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Day Two – Traveling the Bayou

At 6:00 am co-driver The Veil Guy and I began preparation for day two of the Fireball.
We first the pulled the 540i next to a dumpster unloading shovelfuls of candy wrappers, empty soda bottles and even a couple of cigar wrappers that we accumulated the day prior. We then sprayed the interior with air freshener in an attempt to deaden a “stinky sock odor”.
Both of us brought a small arsenal of detectors and handheld radar and laser guns with for our trip. Our prearranged plan was to field test as many detectors that we could, during our endurance cross country rally.
Bob and I agreed for day two, we would do a side by side comparison of the new Cobra XRS R7 with the Bel STi radar detector.
I brought my Toughbook, Garmin GPS and iPhone, used extensively to locate landmarks, download maps and to solve clues for this event.
Bob and I also had six video cameras and two digital cameras between the two of us, but both forgot purchasing tapes for recording.
After topping off our gas tank, we headed out race day two’s staging area located just off the western bank of the Mississippi River. An entourage of local media was already present taping and performing live interviews for the local news stations.
As we pulled into formation we were greeted by various local dignitaries that included Baton Rouge City Council personnel, the Chamber of Commerce President and the State Visitor’s Bureau President.
We performed a final cars inspection and checked in and received a FEDEX envelope containing the clue for the first leg of our journey and told that we were not to open the packet until we began driving on the Interstate.
At 9:00 am the count down began and a local Baton Rouge television news reporter waved us on with the green flag.
As we pulled onto the Interstate I opened the sealed envelope and read our first clue. “Proceed directly to the Red Stick – According to legend Baton Rouge’s name came from a notation on a map used by French explorer Pierre le Moyone in 1699”
With the Toughbook already fired up, I went directly to Wikipedia to try to obtain information about this ‘red stick’ with hopes of beating out other rally contestants who have been known to change and/or delete clue information on this interactive research site.
Wikipedia had vague information on the red sticks location being in the area of the state capitol so we headed off to the state house. As we pulled into the park there were already ten other Fireball cars parked infront and another ten following behind us.
Wikipedia mentioned that the Red Stick was a tall Cypress pole that was smeared with animal’s blood that apparently served as a dividing line between the city and local Indian tribes. None of us expected to find a red pole with blood, but assumed that there would be some historical marker, so Bob and other drivers fanned out and walked what seemed to be a ten acre park, while I and other navigators remained in the car doing Internet searches.
I found a link on Google Maps to a private blogger’s website making reference to the Red Stick as being located behind the Capital Building and even had a google map pointer showing its location. I waved Bob over and we drove behind the State Capitol building and found a state corrections center. There were several employees in the lot and none ever heard of anything called a “red stick” but suggested that we go over to the State Capitol Police Department located across the street.
We went over to the police building and met an officer who was in the parking lot loading his patrol car. He mentioned to us that we were the fifth person who walked into the secured parking area asking for the location of the “red stick” He too replied that he never heard of any such thing but directed us back to the park saying that there were all sorts of memorials and historical markers in the area and to check them out.
We arrived back at the park, finding that most of all the other Fireballers either had left in frustration or were tracking down a better clue. Looking up at the entrance of the State Capitol building we observed two gentleman wearing red jackets standing at the entry way. Bob sprinted up the twenty fights of stairs asking about the red stick. Both related that they also never heard anything about any red stick, but that a state historian was in the lobby and perhaps he could offer assistance.
Bob walked inside finding the first knowledgeable person on state attractions and he provided a detailed map to the location where we would find the marker of the “red stick.”
Once Bob arrived back in the car with these directions, I plugged them into our GPS and we were off to a park ten miles away on bank of the Mississippi River.
As we pulled into the park we saw the Bat Mobile and Team Blinder pulling out. They directed us to a young lady that had the next clue and mentioned that at least ten other teams had beaten them to the park.
We checked in and were then given our next clue “Do the hokey pokey and turn around as you’re about to break to one of Louisiana’s most celebrated residents; Mike VI” ancestor the legendary Mike, who tragically died as a result of kidney disease in 1956. Journey now to the den located somewhere near Death Valley”
I fired up Google and searched for “LA Mike VI death valley” and instantly came up with a page for the LSU stadium. It then made sense; the tiger mascot for LSU was named Mike. I did a search in our GPS for the LSU Stadium and headed south.
After arriving at LSU stadium we went to the glass enclosed den of Mike VI and met with a Fireball representative who then gave us our next clue, “Believe it or not, only once a year the people of Plaquemine LA find sanctuary in a tiny place which at one time even tested Ripley’s belief.”
As the clue was obvious that we would need to head to the town of Plaquemine LA, I plugged the town into the GPS. As we arrived onto the interstate, I had researched that this was named the worlds smallest church by Ripley’s Believe it or Not, that it was located on River Street, just outside of Plaquemine and had Google Map its coordinates for the GPS. We headed west on I-10 to the Iberville Parish exit.
Annoying False Alerts
While reroute to the Iberville Parish exit, we had already logged over fifty miles during which time the STi remained silent. However the Cobra XRS R7 seemed to false alert every few minutes on either K or Ka band. Feeling overwhelmed with these falses and needing Bob to to focus his attention  to driving safely in this performance event, I started to become concerned. I asked if Bob was ok with the unit and related that we needed to “know and understand our ememy, the other Fireballers”  who were using Cobra’s detectors.  I said that I would turn the unit off after getting a confimed hit on both units.
While turning off at the Iberville Parish, we noticed a small gas station with a Game and Fish pick-up at the pump. We both figured that this would be a great time to grab a cold drink and to confirm with the Game Warden that we were on the right track.
At first the game warden seemed clueless when we explained that we were looking for the Madonna Chapel Church in Plaquemine but the his eyes widened as another Fireballer pulled off the highway and headed out and stated “I know! You’re looking for the worlds smallest church, don’t follow him, I know a short cut!” The warden then penciled out a detailed map though the backwoods of Bayou country.
We thanked him and headed out following his directions. Neither Bob nor I had ever been in this part of the country and found everyone we encountered to be very kind and helpful. This was especially true when we pulled alongside an old beat up pickup truck with two elderly people seated in the bed with a few younger children in the cab to ask directions. A middle aged man replied that we were going the right way, “just continue down there a bit till you come to the Popeye’s Chicken place and turn right.”
Our country back road eventually intersected Highway One and we drove up to the Popeye’s Chicken and turned right, finding River Road.
As we neared the church we saw several other Fireballers heading the opposite way and figured that even though we may not be first, we were close to the front of the pack.
About a mile away from the church I noticed other Fireballers on a dirty road heading away into a farm field and commented to Bob, “I wonder if that is the next route we take on our next clue?”
We arrived at the church [...]

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Keeping it Real – Day One Fireball

Day one of the Fireball Transcontinental Rally.
Last night we received our driver packet with instructions that our first leg was to start at the Amway Center in Orlando. It also stressed that this rally was not for speed or best time, but to obtain points during our coast to coast journey while arriving at the various legs during a predetermined timed window. If we arrived too early it would indicate that you were speeding and you were disqualified. Arrive too late; you’re disqualified for that day’s leg of the race. For leg one, organizers estimated that it would take eight to nine hours to drive from Orlando to the Mississippi/Louisiana state line, a distance of just over 600 miles.
I was then notified that my sponsored car, the TransCon Ambulance had blown its driveshaft while driving down from Indiana and that they were in the process of trying to locate another. It was doubtful that they would make it to the first leg of the race.
Assignments for the day:
Assignment one was photographing at least three State troopers with patrol car while it was parked next to your car with driver.
Assignment two was to photograph each states welcome sign while holding a newspaper dated 9/29/2007 with the car in the background.
Assignment three was a riddle to solve that we were given upon departure of the Amway Center. The riddle, “chill out with the Queen of Bagdad”.
Prior to arriving at the starting point, I fired up my Garmin Zumo GPS and located a FHP barracks that was on our way. As we were pulling in, a Lieutenant FHP officer was checking into work. I identified myself as a retired deputy and began telling him about the rally. He stopped me mid sentence while chuckling and related that all the troopers in Florida were aware of the race and he would allow us to photograph him and his car because he understood that our race was a charity event aimed at raising money for the “Missing Children’s Network.” However he requested that we drive smart and safe.
The Veil Guy posed for the photograph, thanked the Lieutenant and we were off for the staging of the event.
At 8:00 am we arrived at the Amway Center, checked in and made final adjustments to our car. At 9:00 am the Orlando Police Department provided a motorcycle escort for the seventy plus cars entered into the rally, onto Interstate 75.
Once on the Highway I did a Google on my laptop and found that there was a Dairy Queen just off of I-10 in Bagdad Florida, riddle solved.
As we were aware that the Florida Highway Patrol use mostly Ka radar, we decided that we would pair up the Beltronics Sti radar detector along side the Valentine One and do a side by side comparison of the two.
Alert One – 35.5
It didn’t take long for our first alert as just ten miles north, the V1 radar detector gave a short alert for Ka and a second later the Bel STi went into full tilt alerting at 35.5 (Ka Band). As we crested an overpass a half mile away we saw a FHP vehicle parked in the median running instant on radar.
Alert Two – 34.7
About fifteen miles later the STi alerted first to a 34.7 (Ka band) and a few seconds later the Valentine One lit up indicating Ka band. We crested another overpass that was over a mile away from our first alert and saw that a “Fireballer” pulled over with a trooper standing next to the driver’s side door.
Alert Three – 34.7
The coast was clear the next fifty miles till our STi detector lit up again at 34.7. The Valentine radar detector lagged behind a good three seconds before it first alerted Ka. Ahead we saw a trooper parked in a row of trees in the median approximately a mile from our first warning.
At 10:45 am we arrived at the I-10 turn off and headed west. It was here that I began explaining to my co-driver the reason for the painted horizontal lines that crossed the pavement in sections. These I related were used to measure distance at predetermined locations so police could measure speed using VASCAR or another timing device from patrol cars or aircraft. I cautioned him to slow down after crossing the first set of lines and count out at least another set prior to speeding up, to avoid these types of speeding violations. Just as I finished, the “Blinder Dude” from Blinder Xtreme Team called on my cell phone relating that he was forty five miles behind me and that he had just received a citation for doing 91 in a 70 and that he was clocked by aircraft.
Alert Four – 34.7
West through the panhandle of Florida seemed pretty uneventful the first 150 miles. During this leg we had the Astron Martin, another BMW, and the Ferrari Spider all taking turns at the rabbit position (lead car in pack). Just 20 miles east of our Bagdad stop, co-driver The Veil Guy took lead with the Aston Martin a quarter mile behind. As we crossed a clearing of trees in the median, we saw an approaching FHP vehicle east bound approaching us, as the Veil Guy started to decelerate, both detectors lit up simultaneously, giving us a good indication that we were just nailed with deadly instant on.
In the mirror we both noticed the FHP vehicle turn into the median and as he pulled onto the pavement the Aston Martin pulled into the right lane allowing the officer to cross and to give chase.
Pretty much knowing that our goose was cooked; we pulled into the shoulder and awaited our punishment. As the trooper’s car pulled up behind, horns of the Aston, BMW and Ferrari gave short beeps as they passed.
The trooper walked up to the driver’s side and asked the same question that I uttered thousands of times before in my law enforcement career, “Do you have any idea how fast you were going?” Bob, being an old pro with several tickets under his belt from prior encounters just sat there with a dumbfounded look and uttered, “No, was I speeding officer?” He replied, yes, ninety in a seventy mile an hour zone. After Bob offered up his driver’s license, I asked the officer if he needed to see my identification too as I removed my license from my retired sheriff’s badge case. He asked where I was an officer and I replied that I was from Arizona and that I was on business (didn’t say police business) and had met with a Lt. (dropping a name) from his agency earlier that day.
He walked back to his car and a few moments later came back telling us that we needed to slow down…..
Realizing we had lucked out at this encounter, we maintained a respectable speed until pulling into the Dairy Queen. Here several of our teammates were waiting to see if we were going to make it into the check in. The clerk of the Dairy Queen then also came out  saying that she had heard over the FHP scanner that troopers were lined up waiting for a group of Fireballers twenty miles out, that someone had called in that we were driving over 140 MPH.
The Veil Guy and I both chuckled saying that we were not part of that group, however we had been pulled over for doing ninety.
We picked up a Florida newspaper for the photo shoot at the state line and completed our assignment at the “Queen of Bagdad” and heading back onto the Interstate. At this time the “Blinder Dude” called on his cell phone saying that the white Corvette had been stopped doing 140 mph and that the driver was arrested and taken to jail.
Alert Five – 34.7
A few miles west of Bagdad after going underneath an overpass, we received a 34.7 alert on both detectors simultaneously. Looking over into the entrance ramp, I observed a FHP vehicle clocking west bound traffic from behind.
Alert Six – 34.7
A few miles west of the state line we got another 34.7 alert simultaneously on both detectors as we passed a thick grove of trees in the center median. We never saw an officer, but assumed from the nature of the alert, that one was on the other side of the median shooting east bound traffic.
After crossing into Alabama, we pulled into the rest area and scrounged through some trash bins to find a newspaper for the Alabama welcome sign. Finding several, we took them all (as not to leave any for other contestants) and rode over the State welcome signs and got our first set of photographs.
Driving on the bay bridge on I-10 approaching Mobile, the STi went full tilt 34.7 for at lease one mile while the V1 remained silent till it started finally it began chirping. Over on the east bound lane we saw what appeared to be a police light bar pass behind a cement bunker.
Here we fired up the GPS [...]

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Fireball Day Two – Pre Ride Check In

Today was the first meeting of all the racing contestants and getting the cars decaled, inspected and checked in. I took this as an opportunity to checkout all the cars while my teammate the “Veil Guy” made last minute tune ups to our BMW 540i sport.
My first project was checking out all the speed countermeasure equipment that many of the cars were using and I was shocked and somewhat disappointed in what I saw.
First off entry into this race is not cheap, it costs over $10,000.00 for the full entry. The cars are not cheap either. There is an Aston Martin, a couple of Bentleys, a few Lambos, a Ford GT40, and couple of Ferrari to boot. But when it came to radar detectors I was shocked to see that some of these drivers really skimped in this area, counting six Cobra’s, one RMR C-450, and even a KAT!
I chuckled when I passed the car with the Rocky Mountain Radar jammer as he was bragging to another driver how his unit was able to jam out all police radar and laser thinking to myself “I wonder how many miles he is going to make it before he gets his first ticket and finds out what a POS detector he really had.”
There were many drivers however that did do their homework and two even mentioned that they had been reading my blog and forum prior to the race and did make some smart buys.
On the high end of the radar detector spectrum I counted four Bel RX65’s, four Escort 8500 X50’s, two Valentine One’s, one Bel STi and one Escort 9500i. One Aston Martin driver that identified himself as a Radar Detector net forum member took me to his ride to show off his Blinder M47, his Veiled headlamps and a SR7.
I then met with the owner of the “Bat Mobile” while he was in the process of installing his Escort 8500 X50 to the dual cockpit style curved windshields. It was certainly a challenge installing the unit above the rocket launcher and booster rocket switches.
Tomorrow at 7:00 am we line up and depart for our first leg of the race, Baton Rouge LA.
Check in tomorrow night for more updates.

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Pre-Fireball Update

Today I flew out to Orlando, the starting point for this years Fireball Run event.
Hopefully during the race I will have a better luck then today.  I arrived at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport at 6:00 am for my 8:00 am flight on United. After waiting in line for fifteen minutes I finally got to the front of counter, only to be informed that the flight from Orlando never made it in to Phoenix last night, so my flight back was canceled.
Fifteen minutes later of checking computers, the ticket counter was able to route me into Charlotte with an US Airway’s flight with a connection into Orlando. One problem, the Charlotte flight was expecting to depart in 30 minutes and I still had to check in with them. I made a dash to the US Airway’s counter then to the security checkpoint. Here I was told that the computer had flagged me for “special considerations” because of the rerouted flight plan.
So during the next ten minutes I was patted down and my carry on was gone through with a fine tooth comb. With five minutes to spare I arrived at the boarding gate to find that this flight was delayed hour.
Finally I boarded the flight and arrived into Charlotte to find and the discovered that my Orlando flight was delayed an hour. Twelve hours from arriving at Phoenix, I finally touched down in Orlando.
My teammate “The Veil Guy” was already at the Fireball Rally kickoff party at Orlando’s Royals Royce dealer so I had to now catch a taxi. Off course with my luck my driver had little knowledge with the Orlando and of the English language.
So I pulled out my Garmin GPS, fired it up and directed the taxi to the event.
The kickoff party was awesome with many of the drivers showing off their cars.
The car I found most impressing was the “Bat Mobile” from the 1960 TV Batman series! The owner not only took great care in restoration of this famous TV car, but also took great pains in making sure that the car was mechanically sound for a 3000 mile plus road race across the USA.

Tomorrow morning we will make final adjustments and tune-ups and have a driver meeting in mid afternoon. Stay tuned as I blog across the USA on our cross country adventure as “Smokey and the Bandit, 2.0” and test various radar detectors and laser jammers!

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Dog Days of summer in the Radar Detector Industry?

Historically the end of summer is slow go for fresh information in the radar detector industry. This is when the manufactures are being very hush while working on final tweaks for new products they plan on launching after the first of the year which they make announcements on at the SEMA and CES shows in Las Vegas. We have already made our travel plans on attending SEMA and look forward to networking with everyone in the industry.
Some tid bits here and there that I was able to scrounge up from some contacts:
Whistler has new firmware for their XTR-690 and Pro 78 that addresses increased sensitivity and signal locking for you early bird buyers.
There are still rumblings about Bel’s new STI remote system.  Jimbonzz, one of  our admis from RadarDetector.net found the application up on the FCC’s website QL4G8M3R. I expect a public announcement at SEMA, as Bel holds the spotlight as Escort does promote their products at this show. Also as I’m expecting some new stuff from Escort at the January CES show. Bel wouldn’t want to get drowned out at any Escort announcements.
Next week the Veil Guy and I join forces in our Fireball Run across the USA. We start out at Universal Studios in Orlando with the goal of safely arriving at Universal Studios in Los Angles. Joining us in this years rally we will also have the Blinder Dude and his team and Brock Yates ambulance from the original Cannonball Race that I’m sponsoring.
I’m hoping to blog our adventures here on Radar Roy as we make progress, so tune in.

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FCC Keeps the Heat on Radar Jammer Dealers

The FCC According to the FCC website, here are the latest actions they have taken regarding Rocky Mountain Radar manufactures, dealers and distributors who have been selling illegal radar detectors and jammers.

08-16-2007
Rocky Mountain Radar, El Paso, TX
FORFEITURE ORDER

08-02-2007
Gain Saver, Long Beach, California
CITATION

07-26-2007
ShoppersChoice.com, LLC, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
CITATION

07-26-2007
Shopila Corporation, New York, NY
CITATION

07-19-2007
Unbeatablesale.com, Inc., Lakewood, NJ
CITATION

07-18-2007
Overseas Best Buy, Inc., Glendale Heights, IL
CITATION

07-09-2007
LM Services and Scorpion Jammer Technology, Thornton, CO
CITATION

04-24-2007
Trimble Navigation, Limited
ORDER & CONSENT DECREE

04-24-2007
AboCom Systems, Inc., Hsinchu City, Taiwan
M.O.&O.

04-20-2007
Vitec Group Communications Limited, Cambridge, UK
M.O.&O.

04-20-2007
North Star Electronics, dba TheElectronicCompany.com, Elk Grove Village, Illinois
CITATION

04-20-2007
Focus Camera, Inc., Brooklyn, New York
CITATION

04-20-2007
Fadfusion, Affton, Missouri
CITATION

04-20-2007
DSMiller.com, Traverse City, Michigan
CITATION

04-19-2007
Tower Products, Inc., Saugerties, NY
CITATION

04-19-2007
Dealznet.com, Brooklyn, NY
CITATION

04-19-2007
Cybergiftcenter.com, Inc., Duluth, GA
CITATION

04-19-2007
CompSource, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio
CITATION

04-19-2007
Chumbo Corporation, Minneapolis, Minnesota
CITATION

04-12-2007
Buy.com, Aliso Viejo, California
CITATION

04-12-2007
Audio Discounters, Lewis Center, Ohio
CITATION

04-12-2007
Audio Direct, Tucson, Arizona
CITATION

04-12-2007
Ambient Weather, Tempe, Arizona
CITATION

04-02-2007
Hawking Technologies, Inc., Irvine, California
NAL

03-30-2007
Ramko Distributors, Inc., Toledo, Ohio
NAL

03-16-2007
Charles E. Vance III, d/b/a CB Candy Electronics, Ontario, California
FORFEITURE ORDER

03-15-2007
Richard Mann d/b/a The Antique Radio Collector, Toledo, OH
NAL

03-02-2007
Ben Metzger dba 1 Stop Communications, Titusville, Florida
FORFEITURE ORDER

03-01-2007
Communications Specialists, Inc., Orange, CA
ORDER & CONSENT DECREE

02-02-2007
Jason Kaltenbach d/b/a Metamerchant, Laguna Nigel, California
FORFEITURE ORDER

01-31-2007
Rocky Mountain Radar, El Paso, TX
NAL

01-31-2007
The Twister Group, Inc., Buffalo Grove, Illinois
CITATION

01-31-2007
Radarjammers.com, Rolla, Missouri
CITATION

01-31-2007
Hoeffener International, Webster Groves, MO
CITATION

01-31-2007
Hilton, AG, LTD, Radar Detectors Direct, Arlington, Texas
CITATION

01-31-2007
Global Trade Group, Inc., Rogue River, Oregon
CITATION

01-31-2007
Electronic Retail Solutions, Inc., Greensboro, North Carolina
CITATION

01-31-2007
DreamBox USA, Williamsville, NY
CITATION

01-31-2007
Best Radar Detectors, Jackson, New Jersey
CITATION

01-31-2007
Auto-Radar-Detectors.com, San Antonio, Texas

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