Monday, June 15, 2009
Results
Hey all! Just thought I'd let you know that the final results came in on Friday and we got......Sixth place!!!! Hurrah! I think there were like 58 or so teams. I knew we'd finish in the top half, but wasn't expecting to do THAT well! Very proud of our first run and hope we get to do something with Street Safari again soon. Yay!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
New Orleans
So, that's the end of the Rally: One $160 ticket, One southern cop hassling us, Two firetrucks called to our various parties, 14 stiches on a canadian, One motel manager fired for threatening us with a gun for no reason, Two girls with carbon monoxide poisoning(maybe), one vomiting Vanity Fair reporter (hilarious), and one voluntary group destruction of a car. :( Man it's only been a few days, but I'm really missing it already!!
To update:
We stayed in New Orleans for another day after the rally ended. We got a tour to see the city and it was well worth it. If you ever find yourself in New Orleans and looking for a tour guide you have to call 'Celebration Tours' and ask for Oz. He's absolutely wonderful and very informative. He really gave us an overview of the whole city, its crazy history, and present state. We saw Katrina damage and the fight to get homes back up. We heard what really went down and how the media and government skewed what was happening (no- it still sucked but there's a lot I didn't know about how and why). And we got a positive look at some of the projects that are in place to rise from the wreckage with better and safer homes. It's still a long way off until everyone is home and the threat of flooding again is ever present until the 'levee's' (we saw them and it's a joke) are fixed. A lot of the city is really rough right now because of the poverty and destruction that took place, but Oz assured us that it was the same in every city. That "there's always places you don't go or that I wouldn't walk into. It's the same everywhere". From the look of it I think Oz is a bit in love with his city and a bit optimistic, but he did show us that there it's not all run down even in the destroyed parts. Signs read "roots run deep here" etc... amidst construction and fema trailers. The lower ninth ward is littered with clean lots that boast only the front steps of what was once a row of houses. It really is coming along. You can tell people are committed to rebuilding their neighborhoods. Then we toured the pretty areas in the garden district, esplanade?, jackson square, etc... We even went to a local bar by the water to grab some drinks for the rest of the tour. Very cool!
At the end of the tour Oz dropped us off in Jackson square so we could get some food. We found a little cajun/creole place right off the square that was all open air in a cozy cafe' way. We drank sangria and watched the artists peddle their goods and then got our first sample of authentic creole food...yeah, even with being a vegetarian! They had a spicy vegetable pasta with red sauce that was amazing! It really didn't feel like we were in America at all when we were sitting there, but it was and it is! You must visit. Later we walked around listening to more wonderful live music...Steamboat willie is incredible!!!....and visiting little shops lining the streets. The voodoo ones were cool, but I was a bit disappointed how expensive it is to get your palm read! I thought it would be so spooky and fun, but ah well! Ha ha. Probably for the best.
Later that evening we met back up with the Canadians (they decided to stay as well) and had a ridiculous evening in the quarter once again. I didn't want the day to end. The next morning we stopped by the famous Cafe' Du Monde for some chicory coffee and beignets once again and then sadly left this amazing city for home...finally. It was an amazing adventure and I'm so amazed it's over! I will truly never forget it.
Quick side note. Oz made a comment while on the tour and I want to fulfill my side of the conversation. He said, "We're not like Vegas here. We don't want 'what happens here to stay here'. We want you to go home and tell people it's not bad here. That we have fun and it's beautiful and we help you forget your worries and your cares for a while. We need people to remember that." I agreed with him whole heartedly and that's why I felt the need to add this last little bit. Go visit New Orleans and let them woo you with their charm. Forget your cares for a bit and cozy up in a little cafe and dream away with the heat and live music. Eat some spicy food, buy a hurricane, and wander down the streets sipping and staring at the beautiful architecture. Throw a dollar to a musician, buy a piece of art, talk to a local and try to figure out what they're actually saying. Then go straight home and tell someone else to do the same. Cheers.
To update:
We stayed in New Orleans for another day after the rally ended. We got a tour to see the city and it was well worth it. If you ever find yourself in New Orleans and looking for a tour guide you have to call 'Celebration Tours' and ask for Oz. He's absolutely wonderful and very informative. He really gave us an overview of the whole city, its crazy history, and present state. We saw Katrina damage and the fight to get homes back up. We heard what really went down and how the media and government skewed what was happening (no- it still sucked but there's a lot I didn't know about how and why). And we got a positive look at some of the projects that are in place to rise from the wreckage with better and safer homes. It's still a long way off until everyone is home and the threat of flooding again is ever present until the 'levee's' (we saw them and it's a joke) are fixed. A lot of the city is really rough right now because of the poverty and destruction that took place, but Oz assured us that it was the same in every city. That "there's always places you don't go or that I wouldn't walk into. It's the same everywhere". From the look of it I think Oz is a bit in love with his city and a bit optimistic, but he did show us that there it's not all run down even in the destroyed parts. Signs read "roots run deep here" etc... amidst construction and fema trailers. The lower ninth ward is littered with clean lots that boast only the front steps of what was once a row of houses. It really is coming along. You can tell people are committed to rebuilding their neighborhoods. Then we toured the pretty areas in the garden district, esplanade?, jackson square, etc... We even went to a local bar by the water to grab some drinks for the rest of the tour. Very cool!
At the end of the tour Oz dropped us off in Jackson square so we could get some food. We found a little cajun/creole place right off the square that was all open air in a cozy cafe' way. We drank sangria and watched the artists peddle their goods and then got our first sample of authentic creole food...yeah, even with being a vegetarian! They had a spicy vegetable pasta with red sauce that was amazing! It really didn't feel like we were in America at all when we were sitting there, but it was and it is! You must visit. Later we walked around listening to more wonderful live music...Steamboat willie is incredible!!!....and visiting little shops lining the streets. The voodoo ones were cool, but I was a bit disappointed how expensive it is to get your palm read! I thought it would be so spooky and fun, but ah well! Ha ha. Probably for the best.
Later that evening we met back up with the Canadians (they decided to stay as well) and had a ridiculous evening in the quarter once again. I didn't want the day to end. The next morning we stopped by the famous Cafe' Du Monde for some chicory coffee and beignets once again and then sadly left this amazing city for home...finally. It was an amazing adventure and I'm so amazed it's over! I will truly never forget it.
Quick side note. Oz made a comment while on the tour and I want to fulfill my side of the conversation. He said, "We're not like Vegas here. We don't want 'what happens here to stay here'. We want you to go home and tell people it's not bad here. That we have fun and it's beautiful and we help you forget your worries and your cares for a while. We need people to remember that." I agreed with him whole heartedly and that's why I felt the need to add this last little bit. Go visit New Orleans and let them woo you with their charm. Forget your cares for a bit and cozy up in a little cafe and dream away with the heat and live music. Eat some spicy food, buy a hurricane, and wander down the streets sipping and staring at the beautiful architecture. Throw a dollar to a musician, buy a piece of art, talk to a local and try to figure out what they're actually saying. Then go straight home and tell someone else to do the same. Cheers.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Day Five!
Last day of rally. Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana
We arrived back at the bar parking lot early enough to stand around and hear more stories about the horrible hotel most everyone had stayed at. One group of guys actually moved the furniture in their room in front of the door! Hilarious! Another one of the guys had overheard that Corey and I had reservations somewhere else, pulled into the parking lot that the rally had reserved, talked to the cops, pulled right back out, and went looking (successfully) for our hotel. Ha ha. Glad I checked those reviews last month!
After a quick announcement and the regular car horn choir we were off.
Challenge: We have a long highway drive in front of us so the challenge is quite simple. Take pictures of five cracked windshields (or as the brits called them: windscreens). More points for the more severe of a crack. Must be an intact windshield, and the car can not have been wrecked. Not intended to be gruesome, just looking for neglected windshields. Get to New Orleans and have points turned in by 7:30 p.m.
Bonus points:
Find the Smart car. Find the Street Safari (that’s the organization that put this whole thing on) member in the yellow smart car with Street Safari logos in the French quarter. She will be moving from time to time but will leave the French quarter by 5:30p.m. with no more chances to find her after that time. If you find her you will receive a token to be turned in with your points for your bonus.
Our car is doing so well! The only real trouble we’ve had is with a little sputter on take off. Corey found a little fuel leak, replaced the O ring?, and now it runs better than it ever has! We did start to overheat a couple times. It seems the fan has decided to not work for some reason. So now Corey has it hot wired to just run constantly and we disconnect it when we are stopping for a while. Ha ha.
We did well on the challenge! It turns out to be quite easy to find cracked windshields in the south. They’re everywhere. We got one 5 pointer, a 4, a 3, and two 2’s on a five point scale. The five pointer was a crazy one Corey spotted on the side of the highway, pulled over, and ran back down the shoulder to grab the photo. Madness. We made it to New Orleans by 4:30 and decided to do a crisscross pattern through the French quarter starting from the end. My back was a worry at this point and we didn’t know if I could run through the streets (though I was ready to try!) so we thought we try the car route first. We pulled onto a little side street toward the end, made it two blocks down the street and BAM! Yellow smart car!!! YAY! We were pumped. I got out and received mardi gras beads with a babe medallion at the end. As I got back in the car the ‘Oh, Crap’ team wearily turned the corner and informed us they had walked like 20 blocks to find her. We were very lucky!
Now we had a little time to get to the hotel. We weren’t able to book the hotel that a lot of the rally were at, but we got a sweet deal on a little bed and breakfast looking place in the garden district not too far away. The place was wonderful! It was just an old house that had been divided up for slave quarters. They had completely remodeled it and turned it into little hotel rooms. There was a 4 post queen bed, high ceilings, wooden floors, and a little flat screen over the mantle that had once encased a fire place. The bathroom was black and white tile, granite counters, and a mantle on one wall as well. A little small, but full of New Orleans charm and uniqueness. We loved it! Anyway. We freshened up and headed to the rally end point at the hotel over in the business district. Made it and turned in our points by 7. Then grabbed our cooler of beer and headed to the sidewalk to hang out with everyone and tell our stories since there wasn’t our regular parking lot to conduct such business.
After a lot of hilarious tales, we went in the lobby for a bit, sang a song for a video one of the members is making, got kicked out of the lobby, and continued to hang out on the sidewalk until the closing ceremony. We ended up being moved from the lobby, to a car lot down the block, moved the other way to an empty lot a block down, and moved one last time to across the street to an abandoned parking lot up against an old white brick building. Karen (one of the main organizers) was pretty upset about not getting her promised lobby for the closing ceremony, but I thought it was the most fitting ending to a banger rally ever. I heard other people telling her that as well, so I think it was more of a principle thing than anything. The award went out to Manwall which wasn’t much of a surprise at all and they gave a cool speech about all the help they had gotten along the way and how amazing the rally had been. More awards were given out for the people who had been to all the rally’s to date, the crappiest car, etc... Finally it ended in cheers and we all walked over to the French Quarter.
Wow. I can not imagine being there on Mardi Gras. The place is so narrow and insane as is! At least on Bourbon, anyway. People were everywhere and beads were dropping from the balconies to whistles and catcalls. Everyone has a drink in hand and the cops patrol through the packed streets on horseback. We bar hopped with the Canadians (they do actually have names), the ‘Oh Crap’ team, and the skull car guys. It was really funny and pretty ridiculous really. A fitting end to an amazing adventure. It was kind of strange that we wouldn’t see each other the next morning and start annoying each other with our cars. There was no plan for the next day and it was kinda sad!! Ha ha. I kinda always thought that I’d be sooo ready for the trip to be done after 9 days of traveling, but it seemed much too short! We were all just really getting to know each other and there is so much more road to see! Ah well. I do miss my dogs terribly and all things must end! The adventure was amazing and Babers are a great group of people. It almost doesn't even seem real. I couldn't be happier about doing this even though it was a huge time investment and pretty grueling at times. The adventure and the people more than made up for the difficulties along the way. I'm just so excited to have participated in this event. I wouldn’t change a thing.
We arrived back at the bar parking lot early enough to stand around and hear more stories about the horrible hotel most everyone had stayed at. One group of guys actually moved the furniture in their room in front of the door! Hilarious! Another one of the guys had overheard that Corey and I had reservations somewhere else, pulled into the parking lot that the rally had reserved, talked to the cops, pulled right back out, and went looking (successfully) for our hotel. Ha ha. Glad I checked those reviews last month!
After a quick announcement and the regular car horn choir we were off.
Challenge: We have a long highway drive in front of us so the challenge is quite simple. Take pictures of five cracked windshields (or as the brits called them: windscreens). More points for the more severe of a crack. Must be an intact windshield, and the car can not have been wrecked. Not intended to be gruesome, just looking for neglected windshields. Get to New Orleans and have points turned in by 7:30 p.m.
Bonus points:
Find the Smart car. Find the Street Safari (that’s the organization that put this whole thing on) member in the yellow smart car with Street Safari logos in the French quarter. She will be moving from time to time but will leave the French quarter by 5:30p.m. with no more chances to find her after that time. If you find her you will receive a token to be turned in with your points for your bonus.
Our car is doing so well! The only real trouble we’ve had is with a little sputter on take off. Corey found a little fuel leak, replaced the O ring?, and now it runs better than it ever has! We did start to overheat a couple times. It seems the fan has decided to not work for some reason. So now Corey has it hot wired to just run constantly and we disconnect it when we are stopping for a while. Ha ha.
We did well on the challenge! It turns out to be quite easy to find cracked windshields in the south. They’re everywhere. We got one 5 pointer, a 4, a 3, and two 2’s on a five point scale. The five pointer was a crazy one Corey spotted on the side of the highway, pulled over, and ran back down the shoulder to grab the photo. Madness. We made it to New Orleans by 4:30 and decided to do a crisscross pattern through the French quarter starting from the end. My back was a worry at this point and we didn’t know if I could run through the streets (though I was ready to try!) so we thought we try the car route first. We pulled onto a little side street toward the end, made it two blocks down the street and BAM! Yellow smart car!!! YAY! We were pumped. I got out and received mardi gras beads with a babe medallion at the end. As I got back in the car the ‘Oh, Crap’ team wearily turned the corner and informed us they had walked like 20 blocks to find her. We were very lucky!
Now we had a little time to get to the hotel. We weren’t able to book the hotel that a lot of the rally were at, but we got a sweet deal on a little bed and breakfast looking place in the garden district not too far away. The place was wonderful! It was just an old house that had been divided up for slave quarters. They had completely remodeled it and turned it into little hotel rooms. There was a 4 post queen bed, high ceilings, wooden floors, and a little flat screen over the mantle that had once encased a fire place. The bathroom was black and white tile, granite counters, and a mantle on one wall as well. A little small, but full of New Orleans charm and uniqueness. We loved it! Anyway. We freshened up and headed to the rally end point at the hotel over in the business district. Made it and turned in our points by 7. Then grabbed our cooler of beer and headed to the sidewalk to hang out with everyone and tell our stories since there wasn’t our regular parking lot to conduct such business.
After a lot of hilarious tales, we went in the lobby for a bit, sang a song for a video one of the members is making, got kicked out of the lobby, and continued to hang out on the sidewalk until the closing ceremony. We ended up being moved from the lobby, to a car lot down the block, moved the other way to an empty lot a block down, and moved one last time to across the street to an abandoned parking lot up against an old white brick building. Karen (one of the main organizers) was pretty upset about not getting her promised lobby for the closing ceremony, but I thought it was the most fitting ending to a banger rally ever. I heard other people telling her that as well, so I think it was more of a principle thing than anything. The award went out to Manwall which wasn’t much of a surprise at all and they gave a cool speech about all the help they had gotten along the way and how amazing the rally had been. More awards were given out for the people who had been to all the rally’s to date, the crappiest car, etc... Finally it ended in cheers and we all walked over to the French Quarter.
Wow. I can not imagine being there on Mardi Gras. The place is so narrow and insane as is! At least on Bourbon, anyway. People were everywhere and beads were dropping from the balconies to whistles and catcalls. Everyone has a drink in hand and the cops patrol through the packed streets on horseback. We bar hopped with the Canadians (they do actually have names), the ‘Oh Crap’ team, and the skull car guys. It was really funny and pretty ridiculous really. A fitting end to an amazing adventure. It was kind of strange that we wouldn’t see each other the next morning and start annoying each other with our cars. There was no plan for the next day and it was kinda sad!! Ha ha. I kinda always thought that I’d be sooo ready for the trip to be done after 9 days of traveling, but it seemed much too short! We were all just really getting to know each other and there is so much more road to see! Ah well. I do miss my dogs terribly and all things must end! The adventure was amazing and Babers are a great group of people. It almost doesn't even seem real. I couldn't be happier about doing this even though it was a huge time investment and pretty grueling at times. The adventure and the people more than made up for the difficulties along the way. I'm just so excited to have participated in this event. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Day Four
Tennessee/ Alabama
Up bright and early although we’re all starting to look a little more beat down each day. Everyone’s still chipper and pumped up as everyone signals each morning by blowing their variably tuned horns in excitement. There’s one with the old school star trek theme tune, the Dixie horn, air horns, ‘Ahoogha’ horns, the old police ‘nee-nar-nee-nar sounding one, and your normal varied sounding bleats of a broken down old piece of steel. It’s the rally call of champions. Ha ha.
So we receive our challenge through the window once again and MAN it sucks sooooo bad. There’s a regular sized sheet of paper with 21 little boxes with pictures in them…..of mailboxes. They’ve all been tampered with on some sort of photoshop so that the quality is horrible to varying degrees. There are a few that are only black shadows on a even darker background. The challenge is to get to the road on our route for the day, and take pictures of the exact mailboxes at about the same angle to match the picture. Too bad that stretch of road has about 200 mailboxes strewn over 18 miles of road, on either side of the road. So you have to go up and down it slow enough to get the picture (the locals looooved that) and match it up to an unclear picture. It’s actually worse than it sounds. A lot of people just skipped the challenge entirely and took the route to the hotel, some tried half ass, and others went way beyond everyone else taking the road 4 to 6 times. We did very well, only taking 1 and a half sides, and getting 17 out of 21 correct. We didn’t get the last few only because our camera died before we got all the mailboxes (which I was secretly happy about so we could head on to the hotel…ok maybe not so secretly) Most people were in the single digits, so once again – we rocked it! Still not in the running for first, but we’re high up there and it’s just fun to watch.
By the time we left that stretch of road the cops were crawling all over it. I take it some of the citizens may have been a bit annoyed by the strange cars driving in less that stellar fashion on their rural route. Understandably so. Some of the teams really did need to speed up and it was an unfortunate side effect that the rally bothered anyone. A lot of people still loved us, waving and staring as we passed along the way. We kept things at a pretty good speed once I got the hang of taking quick shots from out the window. When we rolled out of town we still had a local cop tail us and finally pull us over. He ran our information and gave the tire bolted to the top of the car a good shake, saying that he pulled us over because he was worried about the safety of it….yeah right. Nice excuse. Then he asked us what all these damn cars were about and we explained that it was a rally, NOT a race, from New York to New Orleans and that there were challenges along the way. He said, “So I guess our county is just the lucky ones to get you this year huh?” We replied, “YES!” happily with grins. He turned to go saying gruffly, “Well y’all’ve been a real pain in the ass all day.” and then walked off. No ticket. At the party that night we got high fives all over the place for getting hassled by a Alabama cop and having him call us a pain in the ass. Seriously?! Party that night at a bar owned by one of the Rally cars…actually the Rally short bus. Unfortunately, their water pump randomly decided to fall of their engine and destroy a few other key parts in the process. The matador’s were there to help, but on the way to the part store they broke down. The locals banded together and called friends all over town that they thought might have such and such car in their back yard with the right part on it. Sure enough, people started pulling up with the parts needed and they made it to the party at 1 am. The south, man. Such a strand dichotomy of harshness and laying down anything to help you out. It’s fascinating. Oh, by the way. No offense to anyone from there, but Birmingham is a shit hole. Maybe I just didn’t see the ‘really great area’, but the whole place looks like a broken down piece of cement. The motel that most people stayed at was immediately dubbed “The Meth Lab”. People said, “Hey, does anyone wanna go back to the hotel and drink in the parking lot?” And a local goes, “Oooh. I wouldn’t suggest it.” The cops were already there when most people arrived and they quickly warned everyone to get anything of value out of there car since it wouldn’t be there in the morning. On the cab ride back to our hotel (didn’t feel like spending the night in an Alabama jail cell) the cab driver said “Yup this is a nice hotel, but don’t go outside the gates. Real bad area. Couple from Indiana just got shot and killed right there at the car wash last week. So don’t go over there.” Corey and I just looked at each other wide eyed. Weird.
Then the cabby back to the start line the next morning randomly said half way through the trip, “Y’all don’t eat oatmeal while you’re driving do you?”
“No.”
“Thank goodness. God help the young people.”
Up bright and early although we’re all starting to look a little more beat down each day. Everyone’s still chipper and pumped up as everyone signals each morning by blowing their variably tuned horns in excitement. There’s one with the old school star trek theme tune, the Dixie horn, air horns, ‘Ahoogha’ horns, the old police ‘nee-nar-nee-nar sounding one, and your normal varied sounding bleats of a broken down old piece of steel. It’s the rally call of champions. Ha ha.
So we receive our challenge through the window once again and MAN it sucks sooooo bad. There’s a regular sized sheet of paper with 21 little boxes with pictures in them…..of mailboxes. They’ve all been tampered with on some sort of photoshop so that the quality is horrible to varying degrees. There are a few that are only black shadows on a even darker background. The challenge is to get to the road on our route for the day, and take pictures of the exact mailboxes at about the same angle to match the picture. Too bad that stretch of road has about 200 mailboxes strewn over 18 miles of road, on either side of the road. So you have to go up and down it slow enough to get the picture (the locals looooved that) and match it up to an unclear picture. It’s actually worse than it sounds. A lot of people just skipped the challenge entirely and took the route to the hotel, some tried half ass, and others went way beyond everyone else taking the road 4 to 6 times. We did very well, only taking 1 and a half sides, and getting 17 out of 21 correct. We didn’t get the last few only because our camera died before we got all the mailboxes (which I was secretly happy about so we could head on to the hotel…ok maybe not so secretly) Most people were in the single digits, so once again – we rocked it! Still not in the running for first, but we’re high up there and it’s just fun to watch.
By the time we left that stretch of road the cops were crawling all over it. I take it some of the citizens may have been a bit annoyed by the strange cars driving in less that stellar fashion on their rural route. Understandably so. Some of the teams really did need to speed up and it was an unfortunate side effect that the rally bothered anyone. A lot of people still loved us, waving and staring as we passed along the way. We kept things at a pretty good speed once I got the hang of taking quick shots from out the window. When we rolled out of town we still had a local cop tail us and finally pull us over. He ran our information and gave the tire bolted to the top of the car a good shake, saying that he pulled us over because he was worried about the safety of it….yeah right. Nice excuse. Then he asked us what all these damn cars were about and we explained that it was a rally, NOT a race, from New York to New Orleans and that there were challenges along the way. He said, “So I guess our county is just the lucky ones to get you this year huh?” We replied, “YES!” happily with grins. He turned to go saying gruffly, “Well y’all’ve been a real pain in the ass all day.” and then walked off. No ticket. At the party that night we got high fives all over the place for getting hassled by a Alabama cop and having him call us a pain in the ass. Seriously?! Party that night at a bar owned by one of the Rally cars…actually the Rally short bus. Unfortunately, their water pump randomly decided to fall of their engine and destroy a few other key parts in the process. The matador’s were there to help, but on the way to the part store they broke down. The locals banded together and called friends all over town that they thought might have such and such car in their back yard with the right part on it. Sure enough, people started pulling up with the parts needed and they made it to the party at 1 am. The south, man. Such a strand dichotomy of harshness and laying down anything to help you out. It’s fascinating. Oh, by the way. No offense to anyone from there, but Birmingham is a shit hole. Maybe I just didn’t see the ‘really great area’, but the whole place looks like a broken down piece of cement. The motel that most people stayed at was immediately dubbed “The Meth Lab”. People said, “Hey, does anyone wanna go back to the hotel and drink in the parking lot?” And a local goes, “Oooh. I wouldn’t suggest it.” The cops were already there when most people arrived and they quickly warned everyone to get anything of value out of there car since it wouldn’t be there in the morning. On the cab ride back to our hotel (didn’t feel like spending the night in an Alabama jail cell) the cab driver said “Yup this is a nice hotel, but don’t go outside the gates. Real bad area. Couple from Indiana just got shot and killed right there at the car wash last week. So don’t go over there.” Corey and I just looked at each other wide eyed. Weird.
Then the cabby back to the start line the next morning randomly said half way through the trip, “Y’all don’t eat oatmeal while you’re driving do you?”
“No.”
“Thank goodness. God help the young people.”
Day three!
Tail of the Dragon
Oooh!! So exciting. Corey is like a little kid at a candy stand. The Tail of the Dragon is a stretch of road in Deals Gap that has 318 turns in 11 miles. It is famous among motorcyclists who flock from all over the country to try their hand at the most insane course ever. These guys come around corners with their knee pads scraping the pavement, it is insane! A lot of people just come to enjoy the insane drive it is without going at breakneck speed. This of course, could not be us. I swallowed everything I believe about safety and smiled and said, “Ok. Let’s do it.”
I don’t really know how to explain the experience of the ‘drive’. It was a little like a roller coaster, with flashes of Corey cackling like a madman. We were on 3 wheels almost the whole time and you never even had time to see the drop-off of the mountain you were heading towards before another one arrived around turns that gave up only another 180 turn at 50 miles an hour. Corey was tailing some crotch rocket’s without missing a beat and thought it was hilarious. I mean really. Imagine you’re on a sport bike zooming along, and a beat up old Fox wagon who’s crumpled to all hell comes up right on your ass. He was proud. Everyone was pulled off at the end of the tail and the motorcyclists we had tailed for the ride came up laughing saying they couldn’t believe the car handled that well. We glowed with pride. One more little stretch down the road and we found the Canadian team and a few others teeing off on top of the Accord. We pulled over and to everyone’s delight our brakes continued to smoke for a good five minutes.
After trading war stories of the dragon we were off again, this time convoying with the crazy Canadians. They are much better equipped than our car with our paper maps. Almost everyone on this trip have amazing cameras, gps, and some sort of internet capable phone. I guess we’re riding old school which is just fine with us, though we are seeing the advantages of their ways. Well, the Canadians decided to take us further off the recommended route (which was already half gravel roads up and down mountains) without consulting with us. I’d given up looking at the maps to enjoy the scenery so we were just following them blindly. Well, what they thought was going to be a 45 minute scenic detour actually ended up taking at least an hour and a half all the way to the top of a mountain. Ha ha. I’m telling you, these Canadians are nuts! It ended up being completely gorgeous and we were all happy to have done it, but there were a few moments where we all thought we might be spending the evening with the bears. Plus, when we made it to the hotel parking lot we got mad props for all looking as though we had been off-roading in our cars while everyone else's looked pristine. Sweet!
Tailgating party as usual ensued with lots of beers, stories, and shenanigans. We learned how to play Stump, and saw one of the more wasted guys of a team change into the sexy little astronaut dress one of the girl teammates had been wearing and then parade around literally picking up random men. Ha ha.
Oh, the only challenge today was to try the tail of the dragon and the suggested route to the hotel. Normally it would have taken only a couple hours to get the hotel from our previous stop but most of us took the 6 hour route and didn’t regret it. It worked out that the shortcut was there though, because of the large number of cars having problems. The matador actually blew both head gaskets and was able to find replacements and replace them in the parking lot and still make it to the hotel for the party that evening. Very cool.
Oooh!! So exciting. Corey is like a little kid at a candy stand. The Tail of the Dragon is a stretch of road in Deals Gap that has 318 turns in 11 miles. It is famous among motorcyclists who flock from all over the country to try their hand at the most insane course ever. These guys come around corners with their knee pads scraping the pavement, it is insane! A lot of people just come to enjoy the insane drive it is without going at breakneck speed. This of course, could not be us. I swallowed everything I believe about safety and smiled and said, “Ok. Let’s do it.”
I don’t really know how to explain the experience of the ‘drive’. It was a little like a roller coaster, with flashes of Corey cackling like a madman. We were on 3 wheels almost the whole time and you never even had time to see the drop-off of the mountain you were heading towards before another one arrived around turns that gave up only another 180 turn at 50 miles an hour. Corey was tailing some crotch rocket’s without missing a beat and thought it was hilarious. I mean really. Imagine you’re on a sport bike zooming along, and a beat up old Fox wagon who’s crumpled to all hell comes up right on your ass. He was proud. Everyone was pulled off at the end of the tail and the motorcyclists we had tailed for the ride came up laughing saying they couldn’t believe the car handled that well. We glowed with pride. One more little stretch down the road and we found the Canadian team and a few others teeing off on top of the Accord. We pulled over and to everyone’s delight our brakes continued to smoke for a good five minutes.
After trading war stories of the dragon we were off again, this time convoying with the crazy Canadians. They are much better equipped than our car with our paper maps. Almost everyone on this trip have amazing cameras, gps, and some sort of internet capable phone. I guess we’re riding old school which is just fine with us, though we are seeing the advantages of their ways. Well, the Canadians decided to take us further off the recommended route (which was already half gravel roads up and down mountains) without consulting with us. I’d given up looking at the maps to enjoy the scenery so we were just following them blindly. Well, what they thought was going to be a 45 minute scenic detour actually ended up taking at least an hour and a half all the way to the top of a mountain. Ha ha. I’m telling you, these Canadians are nuts! It ended up being completely gorgeous and we were all happy to have done it, but there were a few moments where we all thought we might be spending the evening with the bears. Plus, when we made it to the hotel parking lot we got mad props for all looking as though we had been off-roading in our cars while everyone else's looked pristine. Sweet!
Tailgating party as usual ensued with lots of beers, stories, and shenanigans. We learned how to play Stump, and saw one of the more wasted guys of a team change into the sexy little astronaut dress one of the girl teammates had been wearing and then parade around literally picking up random men. Ha ha.
Oh, the only challenge today was to try the tail of the dragon and the suggested route to the hotel. Normally it would have taken only a couple hours to get the hotel from our previous stop but most of us took the 6 hour route and didn’t regret it. It worked out that the shortcut was there though, because of the large number of cars having problems. The matador actually blew both head gaskets and was able to find replacements and replace them in the parking lot and still make it to the hotel for the party that evening. Very cool.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Day Two
Costume Day
So the theme was set about a month ago and the verdict? Astronauts. Yup. We’re all pretty much rolling down south with no AC in June, and they picked Astronauts. So kind. So with help from Corey’s mom (she’s a mad master at making costumes and even has a big ol’shop…comes in handy all the time!) we were well prepared. Corey went in a fun shiny suit labeled Major Tom (resembling the one worn in the original video) and I went as a plain old astronaut, but with an awesome old style helmet…It looked great!
Everyone met up in the hotel parking lot dressed to the nines. I’ll post pics of some of the better costumes soon. Completely hilarious. The hotel employees all came out with their families and were taking everyone’s pictures. The scene was really quite surreal.
The horn sounded and we were off. Our challenge was handed to us through the window on our way out once again.
Challenge: Costume day. Our paper had a list of 3 columns with 4 towns in each one. Pick one town from each column and get a …..Holy shit we’re getting pulled over. …. crazy. Anyway, moving on…. and get a picture of the whole team in full costume, with team car in view, with a local, in front of a public building that clearly shows the town name on it. So three pictures in all. You get a larger percentage of points for towns that the least amount of people visited. So you try to play a guessing game on which ones no one will go to and which ones they will. This is really mostly fruitless as everyone is doing the same thing and there is no logic to any of it. Some of the towns are easy to get to – like only 20 minutes off the country roads we’re traveling and others are more like 3 hours up winding mountain roads. Still …we could all be thinking the same thing…so where’s the logic? Well, we still tried! We chose a little bit of in between. We started with a crazy long winding (BEAUTIFUL) drive up to the little town of Warm Springs (Hot Springs was down the road). We found a great couple our age who were visiting the guy’s home town. They loved it and even took pictures with their own camera because as he said, “My friends are never gonna believe this.” We got the picture in front of a cute little bed and breakfast sitting up on a hill by itself boasting the much needed phrase “Warm Springs Inn”. Then the guy was like, “Yeah, that’s so cool we ran into you. I was just up here to show my girlfriend the monkeys behind this place.” Mind you we are in the back country of the Appalachians. What monkeys?! Sure enough we all walk back behind the inn (I never did ever see a guest or proprietor) and there was a huge cage with swinging ropes, water play tubs, fruit, toys, and shelves for these monkeys. We could only see one, but the guy said there were like 3 and that the guy that opened the inn was from South Africa and had brought them with him. Very strange.
Then we took a roundabout route to 2 more tiny little towns that probably added a few hours to our trek but weren’t as far out of the way. The second town was Tazewell and we found a farmers bureau store with the town name on it. The man was reluctant to help at first as I’m pretty sure he thought I was a madwoman (keep in mind I am still dressed as an astronaut). After a little explanation he dragged his wife out of the store and made her get in the picture too, and a local man had come over to see what was going on and took our picture for us.
Third was the town of Norton which was tiny and at the hour in all small towns where everyone has disappeared from the streets (dusk). We found the local “Norton Fire Department’ and practically dragged these two business men over for the picture. Once again perceived as crazy people, but they came around. Strangely most people were very hesitant at first, but it always ended with long conversations, wishes of good luck, and everyone waving us goodbye while shaking their heads in laughter and wonder. Good day……. Oh, update. The scores are back and we kicked ASS on day two. In the top scores for that day. Hurrah. Team Manwall is winning. They’re a veteran team and doing fantastic.
So the theme was set about a month ago and the verdict? Astronauts. Yup. We’re all pretty much rolling down south with no AC in June, and they picked Astronauts. So kind. So with help from Corey’s mom (she’s a mad master at making costumes and even has a big ol’shop…comes in handy all the time!) we were well prepared. Corey went in a fun shiny suit labeled Major Tom (resembling the one worn in the original video) and I went as a plain old astronaut, but with an awesome old style helmet…It looked great!
Everyone met up in the hotel parking lot dressed to the nines. I’ll post pics of some of the better costumes soon. Completely hilarious. The hotel employees all came out with their families and were taking everyone’s pictures. The scene was really quite surreal.
The horn sounded and we were off. Our challenge was handed to us through the window on our way out once again.
Challenge: Costume day. Our paper had a list of 3 columns with 4 towns in each one. Pick one town from each column and get a …..Holy shit we’re getting pulled over. …. crazy. Anyway, moving on…. and get a picture of the whole team in full costume, with team car in view, with a local, in front of a public building that clearly shows the town name on it. So three pictures in all. You get a larger percentage of points for towns that the least amount of people visited. So you try to play a guessing game on which ones no one will go to and which ones they will. This is really mostly fruitless as everyone is doing the same thing and there is no logic to any of it. Some of the towns are easy to get to – like only 20 minutes off the country roads we’re traveling and others are more like 3 hours up winding mountain roads. Still …we could all be thinking the same thing…so where’s the logic? Well, we still tried! We chose a little bit of in between. We started with a crazy long winding (BEAUTIFUL) drive up to the little town of Warm Springs (Hot Springs was down the road). We found a great couple our age who were visiting the guy’s home town. They loved it and even took pictures with their own camera because as he said, “My friends are never gonna believe this.” We got the picture in front of a cute little bed and breakfast sitting up on a hill by itself boasting the much needed phrase “Warm Springs Inn”. Then the guy was like, “Yeah, that’s so cool we ran into you. I was just up here to show my girlfriend the monkeys behind this place.” Mind you we are in the back country of the Appalachians. What monkeys?! Sure enough we all walk back behind the inn (I never did ever see a guest or proprietor) and there was a huge cage with swinging ropes, water play tubs, fruit, toys, and shelves for these monkeys. We could only see one, but the guy said there were like 3 and that the guy that opened the inn was from South Africa and had brought them with him. Very strange.
Then we took a roundabout route to 2 more tiny little towns that probably added a few hours to our trek but weren’t as far out of the way. The second town was Tazewell and we found a farmers bureau store with the town name on it. The man was reluctant to help at first as I’m pretty sure he thought I was a madwoman (keep in mind I am still dressed as an astronaut). After a little explanation he dragged his wife out of the store and made her get in the picture too, and a local man had come over to see what was going on and took our picture for us.
Third was the town of Norton which was tiny and at the hour in all small towns where everyone has disappeared from the streets (dusk). We found the local “Norton Fire Department’ and practically dragged these two business men over for the picture. Once again perceived as crazy people, but they came around. Strangely most people were very hesitant at first, but it always ended with long conversations, wishes of good luck, and everyone waving us goodbye while shaking their heads in laughter and wonder. Good day……. Oh, update. The scores are back and we kicked ASS on day two. In the top scores for that day. Hurrah. Team Manwall is winning. They’re a veteran team and doing fantastic.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Day one
After many sad goodbyes, and then bagels and coffee at my favorite bagel shop in Brooklyn we headed back over to Staten Island, which, by the way, is actually a really cool looking bridge. Of course, everyone is always gaga over the Brooklyn bridge because it’s absolutely awe inspiring, but the Staten bridge is actually really cool and futuristic looking when you’re crossing it even though it was built in like the 60’s…I think. Actually I can’t really swear to that date at all. Anyway, never noticed it before and it’s pretty cool. There you have it.
We arrived to starting line early! Hurrah. It’s a god damn miracle. Everyone is recovering, but still pumped up and ready to go. We receive last minute safety instructions and ANOTHER warning about speeding in VA and we’re off to the cars. The air horn blows and we start to file out past the marshals who hand us our challenge for the day through our window with a simple, “Good luck.” And we were off.
We made it about 2 turns out of the parking lot and onto the highway were we immediately came upon 10 cars pulled off onto the side of the highway. Upon stopping we find out that the MANWALL El Camino had already gotten into a wreck and that the subsequent pull of other BABE cars who were making sure they were ok had already caused another. Seriously?! This was like 3 minutes in! Ha ha. We were cracking up. Everyone turned out to be fine and the car had no damage and we were waved on. The challenge!!! : Photo scavenger hunt.
6 state trooper cars and all must be identifiable from different states
A real Ferrari 430 no toys, pics, etc..
A mustang GT with the top down, can’t be on a dealer lot.
A hot air balloon in flight
3 Ford Edges that are not Maroon colored. Can not be on a dealer lot, etc..
A confederate flag that is flying, no decals, signs, etc…with a teammate in the pic.
A license plate that has two English words on it. No text language, number, abbreviations, or misspellings. Must be the official legal plate on the car.
A public building with a president's name on it.
So we did alright! We got 12 out of 15 pts. We missed one trooper (shoulda' spent more time in PA),the confederate flag (I know! It was harder than everyone thought!!) , and the hot air balloon. Super props to my sister, Rose who did some research and found us the Ferrari dealership 20 minutes of our route! That was a life saver.
We actually had time (well kinda, but we did it anyway!) to drive into D.C. and have lunch with Rose as well. Super added bonus to the day, as I never get to see her enough. .
We made it to Night one stop in Harrisonburg, VA around 9:45 exhausted and ready for a drink. Everyone met up at a little café’ that was amazingly chic for the size of town and then headed back to the hotel parking lot for more shenanigans that kept the entire hotel up to all hours of the morning. For me? Sleep. Overall great first BABE day!
We arrived to starting line early! Hurrah. It’s a god damn miracle. Everyone is recovering, but still pumped up and ready to go. We receive last minute safety instructions and ANOTHER warning about speeding in VA and we’re off to the cars. The air horn blows and we start to file out past the marshals who hand us our challenge for the day through our window with a simple, “Good luck.” And we were off.
We made it about 2 turns out of the parking lot and onto the highway were we immediately came upon 10 cars pulled off onto the side of the highway. Upon stopping we find out that the MANWALL El Camino had already gotten into a wreck and that the subsequent pull of other BABE cars who were making sure they were ok had already caused another. Seriously?! This was like 3 minutes in! Ha ha. We were cracking up. Everyone turned out to be fine and the car had no damage and we were waved on. The challenge!!! : Photo scavenger hunt.
6 state trooper cars and all must be identifiable from different states
A real Ferrari 430 no toys, pics, etc..
A mustang GT with the top down, can’t be on a dealer lot.
A hot air balloon in flight
3 Ford Edges that are not Maroon colored. Can not be on a dealer lot, etc..
A confederate flag that is flying, no decals, signs, etc…with a teammate in the pic.
A license plate that has two English words on it. No text language, number, abbreviations, or misspellings. Must be the official legal plate on the car.
A public building with a president's name on it.
So we did alright! We got 12 out of 15 pts. We missed one trooper (shoulda' spent more time in PA),the confederate flag (I know! It was harder than everyone thought!!) , and the hot air balloon. Super props to my sister, Rose who did some research and found us the Ferrari dealership 20 minutes of our route! That was a life saver.
We actually had time (well kinda, but we did it anyway!) to drive into D.C. and have lunch with Rose as well. Super added bonus to the day, as I never get to see her enough. .
We made it to Night one stop in Harrisonburg, VA around 9:45 exhausted and ready for a drink. Everyone met up at a little café’ that was amazingly chic for the size of town and then headed back to the hotel parking lot for more shenanigans that kept the entire hotel up to all hours of the morning. For me? Sleep. Overall great first BABE day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)