History of the Road Rally
After the auspicious beginning in 1988, the Rally followed me to California where the second annual debuted on Memorial Day weekend 1989. It was a modest but solid start beginning in Venice, Ca. at Jay Hughey's home and ending at my penthouse apartment overlooking the Santa Monica Bay in Redondo Beach. From that point forward, it leapt in segments of progress, quite ambitiously, for in three years it would cross for the first time international borders by starting in San Diego and crossing the Mexico border to Ensenada. By the mid-nineties, the entire metropolitan area of Los Angeles had been picked clean, every conceivable tourist locale and clue method tapped, as far north as the temples and colleges of Malibu, as far south as the beaches of Newport Beach, and as inland as Pasadena and Beverly Hills, the eclectic venues of Hollywood and the urban skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles.
Ultimately, while most of the entire state was plumbed, the rally in the interim made regular visits to Texas, one to Florida, and then jumped state boundaries again as if it was almost an obligation. New York, Washington, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon. The thought was the experience of traveling in a new and fun state, the identity which was only revealed at the last minute while tongues wagged in rapid anticipation.
In 2012, Belize brought a huge jump to international waters, in the sun filled beach paradise of San Pedro Island, and the following year brought France, its culture, vineyards and clifftop villages of Provence. The thirtieth anniversary occurred appropriately in Tuscany, ending at a magnificent villa.
Meanwhile, other planning dynasties came to the fore as no one person or group could keep up the momentum year after year of planning this event, which became a gargantuan effort. Rallies were organized by Laura Ewing and Chip Moore in San Francisco and Fort Lauderdale, by Ray Vela and Rick Moore in Central Texas, by Dennis Morley and Company in Big Bear, Lake Tahoe and Portland. The Wolf brothers went "cowboy" on us in Austin, and the Rollins - Fulwiler - Bishop trio gave us memories of Texas Rock 'n Roll. Rebecca Louise Goddammit led three genius events in Austin (one based upon the Game of Monopoly), in Belize, and in Asheville, North Carolina. The participant numbers started at seven, rose to the high teens, plateaued for a while in the twenties, and piqued in San Luis Obispo and Asheville at an almost unmanageable forty participants. Nowadays, people are turned away if they don't book early enough (Portland) or are second tiered on a waiting list.
The accommodations have leapt from the one star couches of a host's dirty apartment to a twenty thousand foot country home in Breckinridge, replete with a swimming pool size Jacuzzi , racquetball court, and views of the Rockies. The price has leapt accordingly, from $20.00 per person for a three day weekend, all drinks and food included, to $1000.00. It is still a sweet deal for a holiday weekend. And the company of old friends is priceless.
This website endeavors to explain how the Road Rally from Hell occurred and continued uninterrupted for thirty one years; it is inclusive and meant as a resource for the old members and the new, as well as any potential clients desiring a tailored Road Rally booking.
Problems
Among other things, though there have been no car accidents to date, the rally was not without its injuries. In 2013, I slipped down a stairwell in our French castle and ripped the hell out of my arm. In Asheville, Laura broke a few ribs when she slipped from the bathtub. Others had minor scratches and ambulance scares but so far we have all survived pretty much intact.
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Logistics
To plan a road rally properly, a minimum of three planners is required: generally speaking, one to do be in charge of the clue writing, one to handle technical aspects such as music, video shoots, edits, and invites, and one to be in charge of provisions, from food and alcohol to bedding arrangements. Today, because of the kind of house or hotel that is required to comfortably accommodate forty people, its location directs the rest of the undertaking, and, thus, is a matter of first priority.
Interviews
Statistics
POLITICALLY INCORRECT
The rally was not a "politically correct" event. We lampooned and parodied everything and everyone we saw and heard of in ways that are currently unacceptable. None of the videos or points of view expressed in the clue sheets were a product of our true beliefs. If we offend anyone, we hope they take it in stride as they would viewing a clip from Saturday Night Live. The nature of satire is to upend the sacred cows of society. Nothing more.
Post - Script
The Road Rally had begun with all of about seven participants weaving their way through the sweltering humidity and miles of gleaming asphalt of a Houston Memorial Day weekend in 1988. Half of the clue sheets were poorly handwritten in crude prose using laundries, cemeteries, adult bookstores and junkyards among the guideposts to
a Surfside beach house fifty miles away. Because of the idea’s novelty and the sea side location of what became a wild, fun filled three day weekend, most rally diehards still consider it the most memorable road rally, A veritable memorial of human perseverance, the team of Linda Collins, and Rick and Laura Moore won the contest handily thanks to a head strong determination to never call the Rally Hotline,
in spite of serious obstacles. The Rally’s concept, from individualized clue runs with their own themes to the planting of party animals, continues as a working blueprint to the thirty or so rallies that have followed, albeit on a grander scale. 1990 saw the use of recorded cassette tapes given to teams at some point on their runs, each injecting clever cryptic messages and atmosphere to the particular quest. Today teams are provided You Tube links to elaborate short films replete with staged scenes and special effects. The poetry of the clue sheets has become more subtle, sophisticated, and imaginative, and though hardly the iambic pentameter of Nobel material, today’s rhymes are a far cry from the forced stanzas of before. The themes themselves continue to embrace the
personalities, ideologies and conflicts of the times, from the 1988 and 2008 presidential campaigns and global issues, to movie themes, television shows and sexual mores. Murder and mystery are constant plot rally plots, taking teams through the story of O.J. Simpson to treks to save the world’s most notorious spies. Art was the centerpiece of in the south of France, compelling teams to find pieces of a painting which once assembled and flipped displayed the location of the ultimate, regal destination. The Mayan apocalypse was suited for the environs of Belize and Greek mythology found its home in the classical architecture of San Francisco. The use of vehicles alternated with walking tours, New York
subways and San Pedro Island golf carts. And accommodations progressed; no longer the crash pads of a host’s apartment, the venues became river houses, strings of beach cottages, mountain villas and French castles. Advances in technology revolutionized the Road Rally. The internet and smart phones allowed teams to access clues from web sites to emails and texts. More importantly, Rally planners could live and correspond in different states, by emailing and correcting and proofing each other’s clues. Vacation spots could be canvassed over wide areas with the internet saving valuable resources and time. Planting clues became an exercise in cleverness. Where cards were placed in bushes and behind statues, they now floated from tree branches on doll-size paratroopers engineered with a pull string; they were pasted on moving escalators or a spinning water wheel; they were placed in a bellows and ejected with a blow. Some came flying at you with the spring of a trap; some had to be fished from a pond. Some were contained in artificial acorns and garlic cloves or written in bubble gum on graffiti walls.
Of course, rally planners, with their big ambitions and outlandish ideas, convinced that the universe is at their disposal, find that the best is often only achieved at the cost of great risk. Nothing is sacred, whether it’s a planter at a mausoleum, a three thousand year old sarcophagus at an exclusive museum, or the parapets of a two hundred foot bridge. It is with pride that we can say that the clues were planted and usually retrieved while under the noses of top clearance security personnel and machine gun toting post-911 Marines at Grand Central Station. And if the planners had to leap barbed wire fences to plant fake hands in a bubbling La Brea tar
pit, then teams would have to do double time: to get their clues, they would be driven to crawl into sewage pipes, sing embarrassing songs in public spaces, dress in ridiculous costumes, and dance on bars to retrieve values in upside down kayak affixed to the ceiling. Sometimes they would have to interact with the public by having them wear their candidate’s a banner in a photo op. One rallier had a fake Hollywood bottle smashed on his head by a staged bartender, while others consumed chocolate cakes and bottles of wine to find their clue on oven proof tiles or behind the wine label. One team found its clue on a roller coaster ride that went through a scary cave; another on the moving boxcars of a model train on display.
Ultimately, part of the fun is the unexpected events and encounters
that teams talk about throughout the weekend. Some get so far off the beaten path that the stories they relate compete with those of the planned encounters: motorists yelling at them “Get a life” for scouting the OJ crime scene; putting on disguises with plastic toy guns only to be “holding up” the wrong liquor store; or unwittingly engaging a real gang member in conversation in an underground dive.
The Road Rally, like any great form of entertainment has its poor imitations; scavenger hunts, board games, cellular phone apps, and pure games of speed, not intellect. As created by myself, my partners and friends, it is a contest that remains unparalleled in its imagination, challenge, and sense of adventure. Even as times, people, and places change, the Road Rally continues to endure as a common source of uninhibited fun and fantasy for all kinds of individuals from all walks of life. The Rally serves as a permanent link between friends, old and new, if not also to remind them that the rat race is not the only game in town.
It has been a great ride. Though I am officially retiring, partly in order to market the idea, I will continue to partake in the annual road rallies hosted by others.
After all, the show must go on!
Marc Chomel