Eastward, Ho! Day 35: Zookimelt Rally's last day.

 Rain on and off through the night made for muddy conditions this Saturday.

My Sammy was dethroned as the "cleanest" rig (in terms of lack of rust and dents) by this rig that showed up overnight:

She does look pretty nice doesn't she?

The owner of the green rig's girlfriend drove this sharp looking rig

Mike W. and his rig: L'il Zilla

Another new arrival....the Mud Bus

The main event in the morning was the group picture, it was decided to do it at Puckett's Playground, a hill climb area about a mile into the offroad track area.  We followed Mike W and Laura and slowly made our way safely to the picture area.

Can you spot Martha or my Sammy?

hint: look for pink blouse, last row

Laura and Mike W.

After the group pic was taken by the event photographer, several rigs tried the hill climbs depicted in the picture above.  No, I did not even think of trying.  Only a couple of the rigs made it all the way to the top, several tried to but had to back down the hill side.

One Sammy, who took a different route back to camp than us, had a bit of an accident:

The driver/passenger were OK, but the right side window was busted and some crinkling of the tin top. Yep, it was the Mud Bus!

Back at the campground, it would soon be time for the Sammy Yam Cooking Event.  You take a loop around the dirt track, with a can of yams strapped somewhere on your Sammy, most likely inside the engine compartment, and the one that completes the loop with the highest temperature yams, wins.

Pics of Sammys riding slowly about the loop proved to produce uninteresting pics, except for one Sammy, this one caught air!

Here's Jason, the winner of the contest with 147 degrees Fahrenheit's worth of Yams!

Afterwards, it was relaxing time until the group dinner and end of rally ceremony where vendor-provided swag was given away via raffle tickets.  The burgers and hotdogs were courtesy of the Dirty Turtle Offroad Park people so that was a nice thanks from them.

Martha won a cover for the grill opening on the hood of the Sammy which tends to collect leaves and stuff in the course of time.  More on that later.

After the ceremonies, we hung out with Mike and Laura after he showed me how simple it is to check timing on the Sammy via the timing marks and listening to the engine.

We leave tomorrow morning, a very welcoming and fun rally, the Zookimelt.  We'll see if the stars align and I'm able to bring the Sammy back next year.  Lots of things have to fall in line for that to happen so we'll see.