Today was the official start of the Great Race. All cars left the hotel in their racing position order (while we are car #98, our race position was #87), and then headed to Francis Field in the City of St. Augustine. Our hotel was quite a way out, so we had a long speedometer calibration run on the highway, followed by a winding route through the City, and ending at the field.

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Friday morning started with more rain. Hopping in The Hippo for the first drive, there was already a puddle on the driver’s side floor. And every time we started driving from a stop, a trickle of water would land upon my foot. If this is the worst thing that happens throughout this trip, then we will call it a win! And as one friend remarked in the comments section, a Hippo is a mammal that thrives in the water, so no big deal.

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Just before my morning departure, I checked the oil level on The Hippo and discovered it was a quart low. I added the necessary quart and headed out from the motel at about 8:30. More rain for most of the drive to St. Augustine, and no problems to speak about. Hal, the navigator, was due for arrival at the Jacksonville airport at around 12:45, and I was near the airport with about an hour-and-a-half of time to kill. I had been brooding about the oil loss and decided I would use my free time to see if I could fix it.

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All seemed to be progressing well in the morning. Bags were packed, and everything on the checklist for the car seemed to be in order. Heavy duty jack, lug wrench, jumper cables, fire extinguisher – all check. A decent assortment of tools stowed in D.Donnelly’s father’s toolbox – check. A case of water, a 12 pack of unsweetened tea, two folding chairs – check. And two 12 packs of longneck Natty Boh bottles – these as a valuable and iconic representation of Baltimore, to be used for trading, in lieu of pelts, for niceties being offered by the wonderful citizens of the 16 towns we are scheduled to visit. Should nothing of significant value be offered, then we will be left to drink them ourselves as a daily prize for our significant efforts.

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#1) My wife Caroline went out of town for work this morning. We have been blissfully married for 33 years, and we dated for 4 years prior to that. Including today, we will be apart for 14 straight days, and that is almost double the longest time we have been apart in our 37 years together. The pending adventure will hopefully be a ton of fun, but I will surely miss her, and will undoubtedly be ready to hurry home when it is all said and done. Marla, our 2 1/2-year-old 140 pound English Mastiff, will keep her company. Whenever I leave, Marla goes into protective high gear, diligently searching the property for ne’er-do-wells.

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This story starts in the mid 1930’s, on Midhurst Road in Baltimore County, Maryland, where two three-year-old boys with the same last name but of no relation, started a friendship that would endure the rest of their lives. Bingy Moore, my father, lived at 107 Midhurst Road, and his best friend D.Donnelly (pronounced Dee-Donnelly, said as one word) grew up at 108 Midhurst.

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