Stage 4, Great Race 2018

Mornings on the Great Race start early with a lot of hurry up and wait. We typically are up by 5:30 and out to the car by 6:30. We make sure all is good with Jane, and then we wait for our turn to be given the instructions for the day. Each team picks a number the previous day and that is your order of start. The instructions are passed out a half hour be for your start time. This is typically when the waiting begins. After we receive the instructions we review to make sure we have all the pages,and then we are on the road.

This morning while waiting around we talked with some friends about which direction we thought we might be going. We knew we were ending up in Maine tonight, so coming from Burlington, VT, North was the obvious answer. Although obvious, it was the incorrect answer. We headed back South and toured some more around this beautiful state. If we did not tell you enough yesterday, we will tell you again. Vermont is so picturesque and beautiful, it is almost surreal.

The best part of the Great Race is by far the people. There is a racing family amongst all the competitors. The competition is tough, but most people here will help if they can. Maxine, pictured above is one of our friend’s cars. They now drive a 1964 Chevy, Nova named Marie, and Maxine sits at home. This year some other long time racers, had some car issues with their Packard days before the race. Maxine’s owners heard about the car problems, and insisted that they use her for the race. This is the spirit of the race.

After leaving Vermont late this morning, we drove into the mountains of New Hampshire. Like Vermont New Hampshire is a state full of untouched land and National Forest. We headed into the White Mountains, and passed the White Mountain Resort. A beautiful colonial style hotel with a bright red roof. I imagine in the winter, the roof might be the only thing you can see.

We continued driving through the forest and came upon the most spectacular mountain scenery. The mountains were full of trees so thick, they were completely green. The few areas where the mountains were bare were rocks that looked like dry waterfalls. There were hikers out, and the weather was superb. We loved every second of the mountain air.

We had a late afternoon lunch stop in The Presidential Mountain range in an area called Mt. Washington. It was one of the first tourist destinations in the U.S., and the peak is about 6200 feet in elevation. We had lunch at the base of the mountain with our fellow racers. Some chose to make the drive to the peak. We chose to not risk something happening to the car and stayed at the base. The day was perfect, and we spent the extra time enjoying the sun, and reviewing our instructions for the second half of the day.

After a good morning in the competition we looked forward to the afternoon’s rally. We believed we had run the mornings gauntlet cleanly. The afternoon did not look too long, but we knew there were a couple of tricky spots ahead. Unfortunately, we missed a turn where we knew it would be tricky, and it all snowballed from there. While making up the time lost on the turn, we ran into some road construction. We sat for a little while and took a time delay. We ended up guessing how much time we had lost. Brad is a better guesser than I am, but he is a good husband and listened to me. We ended up taking a 40 second time delay, and it should have been a 30, exactly what Brad suggested. We ended the day with one last hiccup up, we were suppose to turn on the first paved road, but there was a cyclist in the middle of the road where we were to turn. We were late getting to the turn with little time to make up the loss. We sped through the last check point and were done rallying for the day.

We headed to Gardner, Maine for dinner and our over night stop in Augusta, Maine. We were treated to a lobster and clam bake dinner, corn, bibs and all. The towns people and dogs were all great, and we thoroughly enjoyed the dinner!

We finished the day in 40th overall, but because they throw out one bad leg each day, we are still holding strong! We dropped to 9th overall but went up to 2nd in class. Tomorrow is a new day, and we feel so lucky to be experiencing this beautiful part of the country. We are truly humbled to have the opportunity to participate and share this adventure with our friends and family.

Many thanks for all the kind words and support!

Author: emcniff

This is not really about me, but about an adventure we are lucky enough to take each year. Each trip provides new discoveries, and the opportunity to see this beautiful country we are so blessed to live in. View all posts by emcniff