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POR to Alaska?

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 9:02 pm
by Jim White
Last chance at a plan C, rally registration ends midnight Sept. 1 Alaska time. Me and two other rallyists drive my car to Alaska leaving around noon after POR and stopping in motels/hotels for 8-10 hours each night and arriving Thursday in time for the banquet. The other rallyists would pay their share of the travel expenses and would be responsible for their own rally expenses including renting a car there, etc. One or both other rallyists could drive back with me sharing expenses or fly back on their own...

NEW MATERIAL AT BOTTOM, Proposed plan B

No promises, this is just an exploratory query at this point.

It would be possible for 3 rally teams sharing the driving and expenses to get a motorhome towing a trailer with 3 rally cars to the USRRC in Anchorage Alaska between the end of POR and the commencement banquet of USRRC. Or there would be some padding time should the banquet be missed. Estimated driving time is about 65 hours and estimated available time between noon Sept. 10 (after POR ends around 1:00 AM) and Banquet time Thursday in Anchorage is around 100 hours.

The basic outline plan would be to leave the POR headquarters hotel at noon September 10 and drive conservatively with reasonable stops for food/gas and probably some stopped rest time waiting for gas stations to open in such a way as to arrive with adequate time to get to the banquet and a full night of rest before USRRC actually started.

Guesstimated cost at this point is $1100 - $1500 not including the USRRC registration or personal food or extra lodging. The USRRC registration is $760 per team and includes 2 nights accommodations (shared room) for 2 and several meals. There would also be 2 nights in the Anchorage area that could be spent in the motorhome or local lodgings. More on USRRC can be found at http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Re-- ... HRK0vIZpnw where you must follow the registration links to get to the real info. DO NOT REGISTER, you don't have to to get to the info, but you do have to pretend you plan to or you can't see the info!

Ideally we would beg/borrow a motorhome and a 3 car hauling trailer for maintenance costs (including scheduled preventive). Most expensive would likely to be to go full commercial rental rates on a motorhome and trailer. Most risky would be to buy a motorhome and trailer and return with them in as good as or better condition (but with 8,000 miles on them) with the plan to resell them ASAP after the trip.

Again, this is an exploratory question and while discussion is welcome, commitment is essential or nothing but discussion happens. It would be necessary to plan for a full 2 weeks away (not counting POR) and possibly a third week if all participants wished since the return trip won't have any rally deadlines. It would also be possible for some to fly back (though still committed to sharing the motorhome expenses) after USRRC since the return trip would not require late night driving.

At the moment there are still (at least) 6 USRRC slots available though there are 2 deadlines on that, the first is the USRRC registration deadline of Sept. 1, and the second is the filling of the 6 slots. Therefore time is of the essence. If you are interested in participating in such a trip (though not guaranteed to happen) and want to commit to the time and expense, please commit to me ASAP. The preference will be given to 2 additional POR competitor(/worker) teams and should the available motorhome slots not fill with such commitments as of some unknown "final decision" time then any empty slots would be open to non-POR competitors/participants.

DO NOT REGISTER FOR USRRC ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT THIS TRIP WILL COME OFF!

I and my navigator are not yet for certain committed should 2 other teams commit but we will certainly decide definitely ASAP (and could be pushed into it if 2 teams commit soon and USRRC slots resume filling). If 3 other teams are interested and I can't participate I'll be disappointed but happy to assist a bit with putting it all together though the actual participants would have to make it happen.

Again, at this point this is just an exploratory query and discussion is welcome but actual commitment (written followed by say $2000 just to be sure expenses will be covered). Discussion/commitment/loaner motorhome and trailers welcome. Questions welcome but please don't ask for such silly things as the make and model of the motorhome or other details that obviously have not and cannot be worked out until after sufficient commitments are in hand.

(And just to forestall the inevitable "but you can't tow a loaded 3 car trailer through the mountains with a motorhome" naysayer complaint, you don't necessarily have to! Think about it if the answer isn't obvious.)

Also do not hesitate to pass on the link to others who may not be on this forum board. The link is viewtopic.php?f=5&t=97 (which you must prefix with http://drscca.org/forum/ if copying and pasting the text of the link outside of this forum) and registration is free.

Shouldn't need noted but this is not SCCA sanctioned in any way, just a personal trip between rallies.

Hoping to hear from you soon, (but I likely will be out of email and forum contact from Aug 19-22)

OR maybe a plan B?
Still not sure I can commit to a drive to Alaska and my Navigator has indicated a preference for flying out and back letting me get the car there. With that in mind I did some refiguring and 2 cars where both the driver and navigator of the second car assist with the driving could be squeaked in with all three sharing driving, driving with 3 8-10 hour overnight motel stops and using possibly a pickup truck towing a 2 car trailer would be possible and probably substantially less costly. My guess, not counting rally, its accommodations, or personal food, would be that costs would be in the $500-700 range, maybe less.

If you have a desire to go from POR to Alaska and have a Plan C, I'm all ears for that too.