We joked that the spectator viewing for the Oregon Trail Rally on Sunday, May 18, 2008 would be even worse than the previous day's, but actually, it really was even worse.
Labeled as Coyote Corner, it was more like a quick straightaway that we could view from a section of raw, dense forest that they had caution-taped off for us. What made it even worse was that the stage was running behind by over an hour. It felt like we were all part of a study on what the boiling point is for humans who are unnaturally corralled in a natural forest for hours, waiting excessively (but expectedly) for some elusive cars to zoom by, for about 30 seconds of total viewing action for the day. It was kind of awesome to see how people entertained themselves. Several climbed trees, one videoed another cooking an omelet, some talked about cars, etc.
After that, we headed down the road to the tiny town of Vernonia, where the race teams had relocated for the finish of the rally. We ate at the Buckhorn Restaurant & Pub, which consisted of literally a few tables inside of what looked like a quaint gift shop. It was cool because the rally cars would drive through town in order to get back to their crews after the stages, and to drive to the next stage. After grabbing some coffee, we sat on a bench along the road and captured some of the cars cruising "home", as you can see. At one point, we were even driving behind the #43 '06 STi car of Ken Block and co-driver Alessandro Gelsomino, who were the points leaders coming into this weekend's race. Pretty cool, if you ask me!
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