Reading mazdeuce - Seth's write up about the Texas Gambler 500 last year got me thinking that a Gambler would be good family fun and an excuse to take on another project car. About the time I started looking for a car and local event, a 2000 VW Beetle showed up at my house for free other than the cost of the towing fee. More on that story is on page 3 of this thread: No, this is not a build. I want it gone
The last week of April I went to the Gambler 500 Kansas Rally, Spring Sling 2019. My wife came along as co-driver and we had a great time. Our car, the 'Dung Beetle', was perfectly capable of making the three hour drive to the venue, but considering our comfort and having a back-up in case something did go wrong, we decided to trailer it there with Pepper. Friday morning we dropped off the dogs at the pet resort for the weekend and we headed out to Fall River Lake, Kansas in the early afternoon.
We arrived at our motel (Mrs AAZCD is not a tent camper), had a nice dinner and went to the lake for a recon of the area. The organizers had rented an entire campground. I didn't actually look up the address of the campground. It's a small lake and we were looking for a large group of cars. Probably some banners and signs for the event. How hard could it be? With the loaded trailer in tow, we went around the lake on gravel, then dirt, then some mud, looking for the campground. As it got dark and we were driving into places where turning around with the trailer presented a challenge, we decided to go back to the motel. Taking a corner about a mile from the motel, the trailer started to wobble. I slowed to about 40 and it smoothed out, so I nursed it the rest of the way. When we arrived, I found that the left rear tire was completely shredded. Luckily there was no damage to the wheel. Back at our room, Google maps showed that there was a tire place nearby that would open at 8:00 in the morning and that we had driven within ¼ mile of the campground and missed it before circling around the lake.
Saturday morning. I got up early, unloaded Dung Beetle from the trailer, and pulled off the bad tire. The continental breakfast at the motel was out of coffee and unattended at 7:30, so we left (a little grumpy) and hit up a gas station convenience store on the way to the campground. A couple other Gamblers were there, the first we had met, and we had a nice chat. This was their first Gambler too and none of us knew what to expect. Loaded up with a couple breakfast burritos and sugary snacks for the day, we arrived at the campground at 8:00 to complete registration. The briefing and start was at 9:00 so I took some time to walk around and check out the other cars. Some were creative and highly modified, some were just rusty junkers straight from their life as a daily beater. There was no official check of the cars, or care about budget, or roadworthyness. I think that the (unread) waiver I signed covered all that. Over 200 people had showed up with probably about 100 cars for the event. The only real rule was “Don't be a Dick.”
Event start. A short briefing followed by handing out a sheet of paper with about a dozen checkpoint coordinates on it with names like “creepy bridge to nowhere” and “two men in a bathtub”. It's not a race, but I felt rushed. I still head to deal with my flat tire 20 miles away and didn't want to fall too far behind the main group. We rushed to the tire shop. They quickly set us up with a new tire, while I answered a local ranchers questions about my odd car and entered coordinates in the Google Maps app. I was worried about falling behind, but it turned out that the first checkpoint was a big US flag and overlook on a hilltop that was only 1.5 miles from the tire shop. As I was leaving the tire shop, the main body of the group was just getting to town. Awesome.
