Every morning we receive our race instructions 30 minutes before our start. Accompanying the instructions is a single page of corrections to those race documents. Presumably the instruction packets were bulk printed weeks ago, and they had since found some errors. And sometimes outside influence may force last-minute changes. Today’s start time was modified from the original time, and there was some last minute confusion over when to leave the finish line. We knew the car in front of us was to be a sky blue 1954 Chevy Bel Air convertible, and the one behind was to be a white 1965 convertible T-Bird. We approached the start area and had last minute reservations about our start time. There are no Race officials to guide who starts when, rather all the cars approach the designated spots and start when they feel they will have the best opportunity to run the course in the exact time. Some cars do a running start, while others do a dead stop start. The choice is determined by the team, and how they choose to calculate their run times. We the Baltimore Bohs (that’s our official team name listed in all race literature), always use the dead stop method. As we were deliberating over the correct start time, the car in front of us took off, and we saw the T-Bird moving in next. We went from being convinced they were all wrong to realizing we were the knuckleheads. Into rocket mode we went. We raced up close to the blue Chevy, and then timed ourselves to be as close to one minute behind them as we could. We scored an 8 second time on that leg which was GREAT. Then on the second leg we missed a sign, and two cars were ahead of us. You guessed it, rocket mode yet again. We passed the 2 cars and jumped behind the blue Chevy again and recalculated to try and place ourselves in the right slot. We did a better job on that leg, ending within 1 second of design. I can’t even remember what happened on the third leg (it’s all a blur), but we were 25 seconds off.

After the third leg we were diverted over to Eureka Springs for lunch. Our driving path to our lunch spot took us winding through the beautiful historic town built on a mountain or hillside. All directions throughout the day are done the same way. They frequently do not have street names, never any mileage, and they are intentionally vague. The directions were intended to give us all the chance to see the wonderful town, so we were frequently crossing and passing one another. We ended up behind a couple who taught a Zoom class for all the Rookies and followed them to lunch. As we parked, the driver acknowledged that they were lost and got lucky finding the lunch spot. The blind led the blind, and we all got lucky.

During lunch Hal parked himself in the back corner of the huge lunch hall where the racers were fed, where he vigorously worked to complete his calculations for the second half of the day. Today’s race instructions were 33 pages long, and he did not have enough time pre-race to complete all his computations. Instead of sitting in the shade by the car, Hal welcomed the opportunity to sit in an air-conditioned space and work away. We knew our start time, making sure we did not have a repeat of the morning’s confusion. When we left, we were directed out of the parking lot down a very steep incline and told to turn left. There was a corresponding direction on our instruction sheet that looked identical to the condition of our turn. We made a left turn and started driving, looking for a sign identified on the next instruction. We drove, and looked, and drove some more. We had maybe 20 minutes after lunch to get to our next starting spot. We burned through a good 15 minutes of that time and decided to turn around. As we came back, we saw cars going in three directions; it was utter mayhem! We followed some other cars in one direction, gave up on that, and then followed a string of 6 cars that started going on the original path we had taken. We followed them a bit and then pulled into a convenience store lot to reassess and to ask for directions from a local. Hal ultimately realized that we missed the first two directions, and we were able to re-correct. By the time we got on the true course, we had burned 40+ minutes beyond our start time. It would have been impossible to recoup that time, so we pulled in behind a yellow Ford pick-up truck that had Ace stickers all over its cab and bed. We dropped back a safe distance and cruised until we hit the next checkpoint. We knew that our excess time would be dropped down to 2 minutes, but what we did not know was that times in excess of 30 minutes past a checkpoint require a DNF scoring – Did Not Finish… for the entire DAY!

We ran the last leg, running the course very well, and scored 3 seconds. When we pulled into the finish line and received our printed scores, the timekeeper handed us our results page and explained why our day was logged as DNF. We were crestfallen. And he said, “BUT, since you are Rookies, we drop the worst 5 legs of the race, and your 40 minute 11 second run gets dropped, and you get to keep the previous and subsequent scores.” That brightened our spirits dramatically. We are still in it, but we have a long way to go! For the record, I had previously suggested Rookies have their worst 6 legs dropped, but the Race official clarified it as 5. I stand corrected.

Other random thoughts, notes, and highlights:

Neither Hal nor I had ever been to Arkansas. Of all the States through which we have traveled on this adventure, Arkansas has been hands down the most beautiful. The tree-covered mountains, rolling hills, farms with lush green pastures, and a seeming abundance of rivers and lakes make for stunning views and what appears to be a good quality of life.

An overlook in Petit Jean, Arkansas

At lunch I sat with a Great Race staff person who also works as a staff person for the Motorcycle Cannonball Run. She explained that the three motorcycle riders in the Great Race are veteran Cannonball riders. The Motorcycle Cannonball Run is mapped from coast-to-coast, and is run over 16 days. They only accept motorcycles built before 1933, and they typically have over 100 riders. All these bikes have suicide shifters, and all riders are navigating similar daily race charts while crossing the country. She also noted they have one day off in the middle of the 16 days to give the rider’s bodies a break.

Today was HOT, HOT, HOT! At a mid-afternoon break, a homeowner came out to chat, and shared that the heat index was 109 degrees. Two cars had the wiring for their pre-radiator fans catch fire. Several cars removed their hoods completely, to help keep them from overheating, and the driver of the Sunbeam Alpine (the Grace Kelly car), had to turn his heat on to help cool the car down. The heater is just a second smaller radiator that allows air to blow through and into the cab. This trick of turning on the heat is an old tried and true method to help old overheating cars. The Alpine driver and his navigator got so hot, they flew through the last leg of the race, happy to take the penalty, just to end their misery as soon as possible. The entire trip, The Hippo’s thermostat has run close to the up and downside of center on the gauge. Today, we had 35mph runs up incredibly steep grades that could only be run in second gear, and the engine was screaming in high RPMs. The thermostat went as high as the 3/4 mark, but fortunately we soon leveled off and were able to run at 45-50mph in 3rd gear for long enough to bring the engine temperature back down. I was sweating over concerns for the engine, both literally and figuratively.

According to my Oura Ring, I burned another 4,009 calories today, equivalent to 14.9 miles of walking. The following shows my heartrate during the race. The high spike was the stress and focus in trying to regain our position.

Our cumulative rank has moved to #88. As cars continue to break down, we are reminded by all that, “If you finish, you win!” Hal and I both have enough of a competitive streak that we get disappointed in ourselves when things go wrong, but never disappointed in each other. When things settle down, we get back to laughing about it all… but we still want to win! 🙂 We are hoping that tomorrow will bring a day of great scores.

A few years ago, Southway Builders was fortunate enough to renovate the Parkway Theatre in Baltimore City. This was the first movie theater built in the city, and it originally had beautiful ornamental plaster throughout. The building had been vacant for several decades prior to our work, and the architect, Steve Ziger, decided that restoration work would be strategic and selective. It was not a full restoration, rather much of the decay was intentionally stabilized and preserved to provide a visual display of the building’s condition history. Steve referred to the concept as a Rescued Ruin. That is how I refer to the status of The Hippo – she is a rolling rescued ruin. At every stop, people express how much they love the car, and they are quick to share their hopes that I will not do a full restoration. Many people say they love the “patina”. I usually laugh and thank them for their generous compliments, because The Hippo is the roughest looking gal on the lot in every town. The majority of the crowd who love seeing the gleaming trophy cars are polite enough to hold their thoughts, but there is a growing appreciation for keeping cars in their natural state. The Hippo is no garage queen, she is a driver, and she has a fan base wherever she goes.

Marcus continued playing with ChatGPT, and loaded some of my writings to see how they would be modified in the style of the Old Testament with additional high drama. Some of the output presented was as follows: 1) Yet, upon straight and level plains, I learned to listen to the song of the engine, its melodious cadence guiding me towards constancy. 2) As we embarked upon the serpentine paths, etched in the very bosom of the earth, my focus was held captive by the perilous road. 3) But as we ascended and descended the swiftly repeating hills, our path akin to a tumultuous dance, the engine’s serenade became a capricious companion, its rhythm disrupted and fragmented. – I think I need to use ChatGPT for the rest of my submissions!

Lastly, apologies if I have overloaded anyone’s mailbox with edits. All these posts get completed between 12:00-1:00am, and I proofread everything twice before sending, but my editing brain is pretty well cooked by this late hour, and things fall through the cracks. I check again in the morning, and always find horrible misspellings and other errors. At work I get upset when product goes out without being clean and free of errors. Quality! When I see mistakes, I must fix them. I am sure I have still missed plenty, so please forgive this tired writer, and grant me clemency from doing time in grammar jail. Thanks!

Tomorrow, or now today, we will be at pole position 119, at the back of the pack. Another long day, but with high hopes for some success!