I did some sightseeing today. My first stop was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum. It was pretty cool, and this is from someone who isn't into cars much, though I love the really old cars. They have one section of Indy cars and another section of cars in general, including a 1927 Deusenberg, a 1932 V-16 Cadillac (how come they don't make V-16s anymore?), and the Stottard Dayton that was the pace car for the first Indy 500 race in 1911.
I took the track tour, where they drive you around the track itself, and there's a pre-recorded narration. My pictures from that tour all had raindrops on the windows, but I like the way they look.
Next I headed downtown and decided to walk from my hotel to the Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial (more pictures here). It would have been ambitious, if I had known it was farther than it looked on the map. A cold, drizzly wind was blowing, and by the time I got there, I decided a taxi ride would be a good way to get back.
This memorial has every single one of the 3,410 Medal of Honor recipients (19 of them received the Medal twice) etched in glass, with their rank and the location of their heroic action. They start in 1861 and continue through the Iraq war, with one name listed in Baghdad. Some of the places are familiar (James H. Doolittle, Lieutenant Colonel, Air Mission, Japan), and others surprised me because I didn't associate them with war (Little Big Horn, Apache Creek, Mogadishu, Peking).
There's a touch screen, so you can learn about the recipients, and every now and then, it starts telling the story of someone. It was finishing up the story about one recipient when I got there, and later it told about the "Buffalo Soldiers," a unit of Black soldiers who were posted to the Old West and are credited with capturing Geronimo, Pancho Villa, and (if my memory serves me) Billy the Kid.
I walked back to the hotel, cutting through the two-block-long state government building for some warmth on the way and then getting disoriented in the Circle Centre Mall when I tried to get warm a second time. Warning: Circle Centre Mall may be a square on the outside, but once you get inside, they turn you in circles and then send you out the wrong door so you can't find your way. It's a plot against out-of-staters, who are silly enough to believe everything in Indiana runs in straight lines. But I'm wise now.
2 comments:
Ah, you have come to Indy in to enjoy the beautiful weather then?
I'll bet you are really enjoying the speakers.
Check out my favorite charity: I.D.E.S. International Disaster Emergency Service. It was started by Milton Bates, who I have known since I was a child. He was a member of my favorite Aunt and Uncle's church in Marion - Marion Church of Christ. There is not a more accountable charity in the nation.
Are you really going to Kokomo? Are you going to rent a car?
Chris,
I'm on my church's Missions Committee, and we've been supporting IDES forever. They're who I give money to when there's a disaster. Forget the Red Cross...
Yes, the weather is real here. We haven't had weather for months now in California. I enjoyed the brisk feel of the wind in my face and the way the cold made my lips move just a touch too slowly when I tried to talk. It made me want to sit in front of a roaring fire and sip some hot chocolate. I know, I know. It isn't even winter yet.
The speakers have been great. I went to a workshop (so many to choose from!) that had three Polish men, including one of the men who spoke at the 60th Anniversary Celebration that the three of us ladies went to in September. It's been great to talk to some of the missionaries I've met before or who my church supports.
That's been the best part: talking to people from different places. Did you know Ghana is the only Christian country in Africa? Its population is 68% Christian, and the Muslim population dropped over the past 10 years from 18% to 14%. It's the only country in the world whose Muslim population dropped. (Libya's Qaddafi got worried, so he's trying to build some more mosques there.) Ghana is also a stable country--funny how that works. The group I talked to is training Ghanian preachers and teachers and sending them to their neighboring countries to do some church planting.
Oh, sorry. I get carried away...
Yes, I'm really going to Kokomo. I'm going to the airport Sunday to rent a car, then I'll drive up to Kokomo, find the Cracker Barrel, and see who shows up. Really (God willing, and the creek don't rise).
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