FlatBlackIan's LSPR 2008 Adventure (test)

[IanS]

Its that time of year again, time for Lake Superior Performance Rally (LSPR). I decided early on that some of you might enjoy tagging along on my little journey. An awesome adventure such as this would require some company. It started as just Cale (speedy7_7) and I, but the week of the rally 4 other friends in 2 cars decided to joint the fray.

The cars:

Cale and I would be riding in my ,new to me, S13 coupe. I picked her up a few weeks ago for $500.

Jared and Gage rolled in Jared's Impreza 2.5RS sedan

Broc and Chris brought up the tail in Broc's STI swapped BD Legacy.

Jared, Gage, Cale, and I got under way shortly after 6 pm central time on Thursday evening. Having made the trip a handful of times before, I had my route set in my head, but for your sake here is a Google version. Total distance according to Google is 340 miles one way.



My S13 in front of Cale's house, she is all loaded up.





Cale saying goodbye to his wife and daughter.



With the car loaded we were off to meet up with Jared and Gage. Due to work, Broc and Chris would be about 2 hours behind us. We met and ate Wendy's and then hit the road. We drove non stop for 3 hours to Ashland WI, where we stopped for gas.



Back on the road, we drove until we hit Bruce's Crossing. To get to Houghton this would be the time to head north, but we chose to detour a little south to see the Pauling Light.

If you have never heard of the Paulding Light, Google it, its a pretty strange story, and having personally seen the phenomena, I can offer no explanation for it. We witnessed the light 4 times, while also experiencing a strange eeriness at the site.



The rest of the trip was uneventful. We arrived at Jared's brothers house at around 4 am mountain time. Sleep was short, and Cale was unhappy at being awoken.



With everyone awake, we headed over to headquarters for worker registration. If you have ever been to a Rally America event, you will know that the spectator points are rather boring, and crowded. If you opt to marshal, you get to park out on stage, this affords you much more freedom as far as watching is concerned.

With everyone signed up, we headed to Perkins for breakfast.

With full bellies we crossed the street to catch Park Expose. This is a chance to look at all the race cars before they get all wrecked up. Its also a good time to schmooze with pro race drivers. Ive spoken with Travis Pastrana, Ken Block, and many other less famous drivers/navigators at events. Due to time constraints, we were forced to leave park early to catch the marshal convoy.

After meeting with the stage captains, we headed south to our respective stages. As luck would have it, there were some cruddy marshal points on stage three, but Cale and I made the best of our spot on a dead straight stretch.

Some shots of my car while I was waiting for the stage to become hot.







A few random shots.





Here come the race cars. The three front runners come at 2 minute intervals to reduce racers catching each other, all other cars are at 1 minute.

I was still setting up my camera, so my shots of Pastrana were crap, but I did catch block, full on the brakes at 100+ mph.



Sarisan chose a later braking point than both Block and Pastrana.







New vantage point, Mark Utech in his 500+ hp foxbody mustang.





















I only took pictures of the top runners, I chose to watch the rest, as a handful of the group 2/Max Attack competitors are my friends. After leaving stage 3 we had a few hours before stage 9 marshal meeting so we chose to check out the stage 5 spectator point. It was dark by this point so I didnt get any pictures, though Cale got a few.



Stage 9 turned out a little better for us, we were on a nice corner in a clearing, right before a nasty downhill left tightens into very tight right.

I took two pictures using an 8 sec shutter speed, and I think the effect was pretty cool.





With the stage clear at around 2 am, we drove the 45 min back to Houghton to crash.

It was an early morning, with the Marshal meeting at 8:30 am. We headed north to stage 10 where we parked and set up on a berm a ways down stage of a fast sweeper.

My S13 is already moderately dirty at this point.



More race cars, Block is leading followed by Sarisan.





























Stages 10 and 17 were actually the same road just reversed, we had a few hours to kill so we took off towards Copper Harbor, where service was being held.

For any of you who have ever driven to Copper Harbor, you will know that this section of Hwy 41 is downright beautiful. The changing leaves just make it even more of a bonus.









In Copper Harbor, we got some food at the Tamarack Inn, where fantastic pasty and fish are just a few dollars away.



We milled about looking at race cars being worked on while getting the low down on our friends who were racing.

With the final stage of the weekend looming, we headed back down 41 to Gratiot Lake.

All the dirt roads had taken their toll on my S13, its was down right messy at this point.







With memory card space and sunlight diminishing, I chose to go easy on pictures.



With all the stages run, we headed back towards Houghton for Park Firme and the awards ceremony. We looked at all the dirty cars, and watched the podium finishers spray champagne on each other for pictures. One of the biggest benefits of volunteering, is the free food, we ate fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

With a full belly, and very little sleep, I hit the hay hard. Before going to bed I took a few minutes to drink a glass of water from a Lord of the Rings goblet.



With the last day of our trip upon us, I was the first awake. I tossed my bag in the car, and snapped a picture of the house before going back inside to play PS3.



While waiting for everyone to wake up, some of the residents and I watched Army of Darkness with the volume up. With everyone up, we said our goodbyes and headed off to Perkins for some wake up juice. After large amounts of food and many cups of coffee, we paid our tabs and got ready to leave. About to walk out the door Cale spotted a vending machine full of super bouncy balls, he had to have one. Things got out of hand, everyone pooled their change, and we bought as many as possible.

Chris really likes super bouncy balls.



Before leaving town completely we decided to get a few pictures in front of the historic lift bridge. I think they turned out pretty cool.









And a group picture of all of us



Some close ups of me, yep Im rocking a NICOclub shirt.





With that, we got under way. The trip home was rather un eventful, we played games using our FRS radios. I was amazed how the color had changed since the trip up, many of the leaves had fallen, and winter was definitely coming.



This is what I like to call the yooper freeway. 5 lanes wide, speed limit 55 mph. This is one of the largest roads in the upper peninsula. Seems small even by my standards.



A little alien guy Cale bought from the Perkins vending machine.



Big Powderhorn MT. Great spot to ski and snowboard.



A big Indian carved out of wood. This is in Wakefield MI and its been there forever. I can remember seeing it even as a very little kid, headed to the UP to see my grandparents.



Leaving MI



A really really long hill.



Our last stop was Ashland WI for food, and a final fill up before home.

There is the Ashland power plant located on the back of Lake Superior.



We stopped to eat at Frankie's Pizza but discovered no one had any cash left, and they do not take credit cards.



Off to Burger King. This pictures gives a good idea how long the weekend was.



Around three hours later, we were all home. I crashed hard, sleeping for nearly 13 hours before getting on Nico and then going to work. I really hope you guys enjoy the pictures.
Modified by FlatBlackIan at 9:44 AM 10/21/2008

[Speedy7_7]

Hey, Me tooHappy ian
Modified by Speedy7_7 at 8:28 AM 10/22/2008

[IanS]

Hey, Me too

So far I have 56 images uploaded to photobucket.

[adamtsiw]

That golf 2 in the first post is tight