Winter rallyists are a different lot. We are kind of like skiers in that we hope for lots of snow. It is amazing how much affect a little bit of falling snow can have on the challenge of driving a winter rally. Without the snow, you can see further down the road and prepare for the upcoming turns. If we have a few inches of snow, or a little ice, on road and the driver needs to prepare for the turn better since it will take a lot more time to slow down for the instruction and then more time to accelerate away. If the snow is falling, you get the double whammy of limited traction and vision. This is when the rallyist really begins to smile! For the Long Way Home, the snow was a mixed blessing. The snow and cold weather that we have had left a nice solid blanket of snow on the roads. Rallies generally try to find the "roads less traveled" and sometime that includes roads that I have described as "I am amazed that these roads get plowed." Well, this year, one of the towns that maintain one of the "classic" rally roads thought the same thing and decided that it didn't need to be plowed. I even called my cousin, who lives in the area, and found out how to contact the town highway superintendent. With the initial phone call, it sounded promising that they might plow the road for us to use, but after he actually went out and checked the road, he was concerned that with the cold weather, that salt would not improve the icy conditions and he was concerned about other people getting in trouble on the road. Sometimes it seems like you cannot win. You hope for cold weather and snow, but then you get too much of a good thing. So anyway, a reroute around the lost road was put together and the TWO checkpoints planned for the awesome lost road were replaced with less dramatic locations and the plan proceeded. There was one other location that was questionable. As I said above, we look for "the roads less traveled". Those roads are generally on the edges of normal civilization. There is one such road right after the break where the rally road is plowed since there are a couple houses located on it, but the only "good" way back out is to travel a short section of road that is Seasonal and not plowed. The road is a short section of a straight downhill that they apparently don't like to take the plow truck down. Well, the locals have the same attitude and generally travel the road anyway, with their trucks and buggies, to keep the pathway open. I have used this road almost every year and have never had a problem before. Apparently, the week before the rally, there was enough snow on the road that when Bill Laitenberger was course checking the rally, he didn't feel comfortable driving down that road. Considering that he was alone and no "sweep truck" would be following, it was probably the smart thing to do. So the morning of the event, I got up early and headed out to check the route and decide if a second reroute would be required. Luckily, while the snow was as deep as I have run it before, it was still passable for the rally. Everything is in place for the event to finally start. Amy (my lovely wife who puts up, and helps me, with all these activities) and I head out to the CrossRoads Restaurant. Everything is proceeding as planned. We had twelve teams show up to compete. Everyone competing team completed the event without incident and the sweep crew had a very easy night. There were three teams competing in Equipped class. Gary Thomas and Dave Cady came out on top and first overall, with a total score of 32 points for 15 controls. Limited class had four contenders with Karl Haltiner and Mac McCann besting the field with a total score of 85. Stack class also had four teams and Roy Hopkins and Adrienne Hughes assumed their usual position in first place with 131 points. George Rodrigues and Thomas Caimano took first place in Novice class with 1266 points. In an unusual turn, they were the sole Novice team entered. I would also like to thank my workers. Debbie Bartlett for doing registration, Bill Laitenberger for doing the course check, tech, card exchange, and scoring, Bob and Kara Van Sice, Rob Hurley, Dave Donatello, Carl Dresie, Barb Lissow, Mike Reda, Dana "Reda", John Walsh, Heidi Hall, Maggie Hall, Martha (Heidi's mom), Dan Gluek, and Mike Ligget for all working checkpoints. Of course I need to thank my wife Amy for all her help with the event and working the card exchange checkpoint with Bill. Last but not least, notable mention should be made of Ovis "the wonder lamb" for making his rally debut and surviving the entire rally experience in the back of Bill's car. (If you want to know more about that, you will have to ask Amy.) The final thanks goes out to Bill Laitenberger. During course opening, the rear strut mount on my car finally decided to quit doing it's job properly shortly after the break. A quick call to Bill and Amy to let them know that we were going to limp back home on paved roads resulted in meeting them about 15 miles away and Bill loaning me his car for the rest of course opening. We missed verifying a couple checkpoint locations, but were able to fall back into the lead. It was much appreciated, and I have decided that I really like AWD, even though it seems like "cheating". Until next time, Alan Smith Long Way Home rallymaster April 17, 2005 Spring Series rallymaster Results (PDF)