Went to the Indy 500 today. Another item off the bucket list–> done!

Lots of beers and cars going around at 240mph for almost 3 hours. What a jolly good time!

But getting there it’s sheer chaos. It’s over 325,000 people at the race. Literally, hundreds of thousands of cars in a 2-mile radius looking for parking. House owners nearby charge $30 per car, and they’ll let you park right there in there front lawn (no street parking allowed on race weekend).

I got up at 7am and was already on the road at 8am. Took me about 3 hours to get there driving (with breakfast including), 1 hour to find parking, and 30 minutes more to get to my seating section. We got lucky and even found a guy that drove us all the way to the entrance for $5 on an ATV. We got there fresh.

After the race comes the hard part, leaving the area. Droves of people walking back drunk, tired, sunburnt to get their cars at the same time. You know what happens next, right? Massive traffic jams in every road within the same 3-mile radius. It’s pandemonium.

We got lucky (again). Went through a couple of backroads and found a nice Mexican restaurant. Margaritas, churros, burritos, quesadillas… It was like hitting the jackpot. An hour, hour and a half passed, and we left (rolling back to the car after everything we ate).

TRAFFIC WAS STILL CHAOTIC. More maneuvers were needed to get out of the main roads. Policemen blocked most of the roads, and were basically diverting all traffic through the same 1-lane routes, creating a bigger problem than the one they were trying to solve initially.

If it wasn’t for a couple of shortcuts and u-turns, we would’ve have been stuck there for hours.

I just got back to my apartment, and had a long shower after this long-ass day. Immediately started doing today’s post, still wet.

Tomorrow comes Monday, and then the next day, and then the other. We’re back in it once again!