OK...... this is my 3rd attempt to send this....... attempt one was from my
personal email name..... won't work! Second time was from my list email name
but in HTML format...... won't work ........ and I'll have to avoid Mark for
the rest of the week! Hopefully third time's the charm.
The trip up was uneventful... mostly. It could have been a disaster.
Wednesday, after meeting Henry Frye a little north of Hartford CT, we headed
on up to Keene NH where we had lunch with Dan Masters and Fred Thomas. These
2 guys are as nice in person as they are on the list. After a few minutes
everyone is talking as if they'd known each other for years.As lunch was
drawing to a close we were getting worried that Phil Barnes wouldn't make
the 1:00 cut off time. But Phil must have a flair for the dramatic as he
pulled in with a few minutes to spare. After a few minutes discussion, I was
elected to lead the way to Portland. It had nothing to do with my navigating
skills... They had 4 red cars and mine was yellow. They didn't want me
breaking up their colors. So off we went, me in the lead, 2 red TR6s, 2 red
TR3s and my wife in the white Outback wagon bringing up the rear. After
every traffic light I played mother hen, checking the rear view and counting
my 4 little red heads! The route east was over 2 lanes that had 1, 2, and
even 3 route numbers at times. The main route was 202 but would be joined
for stretches by 9, 4 and 11. It was on one of these stretches that Fred, in
his concours TR3, had a brief off road shunt! In the middle on a long right
hand sweeper, 202 took a left turn across traffic. Mother hen slowed, put on
her blinker and turned left followed by Phil....... at which point I saw an
18 wheeler come barreling around the corner. I didn't think Phil would make
but he did followed by Dan right on his bumper. Henry, being less
adventuresome then Dan, and obviously much brighter, jumped on the brakes
leaving Fred with two choices: enter Henry's trunk or dive right off the
road onto the dirt and gravel. Henry stopped. Fred dove right and passed
him!! My wife was holding her breath, watching an accident in progress. No
damage, faster heart rates and off we went again. We did the whole 3 hour
drive without losing anyone until we got to Portland. We found the Radisson
easily but decided to ask directions to the Holiday Inn. Fred simply flagged
down a bus driver and got the answer and took off with the rest of us in
pursuit. In the space of 2 blocks we managed to lose Fred, Henry and my
wife!! No harm..... we all found the Holiday Inn and marveled at the license
plates: Texas, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan etc. Beautiful cars driven thousands
of miles.
Day 1: Jeanne and I were going to do the LL Bean trip until we found out the
start time........ ahhh 6:00 AM to beat the crowds.... no thanks. Instead we
did the fun rally at 9:30. This is a distance rally that requires you to
answer questions based on things you find along the way. We got off to a
rough start.... getting lost finding the starting point....... um honey.....
it's not 6.7 miles to the church parking lot from when we got off the
highway....... it's measured from when we left the Holiday Inn!!!! So we
backtracked 7 miles, found the starting point, zeroed the odometer and off
we went. We answered every question including the 5 bonus questions. We'll
find out Saturday who won.
When we got back to the Holiday Inn, Phil and Henry were off to do the
serious TSD Rally. Phil was playing navigator for Bud Rolofson and Henry was
doing the same for Brad Kahler.
Tomorrow is the Kennbunkport tour and autocross.
Bob Danielson
|