Esmeralda Rally XIV -- Fall, 2002

    The Fourteenth Esmeralda Rally was held October 19-20, 2002 and, once more, a grand time was had by all.

    The Start

      This year we changed the starting to point to our home. Since we always have Rally houseguests on Friday night and Gael has all kinds of Gael-like prep to do, it made it easier on us. Plus, it avoided an extra journey north to the usual starting location on I-85.

      We met starting at 10:30a..

      ..and the Rally began at 11:30a. Here are the teams in starting order:

      1Jerry & Cecily Rosenberg
      2Fred & Fran Gunter
      3Jim & Jeanne Potter
      4Dwayne & Brenda Sexton
      5Terry & Annie Edwards
      6Richard & Margaret Hauenstein
      7B.A. Cobb & Ed Belin
      8Bill & Ruth Donovan
      9Buzz & Jackie Nielsen
      10Fred & Bitsy Lennon
      11Joe & Cathleen Blumberg

      These couples came to the end but were unable to run the Rally:

      Newsom & Beverly Baker
      Wally & Beverly White

      And here are your RallyMasters:

      Bill & Mick Harris
      Chaz & Gael Cone

      I explained the new wrinkles for this year's Rally. They consisted of:

      1. Part B would be unmeasured so far as time/speed were concerned.

      2. They would compete for the best poker hand. They would draw one card at the start, one at the end of Part 1, two during Part B and the final card at the Finish.

      3. They would have to correctly identify eleven churches from provided photographs.

      4. They would have to buy (during Part B) fourteen inexpensive items, one for each letter in "ESMERALDA RALLY". The team that spent the least would win that portion.

    The Rally, Part 1

      This year we made some changes in the Rally that were appreciated by all. Some had felt that the pressure was so high as to kill off some of the fun. So, this year, we broke the Rally into two parts: Part 1 and Part B. Part 1 was like the traditional Esmeralda Rallies of the past -- but at the Checkpoint terminating Part 1, the time/speed pressure was removed. In other words, the timed portion of the Rally ended at the Checkpoint.

      This route was tested (we thought, thoroughly) by me, Gael, Bill and Mick Harris and Pete Butler (who was unable to attend because he and Cindy were going to Montana for Parents' Weekend at Montana State University. A fairly shabby excuse, but..)

      Bill and Mick ran to the Checkpoint (about 100 yards south of I-20 at Exit 88) to set up ten minutes before the first car was due. This is when they found that the exit was closed for the weekend! Fortunately, the Rally route didn't count on exiting there -- but did count on getting "on" there for the start of Part B. Bill and Mick were able to tell everyone how to proceed from there. But it was more than twenty minutes after expected arrival that the first car came through (Dwayne and Brenda).

      Turns out there was a wee mistake that affected some of the more experienced participants but they recovered nicely. Even so, everyone was substantially late at the Checkpoint ending Part 1. Because of the Rally Rules, ten of the eleven cars got the maximum error (300 points) at the checkpoint making this scoring opportunity a ten-way tie; one car missed the Checkpoint altogether and received the 600 point "missed checkpoint" penalty.

    The Rally, Part B

      Except for the confusion getting onto I-20 East at Exit 88 (which was closed) Part B was pretty uneventful. There were no timing controls; the teams were free to travel that part of the Rally at their own pace.

      But, too keep things from being too easy, there were a few things the teams needed to accomplish during Part B:

      1. They had to find and identify eleven churches based on 2" color photographs

      2. They had to find two more poker cards to fill out their 5-card hands (they received one at the start, one at the Checkpoint ending Part 1 and would receive the fifth at the finish)

      3. They had to buy fourteen items, one for each letter in "ESMERALDA RALLY". The objective was to spend the lowest total amount for these fourteen items)

      .. and, oh yes, they had to stay on course. Trivial.

    The Post-Rally Get-together

      Eventually all eleven cars arrived (along with Newsom and Beverly Baker and Wally and Beverly White who were unable to do the Rally but came for the party). Two of the cars opened their Emergency Envelopes and were disqualified.

      Everyone gathered for drinks and snacks on the back verandah and re-hashed the Rally:

      Gael, Bill, Mick and I retired to do the calculations which would be revealed at dinner.

    The Dinner and Awards

      The Port Armor Inn put on a very nice dinner for us in a private dining room.

      A highlight of the evening was the teams displaying and explaining their fourteen purchased items from the "buy fourteen things starting with the letters in 'Esmeralda Rally' portion" of the Rally. When Jeanne Potter revealed the "E"nema, everyone else decided they could not follow that act:

      After dinner I announced the winners in reverse order (to maximize humiliation).

      For the first time ever, we had a dead-heat. Two teams tied for first place with a total of 351 points. To break the tie, we opened up the actual time at the Checkpoint (remember that everyone was so late that we couldn't use those points). The difference in seconds late at that Checkpoint between the two tied teams, however, was ten seconds!

      The Fourteenth Esmeralda Rally was won by:


      Fred and Bitsy Lennon

      This was the second victory for the Lennons; they won in 1992 as well (once every ten years ain't bad...)

      Here are last year's winners, Bill and Mick, congratulating Fred & Bitsy:

      This year we added the Esmeralda Rally Harry Ballard First Runner-up Award to acknowledge the fact that the first runner-ups are required to don the mantle of leadership should Fred & Bitsy be unable to serve out their term.

      This year's winners of the Harry Ballard Award are:


      Joe and Cathleen Blumberg.

      Though the photograph is fuzzy, here's Joe receiving the Harry Ballard First Runner-up Award:

      Here is the finishing order:

      1Fred & Bitsy Lennon
      2Joe & Cathleen Blumberg
      3Jim & Jean Potter
      4Buzz & Jackie Nielsen
      5Terry & Annie Edwards
      6Dwayne & Brenda Sexton
      7Bill & Ruth Donovan
      8B.A. Cobb & Ed Belin
      9Jerry & Cecily Rosenberg
      DNFFred & Fran Gunter
      DNFRichard & Margaret Hauenstein

    The Singing

    For me, the best part of the Esmeralda Rally has always been the after-dinner music. This year the only pickers in attendance were Terry Edwards and Newsom Baker. Here they are on a harmony note:

    ..More Pix to come!..

    ..And so it's over (for another year). Here's the gang:

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