Christmas 08

Stockings full of coal??

I got Brownie -the worlds best crappy old RV- all tuned up and running great, and we were ready for the trip to Willows. The trailer was rented for the smart car, our bags were packed, and hotel reservations were made. The wife was still unsure about this whole “30 year old RV thing”, so I promised her a hotel room in addition to bringing her smart car behind us.

Late Christmas day, the day before I got an urgent voicemail From Lou saying he needed me to rent him a truck. SAY WHAT?!?! He claimed to be all ready to go, but still had no truck, and wasn’t able to buy one without any money. No kidding. And
talk about waiting till the last minute!

I called him back and said I would be willing to pitch in and split the cost of renting a truck with the others, but no I’m not going to put my name or card on something I’m not driving. Best I could do is stop by and drop off my share of the rental money on the way up to Willows. But I would never get over to his place in time for him to A) rent a truck and B) still make it up to Willows before Tech closed at 4pm. He said getting through Tech would not be a problem because of his friend. Yeah. Sure.

I made a detour in order to stop by the next day and gave him my rental share. I also looked around and noticed NOTHING was ready, nothing was packed in the trailer, which was at the back of a row of project vehicles and still had a complex homemade carport contraption attached. He was 2 days away from being ready MIMINUM, and I doubted he would even make it for the end of the race. I stupidly offered to help, but he said he wanted to go lay down. He said Armand was coming early in the morning and they would load up then. He still insisted they would be there in time for the race no matter what, a feat that seemed a little less likely than a snowball fight in hell. At least this fiasco was nearly behind us.

Slightly relieved just to be getting out of there, the wife and I headed up to Willows that evening, on our way to WATCH another zany weekend long race.

Next: Thunderhill or Bust!


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From The Begining - The Hook... (Part 1)