I’m just back in from five days of driving. I should be tired, but I’m kind of buzzed … good drives, good roads, great friends, great visuals … the basic schedule:
- Friday, 7 a.m. – Depart Athens for Pittsburgh, 651 miles away.
- Friday, 5 p.m. – Arrive Pittsburgh, meet up with Frank, do a little car prep then head to dinner. Tell many stories, catch up, reminisce about past car rallies.
- Saturday, 7 a.m. – Wake up, tell more stories, prep for the Steel City Region 24 – a round-the-clock car rally, noon Saturday to noon Sunday.
- Saturday, 12:06 p.m. – Start the SCR24 PM.
- Sunday, 12:06 a.m. – Start the SCR24 AM.
- Sunday, 12:30 p.m. – Finish the SCR24, feast and collect hardware – First overall and in class for the SCR24 AM, first overall and in class for the whole SCR24. Total event mileage was somewhere around 700 miles through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Ohio. (I will admit to sneaking in one 30 minute nap around 6:15 a.m.)
- Sunday, 2:30 p.m. – Load up, start the two-car caravan south to Elkins, West Virginia.
- Sunday, 5:30 p.m. – Arrive in Elkins. Even though I’ve been up since 7 a.m. the day before, I can’t sleep so I do a walk-about downtown and shoot photos for an hour or two.
- Monday, 8:00 a.m. – Wake up and head out to check the Rally West Virginia route.
- Monday, 7:00 p.m. – Return to Elkins after driving around all day doing our favorite thing – “looking at roads.” We see some cool stuff, and some damned scary stuff …
- Tuesday, 8:00 a.m. – Frank heads north, I head south, finishing off the check with one last segment, then point the car towards Georgia.
- Tuesday, 6:00 p.m. – Arrive back in Athens.
I have no idea how many miles I did, as it was split across two cars … but it was a lot.
And it was good.
Images from Elkins after the break …