Fall French Lick Drive

October 15, 2022
On this beautiful fall morning, your photoraphers skipped the drive's planned rest stop at Santa Claus to set up for a series of shots of our Porsches flying through this photogenic s-curve just east of Birdseye. See how the shots turned out below.

You can sense excitement in the air when we know the roads will be great and the destination will be someplace new and different.

Mark and Dave covered the essentials: maps, guidelines, safety reminders. Have you ever witnessed a dogsled team being harnessed for a run? We drivers may approach that degree of eagerness. If you remember the old-style leMans starts, we are kind of like that, too, but more polite.

There are long morning shadows at this time of year.

Shadows and light can be pretty, especially with the fall colors.

We enter the Lincoln State Park forest.

Pleasant ride so far.

Our route had gone through Boonville, followed 62 to just north of Gentryville, then east on 162 and under 231 to a rest stop near Holliday World. Susan and I checked in with Mark Roethemeier, who was leading the first group. He would give us a brief head start and then continue the drive. The second group would follow soon after.

Susan and I took 162 north to 62 and turned to the East, roughly parallel to I64. At 145, we turned North, and crossed the Interstate, expecting to make the quick, winding run through the woods to Birdseye. Instead, we found this 18-wheeler in front of us, heading in the same direction but in no hurry. To be fair, the big rig had to navigate a narrow road with frequent tight curves. We found no opportunity to pass and hoped Mark's group wouldn't suddenly appear in our mirrors.

In Birdseye, the truck turned left and we turned right and soon found our photogenic s-curve. We parked, picked places to stand, waited three or four minutes, and saw the first group of SIR Porsches coming our way.

Note: We could identify some cars and their drivers, but not all. Please let us know if we missed or mismatched your names with the following cars.

Car 1 and Leader of Group 1: Mark Roethemeier

Car 2: Manuel and Dee Dee Ramirez

Car 3: Bob and Marie Donnelly

Car 4: Scott Klueh and Linda Barth

Car 5: Unknown/Possibly Todd Heathcott?

Car 6: Unknown

Car 7: Mark Faris

Car 8: Unknown Blue Cayman

Car 9: Probably Eric and Kathy Lookofsky?

Car 10: Alan Fierst

Car 11: Doug Ramey (in the shade - sorry)

Car 12: Possibly Dean Becher?

Car 13 and Leaders of Group 2: Dave and Gail Hostetter

Car 14: Randy Leintz

Car 15: Unknown

Car 16: Norman Hurst

Car 17: Bob Scott

Car 18: Unknown/Possibly Ross and Kim Rudolf?

Car 19: Unknown

Car 20: Possibly Bret Schultheis?

Car 21: Dale Fatland

Car 22: Jerry and Lee Ann Smith

The two SIR groups continued on to French Lick with the photographers trying to catch up. There was a brief pause while a short train crossed the highway, and we turned left to find 33 Brick Street, a large collection of Larry Byrd memorabilia, and a very good lunch. Here are photos. You can tell that we had a good time.

Participating in this drive were:
....Dean Becher
....Bob and Marie Donnelly
....Mark Faris
....Dale Fatland
....Alan Fierst
....Todd Heathcott
....Dave and Gail Hostetter
....Jerry and Susan Jindrich
....Mike and Kim Kinder
....Scott Klueh and Linda K. Barth
....Randy Leintz
....Eric and Kathy Lookofsky
....Doug Ramey
....Manuel and Dee Dee Ramirez
....Mark Roethemeier
....Ross and Kim Rudolph
....Bob Scott
....Brett Schultheis
....Jerry and Lea Ann Smith
....Gary and Rosie Stroud

There were two people whose names I do not have. Please email me if you have names. If I missed anyone else, please let me know.