DAY 7 (Friday, August 8):

Today was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway tour which included the Hall of Fame Museum and a bus ride and tour of the race track itself. It was a nice, small museum with a lot of old race cars. The weather was perfect and allowed us a pleasant visit of the race track. The temperature was very mild and welcomed by everyone that had to deal with the heavy humidity in the south.

After the race track we decided that we would return to the Children’s Museum. We passed (by accident) Mr. Bendo the Muffler Man – Pascal got a quick pic. We ate at the museum and toured for a couple of hours. We were nearly done, maybe 15 minutes left before they closed their doors when Anthony ran by and said that his father lost his camera. Apparently, Laurence had handed the camera to Laurent and he promptly lost it. Over a thousand pictures – gone! Pictures of Beale Street, Elvis & Graceland, the paddle boat ride, the motorcycles, Mud Island & of course the Children’s Museum…all gone. Laurence was devastated. She cried. She thought of all the worst case scenarios.

We drove downtown to walk around, but it wasn’t the humidity that was heavy now, it was the tension in the air. She no longer had a camera to hold and to take the many pictures that she does. It was a bad night. She couldn’t eat. She was not enjoying anything anymore.

But we trudged on. We walked around the city – and those that could take pictures, did. We stopped at Starbucks to let some in our group go to the bathroom, lost Pascal and Sabine for a time and ate at Qdoba.

We got in the car and started making the long drive home. We rejected 2 hotels before stopping at a third in Fort Wayne, IN.