When I think back to some of my fondest childhood traditions/memories, one of the things that is way up on the list is going to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with my Dad every year to hang out at the track, watch the cars, and have some quality father and son time. Getting to cut school and go to the track was my little treat for having a school year with good grades and good attendance.
Ever since I was a kid, I always thought this would be something I would like to do when I had kids of my own. With Jackson turning 5 just this week, I was thinking that this year would be an appropriate time to start this tradition. I had mentioned it to him a few weeks ago, and he seemed really excited about it. The first day with all veteran drivers was set for Tuesday, May 9th. I talked to my bosses at work on Monday and made arrangements to be off on Tuesday, and checked the weather forecast, which called for sunny skies and 72 degrees. Jackson goes to preschool on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so he wouldn’t have to miss school on Tuesday. Everything was set…
I didn’t say anything to Jackson about it on Monday evening, just in case the weather forecast changed or something else came up. Plus I thought the element of surprise would add to the excitement and anticipation. We let Jackson and Carson sleep in longer than usual since it wasn’t necessary to get them up at the typical 6:20am time, so when Jackson got up and it was broad daylight and I was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, he knew something was up. When I told him what I had planned for us, he was very excited. Sometimes Jackson will claim that I do not spend enough time with him, and he is probably right, so he was happy that we would be spending the day together, just he and I.
We left for the track at about 9:45 am. We sang along to the radio and danced in our seats as we cruised along on I-70 east. I had a cooler packed with Kool-Aid pouches, Coke, and PB & J’s. We had a bag packed with snacks, sunscreen, and a digital camera. The weather was gorgeous. We were set.
We got up to the track a little before 11am and entered on the main straightaway off of Georgetown Road. I was a little surprised when the yellow shirts directed me to park in turn three. No big deal, but since I wanted to find a spot to sit in my favorite place near where they wheel the cars out to the pits from Gasoline Alley, that meant we would have to start our day by walking from turn 3 to Gasoline Alley. Anyone who has been to the track before will attest that this is quite a jaunt, especially when you have a little boy with you. So we walk all the way over there, walk by the new pagoda, stop for a picture at the yard of bricks and then made our way to the spot I was looking for. It was about 30 minutes before the green light would flash to start practice, so we got a great spot. Things were going great. We had noticed as we were making the walk to the main stretch that there were some cars on the track taking some laps. I was surprised about this because it wasn’t noon yet. It turns out that these were the 2-seater cars that the Speedway gives people a ride with after they empty their saving account for a ride in an Indy Car. Well, I should have known we were going to have a problem, because the noise of the 2 seaters at 170 MPH were clearly bothering Jackson already. Tack on another 55 MPH and the sound, while awesome to me, would almost certainly be frightening to him. And it was. As we sat there, waiting for practice to start, we quickly saw (up close) Mario Andretti, Helio Castroneves, Eddie Cheever, Danica Patrick, Rick Mears, just to name a few famous folks. So that was pretty cool. OK, so the cars start hauling ass at the start of practice. About 2 minutes into this Jackson has scooched up right beside me and wrapped my arms around him. About 4 minutes into this, he was on my lap. About 6 minutes into this, tears were running down his face and he was informing me that he was ready to go home. The sound of the cars were totally freaking him out. Some nice lady could see what was happening and walked over and was trying to tell me that she would save our seats if I wanted to walk him down to get some ear plugs – I think this is what she was trying to say because I could only here about every third word out of her mouth.
Well, we got out of the stands and went to a spot near Gasoline Alley with picnic tables. We sat there and ate out PB & J’s. Jackson improved greatly by getting out of the stands. It was still loud, but not as deafening. Then we checked out the gift shop right there by the picnic tables. I thought it would be cool to get Jackson a souvenir and he picked out a matchbox car Indy Car – Target Car, since he loves to shop at Target. They were selling ear plugs for $2 and I encouraged Jackson to get some. He told me that there was no way that he would be wearing those things. Despite my strong suggestions, he continued to refuse the ear plugs in the way that only Jackson can – emphatically and unwavering. I was not about to waste the 2 bucks, so we paid for the Target car and left. We strolled around the garage area, got Dan Wheldon’s autograph (last year’s champion!), and then I thought it might be a good idea to find a grassy area where we could hang out and Jackson could roam around a little if he needed to. But this meant walking all the way back to turn 3, near where we parked the Jeep. After the 20 minute walk, we find a real nice place in a small mound in turn 3 and stretch out in the grass. They were under yellow when we get there, so it was a few minutes before they had cars back on the track.
Sure enough, as soon as the cars started flying by at 225 MPH, Jackson says “Daddy, I want those ear plugs”. I about crapped my pants. I said “Jackson, I tried to get you the ear plugs, but you said that you would not wear them”. He says “No Daddy, get them for me”. My hopes that his insistence to get the ear plugs would diminish away were futile. He continues “Daddy, I need ear plugs right now!”…So of course, since I did not want to leave already, and I certainly did not want to hear him constantly whine about the ear plugs for a couple more hours, I took hold of his hand and here we were walking way the hell back up to the freaking gift shop at Gasoline Alley. We get there 20 minutes later. As we are approaching the door to the gift shop, Jackson has a small announcement to make……”Daddy, I wanna go home”. After a slight internal nervous breakdown on my behalf, we marched into the gift shop, gave the old woman the 2 freakin bucks for the ear plugs, and headed back to turn three. I had decided that we were not going home, and that we were going back to turn 3 and enjoying some fast cars. To wrap up this story, we ended up spending another 20 minutes walking back to turn three, 25 more minutes watching the fast (and loud…Jackson was by now informing me that the earplugs did not help) cars. I had had enough of his complaining and told Jackson that we were leaving. As we are getting into the Jeep and I am buckling him in Jackson says to me: “Daddy, can I keep these ear plugs for when we come back next year?”
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