Vacation Picture - show us where have you been

[admin]

That's really cool. And they are having a Rally in Boston later this year.

How the heck do I find a car for under $500, that's the real challenge.

[Wildcat]

The $500 limit is for the 24 Hours of Lemons races only. Even there, the limit can be "gamed" a bit. For instance, most who race will gut the interior and some body parts--if you bought a $2,000 car and sold of $1,500 in parts, and have the receipts to prove it, that brings your net cost to $500. Safety equipment like fuel cells, brakes, roll cage, seats and restraints, etc., do not count towards the total--they joke around about many things in Lemons, but safety is not one of them. There are also a very small number of car makes or models that are so unique/rare that the organizers will "look the other way" and allow it.

The Rally can be entered in any type of vehicle, with no cost limit. It's more fun with an older car, especially if you've revived it or put work into it. Bonus points if it is decades old, and a lesser-known (and less-reliable) nameplate. The concept is around "teams" but a team can be one person, as I have done. (Nobody I know has the same flexible schedule that I do.) Going solo is a lot more work but I can also keep my own schedule, and I do a lot of planning for the next day's checkpoints the night before.

But you can just as easily take a daily driver. I've done that on two of the three rallies so far. The third was done in our spare car--18 years old, 250k miles, and I'd just finished doing major engine work (replaced the piston rings and honed the cylinders, as it was burning a quart of oil every tankful of gas, thanks to some impacted oil rings on the pistons) before taking it from Michigan all the way down to New Orleans, up to St. Paul, and back home. I did theme it up with a few vinyl graphics but otherwise, nothing much else was done to it.

I didn't come anywhere near winning any of these rallies, but I'm in it for the adventure and the friends I've made along the way.

The rally also has a rental car class, as there are always one or two participants who fly in and rent a car for the rally. In that case, theme of the car (and/or the participants) can win that class. Or, being the only team with a rental car will do it.

[Wildcat]

There is a video wrap-up of the first two rallies of 2022.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzEas-a4AcA

[admin]

Again, looks like a lot of fun. I will have to talk with some people and see if they may be up for this for Boston rally.

[Pops110]

I missed this thread so thought I would post up some more pics from our trip last year. Broome to Mitchell Falls in the Kimberly WA.

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[Joe Appierto]

Some really nice shots. Thanks for sharing.

[admin]

Gorgeous. Those rock formations are amazing. Nature is truly beautiful. It's amazing how you go to different places in the world and it is not just the climate that changes, but even how rocks look.

[admin]

Here is a picture from Japan. I went a couple months before COVID reared its ugly head. A wonderful country with amazing people.

[roberto]

Wow, makes me be there too...Thanks Admin!

[Wildcat]

I have to say, that photo of Japan reminds me of a section of Meijer Gardens (located on the other side of the state from me), where it is landscaped as a Japanese garden with a pond--they did a good job bringing that look to their exhibit.

I leave on a road trip (not a rally, for once) in a week and a half. Headed to Santa Fe for six nights, but I've bookmarked a couple of national parks I want to visit en route, if I have the time for it. Great Sand Dunes NP is near my route, so I may spend a night in Alamosa CO to visit. I'm debating hopping to Holbrook AZ on the way home so I can visit Petrified Forest NP. There is an event in southern Utah happening that same weekend after Santa Fe I thought of visiting instead, but I don't think it will work out on this trip due to timing (since I would want to stay longer to explore more of Zion NP, visit Toquerville Falls, etc.).

[Wildcat]

Gorgeous. Those rock formations are amazing. Nature is truly beautiful. It's amazing how you go to different places in the world and it is not just the climate that changes, but even how rocks look.

I can think of a lot of national parks with varied types of rock. Glacier (Montana) and Rocky Mountain (Colorado) NPs are similar. Badlands NP in South Dakota has a completely different look. Arches and Canyonlands have a lot of the red rock typical of places high in iron content. Zion also has the red rocks but also a lot of the sandstone--the eastern part past the tunnel is even known for its "picture sandstone." Death Vally has its own amazing arrays--Golden Canyon has yellowish rock, where the Artists Palette section has brown, yellow, red, even turquoise-colored rock. And Zabriskie Point (in Death Vallye) is a completely different set of colors also. Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP (southern Colorado) has canyon walls from pale brown to dark grey. Yellowstone is indescribable--a lot of the formations are from various minerals, very fascinating visually.

I could spend an entire summer on the road, visiting all of those national parks out west.

[admin]

The US has some great national parks. I was at the Grand Canyon just this past December. Amazing.

[Joe Appierto]

You guys are making me jealous. Luckily, I'm afraid of heights but it is fun to live vicariously.

[Wildcat]

Joe, you might be better at the bottom of canyons, vs. the tops of mountains or looking down into canyons.

Strange, though. I drove up Pike's Peak with my youngest back in 2017--part of the road is paved, yet I was a nervous wreck the entire way up, hugging the center of the road.

Yet we've taken two trips down into Shafer Canyon, the first time coming back up out of the canyon the same way we drove in, via a series of switchbacks which are a single lane wide, unpaved, and a bit rough. (2019 was rougher than 2018--probably had a rough winter.) Hope this link works, as it's a 3D view of the road we drove down.

https://goo.gl/maps/VatN1TPJL7F78f2t8

Anyhow, I drove all that and I wasn't much concerned at all. There is room to pass at the hairpin turns, so we'd wait if we saw another vehicle coming in the opposite direction. It might have been less stressful since these types of roads are traveled almost at a crawl, vs. maintaining a speed up Pike's Peak.

My goal the first time? Didn't really have one. I just wondered where the road went, and we drove as far as the Gooseneck Overlook along White Rim Rd. (The Colorado River runs through the canyon, the same river that carves its way through the Grand Canyon.) The second time, I'd had a year to look over the routes, and noticed I could return to Moab via Shafer Canyon Road, taking the fork to the left (BLM 142, one of many BLM roads in Utah, aka Potash Road) and drive past the Potash Ponds to return to a Utah state road that followed the river back to US-191 and Moab. The road into Shafer Canyon is 800 ft. past the entrance station to Canyonlands National Park.

The Potash Ponds are a bizarre sight in the middle of all these red rocks.

https://goo.gl/maps/f1qo9cY3a2pSZmoe9

There is a company mining potash here. What they do is use water to flush it out of underground caverns, then use various dyes to help speed the evaporation of the water. Driving past the ponds up close, it reminded me of being near the edge of a lake in the winter. And yes, we passed Elvis Rock. (Only I didn't know that's what it was called.) There is also a Thelma & Louise point along BLM 142, presumably where the final scene in the movie was filmed.

[Joe Appierto]

You're right about where I normally place myself in those rare situations.

The last time I had a white knuckle driving experience was a few years ago driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway. A 45 minute trip that seemed to go on for days. It was still early in the morning maybe 7 AM or so and there was plenty of light but there was also a dense ground fog that limited visibility to not so many feet. My friend who'd was the navigator directed onto the roadway. He was lucky I was gripping the steering wheel so tightly otherwise some bodily harm may have occurred.

[Wildcat]

That dense fog can be tense to drive in--I've been in a few situations at night where I had almost considered stopping overnight at a hotel.

We drove part of the Blue Ridge Parkway around Asheville last year around Memorial Day weekend.

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[Big Dog RJ]

Outstanding pics Admin and Pops... truly stunning!

Cheers, RJ

[Joe Appierto]

What a beautiful shot, Wildcat.

My friend is a Civil War buff and we spent a few days touring some battle sites and other place associated with the war like Fredericksburg and Appomattox. I'm not exactly sure where we got on and off the Parkway but I think we were near Mt. Weather.

[admin]

That dense fog can be tense to drive in--I've been in a few situations at night where I had almost considered stopping overnight at a hotel.

We drove part of the Blue Ridge Parkway around Asheville last year around Memorial Day weekend.

Gorgeous. Love the God-rays coming through the clouds.

[AnotherJohnson]

We don’t stray too far from home these days. But here are a few photos from our neck of the woods that could have been on someone else’s vacation shoot.

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