As soon as I saw that the Canadian and Amercian Grands Prix were going to be on consecutive weekends, my summer holiday plans were sorted! The suggestion of a road-trip between the two took root with some of my fellow F1 forum members and what started out as a simple opportunity to see two races in as many weeks turned into an expedition that will live in my memory as long as I live.
First, a name-check for my fellow travellers - Terry (TURBO-T) from Louisiana and his son Eon, Rhett (he of the many nicknames) from New Zealand, Sarah (JARDINS) from Ottawa and Ed (GR8SCOTTNY) from New York. Oh, and in case you didn't know, I'm Carolyn (F1RORO) from the UK! A huge thanks to them all for sharing the journey.
Special thanks must go to two people:
- Terry for making the "road trip" element possible by driving all the way from Louisiana to Montreal where we all met up, then on via New York and Washington to Indianapolis before heading back home, and
- Ed for being such a gracious host in New York and who managed to cram more of his city into a five hour tour than I dreamed possible!
My photos from the trip can be accessed from the photo links on the left. So they make some sort of sense, the trip when something like this:
- Day 2 - arrived Montreal (storms in Chicago prevented me arriving Day 1!), went straight to track for practice, meeting Sarah there
- Day 3 - at track for Canadian GP Qualifying
- Day 4 - at track for Canadian GP Race, met up with Terry, Eon and Rhett post-race, dropped Sarah back in town (she would meet us again at Indy) and drove to Plattsburgh, NY for the night
- Day 5 - drove to New York, met up with Ed for the famous "Ed tour" and a delightful dinner before heading a short distance out of the city for the night
- Day 6 - drove on to Washington DC and explored on foot (definitely a city I will return to with a little more time in hand), before heading west for the night
- Day 7 - drove cross-country to Indianapolis (actually to Cloverdale which was to be our base for the next few days)
- Day 8 - at track for pitlane walkabout, Sarah re-joined the group in the evening
- Day 9 - at track for US GP practice day, toured the IMS Hall of Fame, Ed joined us for dinner having unexpectedly make the trip to Indy
- Day 10 - at track for US GP Qualifying
- Day 11 - at track for US GP Race, bade farewell to Terry and Eon who were heading home to Louisiana
- Day 12 - bade farewell to Sarah, who was heading home to Ottawa, travelled by train to Chicago with Rhett who was continuing to LA and then home to New Zealand
- Days 13 to 15 - Chicago, another city with fantastic architecture that I will have to pay a more leisurely visit to one day.
Finally, I have to confess to cheating somewhat on the New York photos - the day we were there was somewhat murky and I had spent a long weekend there a few months earlier with rather better weather, so my photos are almost exclusively from the earlier trip. I have however tried to limit them to the places we actually visited, although sometimes presented from a different perspective!
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