Sunday, May 24, 2015

The Day Before


Early Saturday morning, I went on-line to order
my ticket for the Indy 500. I could have printed it at home,
but I wanted a "real" ticket, one imprinted with
a picture of last year's winner, Ryan Hunter-Reay.
There weren't many good seats available,
but that wasn't a problem: I wanted general
admission so I could just find a nice place sitting
on one of the grassy mounds inside Turn Two.

People were lined up outside the IMS corporate
offices waiting to pick up their tickets.
While there, I heard one of the officials say
that over 100,000 folks attended Friday's
Carb Day, that included final shake-down runs
for the thirty-three starters of the '500,'
an Indy Lights race, as well as a rock concert.

All over town, people were in the midst
of their own preparations for the race.
The manager of the mattress store was inflating
a display character at the front of his business.
Oddly, the mattress was having a bit of difficulty
achieving the appropriate erect position.
There appeared to be some kink in his system
that prevented him from becoming
firm enough to, uh, stand.


A couple blocks from the Speedway, 
a man got ready for his race party, lining up
at least a half dozen coolers, four propane tanks,
and a grill to prepare food for his guests.


Back at the Speedway Shopping Center,
the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile and 
the Mr. Peanut Mobile were introduced at
the entrance to Kroger, where they would share
billing for the grocery's promotions.


I thought the Mr. Peanut van resembled 
a character from Star Trek. A Worf?
At any rate, the Weinermobile's license plate
read as YUMMY, while Mr. Peanut's
was NUTMBLE.
I kept reading it as "Nut Mumbles."
Go figure.





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I read NUT MUMBLE when I look at the plate.
Slather on the sunscreen, Speedway!

William Kendall said...

Very busy there, but that's to be expected.