TeamD Adventures

The Portland area is home to some rally-crazed folks, including 2000 Alcan winner Paul Eklund. Way back in December ’06, Paul hosted an “Alcan Seminar” at his house, and out of curiosity Renee and I attended. Russ K. was there, and the veterans talked “of many things”, both scaring and encouraging us novices.

We weren’t sure we’d actually do the Alcan, though — it seemed pretty remote, in more senses than one. But there was also talk about the BC winter rallies, T-Bird and Totem. Those seemed within reason, and we began gearing up for running them. Much of the gear and car preparation appropriate for T-Bird and Totem is perfect for Alcan as well, so by the time November arrived our car was at 80% of what we’d want for Alcan.

More or less…. see, when you decide after Totem that extra insulation really IS a good idea, you wind up installing same outside in the cold December rain rather than the balmy Oregon Summer. And insulation is only on the “nice to have” list — it turns out that the number of tasks/items on the “really need” list is relatively incompressible. Cross two tasks off the list as complete, annnnnddd

!@!@##$ how’d the list get longer?! Oh, yeah, we probably should get the front end aligned. Ooo, high mounted rear lights! That’s right, we were going to do those. Dang, we installed a battery blanket all right, but that was in the *old* car. Sigh. At least there’s still plenty of time to get everything done.

[Narrator: As our tired rallyists fall asleep, we see the task gnomes hard at work, discovering new things still-to-be-done... will Zeno's paradox hold this time, or will the car just go north on Feb. 15th, Ready Or Not?]