Fireball Day Seven – The Homestretch

Las Vegas to Los Angles

You could see it in all the contestants faces; relief, sadness, anticipation. The week long Fireball run was about to end.

For me the rally was a great opportunity to meet and know 150 people that I had never met before. Sure there were blow-ups; one sponsor threw a tantrum after the judges discounted his team’s bonus points and one team was caught cheating as one member at a checkpoint was emailing the photo to the other driver at check in. But all in all, during the rally the majority of the contestants played fair and had a great time.

This morning we lined up at the Henderson resort and the mayor joined us in our morning driver briefing. Then we were provided our sealed envelope containing the clues for the day with the mayor waving the green flag we were off to Hollywood.

As Las Vegas is a vacation Mecca, every day is rush hour so I had laid out plans to use surface roads to bypass the congested highway traffic. The only problem was that I didn’t plan for road construction and road closures and found this to be a fatal error, as we were one of the last cars out of Sin City.

After finally getting on the Interstate I opened our sealed envelope for our clues:

Clue one: Have your photo taken with the Mad Greek in Baker California.

Clue two: Proceed to the Route 66 museum in Barstow California and purchase a gift that will be donated to a children’s hospital

Clue three: Go the original “Casa Del Taco.” This chain of restaurants now has over 490 locations and is only second to Taco Bell in Mexican food flair. Here we would be given your next clue after you ordered at the drive through.

Driving this area of I-15 before, I recognized the Mad Greek as a Greek Restaurant in Baker Ca, just off the Interstate. I then used my iPhone to obtain the address of the Route 66 museum and programmed it into the GPS.

As we were going to be driving through one of the most congested areas in the US on our way to the finish line, I wanted to be sure that our detector of choice for this day would have the ability to filter out most of the false alerts but still have superior range and sensitivity against the CHP deadly K and Ka radar guns.

So as I rummaged through my extensive  arsenal of radar detectors that morning I had only one choice the Escort 8500 X50

Since first being introduced in 2005, the 8500 x50 has proven itself to be the best moderately priced and dependable radar detector ever made.

Alert One – Ka
South of Vegas at mp 65 on I-15 our 8500 gave its first warning of the day. Approximately a mile later in the south bound shoulder, we observed a Nevada Highway Patrol unit on the side of the road with another car.

Alert Two – Ka
At MP 8 on I-15 our 8500 alerted 33.7 Ka, just as we slowed down and crested a hill, a northbound NHP passed at high speed.

Just shortly after this encounter, we received a text message that the Black BMW (the same BMW that was stopped in Oklahoma twice and was not using a detector) had been pulled over on I-15 after finishing up their Del Taco stop and was cited for going 105.

At MP 1, we pulled off the Highway and went to a “Terrible Herbs” gas station to buy a California newspaper for our state sign photo. The clerk told us that they didn’t sell any California papers and the next station was fifteen miles down the road.

I went out to the parking lot looking in the trash bins by the pumps and found a Barstow newspaper. As we pulled onto the highway, the California welcome sign was on our right and we snapped our photo.

Alert Three – K band
As we continued on our leg to Baker on I-15 our 8500 alerted 24.1 K band. After coasting down to the speed limit, we spotted a CHP unit parked in the median facing our direction.

Twenty miles later, we pulled off the interstate into the small desert community of Baker and located the Mad Greek Restaurant. We had a bystander photograph us standing in front and we then took a short ten minute break.

Just prior to turning onto the highway in Baker, we noticed a two man CHP patrol car exit from the interstate I followed them to a gas station. Again working with the magic of my badge, I convinced the two reluctant CHP officers to pose for our trooper scooper photo.

Alert Four – K band
At mp 254 on I-15 our 8500 alerted 24.1. As we were driving on a flat desert highway we  allowed the car to coast down to speed limit and two miles later we spotted a CHP on the west bound shoulder with a pick-up,

At 12:45 PST we arrived at the Route 66 Museum and between Bob and me we purchased over $200.00 worth of stuffed animals and books to give to a sick child in the hospital. We then proceeded to the original Taco Bel restaurant drive through and ordered some cold drinks. Here the clerk told us that we had to go back to the location of the museum to find the Chamber office to obtain our next clue.

We arrived at the Barstow Chamber and I was provided with another sealed envelope with bonus point cards. I selected the following:

Bonus One: Drive backwards to Calico and take a photo of their cemetery
Bonus Two: Find the Banana Museum and take a photo
Bonus Three: Take a photo of Sammy’s Star
We headed back north twenty miles to the ghost town of Calico and located the Ghost Town of Calico and took a photo of the cemetery.

Utilizing my iPhone, we located an address for the Banana Museum in Hesperia California, programmed it into our GPS and headed back south on I-15.

Alert Five – Ka band
At mp 119 on I-15 our 8500 alerted 34.6 and we slowed down spotting a CHP on the side of the road with another pick-up truck a mile south.

Arriving in Hesperia we located the Banana Museum just as another Fireballer was pulling out from the parking lot. Bob got out and we quickly snapped a photo and we were back on the road headed for the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

As we entered the greater LA area, traffic was very congested so we backed off and drove with the flow of traffic. Our GPS was programmed for Hollywood and Vine and after passing a few small accidents with disabled vehicles on the highway, we finally turned off to the LA surface streets.

Arriving at the Walk of Fame, I found a tour guide selling flyers, handed him a ten and asked where “Sammy’s” photo was. He pointed a block down so I ran with iPhone in hand, snapped my own photo and headed back to our illegally parked car.

Our finish line was several blocks away at the Sofitel Resort. We maneuvered around traffic and fifteen minutes later crossed, placing twentieth for the day!

With the stress of the race lifted the other contestants loosened up and we began discussing our 3500 mile plus journey across nine states.

Batman and Robin also complemented the Escort 8500 X50 that we provided to them for the race, saying that the only time that they had gotten pulled over was by a trooper wanted to take a photo of the Bat Mobile for his son.

The Black BMW team related that the next time they ran a rally like this, that they were going to first look me up, so we could outfit their car commenting “What ever you guys sell must work and it has to be allot cheaper then three speeding tickets.”

In the coming days or weeks, after decompressing, I am will follow-up my seven day experience to discuss some valuable lessons Bob and I learned during this incredible experience.