossible to sit in the passenger seat and not try to steer. We rode all around the White River State Park and had a lovely time.

We caught the (very) tail end of the parade, and we ate lunch at Encanto Alebrije, a Mexican restaurant. Lotte took a call from her family during it and it was really fun listening her switch from Flemish to English, and listen to Tyler speak Spanish to the server. (She was born in Belgium, and Tyler speaks Spanish with his Mexican team members.)

We met up with the larger group and went on a factory tour at Dallara, which is where all of the Indy cars are made! All the car exteriors are exactly the same, and then they have a choice of two different engines. They showed us how they try to make them as safe as possible. We saw the driving simulator for the drivers, which is one of three in the world.

Then we did our own driving simulation in public simulators, and it was so exciting and nerve wracking! I was actually sweating! It did work, because I had the pedal to the metal the entire time, and I still didn’t win, which honestly showed me a glimpse of what it was like for the drivers. (Lotte WAS one of the winners though!)

We stopped at Daredevil Brewing on the way home. They had a band playing outside and it was pretty warm out.

Saturday

Indy 500! This was an incredible day and experience. First of all, there are 350,000 spectators. The speedway is so huge that all the NFL stadiums can fit into it at the same time. It is 560 acres. It has golf holes in it. The track is 2.5 miles and has seating around it, so the other side of the track alone is so far away!

We left the hotel at 6:30 a.m. and the party was already happening. There were so many cars and people. We explored the grounds, including the tons of vendors. We watched race celebrities come in on the red carpet. We people watched. Our friend Andrea was there with her friend Amber, and we met up and kissed the bricks of the finish line.

We had pit passes, and we went right down on the track, right next to the cars! It was incredible how open everything was – you could bring chairs, coolers, food, whatever you wanted, because we were basically just outside. I loved the atmosphere so much.

We saw Ashley Stockwell (Milk Presenter) and Brian Rexing (Rookie) being interviewed on the track.

“Do you want to see the milk?” Ashley’s husband Kyle asked.

“Yes!” we said. They pulled it out of their mobile cooler and showed us. We oohed and ahhed. How fun! We took pictures with it and them.

At 9:00 a.m., they started the trophy march, and there were leadup events the entire day. There was a military appreciation lap, winners lap, historic car lap, driver introductions, etc. By noon, everyone was watching, and it was God Bless America, military address, prayer, taps, America the Beautiful, National Anthem, flyover, Back Home Again in Indiana, second flyover, they said “Drivers, start your engines,” and then Blackhawk helicopters flew over the cars INSIDE THE SPEEDWAY. It was all such an amazing spectacle – just as promised! There was so much ceremony, tradition, excitement…and it wasn’t even the main event!

Then…the green flag, and the race started!

It was loud, just like everyone said it would be. You had to wear earplugs or these amazing headphones that let you listen to the race broadcast OR you could tune into hear what the drivers and pit crews were saying through their radios! It was fascinating to hear things like “I can’t keep up with him” from the guy in second place.

Almost immediately, there was a crash, and everyone got out unhurt. Then there was another crash. They would have a delay, and then they would start again, and every time it was amazing how fast they went!

We were halfway through the race – I couldn’t believe it – and I wanted to go to the Snakepit, where there was a concert going on. But I didn’t want to miss any of the race! Happily, it started sprinkling and they delayed it. Hooray! Tyler, Kris, and I walked over. The atmosphere was so energized. I loved it! So many people, music, and a track around it all.

We couldn’t get in because it was sold out, but it was totally open so we could just see the people dancing to the DJ. We turned around and went back to the race.

The end of the race was also wild. After another crash (six cars total over the race!) there were suddenly only eight laps left. Then another racer hit the wall…and the field lined up behind the race car. The entire race was going to be decided in a single lap. Can you believe it? After 199 laps, only one really mattered!

They raced at 230 mph, we cheered, and the cars jockeyed for position. It ended like a drag race, with two cars side by side - the closest finish in Indy 500 history, with Felix Rozenqvist winning by 0.02 seconds.

What a rush! Then the culmination – the milk presentation! We watched Ashley and Brian on the big screen giving Felix the milk. He drank it and poured it over his head, and then they passed it around. What a fun tradition.

He kissed the bricks, did a victory lap, and was interviewed. We went back to the suite and hung out for awhile until the traffic died down, and then we went back to the hotel.

In the lobby, we stayed up talking to the other farmers about – you guessed it, farming!

We went from knowing very little about the Indy 500 to telling everyone we’d totally go back. Go dairy!

Congaree National Park in Columbia, South Carolina

Julie and I love national parks. We each have been to 22, but only one together. This year, one of her resolutions was to go to Congaree National Park in South Carolina, so I asked if I could go too!

Friday

We took the 7:20 a.m. flight from Detroit to Charlotte, which was quick and easy. Since I'd picked up Julie at 3:30 a.m., I was tired and slept on the flight. I asked Julie if she did too and she shook her head and said, "I don’t want to brag, but it is my concentration that keeps the plane in the air."

We then had a car rental experience that is exactly what I always WANT in a car rental, but rarely experience. We walked to the rental garage, Julie tapped the Hertz app, and it told us what number spot was ours. We walked up to it and it was a Ford Bronco, which is even what Julie drives in real life. We drove out of the parking garage and were on our way. Car rental companies take note! We didn't have to wait in line at a desk or produce insurance papers or ride a shuttle. It was incredible.

We drove straight to the University of South Carolina. We walked around the pretty Capitol building, the Horseshoe on campus, and admired all the students getting graduation photos taken. (This is also when we found out it was graduation weekend!)

We parked at Savage Craft and ate lunch outside in the sunshine. We walked to Hideout Coffee, got our coffees to go, and walked toward the Riverfront park.

We went to cross the street at an intersection, and the cars coming from our right stopped. The driver waved us to go ahead of them. As we crossed, a driver in a black truck, seeing the cars had stopped, screamed forward to make the turn. He apparently didn't see us, because he accelerated right toward Julie and me. There wasn’t enough time for us to react. He slammed on his brakes just inches before hitting us.

He was close enough for me to see him, and he was just as shocked as we were. The drivers to the right of us honked, and one of them had a siren whoop as a honk.

Julie and I, shaken, stopped on the other side of the street. A woman in a car paused as she drove by. "Y'all okay?" she asked.

We were. We both sloshed but did not spill our coffees. I want to emphasize this – we were almost in a terrible accident. I have never been this close to getting hit by a car, and I’m a runner. This would have put quite a damper on the trip.

We were incredibly relieved, discussed our near-miss, and headed to the river.

"If ever two girls needed a bench!" Julie said.

The bridge on the river was beautiful. We (very carefully) returned to the car and visited some great art. Julie had made a list of things she wanted to see, so we were checking them off. We saw Tunnelvision and Neverbust Chain by Blue Sky. (That’s the name of the artist. No, it is not his given name.)

We drove to Sesquicentennial State Park for a hike around the water. Beautiful trees and water and peaceful place. Really, really nice.

We ate outdoors at Three Notch’d and again enjoyed all the graduates celebrating with their families.

Then we headed to Congaree National Park for the fireflies.

The week before Julie and I left, we both saw that there was a lottery for getting into the park starting on May 13. We were there only May 8-10 and we were both really happy with our good fortune. We didn’t need a lottery to get to the park – in fact, the park is free! We figured that we could see the fireflies just days before the lottery started. The site told us that the fireflies will blink synchronously.

When we pulled into the parking lot, we saw that there was black tarp around the trees for a huge area to protect from car lights. We walked in the pitch black into the park, kind of just feeling our way and hoping we wouldn’t run into anything, because we weren’t allowed to use lights.

We saw lots and lots of fireflies, similar to what Julie sees in her backyard and what I see over the creek in the summer. They were not blinking synchronously, though. They were definitely blinking asynchronously. We asked at the park and did some more online research and it turns out there is one of 24 firefly species in the park that blinks at the same time. But they were pretty and magical anyway! Just a bunch of insects that light up – amazing.  

Saturday

We left our Vrbo house and went to the Soda City Farmers Market. (Cola came from Columbia, then the nickname Soda City.) They have this every Saturday, and it was giant and really good. Bakers, coffee, artists, a great mix. I got a permanent bracelet from two nice girls. They asked what we were doing, and we told them we came to see the national park. One girl said, “Here? In Columbia? I’ve lived here my entire 18 years and I’ve never heard that we have a national park, or that it has fireflies.” The other girl had heard of it, but had never been. Funny! We bought a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread to eat for lunch on our hike.

We drove to Congaree, and we went on four hikes:

Boardwalk - This was especially good, because they had a little brochure with numbers on it, and you could stop at those numbers and it would tell you what you were seeing. Great information and so cool. It identified trees, told us different historical facts, and even pointed out an old illegal still left in the woods.

Westlake – The tree knees were my absolute favorite. The tree roots made this park different than any other I’ve seen. We saw a snake and little lizards and a heron.

Longleaf – This was just a quick walk to the campground with totally different topography.

Forks Swamp – We drove 17 miles to another part of the park, and we were the only people on this hike. No cars, no people. I walked toward the water and came close to stepping on a huge snake which was right in the middle of the path. We didn’t have any service, so we couldn’t look it up to see if it was venomous, so we gave it a wide berth. We then watched it climb a tree. Later we found out it was a rat snake. We walked more carefully the rest of the hike.

All in all, we hiked about 8 miles, and it was great. Different sights, really great smell like leaves in the fall, so many birds, really interesting.

We chose to eat at War Mouth which had a great outdoor area to sit, but it wasn’t that good, so we went to Handel’s Ice Cream afterward which was.

We walked around downtown Columbia some more, and then we met up at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral for a tour: Lanterns and Lunacy of the Lost, a tour of the shocking history of Columbia. We were the only two on a tour with a nice guy who used to work at the museum, and you could tell he loved history. We walked around to a few sites and he said a lot of really interesting things. I particularly liked the cemetery at the church, since it was incredibly old. He also told about the legend three-eyed man, which I’d never heard before but seems to be a South Carolina staple.

Sunday

We hit up a drive through coffee on the way to Congaree National Park and met up with the kayaking company: Carolina Outdoor Adventures. We took the Cedar Creek kayaking trip. I can’t say enough good things about this company and tour. The owner Billy was there, our guides Julie and Paul loved it all so much, and it was really great.

Practically every stick over the creek they’d point out a snake. So. Many. Snakes. I wouldn’t have seen even one of them if they hadn’t pointed them out. We must have seen 20 snakes. They even pointed out one in a tree and Julie and I kayaked directly under it just for kicks. It was not venomous, of course. 

We actually only saw one venomous snake, and it was a water moccasin eating a skink! It was so cool to see something like that in real nature. The guides were delighted too – even they took pictures. We saw so many turtles, birds, a giant fisher spider, and of course the snakes.

Julie the guide said, “Now we only need to see a barred owl.” A few minutes later, we saw two!

Our guide Paul said, “You guys have had a magical day. That’s the most species I’ve seen in one trip.” I said, “Oh, you say that to everyone.” He said, “No, really! I saw four different species of snapping turtles alone!”  

If I had been by myself, I would have seen so much less, and probably not one snake. It was a wonderful 3-hour tour.

We drove back to the airport in Charlotte and boarded the plane. We went to the very back row of the plane and were happily surprised that there was an empty seat between us!

“Will Carla Wardin please ring the flight attendant bell?” I heard over the intercom.

I quickly rang it, wondering what was wrong.

The flight attendant came over.

“I’m Carla,” I said.

“Oh, we just wanted to make sure you were on the plane,” he said.

In all my time on planes, that has never happened to me. Thanks for making sure I’m making my flight, American Airlines!

The entire trip was full of southern charm – the people, the parks, the animals. All so welcoming and interesting and beautiful, and all with a great travel partner who is the reason I went in the first place! It's an added bonus that she's keeping the plane in the air.

Kentucky Oaks in Louisville

We’d had such a good time at the Kentucky Derby last year, that we wanted to see what the Oaks was like. We’d heard it was younger people and a more casual vibe. Tickets were also cheaper – just $70 for the infield. Kate and Matt were also going, but they did the two-day package for the seats.

Last minute, Kris couldn’t go with me, so I asked my friend Rachel, and wonders of wonders – she was free! Sure, she had to keep her eye on two live video streams, one of water filling her cottage crawl space, and one of her pregnant horse who was due to give birth, but otherwise totally free!

The drive to Kentucky is really easy – just five and half hours on the highway. I drove, and Rachel and I had a wonderful time talking. The hours really flew.

When we neared the city, we were greeted by pretty stone tunnels. They were so beautiful, and Rachel in particular loved them.

We checked into the hotel Kate and Matt had gotten – the Hampton Inn and Suites Louisville East Oxmoor. The people there were so incredibly nice. They were all dressed up in finery and hats, and they were hosting a party in the lobby. They offered us free Oaks Lilys and Mint Juleps, pointed us to the pretty buffet of Kentucky Derby-themed foods, and encouraged us to hang out and listen to the live music. They also offered to take our picture in front of their Kentucky Derby backdrop, and asked us all about where we were from and what our plans for the Derby were. They were so nice and wanted us to love it in their town, which was a theme that was repeated the entire weekend.

Rachel and I enjoyed the lobby music for a little while, and then we drove downtown and picked a parking garage to park. We walked by the Cardinals stadium and checked out the Bluegrass Brewery. I asked a question about Louisville, and Rachel answered that that when you have a city that doesn’t pronounce a letter they can do whatever they want! (Side note - our GPS pronounced the town Lou-ee-vil-ee. Delightful!)

Just as we were leaving the sun was setting, so we hurried over to the river (including wearing wedges on cobblestone leading into a dark tunnel – but!) It led to a scenic view of the river and bridges. We ate dinner at the Country Boy, checked out everything that was happening downtown, and went back to the hotel to meet up with my brother Gage, Kate, and Matt. They all got to the lobby at about 11:30 p.m. and we talked to them until 1:15 a.m. It was a happy coincidence that Gage was in town – just so happened he had a flight scheduled there!

Kentucky Oaks

We woke up early and got all prettied up for the day. Rachel called our hats fancifers, and I liked that even better than the name fascinators. I wanted to get to a place where we could park in someone’s yard, and I knew that last year I’d paid $30. We drove right to Churchill Downs, and a man offered us parking in his yard - $40 and guaranteed out. Sure!

We walked to a diner named Wagner’s Pharmacy to meet Gage for breakfast, but we were on the wrong side of a fence, so we had to walk across the overpass road, cross, and walk back. This added two miles to our walk to Churchill Downs, and Rachel was very happy she had worn sandals that she could walk in instead of pretty heels.

Gage eventually was able to direct his Uber driver to the right spot, and we were pleasantly surprised by Wagner’s Pharmacy. Since it’s right next to Churchill Downs and kind of famous, I thought it would be packed and expensive. No! It was fine and affordable, too. We all talked and had a lovely breakfast complete with very Southern biscuits.

I made the same mistake I made last year and walked a long way to the wrong gate, and then back again to the correct gate. The good news was we saw a gorgeous parade of outfits along both ways!

Gage said goodbye to us just before the first race at 12:30 p.m., and we entered the infield just as it was starting!

For the rest of the day, we walked around, watched from different spots, tried to find the least windy and warmest spots, and cheered on the horses. Rachel bought a fleece blanket, and we sat on it and wrapped up in it. We participated in fake betting, where we enjoyed choosing our winners before the race, and then watching them lose – but with no money our of our pockets!

Things I love – the bugle call (what a thrill), the horses trampling past, especially when they’re on the grass, people’s outfits, THE HATS, and the happy atmosphere.

There were way fewer people than there were at the Derby, and there were younger people. One time as we were crossing the middle at the height of the day - about 3:00 p.m. - it was as if we had stumbled into a college party! All college-aged kids, all dressed in cute outfits, all loud and flirting and laughing …some even falling down, getting kicked out by the police, and others being forced to empty their pockets of airplane bottles! By the late afternoon, it had really calmed down and a lot of people left. The final race was at 8:40 p.m., and I did bet on it and lost $6. I didn’t expect to win, since I won the Derby last year, so that was a manageable amount! High stakes gambler over here. On the way out, I found a penny. That meant I only lost $5.99!

Rachel and I left and were hungry, so we stopped at a gas station on the way to the car to buy candy bars for dinner. Only the finest dining for us! 

With traffic, it took awhile to get back to the hotel, but it was fine. My watch told us we'd walked nine miles. Kate and Matt weren’t much farther behind us, and we heard about their fun day before falling asleep. 

Derby Day

I woke up early and worked in the lobby. A hotel staffer immediately offered me a mimosa. So hospitable at 6:00 a.m.! I didn’t have one, but that was kind of him to offer.

There were six men with laptops, the book from the races, pens, papers, and very angry demeanors. They were discussing the races and choosing what to gamble on. But they were not having fun. They were mad. They must not have won the day before, or perhaps they were in gambling debt, and one of them was mean to a guy who said to them, “You guys look like you know what you’re doing!” I didn’t like them, and I took notes on what they said. (Later I was able to check - they didn’t mention the winning horse once. In fact, none of the horses they mentioned were in the top three.)

But that’s horse racing. With all their knowledge and insider info and research – my guess was as good as theirs.

We ate breakfast and said goodbye. We saw the tunnel again on the way out.

“I love infrastructure!” Rachel said.

We turned back to check on her pregnant horse on video. We’ll watch them in person, we’ll watch them on the big screen, we’ll watch them on her phone. Horses are fun, and so is the whole Derby weekend - especially if you can stomach a $5.99 loss.