Short run today. Only about 240 miles. But man what an absolutely beautiful ride. The scenery leaving Denver is amazing. Last year on the GAR I didn't get any pictures or videos due to a lazy co-driver. This year I wound up not having a co-driver, so I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of shots and video.
(video coming soon)
Also last year, we learned that our cars don't do so well at high altitudes with the low octane gas they have. So I made sure to hang back with the RX8 since he had a bunch of problems last year. It's a strange brotherhood, but like we always say "leave no rally car behind".
It was slow goings because, as expected the RX8 started having problems. The ecu couldn't adapt to the high altitude and low air pressure, so it was going haywire and dumping mass amounts of fuel into the engine. Trailing behind them I could smell nothing but gas coming out the tailpipes, and with his foot to the floor even in 1st gear he couldn't get over 25mph uphill. Thankfuly a lot of the way was downhill.
Destination today, the Red Cliffs Lodge just outside of Moab, Ut.
We're litterally out in the middle of nowhere, on one lane each direction roads w/ no shoulders, cliffs on one side, and the Colorado river on the other. Talk about a beautiful drive.
So the RX8 and I rolled in last today. No big deal, we had an amazing time.
*thumbs up*
As we were rolling in, Dale in his Z06 came racing by us. When I say racing, I mean RACING. Speed limit in the gravel parking lot was 10mph, and he was doing at least 50. I step out of the car and I see Cameraman Mike walking towards me and I'm like "WTF is Dale's problem?" Mike tells me that he's chancing some woman down who just hit him. I thought he meant that she hit Dale. Turns out the woman had completely plowed over Mike while he was filming froma tripod in the parking lot!!!!!! Then the crazy bitch tried to run!!!! Forget that!! Dale was able to catch her, but she continued to blame Mike for being in the parking lot. He's stationary on the side of the drive way with a camera on a tripod wearing tan shorts and a bright red shirt!!! Whatever lady! Every second is on film from him getting hit to her running. So she's in deep, DEEP shit. Clear case of hit and run.
The rest of the night was uneventfull. Few of the guys from the run decided to play "Edward 40 Hands", and we got run off from the pool area AND from the picnic area. lol... No worries. Security was cool, and her two sons were pretty awesome, too. A bunch of the guys had left tons and tons of beer and liquor laying around, so it was free beer night for them.
One thing about where we were is that unless you have a satalite phone, you're totally boned. There wasn't a single person on any carrier that had a cell phone signal. lol
That's it for today. More tomorrow.
