Day 1, Stage 1
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Hotel: Hampton Inn
Weather: Hot, followed by more hot (until we got into the mountains), Temp 96 in DC

Great Race 2005 is underway! We began by caravanning into downtown DC with cars leaving Tysons Corner at 30-second intervals and staging on Pennsylvania Avenue at the Starting Gate in front of the Capitol. Frankly, the crowd size was very disappointing. Apparently, the promotion by the city left a lot to be desired. We were very happy to see our old friend Bob King in the crowd. He is a veteran Great Race navigator who has participated with us in previous races. He brought some of his friends to enjoy the festivities. In addition, the Stroud family, Charlie and Brenda and Charlie's son Bill traveled to DC to see the start of the race. Charlie and Bill won the Sportsman Division a few years ago.

Dawn's 50s outfit, complete with poodle skirt, saddle shoes, and pink lady cat eye glasses drew a lot of attention. The official Great Race photographer took pictures of her with the Capitol as the backdrop. Before the start, a WTOP radio reporter interviewed us as well.
The starting gate at our nation's capitol...

Dawn, in her '50's costume, in front of the Capitol building
Dawn, with friend Bob King, and other friends

The field of starters

Part of the starting lineup

...and more of the same
 After entertainment by the 257th Army Band and all the appropriate proclamations and ceremonies, the first car was waved off promptly at 12 noon. At this point, we learned where the crowd was - they were all in their cars clogging all the downtown streets and exit routes. Several racers suffered overheating problems from all the stalled traffic. After extricating ourselves from the DC mass, we finally were able to get to the beginning of the timed portion of the day's rally near Leesburg, VA. The route wandered over the beautiful, rolling Virginia countryside until we arrived in Front Royal for a pit stop. This was very well hosted and their buffet offering rivaled some lunch stops in earlier races. The afternoon run was into Shenandoah National Park and along nearly two-thirds of the Skyline Drive. The scenery was spectacular but hazy. And the temperatures were more moderate. However, I have already become aware that the Driver cannot enjoy the views - he is far too busy trying to maintain control of the speed and the car! The Finish Line in Harrisonburg was jammed with fans of all ages.

The 257th Army Band

Our friends from Huntsville, Charlie and Brenda Stroud with son Bill, all Greatrace veterans

Dawn and Jerry with the Strouds

More friends from Huntsville, Jeff and Karen Stumb, starting out in their 1916 Hudson Cabriolet!! A week ago, this car was in pieces!!

So how did the Sweet, Smooth and Sassy team do? W-e-e-e-l-l-l, let's just say that this was a good learning day and hopefully will be one of four bad scores we can discard. When a team has to deal with a bad speedometer calibration run and a couple of miscalculations, compounded by interferences from a large construction truck and a huge haywagon, the score is not likely to be very competitive. Our score of 2 minutes and two seconds placed us 76 out of 88. But, hey, we are having fun, we successfully finished the course without missing any turns and getting lost and we fully expect to see significant improvements!

The car ran fine until late in the day when it began missing pretty badly. I think it is the points so I will need to work on that in the morning.

By the way, the other Huntsville team, Jeff and Karen Stumb (Car #27) had an excellent day. Their score of 7 seconds was the second best of the day. Unfortunately, due to the unexpected passing of Jeff's grandmother, they will be leaving the race to attend to personal matters, hoping to rejoin us later. This means we have lost our support crew. However, in the true spirit of this event, several other support crews have offered us their services, including those from the Focus on the Family car.

A pit stop in Front Royal, VA

The end of a long day -- the Parc Fermé in Harrisonburg, VA

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Contents Copyright 2005 by Jerry L. Gregg