MissHathawaysGreatRace

This morning we woke up in Bend, Oregon to a temperature of 37 degrees. Although it was chilly, and our heater is disconnected, it warmed up quickly. We just were thankful to not be in an open car or a really old car. The men and women in the open cars really endure many harsh weather conditions. They first had to go through the heat in the high desert of California, then rain through Eureka and the Oregon beaches, and finally snow yesterday at Crater Lake.

We went from the forested mountains of Bend, Oregon to the golden hills of the Hood River Valley. We passed vineyards and orchards. The cherries were still hanging on the trees and the weather warmed up nicely. We rallied for a couple of hours and went to a fantastic aeronautical and car museum in Hood River, Oregon. We spent about an hour at a spot you could spend hours. The airplanes and cars were all donated to the museum.

Our friend Jeff sent his Corvair to this museum to promote the race and the car has been there for the past six months.

After enjoying the museum we headed back toward The Hood River Gorge. We rallied East down the river, and tried to focus on the task at hand. The river gorge was so pretty with rock formations and trees dotted along the rivers edge. We crossed over the gorge with the Dechuttes Lock and Dam to the East. The water poured out of the gates. We then headed West on the North side of the gorge. There were kite surfers all over the river and we noticed a marina with several sailboats. As we drove West we drove through several tunnels where the rocks dropped into the river.

We had a short day of rallying, and were able to enjoy the rocks jutting out of the earth, and the wild flowers lining the roads. We drove for about an hour and a half to the finish in Vancouver.

Tomorrow will be a day of rallying and little sightseeing.

We are hanging with the experts, but have no expectations as the next two days change the field.

Thank you to all of you who have shown continued interest in our journey.

We have completed our seventh day, and I apologize for skipping our sixth finish. I was feeling under the weather and went to bed early last night.

We had a great and full day yesterday. We started the morning in Grants Pass, and headed North toward Crater Lake. The drive started driving through more redwood forest. The sunlight peaked in and out of the trees, as we climbed in elevation. We slowly rallied our way up to Crater Lake.

When we reached Crater Lake clouds were covering the lake, but by the time we parked and walked to the rim of the lake it was snowing, and the sun was shining on the lake.

The lake was so fun to watch, the colors changed as the sun peaked in and out of the clouds. The blues adjusted from a gray blue to a bright lapis. I don’t think pictures do it justice.

We spent our lunch time at the lake and then headed toward Bend, Oregon. We rallied our way through the mountains where the hills were full of pine trees, and rivers ran along the road. The river looked so inviting, we discussed how fun they would be to float.

We finished in Bend and had our second best day. We finished second in class yesterday and are just trying not too take it too seriously. The next two days will change the field. The first five days we are allowed to drop bad legs, but the last two days you have to keep all of your scores.

Aside from having a good rally day, when we arrived our friend Mallory Henderson was cheering us on as we pulled into the finish. Mallory has navigated the last five years, and has an internship this Summer, so is unable to compete. We hope she is back in a car next year.

We also had a surprise visitor. Our friend Kathleen from Anchorage, Alaska, sent her friend Ron to greet us. Ron was very patient and waited for us to come in, and then continued to wait while we do our end of day procedures. We had a nice visit with Ron and then a FaceTime conversation with Kathleen.

We had dinner and as soon as I could get in bed, I was there, and out like a light.

We are so happy with Jane’s performance, and can only help the next couple days go as well as the past week. Thanks to all who have helped make her reliable and comfortable to drive.

We completed our 5th day today, and despite a little Oregon rain the route was beautiful. We started the morning driving along the Humboldt Bay. We had partially cloudy skies and then the fog came in. Eureka is where the mountains run into the ocean. The ever green trees lines the roads with beautiful forested roads. The redwoods are not the Giants we saw yesterday, but definitely impressive.

As we were driving to the start, Brad was working on the instructions and I was craning my neck looking to the west in a meadow. I was looking for elk. There were signs everywhere to watch for the elk. I didn’t see one, and then we came to the start of the rally. On one side was the sign we were in search of, and the other side was a meadow full of wild elk.

It was the start of a beautiful day. We drove North toward Gold Beach, Oregon. We winded through the Redwood National Park and in and out of wooded roads. The forest was full of evergreens, birch trees and aspen trees. Some of the evergreens had what looked like Spanish Moss hanging from their bows. Closer to the ground there were ferns and pink and white foxgloves. As we moved North Toward Klamath, California there were fewer redwoods, but a good variety of trees and a coral wild flower along with white and yellow wild flowers. At one point we could smell honey suckle.

As we drove out of the forest to the Pacific shoreline, the sand was dark with big rocks jetting out of the ocean. The air was heavy with mist and rain, but there were plenty of people enjoying the view.

We drove North to Golds Beach where we stopped for lunch. We stopped at a local fairground for a quick pit stop. We shared a sandwich and then headed back on the road. We headed a little further north and enjoyed the scenery of Gold Beach including parts of the Rogue River and the Isaac Lee bridge. We rallied for about an hour and then headed back the way we arrived.

We were heading toward Grants Pass. We were treated to more beautiful roads and drove along The Rogue River. It is a spectacular river, and we rallied until 5pm, and then made our way into the center of Grants Pass. We were greeted by the largest crowd yet. We couldn’t believe how many people were at the finish.

We were happy with our performance today, and we are hoping for 4 more days like today.

I have included a couple of pictures from the last five days. Sadly we didn’t take too many pictures today, but go to http://www.greatrace.com, and you can see some of the wonderful places we visit.

We started the morning in Chico, and weather was extremely warm. It was the warmest place we have been. The heat depleted many people’s energy yesterday, including ours. We drove West through orchards of all different fruit and nut trees. We saw peaches, nectarines, pistachio and avocado trees. We then headed South on Old Highway 99. It struck me odd as heading South and going toward Sacramento, but knew we were heading the right way. As we were approaching the town of Maxwell, I noticed some patrol car lights flashing. I thought one of our fellow racers was pulled over for speeding. However, when we arrived at the spot we were in front of a trailer park and there were four patrol cars and a man in handcuffs. We figured it was an early drug bust. We made a few jokes amongst ourselves as we passed the commotion.

We continued rallying heading across highway 20 toward the West. The hills were beautiful golden rolling hills spotted with large old oak trees. We enjoyed the incredible scenery, as it is quintessential California. We watched as the hills went from amber to solid green as we approached the Lake region. We drove along the East side of Clear Lake for almost all of the 19 miles of its length. Clear Lake is the second largest lake in California afterLake Tahoe. It is a pretty Lake, but doesn’t seem to have the draw of Lake Tahoe.

We continued toward Mendocino County, and Willits for our lunch stop. The scenery was lush green mountains full of pine trees. We learned at the lunch stop that more then half the cars were stopped in Maxwell at the scene of the incident and were unable to run the first two legs of the day. We were slightly disappointed because we felt we had run those two legs cleanly and the third leg was our worst, but were pleased because we weren’t involved in the back up.

1919 Hudson Racer driven by our friend Brad Phillips from Haggerty Insurance, and navigated by Dan Stahl (Stahl is also a race sponsor)

Our afternoon was fantastic, we ran two relatively clean runs, but more importantly, we drove through the redwood forest. As we were driving through I told Brad about the time we were kids in our Gran Torino station wagon and car camped in the redwoods. I was very young, but I remember bits and pieces of our trip. I do remember we drove through one of the giant trees.

And we were lucky enough to do it again today. The size and age of the trees are magnificent. It is hard to photograph them and give them the respect they deserve. We gave it a few futile shots, but thought you may get some perspective of their size.

Our friends Mike Weaver and Craig “DeGiorno” Jongerius from The Rome Grinding Team are in the ’31 Ford, we like to call their car “Veuve”

We drove for most of the late afternoon through the trees and loved every minute of it. The road is narrow, and the trees hug the edges, it is dark as you drive threw, and the light peaks in every so often. You see ferns and some other plants on the floor of the forest. It is a sight to see. Aside from the scenery, the smell in the forest was fantastic, I don’t know what we were smelling, but it was such a good smell, I said to Brad it reminds me of the smell of a resort spa.

We continued North to Humboldt County, where we finished the day in Eureka. We were surprised when we drove by an interesting green Victorian style home. There were some people and we asked the story behind the home. They told us, it was built by The Carson family. They owned a logging company, and in the winter when his employees couldn’t log, they would build the home.

The Carson Mansion, Eureka

We were greeted by a good crowd and headed to a local car museum. When we arrived at the museum, there were some men barbecuing fresh oysters, and they were delicious. We enjoyed a few oysters, went into the museum and then headed back toward the cars. We caught up with some friends and headed in for the night.

It is hard to believe we cover so much territory and see so much. We feel so blessed to be able to enjoy all the beauty of our country with wonderful people and in our old cars.

We are off to Gold Beach tomorrow.

We left this morning with a banner and balloons in the entry way wishing Brad and our friend and fellow racer, Sawyer a Happy Birthday! The morning was beautiful and we took off a little later this morning. We drove up 395 where the desert meets the mountains. We slowly climbed the pass and ended up at 8300 feet. There was snow on the ground next to us and tons of people enjoying the beautiful view of the lake and valley floor.

The day did not go as smoothly as we would have liked, but despite a bit of chaos and brief moments of panic, which is never a good thing, we made it through. The transit from the hotel to our start had the road shut down to one lane and we felt like we were in LA traffic. Fortunately we made it to the start on time, and we ran our rally. As we were driving we ran into some more road construction. I think as a group we may have really irritated some asphalt guys.

We compared stories with some of the other teams, and they all said that they were yelled at. It was somewhat amusing after the fact, but a little frazzling in the heat of the moment.

We made our way to Grass Valley after a full morning of rallying around The Donner Pass and Donner Lake. It is such a pretty Lake, and definitely over shadowed by Lake Tahoe. Donner Lake is much smaller, but there is something very quaint and appealing about its size and beauty.

We did not stay long in Grass Valley, but were very impressed by the turnout of people who came to greet us. It was Monday at noon, and the streets were full.

Grass Valley is a 1G town, I didn’t even know what a 1G town was until today. Brad explained to me, that while in populated areas we receive 3,4, and 5G, these people are so limited in their technology that they only have 1G. . The interesting thing about the 1G town, is that all the store fronts are full, and appear to be doing good business. Amazon doesn’t really deliver there, and they have a very traditional old style town.

After lunch, we headed East toward Chico. We seemed to be driving much cleaner and felt pretty good about our progress. We had one more turn to make and Brad told me to turn, but I didn’t see the sign until we passed the street. We timed our loss and were ready to recover our loss, but as we continued 100 yards we saw the check point, and ugh we had 10 seconds to make up. Impossible! It was a bit deflating.

We had a brief stop in Oroville and then continued on toward Chico. We passed by the Oroville dam and then headed out of town. We had at least one more leg. We started that leg at 20 miles an hour and probably drove for a half hour or mor at 20 miles an hour on beautiful backroads lined with Oak trees that canopied the road. There were ranches along the roads, and the roads curved,twisted and undulated the entire time. It was super challenging to hold speed, but also very fun driving.

Our day came to and end in Chico, where we arrived to a Birthday cake and balloons for Brad. It was so kind and thoughtful, Sawyer’s mom Susan had everything for a Birthday party. We enjoyed the evening at a nice dinner with friends and of course Birthday cake.

After dinner we were happy to find out our friends Brad and Daniel Epple, won the day. There car was moved from high flood waters a few days before the Jefferson City Tornado last month to a warehouse safe from flooding. Unfortunately, the tornado hit the warehouse. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the cars damage was repairable.

Thank you for all the kind words, we appreciate the time you take to share your thoughts.

More to come!

What an incredible day! We started in the morning in Lancaster, California and headed North toward Bishop. As we started climbing in elevation the scenery was spectacular. We drove through Red Rock Canyon with its rocks carved over millions of years, makes you realize what a brief time we get to exist here. We ran across the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas and they are still painted with snow. On the road side the thistle flowers were bright white and many wild yellow flowers. My floral knowledge is not so great when it comes to the high desert, but we saw many Joshua trees in the lower elevations and cotton woods as we came into Bishop and the more mountainous region.

Erin, MP, JP, and Brad Bishop, CA

We were greeted at lunch in Bishop by not only a nice crowd of people, but our friends Marylou and Jonathan. We sat down for a quick lunch and talked about some of the nuances of the race. It was fun sharing a few minutes with them, and we appreciate the effort our friends make to see what this rally is all about. Thank you again JP and MP for making the journey to Bishop, (And for the best jerky)!

After our visit with MP and JP we headed toward the old Sherwin Grade. We rallied all afternoon, and in rally terms this was a driver’s day. The driving was long pulls at the same speed, the higher speeds are a little easier, the lower speeds are the challenge. We had one small hiccup at the top of the Sherwin Grade, and we corrected it to the best of our ability. After a little while, Brad realized we may have over corrected. His logic made complete sense and we corrected one more time.

Luck was on our side today, and we won the day! We left the venue before the award was presented and we were called to return. Although this is pretty special, we had one more special event to make our day complete.

When we left the event we were heading to Kelly Green Labs to see Sally Kelly. She is the breeder of Mike our dog. She is turning 90 this year and still breeds Labrador Retrievers. We visited with Sally for about a half hour and were so happy to see she is still doing great. We came through Gardnerville a few years back and Sally met us at the lunch stop. Sally, thanks for taking the time to visit with us, you make us smile, and you breed beautiful dogs!

Tomorrow is a new day and this is not a race that is won or lost in a day. The best part of this race are the people, and we love the wonderful friends we have made these past six years.

We look forward to sharing more about this beautiful journey tomorrow.

Thank you for all of your comments and interest, we feel like we are doing this with so many friends.

The Great Race is a nine day event, that starts three days before the actual rally begins. Brad and I had the luxury of driving to Riverside, California on Wednesday for the beginning festivities that go along with the Great Race. It is the first time we have been able to drive our car to this event.

The first few days are filled with business/race items including registration and technical inspection, a meeting for all 487 people that are involved in the event, and The Trophy Run. Then there are the evening events including a welcome reception, a concert and a dinner.

During these different activities we have time to catch up with old friends and meet new people. We stayed very close to March Air force Base in Riverside, and met a young man who is an F16 pilot. He asked us about the race and was comparing it to things he does as a pilot. Not quite the same thing because we are on the ground, but needless to say enjoyed meeting him. We appreciate the men and women who give of themselves to be in the military and protect us all. We also enjoyed meeting David Neville who was in Riverside investigating a recent loss not far from the base.

On Friday after our meeting, we headed toward Menifee for our Trophy Run. The Trophy Run is a warm up of sorts. We think of it as cleaning the cobwebs out of our brains, but scores do count in a tie situation at the end of the rally.

The Beginning:

Saturday, June 21st, 2019

Brad and I would like to thank everyone who makes this event possible for us. First, our families, thank you Betsy, Dad, Janet, Lisa, Madison and Matt for coming to Riverside this morning. We loved having all of you with us. We also loved the surprise from Mike, Nema, Melissa and Troy. Cheri, Scott, Deanne and Joey, we are so happy you could join us as well. And last but certainly not least Susan, thank you for coming out and bringing Mike, and most importantly thank you for taking care of Mike so we can make this crazy fun journey. Along with Susan, this wouldn’t be possible without Shari at Descansando Properties. Thank you Shari for keeping the ship sailing.

To the rest of our family and friends, thank you for the messages and well wishes.

We also cannot move on without thanking three people who help keep Jane running. First and foremost to Jeff at Mayfair garage, this year has been a challenging one for you, and you still were able to work on Jane. You are in our thoughts and prayers and as you have made Jane get through each rally we know with your positive attitude and strength you too will succeed in your personal challenges.

To Chris and his team at Newport Motorsports, thank you for the last minute repairs on Jane.

Lastly, leave it to Deaver, thank you to all at Deaver Springs who put new Springs on Jane at the eleventh hour. We appreciate you taking Jane in on Monday and returning her the same day. She is riding great!

So, now to the start, as you can see we loved having a great group of friends and family at the start. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. It was warm, by eleven, but not the hundred degrees we normally see in Riverside this time of year. The race started with somewhere between 125 and 150 cars. We don’t know exactly how many started.

We began lining up at 8:30 this morning. We were the seventh car to line up and when I stepped out of the car, to my surprise was our friend Mike Orduno. It was a great and unexpected surprise. Today is Mike’s wife’s Birthday and he left the house early so she could sleep in and surprised Brad and me. Happy Birthday to Renee! We spoke with him for a few minutes and I turned around and saw two more of our local friends. Our friends Melissa, and Nema and his son Troy, had come to see us off as well. We put Troy in our car and then walked to look at all the entries.

We met up with family and friends at the start and walked around and looked at all of the cars. Today is really the only day that we can see all of the cars that are participating. Each day as we come in we are staggered so you never know what cars you will see.

Which brings me to one more thank you, to The Reliable Carriers Team, thank you for sponsoring Brad and me. Running with the front of the pack is such a special privilege. We also know that Jane is in good hands when she is on one of your trucks.

After the fan fair and fun, we headed North to Victorville. We did our calibration run driving up the Cajon Pass. The calibration run is how we make sure our speedometers are set correctly, and headed to lunch. There was a small crowd in Victorville and little Route 66 Museum. We took a quick walk around the museum, took one picture, and headed back out to rally.

Route 66 Museum, Victorville

We started rallying in Victorville and made our way across the Pear Blossom Highway toward Lancaster. We rallied for several hours around the high desert and in the hills. The Joshua Trees were plenty and at one point we were hit by a tumbleweed. Like much of Southern California because of all the rain this year, much of the desert is still very green.

We finished in Lancaster late this afternoon and enjoyed our first ace of the year and an an early dinner with friends and fellow racers. After dinner we met some local young ladies who represent the North Los Angeles County area, and had earned titles as they recently won their local pageants. One of the girls shares her Birthday with Brad this coming Monday, and she also shared with us that the #7 was her favorite.

We have had such a big day, and tomorrow there will be more to add. It is now 11:30 and this has not been proofed, so please ignore my mistakes, but know we will have much more to share.

We are heading into our 6th year of running the Great Race, and although slightly late, many of you know, we are starting in Riverside this year.  We start on Saturday, June 22, 2019 at The Mission Inn in Riverside, California.

The cars will start to line up at 8:35am on Mission Inn Avenue in Riverside, and the Official Start time is 11:00am.  There will be 115 – 125 vintage cars at the start.  We look forward to seeing those of you who want to wake up early and come see us off.

The cars will be lined up in starting order.  We are fortunate this year to be sponsored by Reliable Carriers, one of the big sponsors of the race.  One of the perks of being sponsored is an early start time.  We should take off within the first 10 -15 cars, which means we will be taking off between 11:00am and 11:15am.

We appreciate your years of support, and hope we have some good stories to share with you over the next two weeks as we weave our way North through California and finishing in Tacoma, Washington.

Please go to http://www.greatrace.com for our route, and if we are in your area and you can come out for a brief hello at a lunch break, or  you are near a dinner stop, we would love to see you.

Many thanks to everyone who assists in making this happen.  We could not do this without the help of many friends and family.

The End! (Sunday, July 1)

Today is Canada Day, and Halifax is bustling.  We started the morning a little later and rallied a half day. It was not our best day of rallying. We didn’t miss a turn, but might have miss read a sign. We ran our best race this year and are so pleased with our progress. We covered the 2100 miles throughout New England and Canada, and completed our fifth Great Race without a breakdown.  Thank you to everyone’s well wishes and support.

Halifax, Nova Scotia is absolutely beautiful.  The coast is lined with rocks, Ponderosa Pines, and  wild flowers. The contrast of each makes it hard to take your eyes off of it. They were not just thinly lined down the road, but big bunches of lupins in a variety of colors.  It was so pretty we had to tell each other to focus on the race, and not the beauty that was surrounding us.

We finished the day at about 12:30 and headed to the Halifax Waterfront  We had a great lunch on the waterfront. We ate our last fresh lobsters meal for this trip . AOur cholesterol might be a little elevated, but happy to say we ate lobster every chance we had.

After lunch we took a town tour on an amphibious vehicle. It was a great way to see some of the sights of Halifax, and learn a little history.  Halifax is very much a maritime city. There is a naval base here and a citidel. Halifax had a munitions boat that exploded off the coast in 1917.  The boat collided with another boat and caught fire. The boat was full of so much ammunition that the explosion destroyed a big portion of the water front.

We ended the day with a dinner and awards ceremony. We celebrated another year with our friends and fellow competitors.  The team that won have been doing this for much of their lives, and this is the first time they have won.  Overall, we had a fantastic week, and were thrilled to see areas we would never have seen, and doing it an old car makes it fun.

Again, thanks to all of you for riding along with us.  We love this event, and love to share it with you.

Next year we start in Riverside, California and drive to Tacoma, Washington, we hope we will see some of you along the way!

One day to go….

Today we had an early start, we are on Atlantic Time, and started an hour earlier then yesterday. We were up by 5:00, and in the car before 7:00. We started in Moncton and were heading to Halifax.

We never go a direct route, and today we were all over Nova Scotia. We had lunch in a town called Truro. Truro is known as the “Hub of Nova Scotia” because all the train lines go into Truro. It is a nice little town with a somewhat European feel.

Oxford, a near by town is the “Blueberry Capital of Canada”. I only mention this because we had the best blueberry pie we have ever tasted in the last few days. Today at lunch we had a nice spinach and strawberry salad with a blueberry balsamic vinaigrette. It was delicious.

We confirmed that the Canadians really are huge classic car fans. We have also confirmed Canadians are really friendly people. The last two days we have had huge groups of people lining the roads as we pass by, and even bigger crowds at the lunches and finish.

The race has one day left and we are praying for a little more luck and a lot of safety. We missed a sign and a turn this afternoon, and we were completely flustered, but pulled it together as best we could. We were able to catch up with ten cars and slid back into place. We felt so lucky to have caught up. We appreciate any extra prayers for a safe and strong finish.

We have one more day in Halifax, so until tomorrow….

Thank you, we feel so lucky to have our family and friends supporting us!

P.S.  please excuse any grammatical errors, my editor is making sure all the fluids and belts are good in Jane.