August 6, 2000 (Sunday)

We met at the Jax Grill parking lot at around 8:30AM on Sunday.
Of course Jax Grill is our current Monthly Meeting location.
Officially the Rally started 9AM, however, those who want to learn about GPS showed up earlier.
By 9AM, the large parking lot was filled up by a bunch of Rovers !
Hugh showed up to Jax Grill in his special Series vehicle.  So as Doc & Vick from Rover Shoppe stopped by in the morning.  

STAGE I (GPS)

Our mission was to find places of interest for a Land Rover Lover.  First Sam Simpson provided us a GPS coordinate of the 1st location.  Sam sent out everyone from Jax Grill at some increment of time.  First we found the marking on the door at FREEDOM PAINT & BODY !  Well when we arrived there Scott Sukman Team was there working on the GPS.
Then we followed the GPS coordinate for the 2nd location and...found ROVER SHOPPE !  Doc & Vick didn't say a word in the morning.
We saw Antonio & Elena and Ray & Cassie Barth Team came in right after we made it. 

(Sorry no photo available.)
Well actually we should have found the sign at the MOTORCARS LTD.  However...we skipped without knowing !
So we automatically figured that the next place would be LAND ROVER HOUSTON.  Saw Antonio & Elena Team, so as Ray & Cassie Team again.
This was a little hard for us.  Found the next sign at the door of ATLAS AUTO.  Ray & Cassie came in right after we pulled in.  And Scott Sukman too.
From there we took a little long drive on I-10 West, to the final destination of the STAGE I.  It was a parking lot at KATY MILLS Mall !  Sam was taking time records.  Since we didn't bring lunch for ourselves, we went inside and had some steak sandwich.

STAGE II (Tulip Chart)

From here, we didn't need a GPS.  Sam again took time records for all and everybody was driving to an unknown destination following the Tulip Chart given.
It was a nice country side driving (although it was just off I-10 area) and the Tulip Chart was a great fun !  We ended up at STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE HISTORICAL PARK !  We all paid the fee at the entrance.  And met up with everybody at the rented Group Rec. Hall.  Quiet, clean bath room, it was very nice place for a group.

STAGE III

After lunch, it was a additional activity that Fraser Gourlay planned.  Set up 3 small groups and did some self recovery challenge with time count.  It was very hot but all the participants did well.   
Go to get the recovery tools provided from one location to closer to the vehicle.  Two people are blind-folded and the 3rd person in the group gave an instructions & directions to the two. 
Then move an disabled vehicle about 10 ~ 15 ft. using a couple of Tow Straps, Chains, Shackles, Hi-Lift Jack.  Left is the 2nd team.
This is the 3rd team for STAGE III challenge.
Changing a tire with the spare.

HUNT

At the beginning of the day, we were given a sheet for a SCAVENGER HUNT !  What a fun.  Out of 40 items, we found 18 items which we though a decent number....until found out Doug & Kim Aitken Team had almost everything, 38 or 39 of them !!!  (We witnessed a Red D90 parked at the Eckerd Store while STAGE I or II.)

Sam, Jackie, Fraser, thank you for all the preparation/arrangement.  We had a great time !

Reported by Alan & Mimi Dobbs

Hi Y'all,
Well, what a wonderful day. Thanks to everyone showing up to participate in the event. And a very big thank you to Fraser and Jacque for all there hard work too.  My first impression is that I was surprised at how well everyone did. I was expecting a few folks to get lost, but no one ever did.  Lance, Kevin, Bruce and others, I'm sorry you missed a great event.  Bruce, I hope you get well soon. We have tentatively schedule another one for the fall.  There were thirteen cars that ran the stages. Each stage was timed and there was a scavenger hunt to fill time. There are so many different ways to calculate the winners of such an event, and I'm not sure that scores really matter anyway. We did have a prize giving for those that stayed late.
This is one way to score:-
For sections that were timed, the fastest vehicle gets one point the slowest thirteen. For participants of the recovery section, the fastest members each got one point and the next got two and so on, those that didn't participate got thirteen. The same for the scavenger hunt, those with the most items got one point and those with the none got thirteen.
  Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Hunt Total
Dobbs 5 7 1 3 16
Antonio 7 5 1 4 17
Aitken 13 5 1 1 20
Bennett 2 7 2 13 24
Young  4 5 3 13 25
Miller 3 9 13 2 27
McGough 10 1 3 13 27
Gill 1 2 13 13 20
Sergi 8 8 2 13 31
Sukman 11 12 2 13 38
Jiri  10 11 13 13 47
Barth 12 10 13 13 48
Callis 7 13 13 13 48
So you see, you don't have to be best at anything with this method, just consistent.  We gave a prize to David Bennett for his outstanding performance in the road events considering he had never tried anything like this before.  We gave a prize to Scott Sukman for shear sticktoitivness. Scott had never held a GPS prior to this morning, and even exchanged systems half way through. On the second stage he took a wrong turn, but still wouldn't give up.  Ray, if you hadn't stopped to gossip with Doc for an hour, I think you would have done a lot better.  I'm looking forward to the next one. 
Kind regards Sam Simpson

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