PAGE 8 CIMARRON TRAIL ZONOTES By J on J ones Fresh off PCA Parade 2018 at Lake of the Ozarks and it was a lot of fun. This was my first full Parade (Spokane last year was official duties), and since it was so close, my wife Joy and I decided to take in the whole spectacle. And we did, from volunteering at Concours, Rally, and Autocross, to Tours and the banquets, it was a great time. It takes an astounding amount of preparation and organization to get a successful event, and this year was no exception. My hat’s off to all involved, and especially to the 800+ volunteers who made it happen. As with most of PCA, without the volunteers, our events wouldn’t happen. Did I mention volunteering? I did, and I think I enjoyed this the most. Being a volunteer gets you up close to the action – the education alone is worth it. At the Concours, Joy and I were “timers and runners” – timing the judges inspection of each car assigned (5 minutes!), and running the score sheets up to the scoring tent. It was fascinating watching the judges do their thing, what they look for, what they don’t, and the consistency they apply to every entrant. At the Rally, we worked a checkpoint. This was a Time, Speed, Distance rally (TSD) with a set route and leg times established by the rallymaster. Those closest to the times for each leg score the fewest penalty seconds and do the best. A rally checkpoint is where the cars enter to get their time for the previous leg of the route. As the car enters the checkpoint, the time is recorded on the official clock. The car is then assigned an “out” time from the checkpoint and given a time slip with their official time recorded. All goes well if the cars come in one by one, but sometimes they come in as a clump – we had 6 cars at one time all getting their times processed. But it worked! It was great. At the Autocross we shagged cones, which was pretty mellow, but I was mostly impressed with the organization. Each of the five corner stations had its own pop-up canopy, a giant cooler full of waters and snacks, a red flag to stop the action, and we all got our own fluorescent vest to take home. Cool! Each volunteer shift we did was HOT. But it was all good since we were well supplied with water (Are you hydrating? Here, have a water – all common words throughout the week). Once our volunteer shifts were done, we did a driving tour up to the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, MO, played in the pool, rented a ski boat, and ate. And ate. Joy said she gained a couple of pounds over the week – I, of course, would never notice. Zone 5 members were well represented at Parade, and a special congratulations to Maverick Region’s Bill Orr for receiving the PCA Enthusiast of the Year Award. Well-deserved recognition for Bill’s tireless efforts on behalf of Maverick Region and PCA.
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