We were lead on first day of Rallye

We arrived at the start of the rallye this morning just before 8 am at the Hugh T. Cropper Inlet Parking Lot on the beach at the amusement park, Ocean City, MD.  Another bright & beautiful day for MG top-down driving.  In fact, it was down right cool in the morning but turned hot in the afternoon, reaching 100 degrees in downtown Washington, DC, at 1 pm.

There were about 55 cars at the start and we were the lead car when we left the Boardwalk.  Oh my gosh!  We weren't ready for this but all we had to do was stay on US Hwy 50.  We actually had a parade of MG's driving on the boardwalk to get to Hwy 50.  This is the sign that greets you at the starting point of US Hwy 50.  It says there are 3,073 miles to Sacramento, California!

We are bound for Sacramento and beyond!

Many cars were with us just for the day and they left at various exits.  We traveled with Dennis and Pat on Hwy 50 from Maryland to downtown Washington, DC, right to the Washington Monument.  Dennis led us to a great spot at a passenger drop-off location that was safe from traffic.  I hopped out of the car, stood in the middle of the street and got this great shot of Ron in the MGB with the Washington Monument in the background.

Wow! I got the picture!

I took this next picture to give you an idea of my duties as navigator.  The mapbook is in my lap, my camera is on top of the mapbook, the GPS is located so that Ron can view it and I can program it, next to that is the little plastic temperature guage so that we know what the temperature is (like we can't tell when it is blazing hot!), and our lucky four-leaf clover, and finally our 100,000 mile plaque for the car.  And then I have duty for the sunscreen, USB thumb drives for music, liquids, and our battery-powered fan with squirt bottle.

Cockpit layout for the navigator

Here is the link for all of days' pictures on Snapfish (copy and paste in your browser):
http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3772573002/a=12190387_12190387/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

We traveled in the best groomed horse country pasture land.  Rolling hills, lots of green pasture and shade trees and paths that led down lanes to many mini stone mansions.  Beautiful and quiet roads.  We arrived in Winchester, VA, about 4 pm.  Just had enough time to check into the hotel, wash face, brush teeth, etc. and be on time for the drivers meeting for the evening event.  We drove to the Winchester Historic Downtown Mall (very similar to City Market in Raleigh) and parked on the street where normally they do not allow parking.  We then went to a private reception at the Union Jack Pub & Restaurant where we had a delicious reception with wine, beer, and heavy hors d'oeuvres sponsored by THE MILLER AUTO GROUP.  Thank you to The Miller Auto Group for a great reception.

Now it is off to bed after a long, fun day so that we can get up about 5:30 am tomorrow and be ready for along drive (over 450 miles) through the mountains to Cincinnati, OH.  We'll be leaving at 7 am.