Indianapolis Day 2

I took a drive out today to the local Scout Headquarters which had just been built on the edge of the town. I was very Impressed. A guy named Sox gave me a tour of the brand new building which houses the admin and training services for the region. There are also huge conference rooms and a large Scout Shop where I bought a load more badges. The centre also intends to provide a walk-in training centre where any leader can walk in any day of the week and get training and support for a massive range of subjects from paper work to fire-lighting to canoeing. This is certainly a major investment and has cost in the region of $6 million to set up. From her I drove just around the corner to Camp Belzer which is the local Scout Camp. I had a wander around the site which is very well provided with huge buildings and facilities including 3 swimming pools. From here I took a drive over to the Speedway Museum at the Indianapolis Speedway. The museum is located within the oval and has a number of cars and bikes associated with the circuit. From walking round you would be led to assume that the Indy 500 and Nascar are the only forms for motor racing, there was a small mention about the F1 which used to race here but it was almost as though it was an embarrassment. Outside I took a 'quick spin' around the circuit. I say quick but the bus didn't break 35mph and we were not allowed to get off the bus at any time, even when the bus slowed to stop over the brick start finish line. The tradition here is to kiss the brick line when you win and this is the only bit of the track which is visible brick that is left. The original track was dirt but then it was covered with bricks to enable racing to continue in the wet (when it became muddy), or I the dry heat when it became a dust bowl and no one could see the racing. Just down the road was a brick works so they bought loads and covered the track with bricks. Most of them have been covered with tarmac now but the start finish line still has a yard wide brick section.