Looking for people to join me on a little adventure, called
The BA/BE Rally. The premise of the rally is to buy a vehicle for $250 or less and from May 22nd to May 25th drive from New York (Big Apple) to New Orleans (Big Easy) while performing various tasks to acquire points. Whoever is able to drives their vehicle to New Orleans and acquire the most points wins. The rally's route takes you through some beautiful sections of the Appalachian Mountains, which includes the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park, Blue Ridge Parkway through Virginia and North Carolina, and Deals Gap Road (aka The Tail of the Dragon) which features 318 curves over 11 miles. I drove the Dragon last September and it is definitely a driver’s treat.
Where to get a $250 car that will make the trip? No need to worry about that. The vehicle, title, license, registration, and insurance have already been taken care by me.
Meet Grumpy the Rally Van.
Grumpy is a 1997 Chevrolet Astro AWD with 297k miles that was purchased last December. During 2007 Grumpy lived a hard life as a delivery van based out of Milwaukee and according to the previous title accumulated 118 k miles in 11 months. It is dented, dirty, and currently only starts with starting fluid, but once it gets going it drives just fine. During the next few weeks Grumpy will receive a tune-up and fluid changes. Mr.Goodwrench told me that the inability to start without starting fluid is most likely due to a week fuel pump. I’ve replaced a few of these in Astro vans before so a spare pump and the required tools will be brought on the rally to swap if needed, but I’m hoping to get away with leaving it alone.
In addition to making sure the van runs okay, I am going to try popping as many dents as possible and would like to give it a cheapo paint job. Here is what I would like Grumpy to look like for the rally.
What do I require of team members? Not much really, just a willingness to have fun and pay your fair share. No mechanical skills needed, you don't even need a drivers license if you just want to ride along.
Costs:
My current guesstimate is that Grumpy will use 200 gallons of fuel to complete the Chicago - New York – New Orleans – Chicago loop and with the news forecasting $4 per gallon this summer the budget is $800 for gas, but hopefully it won’t be quite that bad.
Registration $250
Fuel $800
Total $1050
Cost per person:
1 = $1050, 2 = $525, 3 = $350, 4 = $263
5 = $210, 6 = $176, 7 = $150, 8 = $132
Crazy enough to join me? Let's talk.
Adventurers Wanted for Road Trip - Late May 
Linear Mode
