TeamD Adventures

Last Sunday we drove up to Olympia to participate in the 28th Annual Corvettes de Olympia. It would be our first gimmick rally. In recent rallies, we’d fallen for sign spelling traps. This promised to be a sign hunt and at best would help us focus on sign reading. The rally consisted of two sections and a final tie-breaking exercise. Each section allowed for 2-3 hours to complete which was more than enough time. There were no CASTs, no timekeeping or course following traps. The clocks and computers were stowed away. The course following instructions were easy to follow, but finding the signs were not. The instructions included references to street signs, totem poles, locomotive mailboxes, and obscure and odd signs. Spelling and punctuation counted for correctness in the answers. During the rally we turned around several times to look for missed signs. We arrived at turn only to discover that we had not filled in the answers leading up to the signs. It was a difficult to put aside time keeping and focus on the signs.

In the end, we had 3 wrong answers. With 1000 being the a perfect score, we tied for 21st place with a score of 985. 76 teams participated in the rally. It was very well organized. During the rally we covered some of the paved transit areas from NOBM 2006. In the end we drove home to Portland feeling like we’d improved our sign reading ability and had fun to boot.

The rally master promises a more difficult rally next year.

Last week, we took Marilyn to the local auto body shop that fixed the front air dam after the Barnes Lake incident. It was time for a couple of ‘procedures’. That ugly ding on the hood is gone. The rear fender flares that were blasted white from all the rock chips are red again. Several door dings on the body are gone. The rear trunk wall is straightened out. After the paint cures for a month or so, we’ll take her back and get a protective coating applied in time for No Alibi.

Marilyn is all glam now. All she needs is a feather boa.

Matt, scion of the Portland rally family The Tabors, works out his tension in front of Eric’s iX just before the Dease Lake TSD section on Alcan 2008.

Last night we competed in the 1st “Friday Nighter” of the season in Portland. Many of the Portland area Alcan teams were there. It promised to be a tricky rally from the start, and it was. How did we do? We didn’t fall for every trap, or get the max score for every leg — avoiding those two outcomes is our goal for these rallies.

But, to give you an indication of how many times we got off course, we used all of our time declaration slips. Where is a gravel rally when you need one?

Yesterday the terrain got flatter, traffic heavier as we approached Dawson Creek. Those things we take for granted like pay-at-pump gas stations open 24 hours a day and chain restaurants reappeared. Weariness has set in. Radio chatter has dropped off. With today the last day of the rally, there are discussions on whether to make the return trip home in one day or two. There is only one more timed section this afternoon and a relatively short transit to Jasper, Alberta. Then the awards banquet and it will be time to  go home.  The fun hasn’t subsided and already we’re missing the northern country.