Woo hoo! We have a pretty good horse race going this time! Several strong contenders!

Basil

I'm looking for my second win and besides, now that my Midget is my daily driver, I NEED that prize money! lol

JACK

ALRIGHTY THEN......

2 sets of new plugs, a sputter-sputter, pothole crews everywhere and the racing officials apparently hate me...

9 legs later and still in the starting gate at zero...as the saying goes "I'm getting no where FAST"...but at least I'm having fun getting there!!!!

Update leg 12: Well if nothing else learned it always pays be a Good Samaritan!!!

You know pothole crew its WINTER road work should be done till spring. Take a vacation I hear florida is nice this time of year.

Stewart, I've never heard of a car called a "No Pothole Crews" Is it even British?

American and freshly patented.

http://www.sandia.gov/media/pothole.htm

Next time i'm driving one of those! Pot holes have cost me 10 points already! not to mention a bad fuel filter along the way

DANG IT! Dang it is right! That makes back to back pothole crews. That brought me down to 8.4 avg. Looks like the horse race is still on.

JACK

Wahoo, i am at 8.6 avg. let's see if i can avoid the potholes!

can you see me in your rear view mirror yet?

Yeah, I see you in the rear view. After tonight's FLAT TIRE you should be gaining. That makes 3 good scores in a row knocked down! BLAST IT! Oh well, that just means clear sailing from here, right?

Just make sure you don't leave any extra nails in the road when changing that flat!

Hopefully I can steer clear of the bad luck!

What, no ribbon to break, no cheering fans, no girls to kiss….I had hoped on a little share of the glory for crossing the FINISH LINE first.
what the hey….had FUN...thanks Basil...now just point me to the beer???

That's what it's all about isn't it Bibber?? Nice pass Mickey I decided to take the scenic route to the last checkpoint (brainfaded to cruising below min. avg, speed ) !!

Woohoo! Finally in the lead.

Well, you "were" in the lead. But you're only 5 points off now so one good leg should put you back!

Well, after a bad start, I made up some points, but the last leg messed me up big time. Thought I'd calculated the distance correctly, but must have missed a leg - TWO HOURS WORTH!!!

Bas - you SURE about the mileage?

I was out of the race for anywhere the lead, anyway!

Yeah, and the pot hole crew plus a failed bribe just put me out of the race. Oh well, I knew better.

Did the same, knew the same, same result.

Gee, nice guys don't necessarily finish last!!! (of course they rarely get a chance at first either...but it IS for the fun of it!!!! )

Aloha Basil,
I'm having a great time here in what I hope will be my first completed rally. Thank you for all of your efforts to not only create the rally, but make it interesting!
The potholes in Colorado are as bad as those here in Hawaii...
Richard

Glad you like it Richard! Noe go and increase your post count - you're up to "1" so far

Ah the dreaded pot-hole crews

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is losing more points to those @%#* construction crews and potholes. I hope my honesty and aversion to gambling pay off with some better legs on this journey.

Never did find that highway between Rt 41 and Rt44 on my way to Edgewood... but I'm enjoying the landscape as I explore the routes on Google Earth.

Think I'll head over to the East Mountain Grill for a drink...

Ciao for niao!

Looks like pa297pass his well positioned. Currently in second place but still has 7 checkpoints to go. OF course anythign can happen in 7 checkpoints.

pa297pass is very well positioned, but there is no way he can keep up a 9.85 avg! (is there?)

there has to be some construction in his future.... right? please... just a little pot hole to slow him down?


oh well, looks like i am racing for second place...but .....

Like I said...anything can happen. The fat lady isn't singing yet.

I ain't sayin' nutin'!



Matt

Plains is one sleepy little town. Guess I'll go and look at some crop circles while I wait to start out for the next checkpoint... and it's a dry county to boot...

Not really, they get 25 to 32 inches per year

Well, that was a most enjoyable tour, Basil. Scoped out the Lakes of the Ozarks, the neighborhood where my son is stationed and a lot of interesting spots along the way. A few less mishaps/detours and some more dishonest officials and I coulda bin a contendah! and all SOP driving!

Well, I'm out. I was so far off on that leg i had to try the bribe, and we all know how those turn out

Actually I am a little confused, I don't understand how I could be off by as much as it said i was. I must have messed up the route (since i can't go back and check that) but i'm pretty sure I had it close.

Basil, was my leg 17 that far off for route and speed?

Rob

[edit]
BACK IN BUSINESS, thanks for looking into it Basil

still need some help!

Same leg that got me, Rob - was two hours off!

Was tempted to bribe, but didn't.

I was way off the pace, anyway...

At least the Caravelle finished!!!

Vive la France!

Thanks for the adjustment, Bas.

I went back and edited my posts, as I had the leg and route listed on one of them!

88 points - and in a Caravelle - WOO-HOO!

Wahooooo!

From out of the race to (a very temporary) FIRST PLACE!



sure it only has a 5% chance of holding up, but at least I got to lead for a few minutes!




:edit

Wahoo, finished strong! (thanks for the shortcut, Basil!)

first and last leg each had a shortcut, sounds like a good omen to me!

As always, this is a lot of fun, can't wait to see the photo finish. although pa297pass only needs to get 23 points in 3 legs to win. looks like i need some construction AND a big fudge factor to keep this lead.

Rob...183 WOW...very respectable rally!!! I think you've made it a challenge for the repeating Hall of Famers!!

Holy cow! Rob is in the lead with a final score of 183. Pa297pass looks like he had a less than perfect leg (one of only a few) and is now at 173 with one leg to go. . If he scores a perfect 10, it will be tied and we will have to have an instant death run-off! This could be exciting!

Wow!

I was more then exited to score 183 (i think my previous high was under 130)

and a week ago i didn't feel very confident, Pa297pass' avg per leg was a good .5 point higher then mine.

but after watching what the Giants just did, anything is possible.

Thanks again Basil, these are great fun!

Rob

Looks like Aeroken, with an almost perfect last 5, could also possibly beat that fantastic 183. Rob_P has really had a great game...perhaps he could let us know how he seemingly managed to have less than 3 pothole/flat/carb/plug problems???

My lips are sealed...

2 construction
1 set of fouled plugs
1 bad fuel pump

but...
2 shortcuts! (which off set the plugs and pump)

and a lot of luck with the fudge factor

i don't think i got below an 8 (before outside issues came in)

also, the double fudge factor on the last leg did not get me either (unless i was so far off, the fudge put me back on track!)

and as Flip Wilson used to say on Laugh In...don't bribe da judge. (tricycle falls over)

Well, that's that.

Lap 17: -5 points for construction.

Lap 18: -3 points for fuel pump

Lap 19: -5 points for construction

Lap 20: -10 points for "fudge factor" and -5 points for construction.

Great race Rob. I hope you hold onto the top spot.

Matt

Did you try a bribe? YOu had nothing to loose at that point!

pride!!

No I didn't Basil ... probably should have.

Thanks for another great rally.


... yea BIBBER, so I've got that goin' for me.

Matt

What's that?

Yes, of course you should have - at least that would have given you "some" chance to get a 10 on that leg (and would have tied with Rob - which would have meant a fun sudden death playoff! Oh well, too late now - but remember that next time!

Basil

you had to ask...direct from Funk & Wagnall

Pride is an emotion which refers to a strong sense of self-respect in finishing Virtual Rally, a refusal to be humiliated during Virtual Rally as well as joy in the accomplishments of oneself or a person, group, nation or object that one identifies with, or to think of one's self as being better than anyone else during completion of Virtual Rally. It is considered one of the seven deadly sins of Virtual Rally. According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, Proud comes from late Old English prud, probably from Old French prude "brave, valiant" (11th century), from Latin prode "advantageous, profitable", from prodesse "be useful". The sense of "having a high opinion of oneself", not in French, may reflect the Anglo-Saxons' opinion of the Norman knights who called themselves "proud", like the French knights preux>

and that's the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth...SO THERE!!!

Well that settles it then! Thanks for clearing that up!