Another touch and go post here from the hotel in Bozeman. Yesterday’s JagCam footage from Missoula, down to Lost Pass, then over to Big Hole, Jackson, Virginia City & Ennis:
You will note it was VERY windy and the cam got wobbled around a lot. In fact it fell off a couple of times too. We eventually shut it down as we drove into the teeth of a big storm.
Here is our route:
I woke up pretty early (it was still dark) and began uploading yesterday’s JagCam movie to YouTube. I stepped out on the small balcony of our hotel room and noted that it was warm outside. A few minutes later Mark came over and looked outside and said, “Oh look, it is raining.” I was incredulous. I was just out there and it was dry. I got up from the desk and looked. Sure enough a moderately heavy rain was falling. Oh shit! I left the car’s top down! I threw on some shoes and headed for the door. I made for the parking lot at a dead run. I passed people in the hotel hallways who I’m sure thought I was insane. Of course our room was as far as you could be from the parking lot. It felt like a quarter mile. I blew through the lobby and the front doors (all Montana buildings have a double door/man trap arrangement since it is so damn cold there in the winter.) I was bee-lining for the Jaguar when my brain made my legs stop all their work. The top was already up. Some good samaritan has erected the Jaguar’s “hood” at some point in the night and the interior was dry and cozy. At that point the adrenaline ran out and my lungs screamed for oxygen. I stood there breathing heavy for a while and slowly walked back to our room. Mark met me halfway and I told him between gulps of air that the car was fine.
I found out much later that Angie Ewell and Don Dean, two of the rally mechanics had done this generous act in the middle of the night. They had been out working on another car when it started to rain and Angie noted that my car was open and she & Don put my top up. Thanks!
That issue dealt with I was able to takea shower, pack, and head down for breakfast at a leisurely pace. I left Mark at breakfast to attend the driver’s meeting while I prepared the car and JagCam. I was determined to not leave at the back of the pack. When I arrived in the parking lot the weather was breaking so I went ahead and dropped the top on the Jaguar, hoping for the best.
Above: Wet cars in a wet parking lot.
I noted that some jokester had tied a “Just Married” sign to the Iso Griffo of Eric Zausner, so I hung around, camera in hand to await the moment when he spotted it. I hovered around the Reyns’ SS100, pretending to shoot photos of it (I should have more than enough of those by now!) as Eric came out to his car. My patience was rewarded:
We saddled up and started the JagCam, and left in the middle of the pack for once. We made one minor navigational error while leaving Missoula but easily recovered. The route left town southbound through the Bitterroot Valley, but instead of following the main route of US 93 (which was undergoing some re-paving) we followed a series of Montana State Highways down the east side of the valley, rejoining US 93 in the town of Hamilton. Longtime readers of mine will recognize this valley from my Summer Roadtrip with Nicholas in 2003 where we entered Montana at Lost Pass and came up to Missoula, and accidentally ran into Richard Kuschel on Higgins Ave while hanging out at an Internet Cafe. Funny how life has me going back to some places over and over again – especially in Montana.
Photos by Mark Collien
Dick & Matilde Deluna were driving that red Jaguar XK140MC, with Dick flogging the thing like it should, even in the rain! I have no idea who was driving the Sunbeam Tiger, as it is not listed in my routebook. The blue 1953 Allard K3 was driven by Richard Mattei & Mark Ronfeld, from my neck of the Pacific Northwest. Richard told me he’s looking to buy an E-type, so I’ll see what I can do to assist him, though as you’ll see in a bit he had a test drive of another, more exotic cat!
The weather was on-and-off bad, with sprinkles here and there as we drove south. Occasionally the sun would come out and we’d be bathed in brilliant light, only to have dark clouds converge above us again and start raining. We stopped for gas as we left Hamilton to ensure a full tank. Once we left the Bitterroot Valley services would be sparse. Both Mark & I grabbed some caffeine and chocolate as well… fuel for man and machine. Unfortunately when I opened my soda, it foamed up and spilled in my lap. I sat in a puddle of DrPepper all the way to Jackson.
South of Hamilton the valley narrows, becomes wooded, and then US93 starts the climb towards Lost Pass and the Idaho Border. Just before we reached the top of the pass, we took a road, Montana State Highway 43 going east (around 3:37 in the JagCam movie) towards Wisdom, Montana, and the site of the Big Hole battlefield. This was a nice road to drive on. Very little traffic and wide open spaces.
Before we arrived at the Big Hole we found a wide spot on the side of the road that would be great for shooting pictures of rally cars as they flew by. (4:02-4:20 in the JagCam movie.)
I decided to try very low angle shots, using the “motor drive” feature of my camera to shoot a fast sequence of images as cars roared by. The left side of the frame would hold the still Jaguar, while the right would show the rally car. We had a passed a bunch of them earlier so we figured it would be a target-rich environment. It was, but I didn’t hit too many of them. I have a lot of photos with tiny little cars in the distance, and even more with empty pavement, the rally car being just out of the frame to the right. Oh well. I did however manage to catch the fastest driver of them all, Dennis Varni (and his long-suffering, or very courageous wife Kathy) in his replica 427 Cobra. A bit blurry, as he was probably turning a well-beyond-the-ton rate of speed!
While I was standing by the car and Mark was off in the woods answering a call of nature, a Coyote started yipping away across the road and off beyond some trees. He sounded close enough to see, but I never could make him out.
From here it was a quick jaunt down to Jackson for lunch. (5:00 – 6:50 in the JagCam movie.)
Above: The Big Sky above the Big Hole valley.
Above: Passing the Reyns on the way to lunch.
Above: Jags & Tractors… only in Montana.
Photos by Mark Collien.
Lunch was in a great old Montana spot, the Jackson Hot Springs Lodge. Lewis & Clark had stopped here for lunch too! We had sandwiches… I’m pretty sure Lewis & Clark ate buffalo. They did have a big fire going in the fireplace and I stood in front of it until my DrPepper-soaked clothes dried out.
We left Jackson, with Mark at the wheel, headed south with me juggling both cameras in the passenger seat.
Above: Richard Mattei & Kathy Nell pass us at high speed in the XKSS. (6:55 in the JagCam movie.)
Above: 7:08 in the JagCam movie.
Above: Mark driving the 65E. 7:12 in the JagCam movie.
At 7:19 in the JagCam movie the blue Allard passes us (seen in the banner at the top of this page.) Immediately afterwards (7:20 in the JagCam movie) we pass the “Windup” Karmann Ghia of Dave Berghold. I tried to get an epic “chuck shot” as we passed, but lens flare messed it up:
The second shot turned out OK though.
As we drive east it is obvious the weather is getting worse. We cross under Interstate 15 (7:43 in the JagCam movie) and start heading northeast through the town of Dillon, and the skies above clear, but the wind kicks up pretty seriously. The JagCam falls off (8:24 in the JagCam movie) and stops working a couple of times. We stop in Twin Bridges and fix it. From here we drive east through Virginia City, and the temperature drops considerably. The rain starts and I shut down the JagCam and remove it from its mount.
We keep driving, top down, and arrive in Four Corners, a place I recall from my childhood as being just a gas station. Now it has a Starbucks and a Subway, along with a burgeoning suburbia! We raise the roof, as the rain is coming down pretty hard, and I take over driving as I know the way through Bozeman to the hotel. We pull up, check in and unload the Jag.
The 2008 Going To The Sun Rally is over. We however have two more days of driving to get home.
The Event concluded with a ceremony at the hotel, with wine and an excellent slideshow by the Will Brewster, the official rally photographer. I wandered around and said my good-byes to everyone. We had dinner at the Old Chicago Pizza next door to the hotel. There we found some other folks from the rally, and said some more good-byes.