Category Archives: US 2014

Some sunshine in Indy …

After a couple of days doing pre-conference FDIC workshops with some pretty average weather (not an issue as I was inside all day), the sun made an appearance on the opening day of FDIC. Even though the sun was out, I am sure the temperature didn’t go over 12C.

In fact, this morning I had to wait for the car to thaw out before heading into the city as there was a layer of ice over it. Now I know why the rental car company provided me with an ice scraper. 🙂

The opening ceremony was both a eye opener and a tear jerker. How to make 3000 grown ups shed a tear – bring in 20 bagpipers playing amazing grace as they flash the names of the Line of Duty deaths in the US over the last 12 months. There were a few of them last year. 🙁

The first speaker Bobby Halton certainly was confronting and he was in a good mood. Hate for him to be my Chief and be in a bad mood.

After some interesting morning classes, it was time to get some fresh air and have a walk around downtown to enjoy the sunshine. Indianapolis certainly embraces FDIC with most buildings having some form of FDIC banner on them albeit they are advertising.

Some more classes in the afternoon, then my head cold got the better of me. My nose was like a tap so back to the hotel for an early night. Hopefully it clears up tomorrow. 🙂

Gentlemen, Start your Engines ….

After a couple of ordinary days in Indianapolis with heavy rain and very cold temperatures, the sun showed its face and although it wasn’t all that warm, it was still a good day to tick another thing off the bucket list.

What else to do when in Indy but to get to to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, mecca of motorsport.

A couple of things stood out. One – how big the track and environs are, especially when find out that it is capable of holding 350 000 spectators. Two – how quiet things are when there is nothing on but this makes it a lot easier to get around and have a good look at the facilities.

The museum had a lot of history in the cars and information. It was amazing the names and cars that I recognised from the races of old, even though we didn’t have a lot of race coverage in Australia back in the day.

Got in a couple of laps of the track – unfortunately it was in a tour bus 😉

The full track tour gave us a good look at the track including stopping to kiss the “yard of bricks”, the media centre, timing, race control, the podium and the top floor suite of the Pagoda.

If you are ever in town, I would recommend a visit to the track and even better if there is a race on …

Long distance caching on the same day …

It is not often that you can find 2 geocaches 16174 kilometres apart on the same day but it helps to have the International Date Line on your side and be on an annual trip to the northern hemisphere.

At 4:15 am, on the way to Adelaide Airport, a quick find was made on GC4GQBZ – Lest We Forget…… at Mitcham.

32 hours later and 3 flights, Adelaide-Melbourne, Melbourne-Los Angeles & Los Angeles-Indianapolis it was still April 3rd so time to find another cache.

Despite being fairly tired and having a hotel bed calling my name, I persisted to eventually find a micro cache – GC2Z2VG – Indymonks Trail of Tears – Chippewa Indians. This was after 5 others that eluded me. Some of them could have been underwater, as there had been around 75mm of rain in the Indy area during the day.

Not sure if this is some kind of record but it certainly is for me.