Indianapolis - Day 1

We have safely arrived in Indianapolis, where it is no warmer than it is at home. It is currently 18F, which is around -8C and the forecast for the next couple days is for temperatures below zero, so I'm quite glad the football game is in a dome.

Today started off with a very rough morning. Xander didn't sleep much during the night and Sandra had to hold him on his bed and on the couch all night long. He was very clingy in the morning and did not sound very good. It was really difficult to leave him. It was even harder for Sandra, as she had the extra complication of being very tired. Just to make things perfect, when the cab arrived, Sandra was taking Xander to the bathroom and he pee'd on her pants. I was outside shoveling the driveway and walked back into the house to see pretty much everyone crying. Not the greatest way to leave for a trip.

The flight from Regina to Toronto was uneventful. Sandra slept, while I finished off my assignment. It took almost the entire flight, but I got all the code working, which made me quite happy. We had a quick late lunch in Toronto and then flew to Indianapolis on one of those tiny Bombardier jets. As a native of Saskatchewan, it is sometimes difficult to realize how populated the eastern part of the US is, but I was reminded of that fact when, during the flight, all you could see out the window was a landscape full of lights. As we landed in Indianapolis, I kept a watch for Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but I'm pretty sure that the way the plane arrived meant that the speedway was on the other side of the aircraft. I did see Lucas Oil Stadium from the plane, though.

Once we got our luggage, we took a cab rid to our hotel. The cab driver was pretty crazy - speeding down the Interstate and changing lanes whenever he felt like it. We drove right by the stadium in the cab, as our hotel is only a block away. In fact, if the Colts were still playing at the RCA Dome, we wouldn't even have to go outside, as there is a skywalk from our hotel to a mall and then to the RCA Dome. The hotel is very high class, which isn't where we normally stay, but the location was a big factor. The mall is huge - three or four levels covering most of a city block. We walked over to the mall for supper, as there is a Taco Bell in the food court, and Sandra and I LOVE Taco Bell.

We phoned home from the hotel and Xander is feeling better, though he made Grandma watch Wall-E twice during the day. That made both of us feel better, though we just realized that we completely forgot to mention his birthday this morning. Actually, given how difficult it was to leave him, maybe it was a good thing that we forgot it was his birthday.

Tomorrow we just have a couple of things planned. We are going to go shopping at the mall, as I want to buy some jerseys and Sandra just wants to shop. We are also going to go to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I checked the bus schedules and it appears that there is one bus that we can take from the mall straight to the track, which is what we will do tomorrow morning. We discussed taking a cab, but the cab ride here was crazy, and $3.00 is a lot cheaper than $30.00.

As an aside, I was reminded of the difference in Canadians versus Americans (or possibly small city versus larger city) today. Our cab ride in Regina cost $11.20, but the cab driver immediately told me that $11 was fine. After a few seconds fumbling to find a loonie, he then said $10.00 was fine. The cab ride in Indianapolis was $30.85, though the meter said $29 and change when I started taking my money out. I gave the driver $30 dollars and he objected, pointing out that I had not given him enough money. Not as bad as the cab drivers in Paris, but still not as friendly as in Regina.