{"id":6935,"date":"2010-04-26T11:26:52","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T18:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/giuliettas.com\/?p=6935"},"modified":"2010-04-26T11:26:52","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T18:26:52","slug":"alpine-adventure-snowball-rally-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rufushamilton.com\/giuliettas\/2010\/04\/26\/alpine-adventure-snowball-rally-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpine adventure: Snowball Rally 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update 4\/29\/10 10:30am: <\/strong>Jon Fox now has a photo set up<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Update 4\/29\/10: <\/strong>Jeff Glenn has posted his pictures on his JAG promotions <\/a>website and as usual taken the whole event documentationthing to the next level.\u00a0 Enjoy.<\/p>\n

Update 4\/27\/10:\u00a0 <\/strong>Dave has put togethter a pretty cool movie here<\/a>, especially cool for those who have wondered what the passenger ride in a ’76 Trans Am 455 is like.\u00a0 They\u00a0were in close contention for\u00a0the gas mileage award with the Imperial.<\/p>\n

Also, Ben Buja has a link to his photo sets here on flickr<\/a>.\u00a0 He’s one of those guys who manages to take nothing but great pictures.\u00a0 I think I need lessons!<\/p>\n

And, here for your enjoyment is the Bring a Trailer write up <\/a>of the event.\u00a0 Another source of great pictures.<\/p>\n

The Snowball Rally\u00a0<\/a>ran through the Sierra Nevada mountains this last weekend and the Mrs., the Sprint and I were there.\u00a0 For most participants festivities started at one of the Bay Area night stage roll-offs on Friday evening that, after some Super Oscar exercising\u00a0backroads between the San Francisco bay and Sacramento,\u00a0met up at Hot Italian for beverages, some dinner and a lot of speculation as to what the next two days would hold.\u00a0 For us the rally began early Saturday morning with a quick highway buzz from Oakland to Sacramento.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I’m going on six years, a dozen events and probably 30,000 miles\u00a0with the Sprint.\u00a0 It’s been a faithful companion and after this weekend I have vowed to do some much needed upgrades. Photo by Nick Pon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Day one is a backroad\u00a0trip through the foothills south of Tahoe, over the 88 pass to a lunch in Markleeville.\u00a0 From Markleeville\u00a0we follow Squirrel track roads paralleling 395, climb the famous ‘commercial route’\u00a05 mile\u00a0hill climb into Virginia City, then take the 341 twisties\u00a0over Geiger pass and down into the valley south of Reno\u00a0where we pick up 431 over the Mt. Rose pass into North Lake Tahoe for our overnight at the CalNeva.\u00a0 Maybe 250 miles total.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I think Peter gives you a good indication of how you feel driving around with a bunch of like-minded car enthusiasts.\u00a0 His black, rubber bumper MGB has successfully done a lot of rallys.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The good of this route is mostly smooth roads that are never too far from civilization, the bad is a (from a sports cars perspective) plague of equally slow moving\u00a0Harleys,\u00a0camping rigs,\u00a0and bicycles (the bicycles were slightly slower than the RV’s and\u00a0Harleys) \u00a0-all\u00a0in especially high attendance due to the fantastic weather -maybe the best yet for 2010, and this being the first day of fishing season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Seth was among the early adopters of the classic suit as rally apparel that has slowly grown in popularity.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Models?\u00a0 What models?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Oh, these models!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/a>Sprint at CalNeva.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fearless leader leads.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stop over at the CalNeva\u00a0is always a lot of fun and this years hijinks was especially hi due to the Casino in the hotel having been closed.\u00a0 I know this doesn’t sound like a reason for heightened fun, but I personally find Casino’s dreadfully dull.\u00a0 To make up for the lack of a Casino the hotel had some ‘models’ show up and hang out which attracted a bunch of 20-somethings and of course a ‘latest hip-hop DJ’.\u00a0 On top of this there was a wedding party and of course us.\u00a0 Bar access was tight with no sign of tapering off at\u00a01am when I turned in.\u00a0 I saw lots of slow movers on Sunday morning checking oil and washing windows.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>These were the ‘models’ who were on hand for pictures and to add a slightly ‘adult’ feel to the evenings fun.\u00a0 ‘Models’ are the first thing I think of when celebrating Earth Day and the presence of a bunch of rally participants!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There is a lot of this going on at the end of a days drive.\u00a0 I think I met jay 11 years ago with him on the California Melee in this green GTV.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We did dinner at ‘The Old Range Steakhouse’ in Tahoe Vista with Seth, Ian, Andrew and Dave.\u00a0 The restaurant was fantastic, like a David Lynch movie set from a 40’s period piece.\u00a0 We all ordered (by the menus description) smallish steaks that\u00a0turned out to be\u00a0huge -probably 16 – 20 oz cooked!\u00a0 Someone has a picture of me finishing mine off over coffee on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>SSSmiles all around.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Day two’s route goes along north lake Tahoe to Truckee, from there out to Quincy for lunch then down the Feather River canyon to Marysville then along the river road and back into Sacramento.\u00a0 The good of this\u00a0day is epic roads, the bad… it’s the last day!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Chasing the SS on the road to Quincy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The banquet was at Celestin’s in down town Sacramento.\u00a0 Celestin’s needs commendation because they are the only restaurant I’ve been to on one of these events who could handle table service for such a large group without dreadful waits and compromised food quality.\u00a0 Dinner is always followed by a brief awards ceremony, this year with a fabulous Jag taking ‘Spirit of’.\u00a0 Once the award is passed over and Jeff thanks everyone for showing up and particularly for not crashing, an odd feeling falls over the crowd.\u00a0 Goodbyes are being said with\u00a0genuineness, enthusiasm and sadness\u00a0because they are good byes from a shared great time.\u00a0 Everyone goes out of their way to say goodbye to everyone else -even to people they only smiled at all weekend without making an introduction.\u00a0 The powerful call of Monday mornings practicalities soon wins out and little groups arranged by destination pull away in the sunsets’ meaningfully reflective orange, exhaust notes trailing off.\u00a0 As I pull out I realize these rallys have become a class reunion of sorts, with a similar component of the measure of my personal progress through life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Larry and Andrew somewhere between Vacaville and Fairfield at dusk.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For us the drive home is usually an extension of the rally, going\u00a0along the river road (HWY 160) but I, and a few other drivers,were inclined to get home quick so we took highway 80.\u00a0 It’s hard to believe it’s over -of\u00a0course it’s always a little sad when something you were looking forward to makes the transition from future to past through a lens of the present that moves way to fast.\u00a0\u00a0A memorable time was had though, and that’s something.\u00a0 See you on the next rally!<\/p>\n

I’ll add links to pictures here as they are posted, check back.<\/p>\n

Mike Williams pictures<\/a><\/p>\n

My pictures<\/a><\/p>\n

Daves Pictures<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update 4\/29\/10 10:30am: Jon Fox now has a photo set up.\u00a0 Update 4\/29\/10: Jeff Glenn has posted his pictures on his JAG promotions website and as usual taken the whole event documentationthing to the next level.\u00a0 Enjoy. Update 4\/27\/10:\u00a0 Dave has put togethter a pretty cool movie here, especially cool for those who have wondered … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Alpine adventure: Snowball Rally 2010”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[103,114,118,130],"class_list":["post-6935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motoring-events-shows","tag-alfa-romeo","tag-cars","tag-classic-cars","tag-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rufushamilton.com\/giuliettas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rufushamilton.com\/giuliettas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rufushamilton.com\/giuliettas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rufushamilton.com\/giuliettas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rufushamilton.com\/giuliettas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rufushamilton.com\/giuliettas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rufushamilton.com\/giuliettas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rufushamilton.com\/giuliettas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rufushamilton.com\/giuliettas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}