Escapees September-October 2023

took them on a “nickel tour” of the grounds. Our kids got to see the luxury RV’s owned by the celebrity drivers, visit the pits and even “kiss the bricks” the way the winners do on Race Day. Outside the venue, the amazing experi ences continued. We took our kids to the Speedway Museum and the Speedway library. We saw our fi rst Robert Indiana sculpture at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and took sel fi es with the terra cotta soldiers in the Children’s Museum. We rambled on the Canal Walk along the White River, stood in awe of the magni fi cent Soldiers and Sailors memorial on Monument Circle, and toured the beautiful Central Library. While I was at work the day before the race, my husband and kids even attended the 500 Festival Parade, where they waved to Mario and Aldo Andretti, convinced

“It turned out to be a practical choice…But it was also educational, beautiful and a lot of fun.”

BIANCA DUMAS , her husband and two children spent eight years traveling the US in an RV. They towed a Jeep and were often loaded down with a canoe, kayaks, bicycles and even a sailboat. They visited all of the Lower 48 states before settling down in their home state of Utah. Bianca is a freelance writer, and her work can be found in a number of travel publications. swamps, and hiked beautiful deserts. I would never have considered spending a month in a small midwestern town on the edge of a small midwestern city if I hadn’t stumbled into work camping at the Indy 500, but I’ll always be grateful that I did. It turned out to be a practical choice—the money I made covered the cost of our gas from Kentucky to Indiana, and the month’s accommodations were free. But it was also educational, beautiful and a lot of fun. I’m glad we stuck with the plan.

that these two racing heroes had become my good buddies. And maybe they were. In eight years of travel, we saw

big cities like New York and Chicago. We lounged on islands, paddled kayaks in

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September/October 2023 ESCAPEES Magazine