Post Messenger Recorder -

By Barb Hillebrand and Barb Funseth

It's a wrap!! We are finished, it is done, the pencils have been retired, the calculator had to be used just to double-check some things and we have some winners!!!!!!! But before I get to that, Barb and I want to share a few memories of the day.

Barb got a phone call from a family member. During the conversation, she heard a male voice announce that he 'hates' the road rally. Mind you this happened in the first leg of the race. We have noticed that the first leg has confused quite a few people. Lots of them live here and that is almost harder than those who do not. We know he was only kidding!! But during another phone call to Barb, it was reported that one car had made the statement that they needed a Xanax!! We just roared!! Because we can, and we wish we had all the time back that we sat in the car, looking suspicious, as we try to figure out how to word a clue. Then we drive on, we change our minds, the erasers are brought out multiple times! We also asked the shape of Sugar Belle. There was a circle on the sign; that is what we were looking for. But one car described to us that it was in rough shape, not circle, just that the sign had deteriorated! More giggles. It is hysterical as we think this is a no brainer, but someone else viewed it in a completely different way. It has been said that the rally isn't that hard....you only need to think like the Barbs! We have done this for so long; we often say the same thing so of course we always think you are going to get it right away.

This is the first year, ever, that someone had the Perfect Time. Perfect time was five and a half hours, or 330 minutes. It has never happened!!! Congrats to Mickey Mouse Patrol!!! One car came in under time. There is a penalty for that, sorry we are not giving you that name. When we turned on Barton Road, I immediately noticed the mailbox that had NASCAR number 2 on it. So we asked where that was and then we asked who the driver was? We were expecting you all to come back with Brad Keselowski, but most of you put down Rusty Wallace, which we accepted both answers in this case! We got an unexpected surprise from a car full of newbies, or Road Rally virgins. We would like to thank them for the big wrench in your game piece bag. That was NOT one of our game pieces but Barb can probably use a wrench in her tool box! Also, thanks for cleaning up Observatory Road.

So we sent out 36 cars. We were thrilled! Those cars included 155 people! We are still wondering what happened to "Wolfie," Car 16? We never heard from you. We provide our cell numbers. If you are not coming back, please let us know. If you have questions, or are really stumped, please call us as we don't want you to be so frustrated that you want to quit. We won't give you the answers, but we will hopefully help you see what we mean. No penalties for these calls.

And here are the results:

2427 points, First Place, Car 36-Soft Kitties; 2411 points, Second Place, Car 17-Nolden 3; 2405 points, Third Place, Car 8-4 Big Macs; 2404 points, Fourth Place, Car 29-The outlaws + 1; 2393 points, Fifth Place, Car 11-Mickey Mouse Patrol; 2385 points, Sixth Place, Car 12-GONOWO; 2361 points, Seventh Place, Car 7-It's all Relative; 2336 points, Eighth Place, Car 6-Road Gypsies + Sam; 2322 points, Ninth Place, Car 30-Pacman; 2313 points, Tenth Place, Car 21-Fireb****es-2nd edition; 2293 points, Eleventh Place, Car 13-Gingerbread Girls; 2286 points, Twelfth Place, Car 15-Safety um 4th?; 2278 points, Thirteenth Place, Car 25-All Bust No Balls; 2268 points, Fourteenth Place, Car 28-Walcryski; 2247 points, Fifteenth Place, Car 1-Ignorance is Bliss; 2232 points, Sixteenth Place, Car 3-Seek & Destroy; 2193 points, Seventeenth Place, Car 22-Grandma's Team; 2101 points, Eighteenth Place, Car 24-W BAM; 2087 points, Nineteenth Place, Car 20-O'Dair Go the Campbells; 2035 points, Twentieth Place, Car 18-4th St. Cheeseheads; 1992 points, Twenty-first Place, Car 26-Fire Squad; 1954 points, Twenty-second Place, Car 19-The other Car; 1897 points, Twenty-third Place, Car 33-Blum Burners; 1828 points, Twenty-fourth Place, Car 2-Brooklyn Highlights; 1691 points, Twenty-fifth Place, Car 10-4 Girls having fun; 1642 points, Twenty-sixth Place, Car 5-Heights Hotties; 1522 points, Twenty-seventh Place, Car 9-Lost; 1362 points, Twenty-eighth Place, Car 31-Newbies; 818 points, Twenty-ninth Place, Car 34-Bob & Joan; 1421 points, Car 32-B****way do we go (opened Fail Safe).

The others didn't come back, but most of them called us. We want you to know that they name their cars and we tell them in advance to come up with that for registration. Innovative, aren't they?

The finish line was at Borlands! I think they enjoyed being part of our day! We would like to thank them for hosting us, along with The Station, Vickie Meyer, Pat and Betsy McSherry, Big flamingo family, fraternal strigiform family, Hehns, Joe Lacy, Burleson's, Cahoots, and Brian Visauer for being at Cahoots and being such a big help, Brenda, Chris Ring and family, family with the night sky, Covered wagon (Prairie Schooner) farm, Marcine's, Audrey Rear, Eberhardys, Clark Family, and Chewey Chavez. We would really like to thank our road Rally testers who are Jo T., Carol, and Margie. Thanks Jo for coming out the night prior to help plant all the UFOs and game pieces. Thanks to Joe Sokol, for helping us do mileage the day of the rally and then out the next day with us to retrieve everything all over the county. Thanks to Beth and Charlie for bringing us breakfast, and Sue Moen. If we have left anyone off this list, please forgive us.

Some of these names are in here because when planning the route, they had certain things at their house but then we realized they had put them away. They were gracious enough to dig them back out and have them available so that you could view them.

We are already talking about next year; we have a plan. We so appreciate that you came out to join in the fun and please share with others so we can reach our goal of 40 cars. Spread the word please. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to next year! Now enjoy Thanksgiving and the Holidays!