It's over...

We rolled into New Orleans this afternoon, the car in reasonable shape (our exhaust leak is slowly redeveloping), us showing a bit more wear. Found the hotel after driving through some still-abandoned parts of the city, and some that have been re-inhabited; I'm not really sure which were creepier.

The hotel, however, is a huge improvement from Birmingham, and is probably the nicest we've had in the whole rally. It's in the Garden District on St. Charles Ave. We went into the French Quarter for food, walked around some to stretch out our legs after five days of being sedentary, and then made our way to the hotel where the official closing ceremony was to be held.




As usual, things were running late, so the assembled throng spilled out into the street and promptly drew the ire of the hotel management. We were shifted further and further up the street until we ended up in an empty parking lot bordering a rather dodgy area of Canal St. The ceremonies continued on for a while, with the organizer being completely inaudible to those more than two rows back. Nonetheless, trophies were awarded, applause was given, and the group slowly broke up, drifting toward their hotels or the French Quarter, depending on whether they had to start for home tomorrow morning or not.










We are of course beginning the return leg tomorrow, heading for Atlanta. We're not looking forward to more driving, but it's a pretty straight shot, and it will be nice not to have to worry about challenges and routes. The whole thing was lots of fun, but grueling at times. While it proves that you can drive long distances in a $500 car, it also proves that it is not something you will want to do often. And it makes you appreciate your other cars that much more.

P.S.- Forgot to mention that, on Day 4 while out taking pictures of mailboxes in order to fulfill a challenge requirement, I rescued a turtle in the middle of the road. No road trip is complete without a turtle rescue.

Things to do in Birmingham, Alabama...

#1: Try not to become a material witness to anything. The hotel here is somewhere between unsettling and downright frightening. To say it is on the wrong side of the tracks would be an accurate statement in both the literal and figurative senses. We are basically trying to avoid any human or bacterial contact for the remainder of the evening and getting out of Dodge as early as we can.

The drive today was relatively easy, but that's because we decided to ignore the suggested route and make our way here relatively quickly in the interests of catching up on a bit of rest. Had we known the hotel would be anything but restful we might have reconsidered this. However, we didn't, so we attempted to find the good area of the city. We eventually stumbled across it; it consists of the University of Alabama campus and a half a block of restaurants several blocks away and separated from the rest of the city by a sort of demilitarized zone.

The latter was near the bar where we were to meet for the evening's gathering. We were early, so we stopped at a nice little barbecue place beyond the perimeter for an early dinner. We then went to the bar and checked in with the other teams to see how they were faring. More problems, but nothing catastrophic. People are starting to get a bit frayed, it seems. Good thing tomorrow is the last day; the people and the cars are showing the strain.

So Friday will bring an end to the odyssey in New Orleans. Of course, we are driving home Saturday and Sunday, but the event will be over. It will be good to be able to drive home without worrying about challenges along the way and dodgy hotels waiting for us at the end. The car has been cooperative thus far, and we're hoping this keeps up. The remainder of the driving should be fairly sedate highway time, which will be less stressful for both us and the car. Cross your fingers....

NOTE: Posting this from the Mississippi Welcome Area on I59 at 1145 Friday morning, since there was no functional internet at our lovely accomodations of evening last (more on that below). We are a little less than halfway to New Orleans at this point, and the challenge for the day is complete, so it's just driving from here on out. More once we've arrived.

OK, a little better now...

No swimming, but Advil and stillness have helped.

Anyway, the day began at 0900 with an admonition from the organizers to the effect that, if you were having car trouble, you should not follow the planned route due to the dangerous roads and remoteness from, well, everything. We took off and ended up following the route as planned. This included a dirt road through primordial forest, altitudes of over a mile above sea level, and many, many turns.



After almost 10 hours, we rolled into the hotel parking lot in Murphy, Tennessee in time to see the vivid aftermath of what happens when you try to cook a can of soup on the engine of a Toyota camper van (hint: it explodes).

A few pictures from today's adventure:

The car as it looks today. Decoration is a work in progress, as you can see. Many teams have contributed. No major mechanical issues, just an exhaust leak that is getting louder. John is working on it as I type. Other teams have not fared as well, with some pretty major failures. We shall see how many make it here in the wee hours.


One of the highlights of today's drive was Deal's Gap, a route known as "The Tail of the Dragon" and infamous in the motorcycle community for its never-ending twists and turns over 11 miles. Frankly, Rt.58 that we drove yesterday was twistier and more demanding, but this was entertaining nonetheless.



Tomorrow, Birmingham, Alabama. We may deviate a bit from the planned route and make a straight run along the interstate in the interests of being a little more comfortable at the end of the day. We'll see.

Just arrived in Murphy NC

The end of another very long day. We drove almost 300 miles over twisting mountain roads crisscrossing between Tennessee and North Carolina, including the infamous Tail of the Dragon (US129). More later; for now I need Advil and perhaps the swimming pool.

End of Day 2

We finally got to the hotel in lovely Newport TN after 10 hours on the road. 412 miles.

The challenge for today was to locate three towns (from a list of twelve) and get pictures of ourselves and our car in front of a public building with the name of the town on it. We also needed to get a local citizen in the picture with us. Did I mention that we were dressed as astronauts?



The first stop was Buena Vista VA, a short run off I81. We pulled up in front of the police station behind about four other teams who had already gone about corralling volunteers, including the chief of police. Photos were taken, the event was explained, and we were on our way.



120 miles later, we convinced a young couple in Hillsville VA to take a picture of us in front of the town hall. A waitress from the restaurant across the street came out to investigate and convinced us to have lunch in her establishment. The staff there was curious and quite enthusiastic about the whole thing. The team from Alberta Canada pulled in just as we were leaving; we sent them to the restaurant to seek out volunteers.



The final town we chose was Mountain City TN. We planned to run across a local road that seemed to offer a more direct route. More direct, yes; faster, no. This road turned into a twisted mass of asphalt that slowed our progress to a veritable crawl, adding hours and frustrating me to no end. After a minor meltdown on my part, we altered the plan to head for Elizabethton TN via I81 and a series of larger state roads. This was much quicker, but we were then left with the task of convincing the skeptical and scarce local populace to help us out. After explaining and providing documentation showing that we weren't revenuers or Russians, we finally got our picture and headed back to the interstates for the last 80 mile run to the hotel.



A very long day, and tomorrow looks to be just as long. At least we don't have to dress up like astronauts.

To boldly go where no man has gone before...

...at least not in so battered a collection of vehicles.

Today is astronaut day. We set off at10.00 into the great unknown. Pictures of the stupidity to follow this evening.

End of Day 1

Couldn't get the internet to cooperate last night, so this is the first chance I've had to update things. Stayed in Manhattan last night. We had to get up quite early - this is what the Chrysler building looks like at 5.45am.


Arriving in Staten Island last night saw a parking lot full of machinery that had clearly seen their prime years somewhere between the Carter and Clinton administrations. A few pictures should convey a sense of the collected junk.


The muffler on the green Lincoln Continental exploded in the parking lot.

As to the actual driving, we arrived in Harrisonburg, VA around 5.40 this evening after a relatively uneventful cruise from Staten Island. After leaving S.I., we turned south on the NJ Turnpike briefly before heading west on I287 to I78 to I81. Stopped in Carlisle, southwest of Harrisburg, PA for lunch and paid a brief visit to the US Army War College's Heritage and Education Center. John drove the first stint, I took the second.

Our car ran fine throughout, though it has developed a very slight squeak from the belts (we think). The rear tires are losing a few pounds of air a day, but as long as we stay on top of it it won't be a problem. In spite of having applied several additional pounds of stickers accumulated from other teams, we're still managing better than 30mpg.

We've had some dinner at a local place, and are back at the hotel. No idea what tomorrow will bring, but having gotten up at 5.45 this morning, it's going to be an early night.

P.S. - The pictures appear to be getting cut off as I view the posting. Please drop me an email and let me know if you can see the whole pic or if they are getting cut off on the right side. Thanks.