TeamD Adventures

We ran the CGMGA Spring Warmup rally yesterday. It was written by a local rallymaster, Reid Trummel, who always delivers a well thought out rally. SOP only, calculators and rally sheets but no auxiliary ODOs or computers.

There were 5 traps. We’d seen 4 of them before. And we still fell for 3/5 of them.

Trap #1 - The old reliable ONTO

Yes, the road REID just outside LaCenter, WA required a sharp left turn to stay ONTO. It was just after a curve, tucked neatly behind a little hill, right next to a dead end road. Well camouflaged, but we saw it. The car one minute ahead of us didn’t. Well - they were supposed to be one minute ahead of us. But they started a minute late at the beginning of the leg, so we were trying to occupy the same space ’til their miss led them away from us.

 Trap #2 - the ‘watch for deer next x.x miles’ trap

22. L at NE Lewisville Hwy; Search for DB Cooper next 1.6 miles; L at second “McBride”

23. Wait 1 minute 42 seconds at “Impaired Site Distance” ITIS

24. L at NE Lewisville Hwy

McBride is a loop. The 1st 2 signs for McBride came up before the 1.6 miles were completed in instruction #22.  Off course cars turned early and saw the impaired site distance sign and waited while on course cars did not.  An off course route control, the rally master in a DB Cooper disguise, was waiting for those who turned early.

Our first half score: 15. Hey, looking pretty good.

Trap #3 - There isn’t a free zone ’til Rallymaster says there is.

After the halftime break, the first instructions of the second half read:

1. CZT: 11:25 TO BEGIN TSD SECTION 2, ZERO ODOMETER; TURN LEFT OUT OF NORTH DRIVEWAY OF THE TRADING POST GROCERY PARKING LOT (THE DRIVEWAY NEAREST THE GAS PUMPS) TO GO SOUTHBOUND ON AMBOY (BACK THE WAY YOU CAME IN): L @ STOP (YACOLT); BEGIN FREE ZONE

2. R @ STOP (”RAILROAD”)

OK, to get ahead of car #10, because they were lining up to leave on our minute again, we left a little early. We thought we’d get to the end of the free zone and wait for the right time. MMmmm hmmm. Where does the free zone begin, again? Ahh, not immediately…

You guessed it. Larry, the checkpoint worker, was sitting in a pickup truck, parked across the street from the grocery store parking lot, hiding behind the decoy ‘FOR SALE’ sign in the window, clock in hand. Leg Score: 17 points.

Trap #4 - Ordinality 101

The well known out-of-order-instructions-on-a-page-break trap.

15. LEFT at THORNTON

17. OBSERVE “WATER ON ROADWAY” PAUSE 30 seconds

=put your page break here= =put checkpoint here=

16. OBSERVE “WATER ON ROADWAY”

If you did them as they were printed as opposed to as they were numbered, you arrived at the checkpoint 30 seconds late.

Score: We’d have gotten a 2 on that leg. But we took 28 points instead.

Trap #5: Spelling Swedish Names For Fun And Points

19 R @ SRIP “NE LANDERHOLN” ITIS. <——You think there might be a trap here?

The sign doesn’t say Landerholn, it says Landerholm. Navigator called it wrong the first time around, and the driver “confirmed” it was spelled right the second time by. BZZZT! Two rongs don’t make a wright. Maxed that leg: 300 points.

Total score: 368, good enough for 4th place, but out of trophy range. 3rd place score was 329, 1st was 110. Another rally by Reid is coming up June 21st — strongly recommended. Columbia Gorge Classic