islanders_rx7

iTrader: (4)

Hey Blake I saw this red GSLSE that was being towed by an RV from Longview or was that actually you driving behind it. HAHAHA
That wreck on the freeway was crazy.

Blake

Thanks, everyone, for coming. We had a great time! Nothing like blind, downhill, decreasing radius corners with big elevation changes to put a smile on your face and a pucker in your shorts. We found a lot of good, twisty roads and many of them are newly paved. 53 back from Manzanita is simply one of the best roads I have driven, but a lot of the other ones were not far behind. I don't know who trained them but virtually all the slow traffic went out of their way to pull off and let us by (except that tanker truck on the first leg of the drive out of Wilsonville). We didn't see any rain until after lunch in Newport on Saturday and even in the rain most of the twisty parts were sheltered by trees. It was not until this Morning (Sunday) that we hit real, hard rain. But that was fun too! Everyone was great company, as well. I look forward to doing this again.

Blake

The technical term is "drafting" but I was really doing it because in all that road-spray, it was a nice big target to follow, which could not get obscured by the spray. He was hauling too...80mph.

Did you notice that the car that went head-first into the guard rail had the hood wraped over the windshield? Looked like that might have caused it. Anyway, I am just glad we were not 5 minutes ahead or we might have been part of it.

12 hours of back-road, white-knuckle driving and the most dangerous part of the whole weekend was the 30 minute freeway trip back home!

Have a good flight to Orlando, Joe, and say 'hi' to Flipper for me.

dblboinger

iTrader: (3)

RPNW...you guys out did yourselves. This was the most fun I've had in years. The route was phenomenal. The gang was great! The stops were great! The weather was...well great on Saturday, considering I was expecting rain, and bearable today. I'll be wearing a smile for the next month at least. My final mileage was exactly 888 miles and I enjoyed every inch of it. No snow on the way home, but lots of rain.

You guys that missed it...Joe's right, you really did miss out.

Joe...on the next trip I have a feeling we'll be trying to keep up with you.

Blake...please give my regards to the un-named planner and tell him my thoughts will be with him.

Blake

Glad it was worth the trip down from Seattle. The original route developer was Jon Pritchard, who designed it as a TSD Rally, but I think it's awesome as a fun-run as well. I just sent Jon an email expressing our appreciation.

dblboinger

iTrader: (3)

Ended up not taking many pics, but here are some of what I have.

rx7guy27

does anyone have more pictures, i would have been there if i wasnt already out of town but i would like to see some more pictures if anyone has any. thanks and look forward to doing otherthings with the group.

Blake

Bill posted some to the RPNW.ORG site, in the Gallery.

http://rpnw.org/gallery/2007-RPNW-Beach-Trip?page=1

Bill White

This is very late but I'm finally able to get it posted. First, there were problems with getting authorized, then the whole site goes down. Anyway, I just wanted to thank all of you who participated in the event. It was great to meet some of you for the first time and hopefully not the last. Setting up the route was a lot of fun, but not as much as driving it with a group of rotorheads. I hope that everyone enjoyed the drive and had as good a time as Cheryl and I did.

If we do it again next year there are already some changes that will be made. When I set up the original route it was for the 1999 Rotary Run II and included a few twisty roads that were deleted from last weekend's route in order to get us to Manzanita at a reasonable hour. Next year, if we stay farther south on Saturday night, say in Lincoln City, those roads could be included. The additional roads would also lengthen the drive on Sunday. Something to think about anyway.

As has been said, a bunch of the photos from the weekend have been posted in the Gallery at the RPNW web site (rpnw.org) if you want to take a look.

Bill

[ Joe: go ahead and ask me anything about the back end of a 3rd gen ]

rx7guy27

I did get your email bill sorry that i didnt get on sooner, been busy with work and other things but it looks like that you ended up getting your message up there so I guess its all good. Have a good day, Tony.