Slipstream - September 2011

Parade TSD Rally
By Fran Ussery
I’ll start by saying that I’m married
to the infamous Billy Bob Evil, rally
master for both the DFW ’87 Parade,
and Oklahoma ’96 Parade. He
evaluates EVERYTHING, and takes
this pretty seriously. I’ll continue by
saying that I Rally when arm-twisted
and I’m not very serious. This time,
I did the arm-twisting, and after much discussion,
we decided to Rally, Carl the driver and myself the
navigator. Now our goal was to finish without tears,
without yelling, and still married!
Carl attended the Parade Rally class, and came out
with great notes and a grocery list of items we needed,
including sticky notes. He made three sticky notes
that we put on the steering wheel, the passenger
window and the radio – “Have Fun.” Those silly little
notes and the message, that this was a fun thing to
do, actually worked! We laughed about the odometer
magically changing to kilometers (we had to read the
manual to go back to miles), and Carl’s inventive math
skills to recover from our “pause” error.
Photo by Wendy Shoffit
It worked so well, that we actually won the unequipped
class! How did that happen? The Rally Master
used tricks that were not punitive, his instructions
were clear and fair, with signs that could be seen at
Rally speeds, we paid attention to CAST speed changes
and WE HAD FUN. The area around Savannah is
beautiful with lovely little towns and waterways. We
discovered the key to having a great Rally experience
is to enjoy the moment, enjoy the scenery and enjoy
each other – just HAVE FUN.
Fran & Carl off for the win.
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