LET'S RACE!!!

 Though it was a nice cool morning, I spent most of it inside reading.  There is nothing NORMAL about this van.  No dipstick, weird paint, a million things only accessible by one computer or the other .... or by the third one.  It's crazy!  

Here's what I found out about the paint.  The entire bottom all around is made up of the same material as those black bumpers you see on everyone's car.  It's a black textured rubber/plastic material that is supposed to keep rocks from "marring the finish".  Then they painted it!  That completely different texture makes it difficult to clean.  No wonder I had to scrub it so hard, which of course can damage the finish.  Who knew?

There's no dipstick to check the oil ... you just have to depend on the computer to work ... and no way to tell if it's in regen because it doesn't TELL you on the dash.  They said to check the engine temperature and the fuel mileage ... that is an indication.  WHAT??  

I did find out that there is a way to dig deep into its little brain to see what the particulate level IS.  Assuming of course that the computer is working, which by the way I've had to have completely reprogrammed twice now.  So there you have it ... and I still haven't been able to get the code reader to work.  On the other hand, it IS fun to camp in!

Kitters just sits and stares at me as I yell obscenities across the room!  She's like WHAT?

Breakfast was leftover dinner from yesterday.  I found this Panda Express orange sauce at Walmart.  I love their orange chicken and thought I would make some myself.  

It was WAY too much work to bread and fry the chicken, so I just fried it and dumped on some sauce.  First off, it does not taste at ALL like Panda Express.  It says no fructose corn syrup, which is probably why.  PUT SOME SUGAR IN THAT BOTTLE!!

In no time, it was RACE TIME!!  I'm much more interested in NASCAR racing than Indy racing but I watched it any way.  It's fascinating to see their dashboard inside.  These are the big dogs from all over the world who race an average of 215 miles per hour the entire race.  NASCAR averages 150-175 or so.

The best part of the race ... these Blackhawks followed them around the track for two laps as a salute to Memorial Day.  The stands were sold out with over 300,000 fans.  

When they first take off, they all fight for THE SPOT they try to hold on to for most of the race.  That didn't work out so well since the track was slick in one spot and they had several accidents, as well as stoppages due to rain.  

Like this one.  A flaming death trap having smashed into the wall.  There were so many accidents they lost a good portion of the cars.  Hit the wall or another car and you are completely out of the race.  

When they got towards the end, half the pack did a pit stop, which landed them at the back of the pack.  It's all about coasting when you can and speeding up when you have to, in order to conserve fuel.  They are allow 18.5 gallons of fuel, which will get them about 33 laps.  If you are leading, you better be somewhat conservative.  If you stop for fuel, you end up at the back of the pack.  Take note of the third car ... Rosenqvist.  

I think they had more laps under the yellow flag than they did the green.  There was an accident 6 laps before the end, and every lap around following the pace car, counted.  You can barely see here who is in second place.  In first place ... Malukas from the U.S. Penske team.  

But not for long!  It was an edge of your seat finish as Rosenqvist crossed the finish line .02 seconds ahead of Malukas, literally by the skin of his nose.  That was the closest race in the history of the Indy 500.

Let's CELEBRATE!!  I had another big chunk of lemon pie stuff while I contemplated my racing career.

Yup that's me ..... with my 2001 corvette that I raced all over California.  And yes, I had a radar detector.  Only once did I ever get a ticket, and that was for going 44 in a 35.  I think that not very nice motorcycle cop was envious.  I dearly loved this car, but it was sold when I went into RV'ing and needed a tow car.  Just like the van, it was fun to drive, but required a lot of expensive maintenance.

And so ended another day.  I'm coughing less and less, no sneezing, and almost feeling human again.  I owe it all to the lemon pie!!!