Hello to all those who participated in the Sunny Sunday Rally. So glad you came. I was very concerned that we would have 8 cars show up, but I guess you all had a quiet summer and wanted a challenge. We had 25 teams participate. Some teams played musical chairs and rode with different partners. This time, Marguerite rode with Ed, and Val rode with Jesse since Barbara was out of town.

Now I'll start by saying- you should have known what you were getting into when you came to a day rally! No easy signs that sat close by the side of the road. You can thank my devious (satanic??) husband, Gary, for putting out those Sunny signs. You can take pleasure in knowing that he had to work very hard (and has the scratches to show for it) to hide those bright sunny faces for you. We had to make it harder because I thought the instructions were going to be fairly easy (what do I know???). There were named roads for you to use as a guide, and I even threw in a bonus question for you to get a 100 point credit. Aren't I NICE? Hint for those of you who didn't get my little trick- there were 0 “HUMPS” signs. All the HUMP signs were singular, and since “HUMPS” was in quotes, it referred only to signs, not the actual humps in the road. Guess deviousness runs in the family.

Speaking of those lovely signs- you may not believe this, but every sign was found by at least one rally team. So, no whining will be allowed (OK, you can whine, but I won't listen!). What was interesting to me was that in some places, we put two signs fairly close together, and in most cases, only one sign was seen. Just what we planned on. We put out 39 with one extra after the checkpoint (OK, so I had brain-fade after running the route 7 times). One additional sign was put up at the end checkpoint as a confirmation for any teams who got there after the checkpoint had closed. One team did write down the * sign, and was given credit for it. Everyone should say thanks to my co-chair Frank for having to go and retrieve all those signs on Monday morning.

The route was intended to make you look around at some of the beautiful roads, houses and wildlife that you never get to see (or, in the case of wildlife, don't want to see) on a night rally. Many of the dirt roads were graded the week before the rally. How do we know that? Because we rode behind the grader. For everyone other than a couple of teams in convertibles with hard suspensions, these roads should have been quite pleasant unless you were trying to make up time.

So, you liked my “Succabone and follow” instruction? It was actually quite easy because you could see the street post with the name from the intersection where the follow came into play. And I know some of you had a question about the bear left at Y (MBR) at the beginning. Gee whiz, I gave you the mileage, the next intersection had multiple roads coming in and was not a Y, AND you had a named road on the next instruction to get you on course.

I thought I'd get some grief about the “SHERMAN” sign, but you were too good for that. And, did you laugh when you saw the “Eager Beaver” sign? Hope you liked the Peaceable Street/Peaceable Hill roads. Tested your follow abilities, didn't they:?

Over all, everyone seemed to enjoy the rally, and did say that the route was beautiful, other than the eye strain of looking for those darned signs. One team even took my snide hint about getting binoculars to see the signs seriously- guess they used them to their advantage, since they won the rally.

One note about rally etiquette. I know there can be instances when a rallyist who is late comes up behind you and wishes to pass you. In the heat of the moment, they may seem a bit assertive when they flash their lights in your rear view mirror. I know, 'cause I've been there (many times!). Please let them pass when it can be done safely. Remember, this is only for a little trophy and bragging rights. We don't want anyone angry or hurt- this is supposed to be fun.

All in all, the rally was a success in my book. 21 out of 25 teams finished (one team finishing in the AppleBee's parking lot after the checkpoint closed). One novice team called me from the road, and since they were quite late, decided to call it quits somewhere around Appleby Dr. Now, that's coincidence! Hope they come back and try again. If at first you don't succeed, you know what! TRY, TRY AGAIN.

I must say thanks to Frank Cardone, my intrepid co-chair, who never said no when I asked if we could go “just once more” to check the route, who retrieved the signs with me on Monday morning, manned the final checkpoint and anything else I needed. Also, thanks to Gary Kanzler for putting up those nasty signs, and helping me with the route and cold running the rally with me, and to Ken Frey, whose navigator couldn't make it at the last minute, and volunteered to help at the start and the final checkpoint. And lastly, to Jesse Lipscher, who had a new (although very experienced) navigator, who helped me with the results, which were done less than a week after the finish of the rally.

See you in November for the Turkey Tour Rally.

Debbi Kanzler