MissHathawaysGreatRace

Bar Harbor, Maine to Moncton, New Brunswick

We are in Canada, Eh

We started early this morning in Bar Harbor. The sun was mixed with fog, but looked like it was going to be a spectacular day. We were on the road at 6:40 on our way to the Mt. Desert High School in Bar Harbor. Like many vacation destinations, the traffic can be a little unsettling, and then mix in a lot of road construction. We pre ran the trip to the school last night just to be sure we knew where we were going…..you probably know how Brad likes to be prepared! We arrived in plenty of time and had an opportunity to speak with some locals.

Not too many people are real locals in Bar Harbor. The town pretty much closes down six months out of the year. The people we spoke with are a mother and son. They come up to trap lobster with the boy’s grandfather. They said they live in another part of Maine the remainder of the year. They were most interested in Jane because the boy who is a teenager, and from his shirt a junior in high school purchased a 1968 Ford Mustang. He is restoring it, and was so happy to share the story of his car.

We left the school and were headed for the Canadian border. We rarely take main highways, and today was much the same. We drove on a mostly two lane highway all the way to the boarder. The road was scattered with some coastline and lakes, and heavily forested. We also saw more of the beautiful wild flowers in pink, purple, and white lining the road. I said to Brad “I wish our weeds were this pretty!”

We crossed the border into Canada and started rallying. The coastline was breathtaking, and the roads were empty. We pulled into a filling stations, and there were cars all over the place. Mostly racers, but many that were not a part of our group. We never figured out where all the traffic came from.

We rallied throughout the early afternoon, and then headed to Rothesay, New Brunswick for lunch. We all have to stop at the lunch stop, but some days we are in and out. Today we checked in, I snapped the photo below, and turned around and headed out.

We continued our rally in areas I can’t even describe. We were on back roads, but the condition of the roads tell you how harsh the winters are in this part of the world. They were mostly patched, and we bumped around for a while. We were in hilly terrain, and at one point my ears were popping. I had to keep one eye on the road ahead and the other on the speedo to hold speed. I said to Brad, “I have no idea how that went, we were bouncing up and down and it was a challenge.”

When we were finished for the day, we came down a hill and looked across a huge bay. The beach was reddish in color where a local river dumps in the clay soil. The tide was pretty far out so we could see where the clay had settled. We continued on the same road and ended up following the river. They call it the “chocolate river” because of its color, the actual name I can’t remember, but it sounds like a Native American word.

The Canadian’s are such friendly people and love their cars. We saw people for miles as we were driving to Moncton with classic cars in their front yard and groups of people out watching and waving us by. We finished the evening at a location where they hold their Atlantic National Car event. It actually starts next week. We were greeted with smiles, kind words, and a lobster dinner. We aren’t sick of it yet!

We have two days to go. We had good scores again today, but as all racers say in this race “to finish is to win”. These roads are hard on our cars, and we pray for safety and no mechanical issues.

Thank you for riding along with Jane and her crew!

Back to Tuesday at Mt. Washington, many of the racers chose to drive to the summit of Mt. Washington. Brad and I decided it wasn’t worth the risk of harming the car to make the climb to the 6200 foot peek. However, many of the participants went up and down the mountain with no problems. Unfortunately, the station wagon above was lucky and unlucky at the same time.

They climbed the mountain with some friends who were driving a 1964 convertible Mustang. They made the climb, took some pictures, and turned around and came back down the mountain. The Mustang was leading the charges with their GoPros filming. The Mustang started to notice the station wagon was following a little to close. They heard the occupants of the wagon yelling “no brakes”. Mt. Washington has no guard rails and a sheer drop. The Mustang saw a part of the mountain where the station wagon could slow down. There was an embankment on the left side as they were going down like a truck runaway hill (but it was just part of the landscape). The Mustang pointed to the hill, and the wagon passed the Mustang up the side of the embankment. When the wagon reached the peak, it tipped over on its side. The wagon skid quite a ways, and then flipped back over onto its tires. The Mustang saw him back on his wheels and starting to roll again. The Mustang quickly drove in front of the wagon to stop it from going over the edge.

The Mustang’s driver exemplifies the spirit of the rally. We feel so blessed to not only know these people, but consider them our friends. They all returned to the bottom of the hill with no injuries, which in itself is incredible, but they are back in the rally.

We started the morning a little later today which is good and bad. Good for me because I get a little more rest, but bad because we have time to sit around and anxiously contemplate the day ahead. We started out on the road, and the weather was less than desirable, it had started to rain late last night, and did not stop all day. Early in the day it was a lighter rain that didn’t change much of anything, but right about lunch time it started to come down in buckets. We had our lunch stop in Seal Cove, Maine at the auto museum. The rain put a bit of a damper on the day, as the spectators were all huddling under tents to watch the cars come in. We had a wonderful lunch of lobster rolls, cole slaw and fresh blueberry pie. We shared a lunch not wanting to be over tired from over eating.

After lunch we rallied around Seal Cove and headed toward Mt. Desert Island, the home of Acadia National Park. We had a shorter day of rallying so we could spend time driving around and enjoying the sites of the park.

Acadia is a 47,000 acre park with beautiful rocky coast line, woodlands, and glacier scoured granite peaks. Although it was raining and our coastal views were somewhat limited, we were treated to full and flowing waterfalls as we traveled through the park.

We finished the day in Bar Harbor, a quintessentially New England coastal town. As we pulled in, the fishing boats were moored out in the water and you could see the dark brown rocky coast with white waves splashing over the rocks. Great Race evening events were canceled do to the weather, so, we enjoyed another lobster dinner. When in Maine………EAT MoRE LOBSTER!

Thank you for your continued support and comments. We have three days to go, and we are doing our best to stay up in the top of the pack. A lot can change, but for now we are super pleased with our performance. We wouldn’t be having this success with out our mentors Barry and Irene. We can’t ever thank them enough for teaching us the

art of rallying!

Tomorrow is a new day….

Augusta, Maine to Bangor, Maine (pronounced bang gore)

We started our day with the sun shining and one of the warmest mornings yet. It was about 57 degrees at 8am and it felt great. We started the morning in Augusta, Maine and we were the lucky recipients of an early start. We were the fourth car to start today which is advantageous because you have fewer people making mistakes around you. We also ran behind the winners from last year, which is another advantage. Often times you can see them ahead of you on a long straight run, or on a run when you change speed from fast to real slow. Beth and Jody, the winners from last year, drive a bright red 1932 Ford roadster which also makes them easier to spot.

Beth and Jody’s ’32 Ford with their trophy from 2017 (Beth’s daughter’s car next to theirs).

The day was filled with rallying, but we still had time to enjoy some of the scenery. Although similar to Vermont, Maine is not as lush and wooded as Vermont. Maine’s beauty is its coast and New England style homes. We saw many shingled and clap board homes. While we were driving to lunch in Owls Head, there was no doubt we were in the North East. Owls Head sits on a point, and the coast line is spectacular. Our first glimpse of the water was exactly as you might imagine it. The coves were rocky and we could see across to the island that is close to the mainland. Between the two was a sail boat that looked like a tall ship and other boats on the water. It was just a taste of what’s to come.

We had lunch at the Transportation Museum in Owls Head. It is an airplane hanger turned museum. The Museum sits on a working runway and small aircraft still use it today. The museum had a variety of airplanes and cars, and some vintage aircraft were taking off while we ate our lunch. One of the 200 volunteers that work at the museum told us that the museum was started by Rockefeller and Watson (the head of IBM at that time). Mr. Watson sent a note to Mr. Rockefeller and said “wouldn’t it be nice if there were airplanes flying around Owls Head”. In 1975 the Museum had its first rally with all types of transportation.

We enjoyed the museum and headed back out. As we were heading back out to rally, we drove through some residential neighborhoods. We couldn’t believe how obvious it was that we were in Maine. Many of the houses were Cape Cod style, and of course many were also the clapboard farm style. There were several beautiful and well maintained Victorian style homes. We marveled at the scenery, and then went back on the clock.

It was a full day of rallying with 12 legs. A leg is a timed section of driving from Point A to Point B, there is a check point for each leg. Twelve is a big number for two reasons. First it means we were constantly rallying and working to earn a perfect leg, and second, even if we had all 1s on every leg, we would finish with 12 seconds for the day. We are not that good or lucky. Although we had lots of good luck today, and had mostly a great day at of rallying, we finished with a 23. We (I) lost my head for a moment, and decided to take a turn at the speed we were going. This is a bad idea when you are not continuing the same speed on the other side of the turn. We time each turn as we go in and come out and then multiply that number by a factor and that gives us the time lost on the turn. By driving straight through you don’t have the opportunity to figure out what we lost. We were super lucky, we have a rough number that it takes one second to increase 5mph. We had increased 10 mph so I told Brad correct for losing two seconds. We made the adjustments and moved on. We then had our second lucky break, we were coming from a high speed into a right turn. We spotted the street and when we actually made the turn, I had over shot the street. I slammed on the brakes, the wheels locked up, and we were sliding into a corner. When we came to a stop, I threw it in reverse, backed up a few feet, and scurried back up the street. We couldn’t figure our exact loss time, but we did the best we could.

We finished our evening with a “typical Maine barbecue dinner” in Bangor, the capitol. Our dinner consisted of bacon wrapped chicken marinated in maple syrup, “red hot dogs”, baked beans, brown bread, and cole slaw. It was all delicious!

Tomorrow we have a later start, and a chance of rain. Below is picture from earlier this week in the rain.

 

We are thankful we drive Jane and thankful we get to stay dry.

Thank you for all the support, and confidence in us!

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!

Actually it is only day 3, but that is what came out when I typed, so it must feel a little like day 14.

Brad wants to thank everyone for the kind and thoughtful Birthday wishes!

We started this morning in Albany, New York and headed North through Schenectady, Saratoga and Glen Falls, New York. We were heading for Vermont via the Adirondack Park. It was so fun looking at people’s front porches to see if they had Adirondacks chairs. Many had them, but we saw many more with rocking chairs. The morning went by quickly, and before we knew it we were in the mountains of Vermont. The scenery was incredible, we had blue skies with lots of pretty clouds. We drove along lush forested roads, and over and next to pretty little creeks. We spent the majority of the morning driving on mountain roads, and then coming back down south to the valley floor around lunch time.

We had our lunch stop today at Hemmings Motor News in Bennington, Vermont. Bennington is located in the SouthWest corner of the state. Hemmings are one of the big sponsors and supporters of The Great Race. Their Publisher Jim Menneto is a participant every year in the race, and often has a different employee navigating for him. He drives an open wheel 1932 Ford Speedster with a bonnet type cover. He is a good competitor, however he teaches a new navigator most years. He must have the patience of Jobe.

Jim Menetto’s ’32 Ford Speedster

After lunch we headed back up North toward Burlington. We had long pulls at the same speed which felt like hours. It is always hard after lunch to focus on a speed and not fall asleep. Many racers will try to eat a light lunch which is often difficult because the people hosting put together such nice spreads. We typically share a sandwich or whatever they are serving to avoid the after lunch fog. The last few legs were a testament to the driving skills needed for this race. Although it sounds easy, in older cars there is not a computer or anything to help hold a speed. The roads twist and turn, and you are undulating up and down as the grades change. We need to be exact, if we are 10% off, every 10 seconds, we gain or lose a second. If we are off for a minute, we gain or lose 6 seconds. Needless to say when you are worried about tenths of a second, you are really worried about full seconds.

There were few instructions in the afternoon. Most of the time my eyes were split with one on the road and the other on my speedometer, (which is mounted on top of the dash), but I was still able to catch much of the beauty that is Vermont. Vermont is truly picture perfect. We drove along the Eastern side of Lake Champlain, and awed at the pretty homes, and barns and the landscape around them. It is mostly rural, but not in a back woods kind of way.

Middlebury, Vermont traffic jam. Great Race participant’s car stalled.

We finished in the early evening, and thought we did well despite having missed a sign before lunch, passing a road we were suppose to turn on, and being slowed for a minute by a tractor. We had made the corrections and hoped for the best. We finished the day with the scores of 3,1,1,1,1,5,3. We are hanging in there. Many people had a good days. We have dropped from 4th to 8th overall. We are third in our class for now with a difference of .75 seconds between us and first place. We are surrounded by some very experienced ralliers and feel fortunate to be doing as well as we are.

We still have a long way to go, but we are having fun as we move along.

Thank you for continuing to follow the journey and cheering us on! All of your notes are read and put smiles on our faces.

Pictures to follow….

Brad’s Birthday

Today we celebrated Brad’s Birthday. We are lucky to be able to celebrate with our race friends.  Brad shares his Birthday with a fellow racer, which we may have mentioned in the past. Our friend Sawyer is a child prodigy, he went to SMU at age 13 because it was the only university that would take a 13 year old.  He had his PHd in bio-medical engineering at 22.  He did his first Great Race when he was 9 or 10 years old. Obviously, he was not old enough to drive, but he could read and do the math. He turned 25 today and still does the race with his grandfather.

 

We started the morning in upstate New York and it was a little wet, but not too much rain to worry about.  Rain can cause a lot of issues when rallying. Aside from the obvious hazards it creates, it also affects the performance of your tire speed.   Each day we calabarate our speedometers according to the rally masters speed. They give us a course and we adjust accordingly. They do it in dry conditions, and if the weather changes we have to make the necessary adjustments to compensate for the wet conditions.  We had drizzle on and off all morning, but it has been a nice change from the hot races we have done in the past.

We rallied in the hills,  locals may call them mountains. There is definitely a lot of snow there in the winter, we noticed snow mobile paths and crossing signs, and a sign for a ski area.  The hills were full of mature trees, some pine and other trees that we could not identify.  Everything is in bloom right now, and the trees are beautiful, and the smells today were incredible.  At one point we drove through miles of honeysuckle and the sweet smells filled the car. We kept the windows down and enjoyed the fresh air.

Painting 101,  Upstate New York

After a nice lunch today at the North East Classic Car Museum in Norwich, NY, we headed out for some more rallying. Right as we were starting,  the skies opened up and it poured rain.  We rallied around other parts of Up-State New York some areas were naturally beautiful, while other parts looked like they once had lots of charm, but lost their source of income. We drove through towns with American flags on the street posts as well as most of the houses.

In the late afternoon we drove through Cooperstown, home of The Baseball Hall of Fame. There were baseball fans everywhere, all wearing their favorite jerseys. The fans were all ages.  The town was so charming with flowers all along the Main Street, and the old buildings all perfectly restored. It kind of reminded me of Disneyland in its perfection.

Cooperstown is located on Lake Oswego, we drove along the lakeside and admired the big beautiful homes with rolling front lawns.  We continued around the lake for about 20 minutes and then continued our rally.

We felt as though we were sloppy and kind of off all day, but we hadn’t missed a direction or made a wrong turn. We had know idea how we were going to finish, but we knew it wouldn’t be like yesterday.  We finished 4th overall yesterday, and 1st in the Sportsman class, which we didn’t find out until today, so a great gift!

First Place Stage 1 Sportsman Class

We finished the day in Troy, NY the birth place of Uncle Sam.  We were greeted with a good hometown crowd and lots of Birthday wishes. Sawyer’s mom Sue had a cake and Birthday hat for Brad, and the crowd all gave him good wishes too.  The best gift after a day of a lot of messy driving and unsure navigating, we finished with another  Ace,  a 4, a 3, 4, 2. We are given handicaps based on the year of the car. Ours is not much, but it brought the total to 12 and change for the day. We were thrilled!  It was far better then we could have hoped for.  We finished 11th overall for the day and 2nd in class. We are hoping we can continue this pace, but the reality is we are just at the beginning…day 3 tomorrow.

Brad in Troy, NY

Pre-race prep June 23, 2018

Today was the official start to the 2018 Great Race! We started our morning at the hotel packing up our cars and heading to the Pierce Arrow Museum to the starting line.

Starting Line Buffalo, NY

The day began with each team leaving the hotel in their starting order. We drove to the starting line, which today was The Pierce Arrow Museum. The Great Race puts on a big event for the first day, and despite forecasts of rain, there were plenty of spectators.

We were at the Museum by 8:30, so we took some time to enjoy some of the beautiful Pierce Arrow collection of cars that were built at the plant that was once in the spot where the museum is today. The museum is also home to the 1927 Frank Lloyd Wright Buffalo Filling station.

Frank Lloyd Wright Buffalo Filling Station

We had about two hours before we actually started rallying. We were talking to different people when Brad found our new friends Vicki and Bruce (the couple we met earlier in the week), thank you Vicki and Bruce for making it out this morning. While chatting with them, we met up with our cousins Jack and Zachary.

Thank you Jack for making the drive to Buffalo!!! It means so much to us to have family and friends at the start. We only wish we could have had more time. I also have to apologize for not knowing we were going to be so close to your home town tonight.

Our supporters and good wishers, left to right Bruce, Vicki, Jack, me, Brad, Zachary

Time flew by and it was time to start our day of rallying. We said our goodbyes, and it was official we were on our 5th Great Race.

We headed toward Albany, and ended up in farm country in upstate New York. The fruit trees and grape vines are all full of leaves. The corn is just about knee high, and the rolling fields are all in perfect rows. We even came across some chickens in a field. They were truly free range. We mostly drive through back country, and it is always so beautiful to us. Maybe because we are city dwellers it never gets old, but it might just be because it is just a vast and beautiful country we live in.

The rallying today was challenging, but having received the directions last night, we were prepared for the day. We had one hang up when there were two cars ahead of us and we were all going to the same stop sign. We are suppose to be a minute between each car. We were less then 30 seconds away and we could foresee havoc ahead. We decided we could slow down for 10 seconds and request a time delay due to lack of safe distance if we did not have time to make it up. Sure enough we came out of the stop sign and the check point was right there. There would be no making up time on that one.

We finished the day driving into another charming and old US town. We had entered the town of Fair Port. Everything is so manicured and well maintained. It is also located on the Erie Canal. There was a huge crowd when we drove in, and we were greeted by the kindest people. The town organizers set up a host for each team. Our host was a man by the name of Tom. He was so helpful and curious at the same time. He had many great questions about the race, and shared with us a little about himself.

We ate dinner with Tom and a friend of his, and then strolled down the main road enjoying the cars and people.

Bridge over Erie Canal with Brad, Tom and his friend, Fair Port, NY

We had a fantastic day, mostly because of the people who made it so special. We also had a good day on the course. We finished with our first Ace (a perfect score) of the race, a 1, 1, 1, 3, and a 3. The total for the day was 9 before the factor. We have not seen the overalls, but it is only the first day, 8 to go!

Thank you again for all of your support! Thanks to our family and friends who continuously cheer us on in our adventures.

Today was the unofficial first day of the Great Race. For those of you who are not familiar with the race, it is a time, distance and endurance rally. We are trying to get from point a to point b in the perfect amount of time. We compete for about 8 hours a day, for 9 days traveling around North America (mostly the USA).   This year we are starting the race in Buffalo, NY at the Pierce Arrow Museum and driving to Halifax, NS Canada. We drive about 2100 miles.  There are 120 participants and they come from all over the world.  The cars are as old as 1911 and as new as 1972.

Brad and I became involved after a trip up Highway 1 to San Francisco in Brad’s first car, a 1929 Ford Model A pick up truck.  We visited our friends the Scheller’s in Los Alamos. We raced with them in La Carrera Panamericana, the Mexican road race.  When they saw the old truck, and heard what we were doing, they suggested we get involved in The Great Race.  We will forever be thankful to Carson for that super suggestion.  We are competing in our 5th race Great Race.

We are not only thankful to Carson, but to everyone who has kept us in the game.  Irene and Barry Jason have not only won the race three times in a row, they had the  patience and tenacity to stick with us and teach us how to rally.  They invited us to their home, and spent their weekends teaching us not only how to drive, and navigate, but most importantly the art of working together as a team.  They are saints!  We still rely on their skills to help us, and are thankful for not only their patience, but the friendship we have forged.

1929 Model A boat tail (before Registration)

We also need to thank Jeff our mechanic at Mayfair Garage.  Jeff has spent countless hours fine tuning Our entry, Jane.  The way we drive is so hard on the cars, that it is not an easy task to keep them running and performing consistently.  Because we are trying to get from point a to point b in the perfect amount of time, we drive like crazy people.  When we take off we floor it until we hit the directed speed, and when we stop, we wait until the last second and slam on the brakes.  We also slam on the brakes or floor it when we are changing speeds.  It is a wonder these 50 plus year old cars make the 2100 mile journey.

Volunteers who run the event.

While we are being thankful, we would be amiss if we did not thank the people who make this event happen.  Above is a picture of the men and women who use their two week vacation to travel along with this circus.  They each have a specific job during the event. Whether it is directing people where to park in each new town, or sitting out at a check point and marking us as we pass by, and a host of other jobs that need to be done each day, they get it done!  So a huge thanks to the volunteers.

Last, but not least we had our Trophy Run today, it is a short day of rallying, and does not count toward your overall score, but counts in the case of a tie.  We started with lunch in Western New York  in the historical town of Lockport, NY.   Lockport is located on the Erie Canal. We traveled across the canal, and then along side both the canal and Lake Ontario. It is hard to believe the vastness of the Great Lakes. It is still like Spring up here and the trees are full and lush, the grass is green, and the flowers are blooming.  We commented that the beautiful yards and well maintained colonial and Victorian style homes make you think of a Norman Rockwell painting.

The weather held up today and was in the low 70s most of the day.  We had a good day rallying overall.  We had 5 legs today and mostly good scores.  We like to say anything under a 10 is good, but now it seems anything under a 5 is good.  We completed the day with  two 1s, a 2, a 3 and a 9.  All descent scores, with the exception of  the 9.  It really was a good day.  We didn’t get lost and we didn’t have any mechanical or any other issues, but not knowing what we did wrong is driving us a little crazy.  The good news is, these scores really don’t count.  Tomorrow is a new day, and as we say in tennis “these go”!

Brad with Genna (15)(left) and Olivia Gentry (17) (the youngest participants & last year’s Rookey Winners) behind our friend Larry’s 1955 Chevy  in Lockport, NY

 

One final thanks, to each of you, for your support and comments!  Thank you for following along.

 

The excitement is in full force, as friends meet, new and old, and the events for the 2018 Great Race are underway. We arrived on Tuesday after a day of travel to find Jane in better shape then we left her three weeks ago in Jefferson City, Missouri. Thanks to our friends Brad Epple, Daniel Epple, and James Goode. These are friends and fellow participants, and they not only stored Jane for us, but fixed her minor issues, and organized the shipping. She is running and handling like a champ.

Our day came to a great finish when one of our friends had called as we were leaving the airport. She was flying into Buffalo from Florida separately, and her husband Roger had spent the last couple of days driving up from Florida and would be arriving shortly. He called right as we were thinking about dinner plans. We told him we were in Buffalo, and we were heading out to eat wings. He was happy to join us, and drive us in his 1957 Chevy to the home of the original Buffalo Wings. We made the short drive to the Anchor Bar, an eclectic bar and Italian restaurant. We enjoyed a great meal, and the story of the first Buffalo Wings. It was the perfect start to a week full of fun.

Brad and Roger at the Anchor Bar, Buffalo, NY

We are adjusting to the three hour time zone change, but fortunately had a free day Wednesday. We had a lazy morning, and then spent the afternoon at Niagara Falls. It was our first trip to The Falls. We were not too sure what to expect, but the Falls were humbling. The sounds of the water, the width of the Falls, and the spray were all incredible. We visited the Canadian side for an hour or so and then headed to the American side. Both sides were equally impressive for different reasons.

We met a young couple from Kansas City with their dog Cody at the Falls. They were driving to Acadia National Park, a spot we might visit in the next nine days. Any dog is the catalyst for a meeting, and it is always fun to get to know new people throughout our travels.

Brad and Erin Canadian viewing deck Niagara Falls (I am sorry to say we didn’t get a picture of Cody)

Thursday morning started with Registration for the race. The 120 race participants are given times four minutes apart (everything is by the clock around here!), to show up for Registration and Inspection. It is very organized and civilized. We were fortunate to have an early registration time, leaving us the afternoon to calibrate our speedometer, and enjoy a late lunch on the Niagara River. Brad spotted a restaurant along the river. We checked out the reviews online, and decided to give it a try. We hit the jackpot! Not only was it a chamber of commerce kind of day, the atmosphere was so relaxed, we couldn’t be in a better spot. As we sat enjoying each other’s company, a cute little red BMW convertible, with the top down pulled into a parking space near us. I said to Brad, “Look, there is that 80’s BMW you like so much”. We both ogled over the car as a couple walked inside. A few minutes later, the man walked back out to the car to cover the dash board. I stopped him as he walked back in, and asked what model year was the perfect little red car. He told me it was a 1988. He shared with us his good fortune in purchasing the car, and we shared with him that we were in town for the Great Race, and if he likes old cars he should come to the hotel. We ended up talking to our new friends Vicki and Bruce for quite a while. We shared our mutual love of cars and their love of Halifax. Their enthusiasm for Halifax has us excited to reach the end of our journey.

Vickie & Bruce at Eddie’s River Grill (1988 BMW)

We hung out a little longer on the deck, and then headed back to the hotel. It was a great way to spend the day knowing what is coming our way.

Tomorrow will be a different day, stay tuned……

We are counting down the days, we have just passed the one month mark to our nine day  journey from Buffalo, NY  to Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada).  We are mostly ready with Jane (the car) packed with all the tools and parts she might need if she breaks.  Her trunk is full.  Our clothes for the trip and all of our administrative tools fill up her back seat. Some see us  and think we live out of our car.  Unlike many teams, we do not travel with a crew so everything we need has to ride with us.

We have a few things at home that we will bring along, but now it is just a waiting game.

The Great Race is a race based on time, distance and endurance. Each day you start in a different position, and each morning you are given a different set of directions.  We follow each direction hoping to execute perfectly to achieve a perfect time of zero, you don’t want to be a second fast or slow.  Below is an example of a page of instructions.  Each day we receive about 25 pages of directions.

We follow the first half of the instructions to a lunch stop. Which is like a car show for the local towns people. Then continue on to the evening stop where we have another car show and stay for the night.  The map is the first image

We are excited to start again, and we  look forward to you following along with us on this fun and crazy journey!