Staging for the Race will be in Three Phases

Phase 1 (June 1-13) Completed
During this period, Jerry will drive wife Sharon and son Drew from Huntsville to Dawn's home near Seattle. They will travel in their motorhome and will tow Bob Mead's car trailer.

Phase 2 (June 18) Completed
Dawn and Jerry will fly from Seattle back to Huntsville.

Phase 3 (June 21-22) Completed
Jerry and Dawn will drive the 57 Chevy from Huntsville to the race start in Washington, DC.

Phase 1 (June 1-13)
Departure was as scheduled on June 1st and the trip remained on schedule. The itinerary included stops in Missouri to visit Jerry's mother and his sibling's families, as well as in Colorado Springs to spend two days with son, Darin. Except for weather, the trip was unremarkable. In Kansas, gale-force winds threatened to blow us off the road or topple our "high-profile" vehicle. Crossing the high plains in Wyoming, we encountered temperatures in the 30s and several miles of very wet snow. On the last day, strong headwinds across Washington played havoc with our fuel mileage. And we had some rain on nearly each travel day. Finally, a tsunami warning sounded shortly after our arrival!

We arrived, as scheduled, at Dawn's place on Monday, the 13th. Grandkids (and grandparents!) were appropriately excited. After a good deal of huggin', lovin', and playin', we got down to the task of getting Sharon and Drew settled in. Dawn is feverishly trying to get all the final "mothering" details completed before we head back to Huntsville on Saturday, the 18th.

Photos below are of a campground in Kansas, a rest stop in Utah, and the setup in Dawn's back yard.

A Rest Stop in Kansas

...Compared to the Stark Beauty of Utah...

... And at Dawn and Jeff's home.

Phase 2 (June 18)
Jerry and Dawn arrived back in Huntsville at 11:30 PM on Saturday, the 18th. Delta gave us some doubts about getting us here when multiple snafus at SeaTac resulted in a nearly 2-hour check-in process and a delayed departure of over 40 minutes. Fortunately, favorable winds got us to Atlanta in time to make our connection. Good friend Sam Burns picked us up and got us home by midnight.

Our fan club (in uniform) turned out to bid us farewell and good luck. See the photos below. Now we have a couple days of final preparation before heading for DC on Tuesday, the 21st.

Phase 3 (June 21-22)
Day 1, Tuesday, June 21, 2005
The Sweet, Smooth and Sassy Team got on the road, leaving Huntsville at 9:30 AM after final packing and taking time for a photo shoot. Here we are, loaded and ready to roll:

We had a good travel day, covering almost half the distance to DC and hope to arrive there tomorrow afternoon. Weather was good and the Chevy is running fine, using a little oil but getting over 17 MPG fuel mileage. Jerry is getting a lot of good practice holding precise speeds. Our "air conditioning" is working fine and it appears we will be reasonably comfortable in the car if the temperatures remain in the 80s as they were today (wishful thinking, I'm afraid!) We received lots of interest from passersby with many waves and honking horns. And our special license plate generates quite a few questions at rest stops.

Day 2, Wednesday, June 22, 2005
We are essentially there! Actually we are still a few miles west of DC but we will go on in to the Registration and Technical Inspection at Tyson's Corner in the morning.

This was a long, hard travel day! But the Chevy purred right along with no problems. Used another quart of oil but we got over 18 MPG fuel mileage. I am sure this is partly due to the leisurely pace we have been doing. We are taking it very easy on the car, cruising at 55 to minimize stress. Of course, this takes a lot longer to cover those long miles. We have had good weather all day, partly sunny and in the 80s with no rain until we stopped for the night. We plan to spend the evening on some more training for the navigator.