Monday, June 29, 1998
Dear friends of the 500,
This years Endurance Run was a lot of fun despite the first two days of cold and rainy weather.
Sally Asheim was the leaving timer and her kids flagged thirteen T's out of Lewistown on Tuesday morning (6-16). Three cars decided to get out of the rain about 5 miles away from Lewistown. Those were Ken and Teri Burley, Roger and Arlene Kistner and Bob Lael Pacquin. These guys didn't have Carhart Coveralls and were getting very cold and wet in short order.
We drove to Raynesford without any mishaps where Janet and Bonnie times and flagged our arrival. However, our teeth were chattering from Stanford to Raynesford. By the time we got to Raynesford, I was so cold that I decided to rob some warmth from my T's radiator by hugging it. Faith Ryffel pointed this out to Jim and she thought I was expressing good feelings toward my T, maybe I was. Hopefully, none of this will make Janet jealous of the T.
Next we headed for Monarch. Marjean and her kids flagged us through the intersection 2 miles north of Monarch. We declined on an opportunity to weave our way through a herd cows south of Monarch. While we were standing in the rain, the owner of the Lazy Doe invited us over to his place for coffee and doughnuts, so we went there. At Monarch we waited for the cattle drive to leave the highway since we couldn't both use it at the same time.
The trip up King's Hill was peaceful, quiet and slow. At slower speeds we have more time to watch the scenery, wild life and dream of the ultimate camshaft. Steve and I had an uphill duel near the top and I pulled away from him (maybe because Joey was hookey-bobbing with a skate board along side of Steve :-)), But Steve and Joey nearly caught me at White Sulpher Springs. I think that most everyone made it up without using low pedal.
Dave Huson's T developed commutator troubles so Max Danskin and Tom Bass loaded Dave's T on a trailer and brought both of them to White Sulphur Springs. Bud Peters' T was also not communtating correctly and he spent most of the noon hour trouble shooting with half of us looking on or getting in the way. It was a good thing that Rick Aschim brought along Bud's motor home and Vivian! Vivian is the master mechanic in the family and promptly fixed Bud's "T". I didn't see much for snowflakes on King's Hill (elev. 7393 ft.), but the evidence existed all the way to White Sulphur Springs and Checkerboard.
After lunch we headed for Harlowton and Scott Stubbert's T decided to act up and misbehave. Marjean, Josh and James went back to Lewistown for a trailer and hauled Scott's T back to Lewistown.
Next, we drove into a terrible rainy headwind on the way to Eddies Corner. Nick said, "when you meet a semi-truck driving in the water filled ruts, it was like driving through a wall of water!" We all agreed. My car wiggled a bit just north of Judith Gap so I throttled up a bit and the wiggling disappeared. At the Eddies Corner stop, a tourist pointed out that I had a flat tire. I began to wonder if I had driven on a flat tire for the last 20 miles. The tube of a rear tire was ruptured and Steve Coniff loaned me a new tube. Thanks a bunch Steve! At the end of Tuesday, Nick was in the lead by 3 minutes and 20 seconds.
After supper Simon and Sam cleaned up Scott's coil box, since sparks were jumping from the commutator terminals to the steel straps on the coil box. Sparks were running along the surface of the box and some popsicle sticks. The next morning George and Scott pulled the inspection pan and determined that Scott's T also had babbit missing from the front rod and that the piston might be damaged as well. So Scott and Marjean made the decision to head back to Helena.
On Wednesday Sally, Connie, Marilyn & Shirley flagged for us as we left Lewistown for Denton. Today Stan Howe and Jeff Jones, one of Stan's speedster buddies, showed up for the fun. Stan has been very busy this year but he did make a few sacrifices and caught some of the action for the day. George and I hooked up at Gigantic Springs and eventually Rick and Sam at the Judith River where we all ran together until Denton. Nick had been doing real good until his modified New Day brush gave away. That event cost Nick about 10 minutes and most of that time was spent looking for a rock since Nick didn't have a hammer with him. It's not a good idea to travel in a T with a hammer, one could ruin a fender or something:-).
From Denton we headed for the 80-81 T junction where time was stopped. We toured through the "Historical Arrow Creek Slide Area and Road Preserve". We were allowed to drive slowly through the soupy gravel surfacing and we enjoyed the antelope watching the T's with curiosity! Simon found a rattle snake skin in the wet bushes. As time was started again Dave jumped in with me and we headed to Fort Benton for lunch. At Fort Benton a lady from the local newspaper was taking pictures and notes so I asked her to visit with Bud, since he has 31 years of Endurance runs under his belt.
It is likely that Dale and Margie wanted to be with us or at least in Fort Benton for a visit but Margie had one of those family reunions to go to!
Next we left for Stanford, once again touring through the infamous "Arrow Creek Slide and Road Preserve". My car began to run poopy and Dave was still with me. We discussed the cause and origin of the universe at length while driving. At Stanford we stopped at the By-Way Cafe for gas, coffee, tinkering and personal needs.
While in route to Lewistown, the rain poured on us again from Moccasin on in, but we all made it without trouble. We had warm and cozy dinner at Elks Country Club and followed it with a meeting and discussed time results. Now Steve was in the leader position by 4 minutes and 2 seconds.
On Thursday, we left Lewistown for Winifred and Erica road with me since Dave was running again. Vivian rode along with Bud just in case he decided to get lonely. Bob (with a stiff neck) and Lael Pacquin built a fire in the Depot Hack T and it was roaring all the way to Winifred. My T was cooking good for a while and then went poopy again! George allowed me to draft in his wind into the Winifred Cennex. We looked inside the coil box and Simon and Sam found a broken contact, the T ran good again. ( Amazing, amazing!)
Then we left Winifred and headed for Lewistown to finish the run. I waited for George to catch up with me so we could catch up with Simon. You see there was a possibility that we might also catch up with Nick and maybe Steve. Simon had pulled over to do something and we caught up with him. The 3 of us then tried to catch Nick. We finally caught Nick near the finish line and had a spectacular finish! I think Steve should have driven two minutes and 20 seconds slower so that we could of had a five-sum. Bob and Lael Pacquin's Depot Hack T did have honey bees impaled in the radiator and two splats on the windshield!
A picnic and award ceremonies was held at the Lewistown City Park. Bob Paquin presented Janet with an official Seal of Oregon pin. He also gave us the official "Oregon-ized seal of approval" which is clapping hands like flippers while "arrfing". Thanks Bob and Lail. We hope to see you next year with better weather.