Indianapolis International Airport (IND)
For long-suffering residents of Indianapolis and the hundreds of thousands of race fans that arrive in this surprisingly attractive midwestern city, 2008 can’t come soon enough. That’s when Indy’s new airport is scheduled to open its doors.
Meanwhile, you don’t want to get trapped in the current pit. For understandable reasons, nobody is going to invest precious capital in a terminal whose days are numbered. The result: no airport lounges, lethargic luggage delivery, and a restaurant selection that is headlined by Subway.
The saving grace: Indy’s people are almost unfailingly friendly and decent.
The Brickyard (Indianapolis Motor Speedway)
People sometimes say that Indy is a one-show town. All it has is a famous racetrack. The opinion doesn’t represent today’s Indianapolis, but even if it did: what a racetrack! One of the most famous pieces of real estate on the planet, this 2.5-mile oval hosts three very different races very year, each of them totally different from the next: Nascar’s variously-labeled Brickyard 400, the Indy 500 itself (IRL), and for ten years now a Formula 1 race that winds through the infield.
Locals will tell you that NASCAR draws the Southern hicks, Indy 500 the regular folks, and Formula 1 the designer-spectacled jet set. No matter, they’re all fun. Just being in the same arena with a quarter million human beings is an experience to be had, and that’s even before the ear-splitting drama of high-tech autors with little teeny human beings in them racing through you at more than twice the speed you drove on your 19th birthday.
Canter Bridge 
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