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This was the second running
of this rally, but the first time I had been in it. Michael Hickman
had mentioned it while
I was participating in one
of his rallies. James Stovall, the rallymaster of the HOT rally,
had participated in a couple of Michael's rallies.
Anyway, I had registered for this rally thinking that
I could start from the house on a Saturday morning and finish 12 hours
later in Brady,
TX. This would allow the least amount of conflict with work, family,
and all of the other stuff that could come up. Therefore, no problem,
I could commit. However, as it got closer to rally time, James had issued
some Alternate Start locations? I had no idea what this meant, but I
found out that Paris was the closest alternate to my house and it had 675
points associated with it. Therefore, whether I chose to leave from my
house or Paris on Saturday morning, I wouldn't have to have a motel Friday
night and it would be cheaper and more acceptable to my situation.
Ok, so the bonus choices appeared on my email early
Wednesday morning as promised and I gave it a quick scan. I wasn't
able to fully engross myself in the process because I was at work.
However, from time-to-time, I would give a quick look. I soon discovered
Paris was going to be a tough choice. In fact, I just didn't like it.
Therefore, I would have to position myself to one of the other favorable
alternates. I considered Amarillo and Lufkin, but Lufkin soon won.
I had already been offered to share a room in Brady with Richard
Swim (thank you Richard. I owe you $45). All I needed to
do now, is just find a cheap room in Lufkin and all would be good (been
there, done that, no problem).
Betsy Young and Bobby Fox also headed to Lufkin. I met
up with Bobby at Jacksonville and Betsy caught us at Lufkin. We all
three stayed in the Lufkin Inn and went to sleep with the vibration
of music coming from the bar next door and the exhaust trumphets of
various Harleys and pick-up trucks. |
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The map
above depicts my "what-if" scenarios that I fumbled with while deciding
on Lufkin. There were several theme (group) bonus packages offered
so that if you chose that particular package and got all of the bonii
within
that group, you would get double the points. Each one of the colored
routes above includes one of those themes (fuel, bridge, state parks,
cemetery,
lighthouse and court house.) I threw the court house route out the
window right away because I would have to start in Odessa, then go
to Fort Davis. Or, just start in Ft Davis, either way, it wasn't going
to work for me. |
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see on the left side of the page above that the shortest route
and quickest time was the State Park theme. It also had the least amount
of total points. However, it also had a big opportunity for adding
on to those points by getting additional bonii because it was
near
several other good points. Plus, if you were crazy enough to,
you could pick-up some extra whataburger bonii as a result of the proximity
to
Austin and populated areas? (not me) |
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I chose the
State Park theme, then added on several more points along the way
to end up looking like the route above. It did require being very prompt
along the way as you can tell by the time posted (it was a 12 hour
rally). Not much time to get fuel and go to the bathroom. |
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Fort Boggy
State Park was the first bonus. There were several of us searching
for this sign. I'm not sure why we didn't just shoot the photo and
move on. I was thinking that the sign should look different than it
did. |
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Mother Neff
was the second bonus and we had to take this staircase to the
top of the rock tower. It wasn't too tall at all. |
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I got lucky
and found a group right next to the road in Bastrop. They were very
willing to help out. |
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That's Bill
Puckett's #19 hanging on the sign and his yellow gold wing in my mirror.
Bobby Fox was also there. |
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Even though
you can't see anyone in the picture, there were about 5 or 6 of us
circling this bonus. Construction had shut-down one of the entrances
and we
had to scavenge to get access. I tried a walk-through gate but it was
locked. You never know where you are going to gain-or-lose time. |
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An easy bonus |
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This one
was easy to get to, although the first gps routing was down a dead-end
road. I got lucky and caught it on my map before I made the mistake
of going down the gravel road. Bobby, on the other hand, was not
so lucky. I should have called him in advance. (Sorry Bobby) |
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Fredericksburg
Cemetery |
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This photo
required the court house as well as the clock tower. I had to back-off
a little here. |
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| I didn't
want to go after this bonus because I was unclear about getting the
picture correct. It said we had to be in the middle of the bridge
and shoot the photo north with the rally flag in the photo. It also said
we had to shoot the Colorado river with it. However, I couldn't get
the river in the photo so I shot a second photo. If you will move
your
mouse over-and-away from the photo you will see the second shot containing
the river. |
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Ghost Town
Conoco |
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The happy butane tank as
my final points |
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