Saturday, June 27, 2016
It is our last full day and every leg counts. We have 5 to 7 legs daily, so somewhere between 45 and 60 legs over the 9 day event. We are allowed to throw out our 4 worst legs in our class (Expert) over the 9 days. Nobody is allowed to throw out legs the last two days.
We woke up early, and after discussing our Speedo issues with other racers, we decided to change the wire and the speedometer. Brad was once again under the car. I was handing him parts, and he was wrenching under the front tire.
Our friend Gary again came to the rescue. Brad and Gary worked quickly to install the new speedometer. We had a spare (of course), but were not trusting it. Gary was kind enough to lend us his spare.
We had about 3 minutes before it was our turn to pickup the day’s instructions. We left the parking lot to pick up the instructions, and we had not checked the tire pressure. Brad ran to pick up the instructions while I checked the tires.
We headed west up the hill out of Laughlin. Our numbers were completely different from the day before. We turned around and changed the numbers on the speedometer. We ran it once again, we figured we were out of the running to be in the top 10 cars, but stranger things have happened. We were going to continue to run our race, and felt the same stress as if we were in the top 10.
The day had a few more turns than previous days, this race has been long straight away holding one speed. We went through a large maze where we crossed paths with other racers. We went in a big circle, we followed one car into the circle and then another as we were leaving the circle.
We were on The National Trails Highway, aka Historic Route 66 in the Southern Arizona desert crossing into California. We reached Twenty Nine Palms mid day.
The weather was warm, but not intolerable. We had a nice greeting from servicemen living in Twenty Nine Palms. They offered us cold waters and lunch.
We headed toward Joshua Tree after lunch. We restarted rallying in Joshua Tree National Park.
The park is over 795,000 acres. It is larger than the state of Rhode Island. It runs through two counties, Riverside and San Bernardino.
The terrain is hilly and desert. The ground is covered in rocks and shrubs. If you looked at the terrain, you would know snakes live there. There are Joshua Trees throughout the park. The Joshua Tree is not your normal tree. It has a trunk, and the limbs jet out from side to side, but it does not have traditional leaves or even pine needles. The trees can grow up to 49 feet. Its leaves are shaped like a strap, but with sharp ends. Some people have described the leaves like bayonets. The trunk is covered with a similar shaggy pointed scruff. The trees live around 150 years. They cannot date them like a normal tree because the trunks do not have the rings like a normal tree trunk.
Although the trees are interesting and plentiful, the rock formations in Joshua Tree are even more spectacular. The tan colored rocks are made of granite and are giant. The rocks appear as if they are stacked on top of each other. The reality is they were formed through erosion from flash floods and ground water.
We continued rallying through the park and then were headed for San Bernardino. We rallied our way down to North Palm Springs. We finished rallying near the wind mills and headed west toward the 215 freeway.
We stopped for gas and headed toward the official finish at San Manuel Stadium. I had looked at the tire at lunch and it was looking bad, not quite as bad as Albuquerque, but on its way. We didn’t look at it again, but we were concerned.
We slowly made our way across the 10 freeway. I was saying prayers the entire time. We just wanted to make it safely to the days finish. It was about 5:20 on Saturday night and Brad and I discussed stopping at a tire store. We agreed they were probably all closed, but I kept praying. We needed to make it to the days finish. We also needed to change the tire. We were in Banning, and I saw a tire store along the freeways edge. It appeared like people were still there and the bay doors were open. We quickly took the first exit and found the tire store. They were open and we breathed a huge sigh of relief. We quickly emptied things out of our trunk and pulled out the spare tire.
The old tire was pulled off and wires were sticking out of the tire. The new tire was mounted in less than 5 minutes. The man at the tire store shared his stories of cross country road trips. We tried to listen politely, but we were rushing to make it to the stadium to end the day on time.
We made it to the stadium! We ended the day at the San Manuel Stadium. The Minor League Baseball team 66ers are affiliated with the Seattle Mariners, and play at the stadium.
We arrived to a small crowd, but were happy to see our friends and previous racers Ahna Smith and Della Holder. Ahna’s dad Curt and their pup Ivy also greeted us at the finish.
We were excited to see them and visited briefly with Della, and other racers. We headed into the stadium for some baseball and 66er dogs and hamburgers.
The day was still going, from San Manuel Stadium we ended the evening in San Bernardino.
Ahna and Della stayed in San Bernardino as well. We had the pleasure of spending time with Della hearing about her studies at USC, and the internships she has this summer.
Thank you Ahna, Della, Curt and Ivy for making the drive from San Diego!!! We loved the time we spent with Della!
Thank you again to Allan and Brandon of Mustang Country. We would have been on the side of the road without a spare. Because of you, we were not waiting for McCollister’s. We are so grateful you were able to curate the new tires. We appreciate you keeping us rolling!!!
If you are interested in photos, there are great pictures on http://www.greatrace.com.
MissHathawaysGreatRace 