Worth a view if your into the Gumball…http://www.youtube.com/user/Gumball3000

Love this video, not very PC I know, but wouldn’t it be nice…

Nejmah 1st Cairo Muse

Nejmah, a Greco spotting on friday afternoon, is the definition of style.  As soon as I layed my eyes on her, I knew, she would be my 1st Cairo Muse.  And she was excited to pose for me!! The cute confident star was rocking the look by mixing colors, prints, and textures.  Her outfit is the definition of a perfect transition from summer to fall; from her short sleeved velour jacket, to the purple leggings, and printed rain boots.  Did you notice the colorful gum ball bracelet and bright green hair clip! According to her mom, she dresses herself, so I can’t wait to see this young stylista grow up and be featured again as a Cairo Muse.

Under the guise of running an errand, my boyfriend took me to play Skeeball! While I have been known to spoil surprises in the past without meaning too, tonight’s worked.

He and I have been addicted to it since it came out for the iPhone.  Well, he has been addicted.  I just love Skeeball.  With Wednesday being date night where we make sure and do something date-like, this was a fun choice.  He’s so good at coming up with things to do…or maybe it’s that I’m really bad at it.

Who knew at 32 that Skeeball would make me ache.  You have to hunch over to play and hold your body at a funny angle.  As I child I don’t remember my shoulders aching the next morning.  Of course we played a lot – a whole lot.

I will boast and say I beat my boyfriend.  I’m not a big gloater, but if you knew my boyfriend, you’d celebrate too.  He is good at everything.  I’m not kidding.  He just has this ability to pick up something and be really good at it.  Most of the time this trait is awesome, except when it comes down to competitive games and situations.  His concentration sky rockets, while simultaneously the conversation plummets.  He’s focused on the big “Plan.”  Maneuvers, a scheme, which is great in war and when you want to kick someone’s ass in game, but not so much on date night, especially when you are dating a chatter box.

Maybe because we could both play at the same time, or it was because the games are short, or maybe it was the eight -year-old girl hopping away on the Dance Dance game that kept me entertained, but we both had fun.  I’m sure my winning helped a bit too.  I scored some loot with the slew of tickets we won.

It was much more fun watching the kids take ticket purchases as serious as day traders.

I also saw this, this, thing in the cabinet.  It’s so ugly and tacky that I find myself needing it!

Oh, I beat him at Pacman too

**Correction, Foster pointed out the fact that we were playing Ms. Pac-Man.  I stand corrected.  I still won!**

I didn’t think it could be done.  But I beat him.  Next time, he might win, but I have it on record.  Yay me.

Greetings to all of our wonderful Team Hall & Nass fans! As you may have noticed, we paused our daily posting of chapters from our Dustball Rally Recap a bit ago at a transitional point in the tale. We know the pause disappointed a few of you (as some of you let us know via email & on Twitter), and bless you for caring enough to let us know! However, after 22 posts in a row, we felt y’all might have needed a little break from us going on and on about our antics. Frankly, we needed one from writing, editing and posting them too. Hey, the stats don’t lie (some of you were clearly getting tired of checking in daily)! Those number fluctuated that last week like a tachometer would if a six year old was pressing the pedal!

However, if you’ve missed our tales of the Dustball, fear not! We will begin sharing tales from the Team Hall & Nass Alternate Extended Dustball Route soon! It was a road trip for the ages!

A special note to our new readers (and to those who haven’t checked in for a bit). If you would like to catch up on the story of our Dustball 1500 Recap, or if you’d just enjoy another fast stroll down memory lane, we encourage you to go back to be beginning of our September 2009 posts are start reading from the actual beginning (Forward, Preface, Chapter 1, etc.) That way you can enjoy (or relive) all of the zany antics and dramatics of our Dustball story in full and proper effect!

However, before we simply start posting more Dustball stories and resume where we left off, we plan to shake things up and begin sharing some other exciting things we have been up to during our blogging hiatus. There have been some high speed hijinks going on and there are a few fun tales to be shared! So stay tuned as we begin transitioning this blog into a place where we share multiple things of interest to you, the automotive, racing and rally faithful!

Here’s a peek at some new things on the horizon …

New Category – Real World Reviews by Team Hall & Nass

As many of you know, we rent more cars than the law should allow. We also find ourselves getting behind the wheel of many new factory cars and some cool exotics on occasion too! We have been off gathering data on some of those various cool cars we’ve been driving lately and have started compiling that information into write ups we are going to post as reviews. What’s that, you say? Yawn? Oh no! Wait for it …

How many people would actually write a “review” of cars the way you think Team Hall & Nass might? That’s right. Rather than posting “traditional” automotive reviews, we are going to share stories with you of how the vehicles perform via real world driving experiences that can only be captured through using the cars as true automotive enthusiasts would. Don’t expect simple reviews based on horsepower stats, fuel mileage numbers and ergonomic interior reports.  Those elements may be covered, but not in the way you are used to reading about them. You want basic stats? Pick up the manufacturer’s brochure or read what traditional reviews (i.e. Motor Trend) have to say. We will instead focus on relaying the stories of where these cars shine and where they may have failed to perform during real “enthusiast-style” driving conditions via that Team Hall & Nass dramatic storytelling style you’ve come to love and enjoy. The stories will be every bit as good in the reading as they were in the driving. We won’t hold back.

To truly add icing on the cake, we will be doing something even cooler. Not only will you read what Johnny thinks about the cars, but you’ll also read what Taylor has to say about them too. The female perspective in an automotive review can be quite intriguing, especially from one who can drive it as well as navigate it. So you’ll get to read what it’s like from both seats AND from both gender perspectives. Trust me, it’s already gotten interesting, as you’ll read soon enough!

Another New Category – Team Hall & Nass is going to SEMA!

In November, we will be blogging from the mother ship of all items related to the automotive space, the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association show in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada! We will be posting recaps of what we experience at the show, at various special events, and about whatever else we manage to get into at SEMA, along with pics, vids & all kinds of fun stuff. As always, stay tuned to @TeamHallnNass on Twitter for the absolute latest updates and check back here as we post SEMA write ups and reviews at length.

Thank you all once again for taking time out of your busy lives to read and share in our experiences. We hope y’all continue to enjoy our crazy tales from behind the wheel, under the hood and out on the roads!

Johnny & Taylor

Team Hall & Nass

I spotted this gumball machine selling “ideas” for half dollar each in East Village, NY. My first thought was, who really wants to pay half a dollar to buy a fortune cookie without the cookie? No thanks. But as I passed by, I suddenly changed my mind so I turned back to give it a try. This is the idea I got in my first try, “Buy a gumball machine and sell ideas for the low, low price of 25 cents”!! That was “funny” so I thought to try and see what other messages they had in store. Guess what I got next, “Buy a better idea”!!!

All right. I get it. I give up now. I just spent a dollar to buy something that basically laughs at me. Was it worth it? I don’t know. On one hand the guile amused me even if it was a rip off. On the other, it was just 50 cents, what was I expecting??

I don’t know…

http://www.thinkaloo.com

Chapter Nineteen – A Great Detour and a Tough Decision

Arizona Highway 89 from US 93 to Prescott is absolutely beautiful! After about 20-30 miles on this road, you quickly forget that you were recently driving through the desert. It winds its way up through continuous mountain switchbacks and hairpins, affording views you truly have to see to believe. So while we may have been off of the official Dustball route, at least we were enjoying more of the best roads Arizona has to offer!

Also, for the first time in days, I happily let someone pass us. A yellow Ducati 1098 was working his way around the pack one at a time through the corners, and I could appreciate his appetite for wanting to devour this amazing road. In a rare moment of charity, I pulled tight to the guardrail and waved my hand out the window. He didn’t hesitate as he blew past us and quickly disappeared up the corkscrew that lay ahead. It seemed the right thing to do, and besides, I could use all the good karma I could get.

When we all arrived in Prescott, we stopped for gas and to regroup. I got out the map and showed the others exactly how we could shoot across AZ 69 to I-17 South and get back on route, and that we would only be a couple of hours or so behind the lead pack at that point. There was only one problem. Upon closer inspection of the map, there was no good way to go south from Prescott without having to drive through at least part of Maricopa County. It seems that all roads in central Arizona lead to and through Phoenix.

Based on what we had learned via phone, texts and Twitter DMs from other teams while on our AZ 89 detour, it was becoming more and more apparent that Team Hall & Nass shouldn’t be going anywhere near Maricopa County. After several conversations with teams who had encountered the “Surprise Stop and Grilling” by Sheriff Joe’s boys in Surprise, Arizona, it was determined that the Hamthrax were really looking more for the yellow Corvette of Team Hall & Nass and not so much for the rest of the rally cars.

Even though they didn’t issue citations to any of the rally cars they stopped, they did hold many of them for long periods of time, grilled them on who they were, what they were doing, who owned the yellow Corvette, and where did it go? They even received a police escort for a distance to ensure they did not exceed any limits while in Maricopa County.

Here is where we would like to extend very special kudos to all of our fellow Dustball Rally participants. Not a single one of you gave up any information about us. That is true loyalty in the brotherhood of rally speed and a favor I will gladly return to you all in kind should we ever get caught and grilled about any of you! Dustballers are really a class act!

Why were the Hamthrax so interested in us? Perhaps it was because they had an actual reported radar speed on us, or it could be because we were also reported as having run from the cop on 93. Either way, it seemed the other teams didn’t need to be nearly as concerned about encountering Hamthrax anywhere in the state of Arizona as we did.

Armed with this knowledge, this is where we regrettably felt the need to part ways with our renegade group. I didn’t want to hold them up, and certainly didn’t want them to get caught up in our mess should they be found running with us. We wished both teams Godspeed as they slipped out of Prescott on 69 toward I-17 South, around the east side of Phoenix and back onto the rally route. We watched via Twitter and cheered them both on as they went barreling toward the finish line in El Paso later that Sunday night. Though they were out of contention for the win and both encountered more troubles further along the route, they both managed to catch back up to most of the pack. Very impressive!

As for Team Hall & Nass, well, we decided to hide the Vette and go underground for a bit to let the heat die down. Yet the story doesn’t end here. Oh no! We were now Dustball Outlaws on the run! Let the Team Hall & Nass Dustball alternate extended route adventure begin!

Chapter Eighteen – Dustball Rally Outlaws

In total and complete honesty, I had no idea for certain that the cop we passed by who tagged us was in actual pursuit until he radioed ahead for help. Had I have known he was back there actually chasing after us sooner, perhaps we would have pulled over. Then again, perhaps not. At this point, what we didn’t know didn’t matter, it was what we did know (and what I didn’t want to risk) that did. I’ve never been in jail in my life (knock on wood), but I’d about rather be thrown into a Russian Gulag than to go to jail in Maricopa County, Arizona. Whether that sheriff is as crazy as they say, or not (and why would they all say so unless he really is?!?), I’m not planning to find out in this lifetime! Especially not with Taylor in the car! You can put that in the bank and draw a lifetime of interest on it!

So with the knowledge floating though my head that I had full responsibility for Taylor’s well being (as well as my own), and with the county line rapidly approaching, I made a somewhat regrettable but absolutely necessary decision to abort the rally route. It was time to find an alternative route and get the hell out of dodge while the getting was good!

I asked Taylor to find us a work around and she was already on it. There was only one last possible road to turn off onto before crossing the county line. There were two entrances to AZ Highway 89 North off of US 93 and we had already passed the first one.  The lower entrance was closing fast on the left. It appeared on the GPS and the map as a back over the shoulder style turn that would require a low speed maneuver to make without sliding off the blacktop.

So a scant few miles before we would have entered Maricopa County, I put my left signal on, my hand up to wave off the two other teams behind us who had also sped up to get away from the Hamthrax (both of whom are not being named here for their own protection) and started to brake, HARD. They backed off just in time, and with tires squealing in last second protest and the traction control system working overtime, we barely made the sharp turn without sliding off the road. Both teams behind us followed suit.

We headed northeast on AZ 89 a few miles to put some distance between us and the chaos back on US 93, then pulled off on the shoulder to update the others. When they pulled in next to us, I explained everything we had heard on the scanner, how the Hamthrax would be waiting for us somewhere in Maricopa County, that the crazy sheriff was located there, and that I truly believed they wouldn’t ever expect us to have turned off and headed in this direction. I informed them that our detour would likely cost us a couple of hours and take us all out of contention for the win, but that once we got to Prescott, we could double back on AZ 69 and take I-17 back down to rejoin the rally route on the eastern side of Phoenix. One of the two teams that followed us had actually been arrested in Arizona the previous year and had their car impounded during the 2008 Dustball 1000 for excessive speed and other similar driving antics, so they agreed that our newfound strategy was probably for the best. So with that, we headed north on AZ 89, away from the Hamthrax and toward the little old western mining town of Prescott at a rate we hoped would not draw attention.

Chapter Seventeen – The Bandit Only Ran From Buford Outside of Texas

They say you can’t outrun the radio. I’ve heard that my entire life. However, having done it more times than I’ll ever admit to in my younger days, I had decided that now was high time for some real life Smokey and the Bandit driving. If we were likely going to jail anyway if we got caught, I was going to make them have to outrun one of the fastest production cars on the planet to do it.

However, when I heard talk of “US 60” and “Wickenburg” on the Hamthrax radio, our Vette might have been running along quickly, but my brain was running a bit slower. It took a few moments, but then the first thing that flashed through my head was the word “NO” followed quickly by “OH HELL NO!” I was having what you might call “a moment of realization.” Some might even call it a “Come to Jesus” moment. Whatever might best accurately describe it, I hoped I was wrong. No, check that. I PRAYED I was wrong. I calmly asked my ace navigator to give a lightening quick check of the map to confirm our EXACT current location. She relayed where we were and I had the horrible realization that my brain was (sadly) suddenly accurate. I started to cringe.

As if we needed an extra thrill to make our current situation more interesting, thanks to the accelerated speeds we had been maintaining while trying to run down Team New Mex Express, we were a bit further down US 93 at this point in our run than I had thought we were. Make that quite a bit further.

This brings us to another very important lesson – When you are driving, whether it be in a rally, on a track, or even just down to the local grocery, never lose track of exactly where you are on the map at all times. NEVER!

What I had suddenly discovered was that we were about ten miles from crossing into Maricopa County, Arizona … and closing FAST! Given our current status with local area Hamthrax, and the call for roadblocks up ahead to look for us, this sudden realization complicated things a bit more than usual. Actually, try WAY more than usual.

You see, my initial plan had been to have a large enough lead built up by this point on the map so that we could slow to a much more “reasonable” speed before crossing into Maricopa County and maintaining said “reasonable” speed all the way through it. Seriously. No matter who caught or passed us, I planned to maintain as close to a legal speed as humanly possible all the way through until we reached the other side. Then I had plans to put the throttle back down and run hard toward Tucson and well beyond, running back down anyone who may have managed to get past us during our lull (if they didn’t get caught by the Hamthrax while doing so).

Why the planned slow down? What’s the big deal about Maricopa County? Because it is home of the infamous Sheriff Joe, hands down, without a doubt, the craziest law enforcement man in America.

To draw a VERY ironic parallel, if you recall the Jackie Gleason character Buford T. Justice, the sheriff in the Smokey and the Bandit movies, the one who just wouldn’t give up at any cost until he apprehended the Bandit, Sheriff Joe is about as close to a modern day real life equivalent as there is. Team Hall & Nass fears no one, but EVERYONE is afraid of this guy. This is a man who would love nothing more than to put a bunch of speed-crazed rally drivers in his tent city jail wearing pink pajamas and working on the chain gang alongside murders, rapists and communists! To put it simply, Dude is NUTS!

History shows us that many a brave soldier heads off boldly into the great unknown … and many are never heard from again. However, a wise General who knows his enemy AND where said enemy lay in wait recalculates strategy and looks for the smartest way toward victory. So while silence on our beloved Hamthrax radio may have failed us before we topped that rise, it looked like radio chatter had once again paid off in pursuit mode. Now that we knew for sure where they were, where we were, and who they were looking for, it was time to play a little cat and mouse. Game on!

Chapter Sixteen – Radio Silence Is Not Always Golden

All rally long, heck, all TRIP long, whenever we were anywhere within a five mile radius of any Hamthrax, the scanner would tell us. It was an almost foolproof alert system. Long before any of our other counter measures could warn us of impending doom, the scanner told the story. Cops love to talk on the radio (especially when they are “on the lookout” or “in hot pursuit”) and we love to hear all about it!

They often while away their boredom by chatting with each other and with their dispatchers too. So pretty much whenever you hear them, it means they are out there, somewhere nearby. If you listen long enough, they usually tell you where they are, what they are doing and who/what they are looking for! It is amazingly simple how well that works out on the open road. When you are running along at rally pace, all you have to do is tune in, listen, and adjust accordingly. The scanner is a beautiful thing!

However, here we go with another “lesson” – Even when you feel as if your dial is tuned, as if all is right in your world, always remember that nothing in life is guaranteed or foolproof. If you give Murphy the right opportunity, the perfect set of circumstances, and just make it too tempting for him to take a bite, then guess what?!? Bite away he will!

Team Hall & Nass had been in the lead for all of about two glorious minutes when we topped a rise running at a good clip and there he was … a northbound case of Hamthrax who tagged us with his radar just as we blew by. We went from being ecstatic at finally having the lead to stone cold busted, all in less than five miles! How could this be?!? Like I said before, oh how quickly one’s fortunes can change in the rally game.

However, before simply giving in to impending doom, I did some quick math. “If” he stopped and turned around to pursue (like he wasn’t going to take a run at us), the more I thought about it, the better I liked our immediate odds of not contracting a full blown case of Hamthrax.

How so? Well, figure the time lost to a standard issue Hamthrax POS cruiser headed north at about 70-80 MPH before he can slow down enough to turn around versus the much greater rate we were still running south. Then factor in that he would likely have to wait for all of all of those hapless slow cars behind us (that big line of them we had just passed) to pass by him before turning around. Then calculate that he would have to work to pass all of those cars headed back south on a two lane road (including a few other very tempting rally cars). He would have to do all of that BEFORE having any chance of trying to gain ground on us. Add all of that up and you start to see the picture. I figured if we just maintained our current rate and kept on going there was no earthly way he could ever get back close enough to even see us from behind. Considering the back of the car is where the license plate is, and without that bit of information he doesn’t even know who he is chasing (other than a vehicle description) and all we needed to do was just keep on going!

As I weighed it all out in my head, I put the hammer down a little bit harder just for good measure. I mean, what else are you going to do in that situation? Pull over and give up? Um, NO! Maybe if you live a life of fear and submission you’d give in. Or, if you are the type who asks for permission in advance versus for forgiveness later, then perhaps you would pull over. But fear and submission are not in the Team Hall & Nass vernacular. We do not ask, rather, we just do! So onward we went with Corvette-induced gusto!

For you Ralph Nader types out there who may be aghast at such modern day lawlessness, I say this – Judge us not good people. This is one of those deals where you truly have to be there in the moment and live it. In such situations, the only real threat is the radio.

Since topping that rise and inadvertently blowing the doors off of the northbound Hamthrax, the continued radio silence was deafening. Even though I knew he would never be able to catch back up to us, I still wondered why he hadn’t radioed it in. Just as I was starting to wonder if maybe there were some frequencies we didn’t have, the scanner came to life with the following information:

“Base, I’ve been in pursuit of a pack of cars with stickers on them traveling at a high rate of speed on southbound 93 for the past five miles. They are too fast for me and I can’t catch them. I can’t even get a visual. Be advised that I clocked the lead car, a yellow Corvette, at a speed of xxx MPH. Advise all units to the south to be on the lookout for the Corvette and potentially others. They may be well down US 60 beyond Wickenburg by the time units can organize. Request roadblocks further out.”

Chapter Fifteen – Leading is SWEET

Victory is sweet in all flavors, and after running so hard to catch and pass Team New Mex Express, we suddenly had a much better taste in our mouths than we did when they pulled out of that Chevron ahead of us in Kingman! But make no mistake about it. Leading is not winning. As Vin Diesel’s character Dominic “Dom” Torretto said in the original Fast and the Furious, “Ask any racer, any real racer. It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winning is winning.” So first you must lead, and then you must cross the finish line with said lead. One down, one a great distance yet out ahead of us to go. But I like where we are and I like our odds now that we’ve run down Team New Mex Express. Now to put some distance between us and them!

There are many great words of wisdom and inspiration out there to draw from to try to describe a moment like this. There are many from whom I could borrow quotes. Yet, even with all of those wise people and their famous words to borrow from, I think no one probably ever said it better or in a more memorable way than the famous line always recited at the opening of each episode of the former renowned sports program, ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Oh yes, you know what’s coming. The thrill of victory, and the AGONY OF DEFEAT!!! Drink it up my rally brethren and always remember … this could happen to you!

Chapter Fourteen – Reeling in the Snake

After running at a slightly more “reasonable” rate for a few miles, we kept creeping further back up the speed dial. We easily caught and passed the team that got by us when we were all stopped at the last clue, but there was still no sign of Team New Mex Express. Just how fast where they running, anyway? They ought to top out at about a buck and a half! Even if they were running flat out, there was no way they could maintain that speed through some of the curves and with catching and passing traffic on a two lane road, so surely we had to be reeling them in! I decided right then and there that I was going to continue to climb the speed charts and I wasn’t letting up until I passed that Cobra! The Vette could do it, I just needed to let it. Once I had put some distance between them and us, then (maybe) I might let up!

Pause for a moment and put yourself in our shoes. Would you be content to sit there running in second place in a brand new Corvette when there was a 14 year old Cobra Mustang somewhere out there in front of you with the lead? One that you knew was only ten minutes or so ahead of you when you left Kingman? Yeah, I didn’t think so! So I continued to step up the pace and those in the pack that could come with me, did.

It is at this time that I’d like to acknowledge the fine folks who were running along with us. Sadly, due to what happens soon hereafter, I can’t call them out by team or Twitter name (for their own protection)! But you know who you are and let me just say WOW! Those cars will perform MUCH better than I ever would have thought before this rally! Kudos to you all on your driving abilities for holding your cars on the road through some of those corners at those speeds! I am more than just amazed … I am flat out impressed!

It took us a few more miles, but finally, right out in front of us, stuck in the middle of a line of about ten cars, trucks and RVs was Team New Mex Express! They were boxed in and couldn’t really see far enough ahead or couldn’t build enough momentum in time to pass all the cars ahead of them before the top of the next rise. We were coming with a big head of steam and from our vantage point could see that the oncoming lane was clear for a mile, so I dropped the hammer even more and around them we went! I even honked and waved as we went by at the speed of sound! The two cars behind me that had been running with us since that last clue came too, and that put us in 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd consecutively! Funny how just a few seconds previous, Team New Mex was leading by what they thought was a comfortable margin, and suddenly they were all the way back to 4^th place! Oh how quickly one’s fortunes can change in the rally game!

Chapter Thirteen – We Really Are Hall & Nass!

As soon as we left Kingman and started up the ramp onto I-40 East, I literally dropped the hammer as hard as the traffic and top would let me. We only caught one of the five cars before we got to the US 93 South turnoff toward Phoenix. I couldn’t believe how fast these guys had to be running for us to have not caught up with them yet!

As we flew down a four lane divided section of US 93, we passed a cop standing on the northbound side who already had another car pulled over on the shoulder. As we flew by, we heard him call in on Hamthrax radio that a group of cars with stickers on them were screaming down US 93 South. Hmm, a group? I knew I was catching up! But alas, back to the Hamthrax threat! The dispatcher said, in a very calm voice, “Oh, that’s probably those Gumball guys again. They come through here every year. You won’t catch them, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.” I almost couldn’t believe my ears! I thought this may be our lucky day!

We shot down 93 at Mach 12 and a half, already into the two-lane section and finally reeled in three of the cars at a stop for clues, but no Team New Mex! I ran inside and gathered answers to two clues. One of the other team drivers looked at me and said, “You caught up with us already? AW MAN!” As I ran outside, I began yelling at Taylor to stop filming and “get in the car, get in the car, get in the car” as the others all ran for their cars. I heard one of them exclaim, “They really are Hall & Nass!” We jumped in the car and tore out of there with two other teams right on our tail. We HAD to be getting close to the lead!

A few miles ahead at the next clue stop, we actually discussed (as a group) slowing the pace a bit as we had to be closing in on Team New Mex and there wasn’t any point in risking it for a bit since that cop had seen us and radioed it in.  We agreed to slow the pace some, but just a bit. Right about that time, another team blew by us and kept on going. We figured they either must be on a different clue sheet or they had just missed that one completely! But I knew we had our work cut out for us when there was a Team New Mex Express sticker waiting for us stuck right on top of the clue! It was as if they were looking back at us saying, “nah nah nah boo boo!” UGH! We peeled out of there and dropped the hammer to try to run down Team New Mex Express.

Chapter Twelve – Snake Charmed

When we first signed up for the Dustball Rally, we knew embarrassingly little about this particular event. Running hard, stopping little and outfoxing Hamthrax is one thing. That we do well. However, searching for gimmicks, figuring out the route and outgunning the veteran Dustball competitors while doing all of these things simultaneously is quite something else!

What little we did know about the Dustball, we had learned from following the tweets of one particular team we stumbled across on Twitter. They were following Gumball and Bullrun earlier this year, so we followed them, and sooner or later one of their tweets caught our eyes and led us to the Dustball. Without this one team, we may have not ever been in this event, in this moment, flying down the road toward the lead and potential victory. It is this team whom we conversed with leading up to the launch date more than any other. It is this team who shared information with us to help us prepare. It is this team who told us where to find the best frequencies for our Hamthrax radio which, above all pieces of gear we had in the car, kept us out of getting tickets numerous times and quite literally kept us out of getting thrown into the worst jail in the entire country (as you’ll read about soon enough). We owe this team a great debt of gratitude, and yet, we knew this was the team we were going to have to run like mad dogs on Day Two to get ahead of if we wanted to have any shot at winning. Who is this all powerful and mighty team?

When we pulled into the Chevron station on the north side of Kingman, we were surprised to see the red 1995 Mustang Cobra of Team New Mex Express (@NewMexExpress on Twitter) sitting there at the pumps. I started to just pee in my pants and keep going, but I really didn’t want to sit in and smell pee for another 650 miles, so we stopped. UGH! I honked at them as we pulled in. I guessed they couldn’t have been there long and figured since we were stopped, we might as well top off the gas. However, as I pulled up to the pump and shut the Vette off, Team New Mex pulled out. We were stopped in Kingman for about ten minutes as I went to the bathroom, topped off the gas, let off a bit of excess tire pressure built up in the right sides and got back in the car. While there, four other cars got by. Taylor kept track of who, when and the intervals masterfully. But I knew no matter who went by, if New Mex had gotten there that quick in the first place AND was out there pulling away from us the whole time we were stopped, we really had our work cut out for us to run them back down. Little did I know just how hard we were about to have to run to actually accomplish that goal!

Chapter Eleven – Water Flows FAST in the Desert

We headed south out of Vegas at a screaming rate. We actually recorded our highest speed of the entire event on our GPS on I-515/US 95 South headed out of Henderson. Insane perhaps, but I know the road and know the area very, very well. Plus, the top stayed on, so that max speed rating Chevrolet put on the top may actually be a little low! We flew all the way to Boulder City, Nevada, even blowing a pack of superbikes off the road. They quickly decided they really didn’t want to play with us once they figured out we weren’t speed bursting, but were maintaining a steady ballistic pace. So sadly typical!

This brings me to a shared tip for fellow motorcyclists. Please ride smart and we all win! It is just as much for your safety as it is for the rest of us. Please know that when you gun the throttle to suddenly try to catch, pass or outrun a fast car that just passed you running at a good clip, you SHOULD NOT run past said car and then abruptly let off the throttle! Abrupt anything at speed is dangerous to everyone. Use your head AND your mirrors! Just because you assume you proved some point by going from 90 to 170 in a hurry doesn’t mean that the car you had to run 170 to pass isn’t somehow magically not going to be right up your backside and maybe even gaining on you. This should especially be on your mind when said car has a higher top end capability than your bike AND happens to be covered in racing decals. If you don’t have the nerve to maintain such a rate and/or may need to let off in a hurry for any reason, then do us all a favor and ride at a rate you are comfortable maintaining and GET OUT OF THE LEFT LANE! Like I said, RIDE SMART and we all win!

After our schooling of the bikers, we then slowed to a painful crawl through the 20 miles of two lane dam approach, crossing and lead-out area on the AZ side. Once we hit the four lane and dispatched with the initial traffic, we were back up to near record speeds most of the way down the perfectly straight four lane wide US 93 to Kingman.

When we caught up to the red Porsche 928 camera car (that had actually left the garage to get ahead of the field before Andy started handing out folders), I started feeling good. I figured the field would be running hard down US 95, but even so, we should be ahead of most, if not all of them, before Kingman. Heck yeah! This was likely going to work!

To make things even more fun, we caught up to another non-Dustball Corvette who joined us in our low flight attack plan. He tucked in behind us (at a safe gap mind you) and ran along with us until his wife eventually made him let up. I could actually see her howling at him in the rearview and the smile creep wider and wider across his face the longer he ran with us! Gotta love Corvette owners! A rare breed indeed!

When we were nearing Kingman, I knew we had trouble brewing, but of a different sort than I anticipated. I had drank way too much water on the rooftop of the ti garage that morning in an effort to keep my throat from getting dry during all of the talking and while doing interviews. The resulting water in my system was making me have to pee so badly I couldn’t hold it. I knew we wouldn’t need gas until at least Phoenix, but we had to stop in Kingman or else I was going to pee in the seat. Another lesson – DO NOT drink a single drop more than you absolutely must when you run long distance rallies!

Chapter Ten – Rally Launch, Day Two – Our Slightly Different Approach

Our Day One strategy had been quite simple. Get out front early and stay out front. That had worked right up until we got called out on Hamthrax radio and hunted by New Mexico’s finest, at which point we had to change tactics and lay back, a change that would drop us all the way to ninth place at the end of the day. So for Day Two, we decided to play it smarter. We’d take our time on the front end to learn the route inside and out, try to work our way up to around 10^th place or so, then close on the leaders like a freight train near the end. I figured if we kept the leaders within striking distance, we could save running for the lead (and the win) over the last 100 or so miles.

In addition to our burning desire to win AND have fun on Day Two of this rally, this day was also very important to Team Hall & Nass for another special reason. It was Taylor’s twenty-ninth birthday! What a way to celebrate! I’d like to pause here to say THANK YOU again to everyone on the Dustball and to all of our friends and fans on Twitter who went out of your way to wish Taylor a happy birthday. It touched her every time someone mentioned it or tweeted her with birthday wishes. It made her day and I really appreciate each and every one of you for doing it!

Then, Andy handed out the clues sheets, I scanned the first page, and all that lay back until the last 100 miles business went right out the window! I knew what I was going to get Taylor for her birthday – a WIN! The game of who knows the route and can solve the most clues BEFORE putting the car into gear was heavily in our favor. After realizing that, my desire to play who has the bigger engine earlier versus later took over.

As the rest of the teams went screaming off the garage roof in a whirl of tire smoke and petrol fumes, we calmly got into our car and sat there studying the entire route. Finally, the camera man yelled at us to drive past him at the top of the ramp just so he could film us leaving. So we drove by him, posed for the camera, and then pulled in on the next floor down to study the rest of the route.

I could see that the first two clues were going to lead us south out of Vegas on US 93 and then south on US 95 down to the Terrible Herbst Casino in Searchlight, Nevada. The route then ran the field on down US 95, heading east passed Laughlin, Nevada on 68, and then winding up the hill and joining back up with US 93 just north of Kingman, Arizona. It really pays to have local knowledge sometimes! The El Paso teams had it on Day One and we outran them all easily within the first hour. It was welcome to my world of Corvette induced hell on the competition for Day Two! Muuhahaha!

Since I knew we could find the answers to the two clues with a phone call or two, that meant we could skip going down US 95 and just head down US 93 all the way to Kingman. I knew we’d lose some time dealing with traffic crossing the Hoover Dam, but even with that, we should still be able to save about 25-35 minutes over the rest of the field by going this route. Given that we were already 20 minutes behind from our long pause to calculate routes, clues and making calls, I knew we had to boogie. If we were lucky crossing the dam, we might be able to take first before we even got to Kingman. Then we would pull ahead, put some distance on the field and not look back. I couldn’t stop grinning. It was on!

Chapter Nine – Number One Spot

*Authors Note – Due to the twelve month statute of limitations in the state we ran much of Day Two in (and due to specific circumstances beyond our control that you’ll read about soon enough) we regret to be unable to inform our readers and fans of any actual speeds achieved during this section of the rally. We’ll drop hints but no real #’s. Sorry!

The morning of Day Two began on the roof of the Treasure Island parking garage. We got up there early to set up our car, all our gear, and to make sure everything was ready to rock and roll. One way or another, Team Hall & Nass was determined to make the last day of the Dustball Rally one for the books!

I cued my iPod up to blast Ludacris’ Number One Spot and said we might start the day out a bit slower this time, but that everyone better take note that Team Hall & Nass would be coming to the front as soon as we were ready. I even joked around on Twitter changing the lyrics to the song slightly to say things such as Don’t let up or get caught, I’m coming for that number one spot! How little did I know how prophetic ALL of these words would soon turn out to be!

Chapter Eight – Viva Las Vegas, the Town that Never Sleeps

I’d love to tell you about all the wild stories of Vegas debauchery that went on. I really would! But you’ll have to ask one of the other teams because I honestly do not have a single one (from this trip) to share! Not to sound “over it all” or anything, but when you live in Vegas, you’ve “done” Vegas so many times that it’s not as exciting as other places in the country. Well, that AND when you just rolled in after one long day of prep, two days of hard driving, are running on six hours of sleep total in the last 72 and you have your girlfriend with you, all you really care about seeing in Vegas is that nice hot shower and that big king sized bed you don’t have to leave in the morning. We showered and then CRASHED OUT! We slept for 11 hours, got up long enough to order and eat a $100 breakfast via room service, and then slept for four more hours. By the time we actually left the room on Saturday it was already dark out again!

When we did leave, we headed out to a very dirty Corvette in need of much cleaning and love. So we put the top down, cruised the strip (filming the Vegas strip on a Saturday night in a Corvette convertible IS kind of fun!) and headed up to our house in Henderson for some auto detailing.

After spending a lot of time cleaning and rubbing on the Vette, Team Hall & Nass wasn’t riding dirty anymore! I took the time to check the car over in the garage, adjust the tire pressures, make a few adjustments here and there and then take more pics. After that, it was down to In and Out Burger for a couple of much needed Double-Doubles and then back to ti to position the Vette on the garage roof for the 7 AM Day Two launch.

By the time we got back to ti, the Dustball private club party was already over. I was a little bummed to miss that because it would have been fun to party with the other teams, but we made up for it by sharing the Pirate Pig love! We cruised around the garage and placed Pirate Pig decals on the rear side windows of every Dustball car we could find. Pirate Pig was there to bring good fortune and Hamthrax protection for all!

Pirate Pig worked VERY well for most of the people who kept him on their cars the next day. There were a few spoiled sports who removed their Pirate Pig stickers, but perhaps they didn’t know the value of the gift we had given them?!? I bet they wished they still had their Pirate Pig later on Day Two when they got pulled over numerous times!

GO PIRATE PIG! HAMTHRAX PROTECTION FOR ALL! :@)~

Chapter Seven – Vegas Bound Baby!

After spending well over an hour in Holbrook resting, chatting, topping off the fuel and taking pictures of our Vette in front of the famous Route 66 landmark Wigwam Village Motel, we headed up the on ramp for I-40 West and dropped the hammer on a route we are more than familiar with. We caught up with Team Stig about 20 minutes into our run and they sped up to stay on our bumper. In tandem, with the cruise set on a mildly respectable 100, we cruised west, chasing the setting sun all the way home.

We only let up for Hamthrax sightings and pesky left lane gawkers all the way from Holbrook to the exit for US 93 North, and again for the inevitable slowdown on US 93 just south of the Hoover Dam. As we crossed the dam, it occurred to me to check our average speed for the day again. It was down to 88.3 MPH. DRAT! It had been up around 92-94 most of the day. Not too shabby when you consider all of the two lane twisties, off road clues searching and Hamthrax avoidance we had to do. By the time we cleared the dam and got back up to speed heading into our hometown of Henderson on the south side of Vegas, we had the overall average back up over 90. We stopped along I-215 for a quick detour to get gas at a Chevron station close to our house, then proceeded to the strip to check in to our destination hotel for two relaxing nights of MUCH needed sleep at Treasure Island resort. Viva Las Vegas Baby!

Chapter Six – Hell’s Highway Hath No Fury for Team Hall & Nass

For the next 112 miles, US 191 winds it way up, down, around and across the mountains of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. It is one of the most challenging, beautiful, dangerous and glorious stretches of two lane blacktop in the United States and one of the top ten in the world! It winds its way north from the active mine just north of Plantsite all the way to the small town of Edgar, Arizona. It took us several hours to wind, twist and hammer our way across this road. I’d like to state for the record that it is the single best mountain road I’ve ever driven in my life! If you saw where I grew up in Eastern Kentucky and some of the treacherous Appalachian mountain roads I learned how to drive on, you may better understand the gravity of this statement. Aside from the amazing people we met on the Dustball Rally, driving this road in the Corvette was the highlight of the whole rally for me!

However, to say that US 191 was a highlight for Taylor would be to go well beyond stretching the truth. For starters, how would YOU liked to be riding shotgun with a crazy man on such a road, the kind where on several occurrences you may swear you actually just read your own rear license plate our your own windshield?!? I think not. Secondly, thanks to us running a rental Vette and not our own, nothing was hard mounted. So you can imagine the blender effect that ensued when many of the electronics goodies in the car started making the corners with their own velocity.

To make matters worse, I had requested that Taylor film as much of this part of the run as she could. So while she’s trying to hold the camera AND herself steady in the seat (both of which are impossible without harnesses), she is literally being pummeled by the gear. At one point, I hear “OW” and then silence. I timidly inquire as to the nature of said declaration as I transition into another quick switchback. I learn that the laptop has decided to no longer be a “lap” device and is now squarely planted in the floor, pinned against her shin (sharp corner first, mind you). She can’t reach it thanks to the velocity of our ever-changing multi-directional movement and her locked seat belt, so it has to stay planted in her shin for the next several miles. Um, this is going to cost me dearly somewhere on the road of life I am certain, but at the moment, there are more corners to attack!

To add to the excitement, while we were testing the very limits of man, woman, relationship and machine in corners that would make many too scared to look out over the edge of, much less maintain our pace through, we caught up with the 911, the 997 and a VW camera car, all cars that got by us earlier when we were having to go painfully slow and behave! It was fun to play with them, and even more fun to dispatch them! Well, I do believe the 997 let us go on, but that’s another story for another day!

After locating one clue on the northern end of the twisty US 191, we finally emerged on US 60. As an interesting side note, I grew up just a few block off of US 60 in Kentucky years ago, so it was kind of neat to see an old friend this far west, especially after having just driven a road that reminded me so much of those mountain roads of my youth.

We headed west on US 60 and then west on US 180/191 toward the town of St. Johns, Arizona. This is where we stopped for another round of fuel, a much needed stretching of legs, a painful look at Taylor’s shin, and to search for yet another impossible to find clue!

As we got gas and swapped stories of our amazing run over the mountains on 191, low and behold, the Skyline reappeared! They were stumped, searching for the latest clue and were at their wits end! They finally gave up and raced off out of town. Somehow, this made me feel a little bit better having let them get away earlier outside of Deming.

Yet such feelings often come with a price paid in karma. After searching for half an hour for an image that was proving impossible to find, we told Team Stig to go on ahead and we’d continue to search in exchange for them calling us with a smokey report as they went on up US 180 toward Holbrook, AZ. We stayed behind and spent ANOTHER 40 MINUTES searching for a clue that in the end was deemed impossible to find. So with about an hour and fifteen minutes invested and nothing to show for it (other than a tank of gas and those karmic thoughts repaid), we called Team Stig to find out what lay ahead.

There was a bad accident about 10 miles north of us on US 180 off of the left side of the road, but other than that, the road was clear to the next clue and for a good bit beyond. So we headed north at an expedited rate, slowing only to pass the scene of the wreck and for the location of the next clue. We then checked in with Team Stig who had just arrived in Holbrook. The next several miles of US 180 was almost as straight and flat as the road we usually Open Road Race on out in Nevada, so we basically treated the next 37 miles like a practice run for the Silver State Classic Challenge and got into Holbrook on the heels of many teams who had been way ahead of us not so long before. What a fun run!

After we reached Holbrook, we took our time and relaxed for over an hour. We sauntered inside, turned in our test (with four answers missing) and conducted an interview with the camera crew. I must have been a bit off on my mileage calculations, because when the lady asked me where I thought Dustball was headed for the night, I said, “Santa Fe is only about 302 miles, so it HAS to be there! It’s a shame we don’t have an extra 40 or so miles, or we’d be headed to Vegas!” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Andy, the event organizer, try to hide a smirk. Hmm.

Andy handed me an envelope and asked me to open it outside. He said it had the information on where the final destination was for the night and where we would be staying all day Saturday to rest, play and party. Guess where we were headed … ?!?

Chapter Five – The Invisible Discus Man and the First BIG Time Loss

We spent the better part of the next hour traversing the small town of Deming, New Mexico searching fruitlessly for an image of a man holding a disc. It looked something like a Greek or Roman statue in the picture we had. It seems no other team could find it either since by the time we gave up looking, more than half the 35 cars on the rally were driving around in circles within the same town or had given up and gone on! After way too much time wasted, we decided to skip it and head on toward the next clue.

We formed a “speed” alliance of sorts with Team Stig (@Team_Stig on Twitter) in a modified black BMW 5 Series that was also stuck there looking for the same clue. They had been listening on their scanner and heard all the carnage as well. They had longer range antennas on theirs too. We agreed that we should stay within 5 miles an hour of the speed limit the rest of the way out of New Mexico, especially while driving on I-10, to avoid getting pinched. It seemed like the best way to potentially avoid the melee.

So back onto I-10 West and off toward Arizona we crawled at a pace that was only 4 MPH over the posted limit. In the time we were on I-10, a couple more rally cars caught and passed us. They both had the same puzzled expressions on their faces when they saw us going so slow, especially when we waved at them and kept creeping along at such a horribly slow pace. This was absolutely killing me and it was starting to boil over.

As my frustration mounted, I turned to Taylor and said, “You know, I was having fun before Deming. I’m not having fun now. We’ve already missed a gimmick so we probably won’t win that award. Now, thanks to the Hamthrax attacks, we are probably not going to get back up to first place either. If I wanted to drive along for miles on end at 4 over the speed limit, I would have just stayed home and spent all this money on a cruise or something. This sucks!” Without missing a beat, she reminded me that had I not been driving Mach 5 and had I not blown through the small gap of daylight that opened up between the two big rigs that were holding up traffic earlier versus slowing down and being patient, I could probably still be running along at 100 right now and no one would be looking for us, or pulling everyone else over. I needed to remember that this is a rally, not a race, and certainly not The Fast and the Furious. I shut up. She was probably right, even if I didn’t like it. UGH! I couldn’t wait until we got off I-10 again and crossed into Arizona!

Yet even though I was “behaving” now, the ghost of speeding past was still upon us. It wasn’t long before we heard the scanner light up with rally related activity again. Here is another excerpt of what we heard over the airwaves:

Mobile Police Unit – “Base, be advised we have two gray Porsches with stickers pulled over at mile marker 42 on westbound I-10. Requesting state police backup. Be advised we have still not seen that yellow Corvette.”

At this point, we were about 20 miles behind the two Porsches (that we had been WAY out in front of earlier), so I was hoping that the scene would be clear long before we got to MM 42! Fortunately, by the time we reached MM 42, there was no one to be seen.

We exited I-10 at MM 24 and headed up US 70 North toward Arizona. After making it a couple of miles out of town, we pulled over and discussed fuel strategy with Team Stig. We all decided to double back a couple of miles to fuel up, but not before we saw the two grey Porsches go whizzing by. Where had they come from and how had they gotten behind us?!? We hurried back to get gas in Lordsburg and spent the next ten minutes refueling and talking about how we were going to run once we crossed out of New Mexico and into Arizona. Faster, but also a bit smarter was the conclusion!

We turned onto NM 92 West. As soon as we crossed the Arizona state line, we picked up the pace. We then turned onto AZ 75 North and kept picking it up. At this point, we were looking for more clues. As we headed North on US 191, we stopped to find what would be the last couple of clues for a while in the small mining town of Plantsite. Then we begin one of the best rally drives we’ve ever seen anywhere in the world! The road formerly known as US 666, “The Devil’s Highway.”

Chapter Four – First Round of Trouble

After running at our accelerated pace for about ten to fifteen miles, we caught sight of the leaders. A brand new Nissan Skyline GT-R with paper plates was in first, followed closely by a 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT-8. As soon as we caught sight of them, we heard the first report come over the airwaves on our scanner. Here is an excerpt of the broadcast:

Police Dispatcher – “All units be advised we have reports of several high performance cars with some sort of stickers on them driving at high rates of speed on westbound I-10. We’re not sure if it is some kind of race or something, but be advised that we’ve had reports of several cars weaving in and out of traffic. All units also be advised we’ve had multiple reports of a yellow Corvette driving well in excess of 125 miles per hour.”

Um, this is NOT what you want to hear when you are driving in a rally, much less when you are trying to run down the leaders and you have them in your sights! Were we “well in excess” of 125? I’m not telling … but for the sake of argument, what defines “well in excess”?!? Remember, the top is only rated for 167 and we were running with it up, so let’s just say we were not in danger of the top of coming off. At least not yet!

At this point, the always cool and collected Taylor looks over the console at me and calmly says, “Well, now you’ve gone and done it. So much for maintaining your ‘reasonable’ pace and flying under the radar. Now YOU are the one who is going to bring down the rain on everyone else behind you and ruin their fun.” I start to point out that we are NOT in the lead yet and we are STILL chasing down two other cars who had to be running hard too, but quickly realize that my point, whether relevant or not, doesn’t really matter. They didn’t say “white Nissan” or “black Dodge.” They said “yellow Corvette.”

Which leads us to our fifth lesson learned – Whether or not you always agree with your navigator, there is NO arguing in the car. You either trust the person next to you to feed you accurate, relevant and timely information, or you don’t. Communication is the key to a winning team in any form of motorsports. When it comes to navigating, there is no one I trust more than Taylor. Plus, as bad as I hate to admit it, I’m afraid she might actually be right (as usual). So I try to leave the topic alone and press onward.

However, this also brings us to the beginning of the realization of the sixth and single biggest lesson learned on this rally (a lesson that will be amplified and reaffirmed time and time again later in this story) – DO NOT drive a bold colored, easily recognizable, not so common car in rally events! Especially when the car itself is so easily recognizable that it cannot be confused with any other make or model! It doesn’t matter how many light or neutral colored sedans may be running the same speeds you are. If you are in the bold colored supercar, the kind that teenage boys spend their hard earned grass mowing money on posters of to pin up on their bedroom walls next to Miss March, then guess who the Hamthrax will be looking for?!? NOT the sedans or the cars that don’t LOOK fast! No, they will all want to catch YOU!

Fortunately, within two miles of getting called out on the radio, we caught up to the leaders as they were exiting I-10 to enter NM 549, a two-lane road slightly away from the interstate in search of the next clue. The timing for exiting I-10 couldn’t have been better!

The Skyline and the Challenger pulled up next to one another to talk. I pulled up to them and relayed that the heat was on and that we likely needed to cool it for a while before heading back toward I-10. The driver of the Challenger looked right at me and said, “We’ve only been running about 70 or so.” Yeah. Riiiight! So were we! ROFLMAO!

I let them go ahead and followed along in third place as we headed West on NM 549 at a leisurely pace of 70 MPH in search of our next clue. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before other rally cars caught up to us as we crept along the two lane blacktop. I passed the Challenger and eased up on the Skyline, but he must not have liked it because he took off. Since I knew we were nearing the small town of Deming and since we were already so popular on the radio, I maintained my pace and let him go. THAT was painful for me!

As we crawled along on NM 549, I started to hear the carnage playing out on the Hamthrax radio. I cringed. Taylor said nothing. From the sounds of it, the state police, the county mounties and even the border patrol are pulling over anyone with stickers on them left and right on I-10 back behind us. The field is suffering. Meanwhile, we are not even in the lead for our efforts. So much for get out front and stay there! Darn Hamthrax!

Chapter Three – Rally Launch, Day One

We awoke at 4 AM to the sound of light rain on the windows. Not what you want to hear when you are about to strap into a Corvette, line up next to 34 other petrolheads and go tearing off into the great unknown as hard as you can push your cars. So what did I do first thing? I went outside, got the Vette out of the rain, pulled her under the front canopy of the Holiday Inn Express and (what else?!?) wiped her down. Yet another photo op!

After a shower, packing up the bags, loading up the car, reinstalling the electronics and getting everything up and running, it was time to head to the 6 AM starting line. Yep, you guessed it, in the pouring rain.

We started the day with NO real idea of what was in store for us. Thankfully, Andy decided to hold off starting us until after the rain slowed and the sun started to come up. A little daylight helps when you’re racing (sorry, “rallying”) in the rain. At least you can see what you’re about to go sliding around!

After a group photo and a short bit of instruction, we learned that there would be an initial “short run” across the city of El Paso to give everyone a feel for what was to come. Upon arrival at the first checkpoint, the rest of the day’s instructions would be issued and Day One of the rally would be on! We used the first “short run” section from the pre-starting line to the official starting line as a real time test of the gear, the car, and to get a feel for what kind of clues we’d be looking for and the types of places we’d be looking for gimmicks under real Dustball Rally conditions. That first short run showed us A LOT (Thanks Andy)! We left almost dead last and, even with a missed turn (due to speed), a navigation error and figuring out how to reroute ourselves and still get back where we needed to be (twice), we managed to get to the first checkpoint inside of the top ten. Like I said, we learned a LOT from that first short run.

After some gear adjustments and mental prep, we left the “official” starting line in about the middle of the pack. The run to the first set of clues took us westbound on I-10 out of El Paso to I-25 North and into downtown Las Cruces, New Mexico. This was the first time running dual GPS units paid off. One could pan out while the other was zoomed in. We passed a few teams on the road at speed and then used a smart parking strategy upon arrival at the first clue location to expedite our exit. After locating two of the three clues on foot (and solving the third via Google), we shot out of Las Cruces ahead of most other teams. We made a wrong turn heading for I-10 (my mistake), but my trusty navigator Taylor caught it immediately, so we made a u-turn and corrected within one block. We passed three teams on surface streets on the way to the on ramp (with a Gumball-style pass in the paved center median turn lane) and a couple more after we got onto I-10 West.

As we headed deeper into New Mexico toward the next set of clues, the speed limit was 75 MPH. so we set the cruise and settled into what I felt was a very reasonable pace at 100. 25 MPH is fairly easy to scrub off, and even if you are caught, 25 over is a ticketable offense in most states. Thus my definition of reasonable … or at least the one I gave to Taylor. She seemed to agree and continued working on solutions for the gimmick sheet.

After driving several miles and not encountering a single rally car, we began to notice a red Porsche 928 with a Dustball sticker on the hood closing in on us at a rapid rate. We started to accelerate away, but then I recalled this was one of the camera cars and not a competitor, so we let them catch up to film us. I figured he wanted to film the leader!

We played with the camera car a bit, and then I motioned to the camera guy and asked if we were in first place. He shook his head and laughed. I paused, then asked him if he was sure, and he motioned that at least two cars were ahead of us. This brings us to our fourth lesson learned – There is no “reasonable” pace in a rally. There is what will get you out front, what will keep you out front, and what will not. Reason isn’t always factored in. So with this realization, we increased our rate of speed and tore off to run down the leaders.

Chapter Two – The Race to the Rally

By the time we went through a few vehicle selections/rejections, through pre-rally inspections on each, and swapping them out via the poor lady on the desk to finally obtain the actual Corvette ZHZ we were going to accept from Hertz, we were already way behind schedule. At least we had a brand new, fully loaded C6 Corvette convertible with the Z51 performance package, magnetic adjustable suspension package and sport tuned exhaust. Who knew Hertz would order the full performance optioned 436 horsepower edition for their rental fleet?!? Thanks Hertz!

So after the lengthy car selection/pick up process, we still needed to clean up the Vette, apply all of the rally stickers, and to load it full of all the gear necessary to successfully compete in the rally. Then there was the small task of packing for a week, loading the car, and finally trying to get a decent nights rest before we head out of town. All of this was supposed to happen in one evening. Yeah. Right! With only 24 hours left until we had to be in El Paso for the mandatory 6 PM driver’s safety briefing, and having only had 2 hours sleep in the previous 48 hours due to preparing to be away for a week, we had our work cut out for us! This leads us to our second and third lessons learned – DO NOT wait until the day before you are supposed to leave to drive to the rally start destination city to prepare your car! Third – Get plenty of REST during the week BEFORE you go rally!

After we got our Corvette home and cleaned her up, we began the arduous process of figuring out where each decal would look best on the car. Sounds easy, right? Anything but! First, you have to strategically place each decal in a manner that ensures proper placement for aesthetics while allowing plenty of visibility for all of the rally sponsors, all of our team sponsors, and all of our custom team decals. No, I can assure you, this is not nearly as easy as it sounds!

For starters, we were running considerably more decals than we usually do in other events. Couple that with the fact that they had been planned for a coupe, not a convertible, and you start to see the dilemma we faced. However, thanks to some MUCH needed help from our good friend Trent Landreth (@trentor_drive on Twitter and author of the automotive blog ReflectionsoftheDrive.com) we figured out where to best place them on the car in about an hour or so. Then came the fun part … decal application.

For the record, most temporary racing and rally decals are easy as pie to install (and to remove, but we’ll cover that later). For our custom team decals and our sponsor decals, this was thankfully the case. However, it must be duly noted that there is a special place in hell reserved for those who selected the actual materials used in the construction of the “official” 2009 Dustball Rally decals. To his credit, rally organizer Andrew Medley (@DustballRally on Twitter) has assured us that this will not happen again next year. Given his track record on how well everything else went with the planning and execution of this rally, I do believe him. However, let the record show that if the 2010 Dustball decals are constructed of materials that are anything like the 2009 decals, I’m saving the “best” of them to place directly on his windshield at the starting line next year!

Yet I digress. We spent the next several hours, going deep into the wee hours of the night, pausing only long enough to not reach beyond the limits of the local Wendy’s drive thru for a much needed late dinner while applying decals to our Vette. The night was typical summer in Texas, hot, humid and long. By the time we finished applying decals (around 4:30 AM), my clothes were as wet with sweat as if I’d jumped into the pool. In fact, had I not needed to wire up the electronics in the car immediately after applying the decals, jumping into the pool would have been the very next step!

Decal application might have been 10 times tougher than the decal packs we usually run, and it might have taken most of the night, but I do believe the end results speak for themselves in the pictures (see them on our @TeamHallnNass TwitPics account and in the Team Hall & Nass gallery on ReflectionsoftheDrive.com). The car was beautiful! No, it was more than that. It was stunning! Much more on that topic will be covered in a later chapter to be titled “Stickers, The Most Beautiful Dustball Rally C6 Corvette on the Planet!”

About 8:30 AM, with the decals on, the electronics wired up, both GPS units tracking, the laptop online via Verizon Mobile Wireless, the Valentine One chirping, the Uniden “Hamthrax radio” scanner broadcasting, the suitcases in the back, the snacks in the coolers, a MUCH needed shower taken, NO sleep, several AMP Energy drinks and my trusty co-driver/navigator Taylor Nass strapped in by my side, we hit the road to El Paso.

If you’ve never been in Dallas AM traffic at 8 AM CDT, then you are lucky. Other than when we lived in California, it doesn’t get a whole lot worse anywhere than here. It’s not as much about the 8.5 million people in the DFW area as it as about their notorious inability to drive. Just ask any insurance company. Dallas County Texas is the worst in the nation for accidents. Thus, they really, truly can’t drive here!

This is why I had originally planned to depart by 6 AM! Nevertheless, we headed out at a sad pace that no Corvette should have to endure. About an hour later, after much lane diving, several horns honked and a more than a few visual reminders that Team Hall & Nass is indeed number one in the eyes of many (thanks for the support!), we blew out the other side of Fort Worth at a speed much more in line with our team name.

The drive across most of Texas on Interstates 30, 20 and finally 10 was fairly uneventful. The speed limit is 80 MPH across much of the region, so other than dipping down to 85 “ish” whenever we encountered Hamthrax (which was way more often than even I expected), we kept the cruise set on 100. With a fuel stop, a Cracker Barrel meal and one bathroom break to obtain more energy drinks as our only stops, we arrived in El Paso at 5 PM MDT. A 658 mile run in 9 and a half hours with rush hour traffic and three stops (totaling two hours) is not too shabby, but not NEAR good enough for a real rally day.

After attending the drivers safety briefing, meeting many of our fellow competitors face to face for the first time, getting some general instructions on what to expect the coming days to be like, and taking some pictures of rides in the parking lot, it was time for tacos, a tank of fuel, a final wipe down of the Vette, a shower and some much needed SLEEP. Just before I finally crashed at Midnight MDT, I saw the rain start to fall outside. CRAP!