Saturday, July 31, 2010

Take-offs and Landings, All Players Left Standing

Hubby and I did a road rally today.  

He drove.  I navigated.

Yes, we are still speaking to each other!!

When Hubby first told me about the rally, Evil Twin asked why the road needed to rally. 

Sheesh.  

I explained that it wasn't a baseball game and we did not have to root for our home team to score runs.  We were given a list of instructions supposedly explaining our route from point A to B without seeing state-altering signs such as  "Welcome to Oklahoma", " Welcome to Louisianna", " Welcome to New Mexico", "Bien Venidos a Mexico", or "Road Ends. Ocean Ahead".


The rally was centered around local airports.  As we drove around north Texas in triple-digit heat for several hours with the AC blasting, we were supposed to look for windsocks or airport signs and decipher instructions that looked liked this:

  • STOP  - Got that one!
  • Left at RidgeCrest Circle, Right - Uh....
  • Straight, Left on Dove Hollow - Double Uh...
  • Left on ToNoWhere ParkwayOops.  Can't do that.  It parallels the road we are on.
We had to answer questions along the route.  But sometimes they were not to be answered.  What-the-Scorched Flying Bird Poop?

I was a bit concerned when I was told to turn onto AA Bumgarner Road.  I was imagining poor little AA in junior high with a name like that.  Later we had to turn onto Morris Dido Newark Something.  I had to take a second look at that one before I read it to Hubby.  

We saw Dido again. This time it was the United Methodist Church and it was down the street from Kenneth Copeland's Cult.....er...Ministries' complex and private strip.
Ahem.  Air strip.


Before all the fun started, Hubby and I walked around a flight museum at the starting point of the rally.

I identified my next ride:



Hubby pondered winged birds while Evil Twin eyed that cute little weapon:



We don't know if we won anything at the rally.  I doubt it.  We didn't hang around to find out. We had fun but we decided that leftovers and couch-camping in front of the TV are the exciting plans for tonight.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Road rally!

What the heck? Stay at home. The couch camping sounds much more safe and delicious.

*slurp*

*grin*

honeypiehorse said...

The road rally doesn't sound very fun... airports? road signs? I'd rather do a spa rally. Or a chocolate factory rally.

MrsBlogAlot said...

I'm more of a couch camper myself. Plus, we wouldn't get past our driveway without wanting to kill each other.

And I'm all for road safety.
(-:

http://howtobecomeacatladywithoutthecats.blogspot.com said...

Road Rally! I was just telling a friend about the Road Rallies we had in high school. Yeah... take newly licensed teen drivers, give them a list of silly markers to identity, load up the car with too many kids and let 'er rip! Good Times! Good Times!

00dozo said...

Like your choice of new wheels!

I remember going on a couple of rallies when I was 9 or 10 - they were fun even though we usually got lost.

ReformingGeek said...

@Quirky - How about couch potato bingo?

@honeypie - I think you would get "lost" at the first spa.

@MrsBlogalot - Most of the time, I just let him figure out the route and he drives.

@CatLady - I remember something similar from college days. We got lost.

@00dozo - Yeah. What a smooth ride! Getting "lost" is much harder with a GPS!

Leeuna said...

The road rally sounds like a lot of fun. I've never heard of it until now. Never heard the term "couch camping" either. Thanks for the lessons today, Reffie. Oh, and I love the tank. Wish I had one. ;)

Unknown said...

I want a tank, too, fully armed with 16-wheel drive. With the drivers around here, you kind of need one. A road rally looks harder than a road trip. I guess you don't really need to navigate during a road trip. Where ever you end up, you end up. With a tank, that could be just about any where.

ReformingGeek said...

@Leeuna - The rally was fun. Maybe I can take the couch with me next time.

@Lauren - I think I need a helicopter. Yeah, you didn't get much sight-seeing in during the rally!

Jean Knee said...

yeah, I don't even know what a rally is



sooo thankful

K A B L O O E Y said...

I'm still kind of confused about the how and definitely about the why, but that may be because I didn't grow up with any car culture in NYC. How do those who wield the prizes know you did what you were supposed to do? And how would you parallel park a tank?

ReformingGeek said...

@Jean - Enjoy your innocence!

@kablooey - Car fascination is part of it and the wide open spaces we have down here make it great for driving around all day.

I'm not sure if they went over everything at the end. It seems like that would have taken forever. We were the second car in out of 40 so we did not want to hang around waiting for everyone else. We stayed for about 30 minutes and only 7 other cars came back.

Ha! The tank will just park on top of any other car that is in its way. ;-)

Unknown said...

I'm with Quirky! Couch Camping sounds like heaven! Glad you enjoyed yourselves though.....

Marissa said...

When you navigated, did you talk in the typical sexy female GPS voice? I swear my husband's GPS is trying to seduce him.

MikeWJ at Too Many Mornings said...

I did a road rally with a buddy of mine years ago and I remember as being one of the most fun days ever. Now, though, driving around town looking for places and things drives me totally nuts. Funny how things can change over time, isn't it?

Unfinished Rambler said...

I'm sorry I have no tips on getting rich or helping you reform. Both are beyond my capabilities, and I'm sure above my payscale. However, maybe one tip I can give you is that road rallies are not going to reform you or make you rich. What would you have won if you had won this rally? Or was there an objective of winning, or was it just driving around? I guess I'm confused by the whole road rally purpose. Extrapolate, please. :)

ReformingGeek said...

@AmyLK - It was fun but I got tired of being in the car!

@MikeWJ - Ah. You must be getting old. ;-)

@Unfinished - I thought you said you were sending a check. I think the rallies are supposed to challenge your ability to decipher cryptic instructions, your attention to detail, and your observation skills. Or maybe not. ;-)

Mama-Face said...

For reals?

Were you Smoky or the Bandit? (Wasn't that about a road rally?) (Did I just age myself?).

Shoulda stuck around for the prize. :)

The Old Silly said...

Yuup. Couch-camping, definitely the better choice, lol.

Deb said...

What? No Chinese Fire Drills? I can't believe that. Maybe it's a Texan thing?

ReformingGeek said...

@mama-face - I was ready for my couch.

@Marvin - Couch-camping in the A/C felt pretty good.

@Deb - I'm sure they left that off by mistake.


"1.00s, 1.50s, 1.75s for the short arms. If you know what I'm talking about, you're probably old, too."

"Boomer brain fog: What was the last, middle, and first part of what you just said to me?"