Gambling Armada - The Castaway

Dang there's a southern Indiana Gamber 500 now? That would have been too convenient when I lived in Columbus.

maschinenbau said:

Dang there's a southern Indiana Gamber 500 now? That would have been too convenient when I lived in Columbus.

Yep.  The starting point isn't too far south of where you used to live.   It's in Medora, Indiana.

That link I posted for the Southern Indiana Gambler takes you to "facebook".  (insert sad face)  That appears to be the only pathway to information about the event.  I don't have a book of Faces account, so I had to make up one to get plugged in to the communications.

Anyway, After the drivers meeting, I was eager to latch onto a couple of other Gamblers to hang with for the rest of the day.    I noticed a BMW I recognized from the book of faces page.  The owner posted a message stating he was looking for people to hang with for the event.  I pulled up next to him, checked out his ride and we introduced ourselves.  His name is Jason,  cool dude for sure, and he has been to several Gambler 500's in the past.  (including this one last year)

Here's Indy-kid #2 as we were making small talk about the day:

In the image above, you can see several set up for camping in the background.   Jason (BMW guy) said there's a group of guys who usually stop at the gas station up the road for breakfast (remember some had been camping the night before) and to gas up their rides.  So we tagged along and rendezvoused at the gas station.  Here are some pics from that stop:

Finally we were off:

And arrived at our first destination, Near a river:

At the first stop near the river:

The guy in the White Astro van was certifiably NUTS and just went for it:

Took him a couple of attempts, but he eventually got up it:

Next up, the other mini-van, this time a Ford Aerostar:

dude put the aero in aerostar.  10/10.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

dude put the aero in aerostar.  10/10.

True.  He hit the "full send" button !  It was spectacular to watch. 

(note: this is about the time I knew I was amongst "my people", and this was only the first stop)

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

dude put the aero in aerostar.  10/10.

Wild.
 

Pretty good reminder that they're full frame, built on the ranger platform. A unibody might not survive the landing. 

Next up:

Let's see he he can put the "Grand" in Grand Marquis ? . . .

Yep.  Nailed It !

After that, the Astro needed to add an amputation tally mark:

Loving it!  

Such suspense.  When will you be posting the picture of the Armada with a tire in the air?  

In reply to John Welsh :

Satisfied ?

GERONIMO!    

All the cool kids are doing it...  

What's the worse that could happen?  You wreck your already wrecked truck?

After all the "Dukes of Hazard" style jumps and shenanigans, it was a quick transit to our next destination with a hike up about 100 yards to this cool Train Tunnel we explored:

and another group of Gamblers arrived from a different direction:

So when you want to cut fenders at put 38s on it let me know.  I'll swap you for my towing package gears.  Not that you need them with that motor but I don't need to launch so hard my sunroof opens and run down the highway at 2200 rpm.   With out the towing gears highway speeds (80-85) would be under 2000.

In reply to akylekoz :

I'm really not certain what's next for the Cast Away (Armada).  After I finish posting all the pictures and telling the rest of the story, stop back in to join the discussion about it's future.

Ok, where were we?

After leaving the train tunnel we went under another graffiti'ed up pathway:

Then a surprise stop at an old (no longer in use) High School with a cemetery on the same plot:

You can see the head stones behind and between the two Indy-Boys in this shot:

On the lower right hand side of this pic, you can see the White Astro Van was getting another amputation at this stop too (exhaust removed)

And the flying Grand Marquis got an inspection here too.  (passenger fender was pushed back far enough it made opening the front door nearly impossible)

Next we went down a road that had a "dead end" sign, but the route notes insisted that we ignore it and just keep going.  Which we did until we came upon a downed tree that wouldn't allow the taller rigs to pass under.

Fortunately one of the experienced guys was prepared:

after that was cleared, we descended down "Devil's Back Bone" and crossed a stream:

Playing in the stream for several miles was just a ton of fun !

Our group driving buddy (Dan, in the 2wd Chevy Suburban) had a tire sidewall get cut, so we stopped to help him change it:

Then we split off (just the three of ) and hit a cool covered bridge.

And this local dog decide to tag along and cross the bridge with us:

Next destination was a lookout firetower:

Fall Foliage was in FULL Bloom.  We couldn't have timed it better:

Then it was back to "base camp" where we started the day and more car related shenanigans.

Grudge style tug of war:

Cool home made Monster Truck:

Mud bog style trails which a pair of Saturns played in:

Here's the lodge on the property that served food and coffee:

This Saturn flipped the stock wheels backwards to take negative offset into positive offset for extra clearance and stance

Then we spent several hours playing around on the mud trails there on the property.

here's some pictures

We ended up pulling the Saturn out, he blew up a CV axle and we helped Dan get unstuck too.