The “Find It” challenge for this final day proved to be somewhat out of the way.
“Yugo to this dude’s ranch, but he doesn’t live there anymore.”
Malcolm Bricklin, the American businessman who started Subaru of America as well as building a short-lived sportscar under his name, also was responsible for importing the comically ill-fated Yugo automobile to the United States. Bricklin once owned a 4,600 ranch southeast of Meeker, Colorado, then known as the Bar Bell Ranch which had ties to the President Franklin Roosevelt family. It is now known as the Westlands Ranch and is currently owned by media mogul Michael Bloomberg. Given where Meeker is located, it’s highly doubtful the aforementioned Yugo would have made it over Colorado’s mountain passes without assistance of a mule team and several jugs of antifreeze. On, hopefully, a day with no wind.
This is one challenge I planned on skipping. Had I tried to visit all the day’s checkpoints, an additional four hours of driving would have been required. Skipping the Cimarron, Gunnison and Monarch Pass checkpoints still would have added an hour and 40 minutes to the day’s drive. Another choice would have been to skip the night in Moab to visit the checkpoint in Fruita, crawl the mall in Grand Junction, stay overnight in Rifle (which is much closer to Meeker), then start first with Westlands Ranch on the final rally day. Visiting all of the checkpoints is not a requirement, and this is a good example of choosing which checkpoints to visit during a day’s rally.
Part 1 had us in Gunnison tracking down another D&RGW locomotive. Departing Gunnison, Colorado, the weather was fairly nice, perhaps just a slight chill in the air but the skies were only partly cloudy.
Within 45 minutes, however, the weather changed juuuust a little when we reached Monarch Pass, elevation 11,312 feet.
Hallo?
Sufficiently chilled, we continued to Fairplay, Colorado to find the South Park City Museum.
Then, the Como Depot and Roundhouse in Como, after driving through just a few more flurries. The museum above and the roundhouse are part of a project to preserve the Denver South Park & Pacific railway complex. The three main railway structures in the complex are the Train Depot, Railway Hotel and Stone Roundhouse together with original bunk houses and track car sheds.
The Roundhouse, from the rear:
Our next stop was Bailey, Colorado. It might be snowing a little.
Our checkpoint this time was a giant hot dog. This one, the Coney Island Boardwalk, was founded in 1966 on West Colfax Ave. in Denver, then moved to Aspen Park before being relocated to its present location in Bailey.
How do you top a giant hot dog? (And don’t say, “with chili, mustard and onions.”) You drive over to Morrison, Colorado and pay a visit to a tiny town and railroad. Actually, that’s what it’s called: Tiny Town & Railroad, a miniature amusement park. It’s world famous. Or so the sign says. The miniature village features 1/6 scale buildings and a 15 inch gauge miniature railway. The tiny village began in 1921 when George Turner built a village with miniature buildings to entertain his daughter but, within several years, it grew large enough that he opened it to the public.
The Finish Line
Morrison, Colorado is also our final destination of the day. The finish line was at the Bandimere Speedway. Only, with the facility not open, we did the only logical thing a Lemons Rally could do–we congregated in their gravel parking lot for our impromptu awards ceremony. We began filtering in around 5:00 pm, with the official end of the rally at 6:00 pm.
Note the tumbleweeds still stuck in the grill of the Beetle, and the snow packed between the headlights of the 4-4-2.
The blue Focus is now missing its LED lightbar:
The Subaru wasn’t the fastest car in the rally, but it did come all the way from Montana, and was one of my favorite cars. The Acty, unfortunately, lost some of its luster (and pinkness) through the snow, but the tentacles were remarkably intact.
The inmates in the Bluebird school bus arrived a bit late, but the rally master held up the ceremony until they arrived, since they were only a checkpoint away.
One rally participant was missing. Only a few minutes to go, and no sign of the MG TD. Until the very end–at 5:59 pm, puttering down the road, here comes Jim, a bit frozen, but just in time:
It goes without saying that Jim and his MG, who had driven through the high winds, dust and tumbleweeds of New Mexico and through the snow and cold temperatures just an hour or two before, all with no convertible top, had won the top points finish in the rally.
Trophy winners, 2022 Rocky Mountain Breakdown
Random Acts of Stupidity: Stattosphere Motorsports, 2002 Bluebird schoolbus.
Crikey, It’s the Lemons: Triple A-Holes Racing, Ford Contour
Organizer’s Choice: The Tako Torakku, Suzuki Every AWD Aerotune
Top points finishes, 2022 Rocky Mountain Breakdown
Winner: Monkey Business MG, MG TD
Second Place: Safety Third, Chevy El Camino
Third Place: Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Turribli, Fiat 124 Spider
Non-finishers
A couple of casualties along the way. The old GMC truck pulling the horse trailer bowed out early with mechanical problems, as had the 1977 Trans Am with the Smokey & The Bandit theme. They did appear at the finish line, though, having bought a newer Trans Am (the red car at far left, above).
All participants got a badge for finishing the rally. And once festivities wrapped up, we all headed in our separate directions. I had a motel reservation back in Manitou Springs, where I would take another day off from driving before making the long trip home.