The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Rally! → Great River Road Rally
coming up soon...just a few months. Still time to find a neat car, and get the heater working well. I'm contemplating taking the Rambler on a second trip. Right now the engine is apart in hopes of increasing the fuel:oil ratio from it's current 40:1, into triple digits.
I'm kicking it around myself. I got #EarlBurnerCivic to where it uses almost no oil now (amazing what new piston rings and cylinder honing can do), so it needs a new name. But it also needs a redemption tour on a Lemons Rally, so I know Jeff would be pleased if I finally brought a true hooptie rather than a daily driver.
My dilemma today is more about wanting to take a road trip this year where I can do things at my own pace (there are a lot of unpaved roads out west I have been wanting to explore, which I haven't done since 2019), vs. doing another rally.
The Fail Fail-iage is a closer starting point for me, and is shorter (hence, more affordable), but having never been to some of the destinations on the Great River Road route, I would probably be more inclined to want to do that one.
Fingers are crossed for another Rocky Mountain or Route 66 rally in 2023, though...those take priority as it's my favorite part of the country.
Since the race Blazer was such a great success, parts car Blazer has been promoted to rally Blazer. 2,700 miles round trip, why not make that my first rally?
If you daily it for a couple of weeks and work all the bugs out, it should be fine. I would have at least 3,200 miles round trip for the Great River Road, and I think Earl Burner should be able to handle it no problem. I've had a weird noise under the hood that sounds like a bearing, though. Alternator or power steering pump, most likely. It's faint for now, but hoping a few more shakedown runs will help me find out before something fails.
a piece of garden or heater hose makes a great stethoscope to point you at the source of the noise.
4300 miles round trip for me, minimum....which is a nice drive.
4300 miles round trip for me, minimum....which is a nice drive.
It's certainly doable--my typical road trips west are about 6,000 miles, give or take several hundred miles. Minnesota might have snow in mid-November, but at least you'll be in a covered vehicle this time. 
I'm wondering how closely this rally will follow the actual Great River Road.
Somewhere around here I have one of those automotive stethoscopes. It's probably sitting next to the shallow 12mm and 17mm sockets I lost somewhere in the garage when I buttoned up Earl Burner a few weeks ago.
I had a stethoscope for years, used it once or twice, but I used an old heater hose dozens of times!
We are signed up in my Chicken car. We have done several races but this will be a first. Sounds like fun. How many team usually show up?
#lemonschickencar
10 to 50 teams usually show up for a Rally. I think the Rout 66 rallys were around 25 cars, similar in that you have to drive a ways to get to the start, or to get home, or both.
I think we started with around 20 cars on this year's Rocky Mountain Breakdown, and we had 35 at the start of the Rust Belt Ramble. I lucked out in that the start of Rust Belt was only about 20 miles away from home. Rocky Mtn was 1,200 miles each way to/from greater Denver, but I've traveled that route so many times that it goes by quickly.
I have done several Vintage rallies. The start is only about 50 miles North of me so this will be an easy one. The drive home will be the tough part.
Is everyone booking their room now?
Only the smart people are booking their rooms now. The rest of us will end up sleeping in our cars.
I am trying to book my rooms but what is Vicksburg? The dates do not add up. Is the first stop Vicksburg or Memphis?
on the 8th you drive to Vicksburg, and spend the night there. Then on the 9th you drive to Memphis, and spend the night there.
Vicksburg is about halfway between New Orleans, and Memphis, along the river, on the Mississippi side.
I figure rooms can be booked at any time, but can be cancelled 24-48 hours beforehand if plans change.
@disinfo,
The rally starts in New Orleans on Nov. 8, so for anyone out of state, they would need a room for the night of Nov 7, pre-rally. Beyond that, we will need to reserve nights near Vicksburg MS (11/8), Memphis TN (11/9), St. Louis MO (11/10), Davenport IA (11/11) and Mpls/St Paul MN (11/12).
Don't worry about staying in the recommended hotels--I found cheaper places to stay for Rust Belt that were a bit removed from the immediate area. In Dayton, myself and another team stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in the northeast suburbs of Dayton and luckily we were closer to the first stop on the second rally day. With Pittsburgh, I stayed up in Cranberry Twp., about 25 minutes north.
I did the same on the Rocky Mtn as well for a couple of the nights. Moab was a tough one since mid-April is one of the area's two high seasons (October is the other), and most rooms were $300/night. Squirrel and I each had rooms at a motel that were a good amount less, but still around $200. Probably could have stayed in Grand Junction and backtracked to the first checkpoint, but when we book the rooms, we have no idea of where the checkpoints will be, so it would have been a gamble.
I was planning on doing Fall Failage with my partner from last year's Rust Belt Ramble, but he backed out. I already have the time off arranged for that rally and will have some money saved up by the end of September. The options, as I see them, are as follows:
1 ) Find another partner for Fall Failage, and ride along in their car (I don't currently have a rally-worthy car unless I bring the Odyssey).
2 ) Change my PTO at work, find a partner for Great River Road (which is the rally I really wanted to do to begin with), and take a rental car for that one. The rental fee will cut considerably into my budget, but I could do a ride-along for this one, too.
3 ) Bag rallies altogether for the rest of this year and bank all my money for the rally I really want to do next year.
Smart money says to take option 3, but we're all men (and women) who like to make bad decisions, so I'll put it out there now: If anyone is initially planning on running Great River Road solo and would rather have someone ride along, help navigate, and possibly drive a little bit, keep me in mind. I'd love to meet some new people and see stuff I haven't seen before. I'll help pay for fuel, food, lodging, entry fee, etc, in whatever percentages we can agree upon.
Just be aware that I might have to change my plan if something happens here at home. I had to ditch RBR this year after day one because someone who was borrowing our Odyssey ran it into an embankment and popped two tires. I'd have let my girlfriend deal with it and finished the rally but at no point during my conversation with her did she give me the impression that she had it handled and I should finish the rally.
when will the final location, hotel, be listed?
when will the final location, hotel, be listed?
For the final day (11/12), after the rally, no hotel is listed since attendees often start heading towards home, or live nearby. I will probably find a hotel on the eastern edge of the twin cities, or even Eau Claire WI, as I'll be heading home the following day (east on I-94).
The finish line location will be announced once they have finalized details on where it will be held. Usually a few weeks to a month beforehand, when they have more of an idea of how many will be participating in the rally. In the Rocky Mountain Breakdown, we met at a parking lot outside a race track. For Rust Belt Ramble, it was at the Pearl Street Grill--we took over their lower level, so any venue chosen has to accommodate how many will be participating. The awards ceremony could take up to two hours, so some of us could get a one- or two-hour start on our drive home after the ceremony if we wanted to.
Just be aware that I might have to change my plan if something happens here at home.
I prefer to travel solo (or with the kiddo) for that reason--we have home situations as well (some health-related), so I'd hate to leave anyone stranded without a car to rally in if I needed to head back home on short notice.
I'm weighing my options as well, so I totally get it. I'd like to do the Great River Road but it's an entire week off, and I would have to trade off a trip to the west in September to be able to do it. I might do the same and save up the funds for next year's rallies if I can't decide. Hoping for another Rocky Mountain or even a Route 66 rally--I'd do one or both if they came up.
Hoping for another Rocky Mountain or even a Route 66 rally--I'd do one or both if they came up.
I'm right there with ya. That's the kind of rally I'm looking to do next year. I've done the east coast and the mid-west to death with my previous career driving truck. I didn't get to go out west much, and so that's what I want to see more of. That Alaska rally, though, is sorely tempting.
I'm right there with ya. That's the kind of rally I'm looking to do next year. I've done the east coast and the mid-west to death with my previous career driving truck. I didn't get to go out west much, and so that's what I want to see more of. That Alaska rally, though, is sorely tempting.
I felt the Rocky Mountain rally was well worth it--if I only did one rally a year, that would be the one I'd choose. Do it, if you possibly can! I've been all over that area, with emphasis on the national parks, yet the route Brett planned for the rally took me on US highways and state roads I had never traveled before, the route taking me places that I haven't yet visited. (We also had an unplanned detour--we had to go through Grand Canyon National Park due to the fires north of Flagstaff that closed our original route.)
I have Route 66 already earmarked as a bucket list trip, so I will do that with or without a rally attached to it. That could also be interesting if done with a group of cars traveling together.
And even as tired as I am of being in this part of the country, Rust Belt took me to places I hadn't considered before, and had a lot of interesting stops I wouldn't have sought out on my own. I've been through Boston and up the east coast a couple of times, but have never been down to Loozyana or followed the Mississippi, so that's the main reason I'd rather do the Great River Road if I choose one final rally this year.
I have a side excuse for going up to Mpls-StP. I was born there, and there's still family up there that I don't get to see often.
when will the final location, hotel, be listed?
We don't put up a pre-rally or post-rally hotel. Most of the major things are updated for the last couple rallies. Still have to find a couple of meetups on Great River Road and the Memphis hotel is full, so we might suggest another one nearby with some vacancies. Or we might not and you might just fend for yourselves.
...you might just fend for yourselves.
Based on my experience in this year's California rally, I recommend finding a sketchy hotel filled with loud, intoxicated, belligerent guests, which is to say the kind of place that the cops will visit repeatedly throughout the night. I got a sticker!
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