IMS - Day # 14 - Traffic Control - 9th Day & things that go "bump"

The time has flown by here at IMS......we have completed 14 days of residency here in the "workers campground".......funny....that sounds like a place to be found in the former USSR doesn't it?  

It has been warm the past few nights, and we have been running the front A/C most of the night.  We usually do not like to have the A/C on at night while we are sleeping, but when you're tired you just want to be comfortable, and keep the inside air as dry as possible.

Sunday we started our new schedule which sees us clocking in by 5:45 am each morning.  We are now arising at 4 am to get ready for our day.  The sky was mostly clear at dawn as "Bump Day" got under way.  Bump Day is the day when the final 9 spots of the 33 car field are set.  This happened before 1 pm, and the rest of the day other drivers attempted to top the speed of the 33rd driver (223.176 mph), but no one could "bump" Katharine Legge" 4 lap average the rest of the day.  

The temps got to around 87, or 88, which is not optimal for Indy Cars....the track just gets too hot, and slows the cars down.

Our Sunday did not look much different than Friday, or Saturday.....traffic was heavy most of the day until after 3.  We were mostly doing 30 minute rotations on the "line" due to the heat and humidity.....I snagged a couple of 20 minute naps, and read on my other breaks.  

We had a lot of help Sunday from the Indiana State Troopers when the traffic got particularly heavy, and we appreciated the extra help, especially when the traffic exiting the infield got heavy towards the end of the day.  We had 3 inbound lanes going most of the day, but by 4 we were down to 2 inbound lanes with mostly just one lane seeing steady traffic, so we went to three 2 "man" rotations giving us one hour off for every 1/2 hour worked.

TLE and Sarah worked the next to last shift from 5 to 5:30....I worked my last shift from 4:30 to 5.  TLE and I then began the trek "home" just after 5:30 and were home before 6 pm turning on the A/C and shedding our sweaty clothes.  

Since we have each had to shower every day the past 5 days our hopes of making it to the end without dumping the gray tank again did not come to fruition.  We do have 80 gallons of fresh water left, but the gray tank was about 7/8's full after 10 days, so after cold showers were taken we went out to pump the effluent from our gray tank.  The black tank is only just 1/2 full, so we should make it to Sunday with no problem, but we may need to add some fresh water later this week....it will be close.  When the daily temps were in the 50's and 60's it was easy to think we might make it.

TLE was in bed by 9:15, but I was wide awake until 10:30.....guess those cat naps are doing the trick.

Thanks for stopping by!!