Romania Day 3 (RatRod Rally Day 6) - Day 56/62

Final day of the event, and so many pictures to choose from.

Today we finish the last event of a season. Quite a momentous day for me really as I've been on the road (more or less continually) since mid July. Today really marks the end of a long summer, covered 14,000 miles in 2 months (couple of thousand driven by Tony and Jon), 45 nights in the back of my small van, and only something like 5 days in total in hotels.

But today it's the realisation of something else which is my new life in a week's time. And it really is a week today that I'll be at home. I joke that I'll be on a beach this time a week tomorrow (and given half a chance I will be). But I reckon it would be more accurate to say I'll be asleep this time next week and spending some well earned time with my wife. I have a hankering to do some cooking with her. I say cooking, she'd nearly always interrupt and make 'suggestions'. Dayam, couldn't keep her out of the kitchen when I went near the wok! But heck, it was a lot of fun. (She's probably making sure I don't burn down her kitchen).

The new life is slightly unsettling. Had a go at it 4 months ago, and I reckon I scored 5/10 on that front. Just about a pass for an exam, but nothing more. Got to do better this time round as it's final. Not coming back. This time I will be away for a year. Last time I knew I'd be back and spending time with friends. Now it's a total break. Yeah, that's starting to get me. But I have a future with my wife and this has been 8 years in coming. 8 very long years in fact. End of a chapter in a week. (Very long chapter).

As for the event, it went well, but when nearly everyone is a veteran it should go well. The new teams were excellent fun (and prompt - hint) and I really look forward to seeing them again next year. The cars looked superb (in a crap way - which is what we are looking for), and they weren't very reliable either - which is always good. The noobs had as poor taste in cars as the veterans.

If we could have chosen the winners from a past track record, we would have chosen 118. If we could choose a team to win for simply making a hard life for themselves, it would be 118. In the end we had nothing to worry about, not only were 118 Team Fitzgerald Johnson having their 'usual' adventure, not only is their taste in cars poor, but they were doing all the challenges and scoring high.

We simply could not have chosen a better team to win.

Today's picture is the top of Transfagarasan Highway, just a few of the wonderful turns. If the weather stays clear, we'll be up there tomorrow night doing some light trails!

The Transfagarasan Highway is what this event was all about, the teams have covered 1,500 hard miles to get here, and I hope they enjoyed this road as much as we did last year when we finally reached it.