Long time readers and friends of rallynotes.com should know that I wouldn’t have gotten into this sport if it wasn’t for spectating. When Christine and I decided to take on organizing a rally we knew that we would want spectators at our event.

So - You are invited! Bring your friends and family out to see what a rally is all about. We’re going to have a nice big area on the hill where you can see the action up close. The facility will be hosting a BBQ that will run you about $6. You’ll have access to the service area, the course, and be able to come and go. Other spectating can be done at the palapa, where you can see the action of the fast straight and the new section of the course. This location will have limited access and you will have to wait until the mid-day break to leave or go there. Everyone will be required to sign the waiver and have a wrist-band. Bring clothes for the weather, folding chairs, and your cameras up to Ridgecrest California in 2 weeks!

There are maps and information up on our website - High Desert Trails Rally - See you on the stages!

Okay. So you want to build a rally car. You’ve been working on this used Galant and you are totally going to rally next year. You’re ready to make the jump off the (couch / drag-strip / PS3 / rallycross / TSD / keyboard / underground racing club) and actually go stage rally! The first thing you absolutely must do is attend the CRS Rally School in Ridgecrest, CA on February 7 - 8th 2009. As graduates of the school in 2005, it gave us the confidence to tackle national level competition our first year and go on to - well - you’ve seen the trophy room.

Here’s what I said about it after we took the class in 2005:

Two key things to mention. We’ll be once again volunteering as instructors. We’re offering a discount if you take the school and attend our High Desert Trails Rally (two weeks later) on February 21st! See the High Desert Trails Rally website for more details.

Click here for the 2009 CRS Rally School Website!

Sign up, tell your friends, get prospective co-drivers a late Christmas gift, and get your girlfriend to go.
You’ll have a great time and we’ll see you there!
UPDATE: Bumping this above RTUSA3

Road Trip USA III Gallery is up.

Just a quick post to report that we pulled in yesterday around 3:00PM. Some quick stats from the trip:

3325.15 Miles (from NJ)
15 States
48:56 Drive time
67.9 MPH Driving average
1291 APRS Packets
27 MPG
123 Gallons of gas
$215 on gas card

I will have a full update with pictures, etc, later tonight three weeks from now.

Total Miles: 2953.40
Weather: We bring the rains
States: NM, AZ

Made great time to Brian and Vanessa’s house in Phoenix. We had steaks on the grill. Just when we were used to the warm Southwestern weather, we wake up to some rain. Just a reasonable commute to home now.

Texas once again disappointed me this morning. For years I’ve been telling people this cute story about how they have shamrock shakes YEAR ROUND at the McDonald’s in Shamrock Texas. Lies. Damn lies…

We pull into the drive-through. I desperately scan the board for the little plaque that reads - (Shamrock shakes served year round!) - that I remember seeing only four or so years ago. I know if I was the manager of this silly little McDees in a town called Shamrock - well - you’d bet your ass we’d have Shamrock Shakes whenever you wanted.

The rest of the story goes like this:
“Two Shamrock shakes please!”
“You fail, please drive around.”

Total Miles: 2548.28
Weather: Warm with gas fumes
States: OK, TX, NM

In New Mexico we headed to Roswell. Smelled like cows. We moved on.
Made it to Las Cruces, NM - now we only have a short hop to Phoenix tomorrow.

Total Miles: 1894.28
Weather: Clear and cold
States: TN, AR, OK

The extra hour from CST that got us to TN last night helped get us going at a decent time this morning. New years day on the I-40! Another 600+ miles under foot. The highlight of the day would be the guy in the Tahoe that drove off from the gas station without a brain… *KaChunk! I turned around to see the truck 10 feet away with the nozzle and the hose still attached to the car, but no longer attached to the pump. Break away hoses for the win.

For those of you just joining us, the rally car can be tracked here or on APRS.fi by searching for KI6IUC-9.

Total Miles: 1215.89
Weather: Stupid Windy
States: MD, WV, VA, TN

Felt a lot better and got going around 10:00AM from our friends Valerie & Bill’s house in Maryland. We took the slow way around DC and got on the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. What fantastic driving roads! They have tarmac rally written all over them. New Year’s Eve was certainly a great choice of day to go briskly down some of the twisty sections. I think we saw less then a dozen oncoming cars all day, and we were on it for more then 160 miles. Much more fun then the grind on the I-95 or the I-81. It does add to the miles and I winced as our average trip speed plummeted, but such a sweet drive in the country.

Got back to business on the highway around 5:00PM. We set our sights on Knoxville and were very, very pleased to see that Tennessee has a 70MPH speed limit. We used this and light traffic to make a run for Nashville around 8:00PM. We booked the hotel en’route, checked in, bought champagne and celebrated the EST New Year with about 10 minutes to spare. Then when our hotel clock hit 12:00 we celebrated again! Happy New Year everyone! On track for OK City tomorrow - Thanks for the emails, comments, etc.

Miles: 428.23
Weather: Cold and sunny
States: NJ, DE, MD

Christine and I both got the flu. First she had it at my parent’s house, then I got it at her parent’s house.

This morning was rough. It took a lot of effort to climb into the rally car and ride down to Baltimore. Christine drove the first shift, while I pulled my knees up to my chest in the co-drivers seat. I would have been in that position had we not gone anywhere.

A few hours later I felt good enough to drive and we made our first contact! N3TEE called on our frequency as we hit traffic in Delaware. He confirmed that staying on the state route 40 would be better then getting on I-95 at 5:00PM. Thanks for the contact and the comment!

We’re feeling a lot better.
Tomorrow is the big push to Tennessee. We’re hoping for 700 miles.
See you on the road!

Even though other transportation was offered, we stayed firm to our decision to drive the rally car to and from my parents house in Maine. This gave us a chance to test out systems and see how the car will be set up for the USA trip. On Saturday I took it to the car wash to prep it for the sticker cover up. It was still very dirty from Intl’ Rally New York. I was able to tweak the APRS configuration and hopefully we’ll have a better track on the way home. I now have a monitored frequency programmed into the APRS packet - 146.550 We’ll see if we make any contacts with that.

I got out the white vinyl we brought and now have the trunk, numbers, and reflective stickers covered up. Much more subdued from the back - a little less identifiable. If 10 was a rally car in full sticker trim with a giant 761 on the side and 1 was a stock white Dodge Neon… We’re right around a 9.8 now.

We’re heading out in a little bit back to NJ. We’ll be stopping in New Hampshire to meet up with friends. We’re now out our furthest North Eastern point - and it’s all West and South from here. I’ll try to get some more pictures posted when we get to Jersey.