Stage 9 The Finally

Oops, just realized this never was posted.

Our day started early and we decided that we were not going to look at our standings in the race. Well, come to find out someone let the cat out of the bag, and told Brad. He didn’t tell me, so I knew we were doing well, but didn’t know how well.

We spent the night in Tacoma, and headed North on Interstate 5. We ran for about 15 minutes North, and then they took us off the freeway and put us back on heading South. We calibrated our speedometer as Brad worked on the 26 pages of instructions. There were as many instructions yesterday as there were on some of the full days of driving. We were only driving until noon, so needless to say a full morning of driving.

After a bit of hustling and hard work Brad had most of the instructions identified and marked for timing. We started our rally and drove for about 20 minutes and then had a 50 minute transit, we are off the clock in transit sections. We both sighed some relief because Brad could go back and review his work and complete the instructions that were glossed over.

We rallied for a few more hours through the back roads near Tacoma, I am not really sure where we were. Our morning was going smoothly and we felt good about our first four legs, and then chaos reared it’s ugly head. We came to a signal, and the traffic was 10 cars deep. We pulled over and stopped hoping the traffic would clear, but it just kept coming. We time our stops, so if all goes well we can take a time delay for safety/traffic and it is not held against our time. The catch is, you have to turn in your time delays in 10 second increments. We were on the last leg of the race awaiting a checkpoint. Brad was scrambling to figure out the math. We were not on the perfect 10 so we had to adjust our speed, all while continuing many instructions, and correcting for each of those instructions. We finally came to the checkpoint, and Brad thought he did the best he could. We were either right on or we were going to have another high score on the last day.

We pulled into the Pacific Raceway where they were holding drag races. The ninety five or so cars that finished all piled in and parked. Some people grabbed some lunch and watched the racing. We were there for about two hours, and then we headed to the LeMay Auto Museum in downtown Tacoma.

We were greeted by a huge crowd, and friends from the race. We were surprised and excited to recognize a familiar face. Our friend James Goode was at our window as we were pulling in. James was unable to run this year because of the tornado and flooding that hit Jefferson City, Missouri. He has been a great supporter of Brad and me, and has been cheering us along for the past few years. His text messages and good wishes have always been encouraging.

We parked the car and still were not sure where we finished, but were thrilled to say, we finished another 2300 mile run in our faithful Jane. She ran perfectly through desert heat, cold rain, and even snow. She made it above 8500 feet and below sea level.

We went into the museum and enjoyed some more of the 3000 car collection of the LeMay family. The museum is well done and has a little something for everyone, not just cars. As we walked through the museum our friends and fellow competitors The Hedkes, gave us a tour of the museum. While walking around, we received a phone call from the race director that we needed to be at our car at 3:30. About 15 minutes later, our friends received the same call. They are in the Expert Class, and we are in the Sportsman Class. We were in the top two cars in our classes.

When they present the winners at the end of the driving day, they announce the top two finalist and then the winners. We lined up side by side and drove through the arch waiting to hear who won. We had a pretty good feeling we were in second because we had been trailing all week to our friends Neil and Shana. We came through and as suspected we came in second. We are thrilled with a second place finish in class.

We had an awards dinner last night that was both touching and fun. It took place in the LeMay Museum on the main level. The hall has a balcony over looking the city of Tacoma, the water and bridges. The hall was filled with Cadillacs on each side, and tables down the middle. We all ate dinner and then the awards ceremony began.

We quickly went through all of the awards for first through fifth place in all the classes and then the overall scores. We finished sixth overall, and again we couldn’t have been more pleased. Our scores yesterday for each of the five legs was a 1. We won the day for the Sportsman Class.

We feel very fortunate to have the best ralliers and teachers as our mentors. We say it every year, and mean it! We could not be at this point without Barry and Irene Jason. Their patience has been unwavering (or at least from our perspective), and their belief in our ability to succeed has been constant. They are inspirational! They won three Great Races in a row, and taught two people who aren’t as smart as most of the field to succeed in this fun and crazy race.

Our friend and fellow participants JeanAnn (aka Mamma Duck), has also helped us every step of the way. We would follow them when ever possible, and every morning Brad would have at least one question regarding the days instructions. JeanAnn always helps! JeanAnn thanks for making our race a successful one!

We had multiple emotional moments this year, we lost several racers, and three of the ladies who participated deserve mentioning. First, JeanAnn, she is not only the person we follow around like little ducklings, but she is currently battling cancer. She finished one treatment two weeks before the race, and now she is heading to the Mayo Clinic for 6 more weeks of treatments. She had a smile on her face every morning and kept up with all the experts for 9 long days. We are so proud of her not only for running the race, but for running everyday with a positive attitude and a smile on her face. Second, our Rookey Candice Yeager, she lost her husband June 6th, and chose to keep living and run the race. Unfortunately, her car wasn’t as motivated as she was, and although their beautiful Buick didn’t drive over the finish, Candice and her friends towed the trailer queen all the way and enjoyed the daily festivities. We look forward to Candice’s next attempt from San Antonio to South Carolina in 2020.

The next ladie who won the Perseverance Award goes beyond what most people could endure. MaryBeth Lewis lost her husband Tag to a heart attack after the award ceremony last year. She was coming this year to be with her extended family and rally again. The weekend before she was leaving for California, MaryBeth had dinner with her 23 year old son. After dinner, he went out with some friends. He was killed that night in a car accident. MaryBeth called the race director and told him what had happened, and to all of our surprise, said she would be coming in late, but would make the race. MaryBeth drove her beautiful Cadillac convertible that won “The Best Car” award last year with Kim Ferdette. They finished 50th overall, but first in all of our minds. She truly is deserving of the Perseverance Award.

Our evening ended with hugs and until next times.

Again, we can’t thank each of you enough for the daily well wishes. We love sharing the beautiful sights and stories. We hope this inspires some of you to see our incredible country.