Our final day was a slightly later start to allow everyone to sleep off the previous night’s festivities. Apparently, not everyone just went for dinner then turned in for the night!
We managed to have an entire parking lot reserved for Rally participants, which made life easy for another pre-run drivers meeting. This was the usual "don't crash" and a warning about some towns to take very cautiously, and general road conditions. Still, everyone was anxious to head out, then stop down the road for breakfast.
Driving along the shores of Lake Tahoe in the early morning was sublime. Several other car owners, not participating in the rally, had come out to have a look and follow along for a while. We followed a lovely white 911 out of town and up the Donner Pass road. As we turned off the head cross country through undulating pine forest, we were followed by a British Racing Green XK-120 and a TR-3. I thought we'd be passed in no time, yet as soon as we got to some bendy roads we lost them. It wasn't like we were going particularly fast, it's an 850 don't forget, so maybe they were some of the revelers from the previous night.
Pine forests quickly gave way to wide open alpine meadows. Yet again, the organizers had found some stunning scenery and it was too good not to slow down to enjoy.
The lunch stop arrived quickly and, feeling as though we'd only just had breakfast, we made the decision to fill up with gas then drive on. Hopefully we'd get a run at the canyon before everyone else got there. We'd been told by a fellow Mini driver who had done the event previously, that we were very likely to take the Feather River Canyon road. He said it was a road made for a Mini. He wasn't lying! It was pretty much a straight run of 75 miles following the Feather River gently downhill. The road wound back and forth parallel to the river. Sunlight and shadow flickered through the windscreen as we wound our way under lush green trees. It was probably the driving highlight of the weekend and we seriously considered stopping at the bottom, turning around, and doing it all again.
Sadly, we were time limited, and our evening reception dinner was already booked, so we continued on our way. Exiting the canyon, we quickly started to descend back down to the Sacramento delta. As the altitude decreased, the temperature increased and it was over 30 centigrade as we got back to the level. Still, the Mini was relatively unfazed, although the temperature gauge was noticeably higher that earlier. A quick, but boring run along the Interstate was ended when we turned off through a small town and back onto one of the levee roads. It was much more open in the daylight than the tunnel it felt like at night, but the coolness of the river fifteen feet below us on the right was definitely helping keep the temperature in the car down. Another beautiful drive, although not quite as exciting as our night time jaunt, and we were soon back in the city heading towards our final stop.
I have to say, the whole event was an absolute blast - great cars, great people, fantastic scenery, amazing driving roads, and top entertainment. I'm very fortunate that my wife really got the hang of the navigating and on top of that, she thoroughly enjoyed herself. We have agreed that this is something we most definitely want to do again.
Our little rally Mini may not be pounding the Finnish forest stages anymore, but she is still giving it a good go, and keeping smiles on faces.
Oh, then to top off the weekend events I heard today that we were the winners of THE trophy. While this isn't a competitive event, there is a trophy for "Best In Snow". Word is we won it on account of our enthusiastic spirit, and having an interesting, appropriate, and period vehicle. I guess it just appealed to the right people!
