Well, start your engines and do something special -- and easy. Organize your own car rally. It's easier than you may think, and it's tons of fun, whether you hold it in your community or include nearby country roads as well. Basically, you create several rally teams that will drive a route you design and test in advance. The teams will not have maps with marked routes; instead, they follow your written clues as instructions. They will pick up ribbons at checkpoints along the way, to prove that they travelled all around the rally route. And finally, they will answer a quiz about things they should have seen during the rally. (If your route goes into the country, you might want to provide each team with a general map of the area -- but NOT with the route or any clues marked on it.) Speed is penalized -- this is NOT EVER a race! All that counts is a complete set of checkpoint ribbons and the answers to the rally quiz. To maximize the fun, minimize the fuss and keep things safe, here's how you can organize your own rally: Choose your rallyers Step 1. Decide who to invite. You will need at least six vehicles to make it competitive, but the more you add after that, the more work the rally organizer (that's you) will have to do. Each car must have a driver and a navigator. Give the latter job to the older kids. Cars can also take passengers to help -- or hinder -- navigation, or to take notes for the post-rally quiz. Little kids are very observant, so this is a good job for them. Step 2. Get a really good map, the kind that shows every road, lane and alley in your city or town, and every highway, grid road and main farm access road in the surrounding countryside. Make sure the map is as up to date as possible. You can generally purchase these maps from map specialty stores or from a provincial outlet. Plan the route Step 3. Use the map to plot your initial rally route. Try to keep the route on roads that aren't too busy. Decide on the length of the rally by establishing the number and approximate locations of the checkpoints that you can reasonably set up for the time available. The longer the rally, the more check points. Take a careful test drive Step 4. Drive the proposed route to make sure things haven't changed since the map was printed. It can ruin the whole rally if that street has become a dead end or a bus trap, or if that back-country road is closed for construction. Step 5. As you drive, look for likely spots for checkpoints and make a note of their locations. Fence posts, telephone poles, trees, etc., are good places to attach ribbons. Watch for landmarks like barns, churches, traffic lights, service stations, etc., because you'll need them to make up your rally instructions and clues. In both cases, be careful not to pick temporary structures that could disappear by rally day. And please don't trespass! Try to drive your proposed route on the same day of the week and at the same time of day that you plan to hold the rally. Note traffic conditions and act accordingly. If traffic is heavy, you may want to plan on more time for the rally. Or, if it's too heavy, you might decide to route your drivers to quieter roads. And once you've finalized the route, drive it once more, timing it, so that you know how long you should leave in your day for the actual rally. Remember that part of the time will be searching for route clues, rally markers and so forth. This time out, you should also look for interesting sites that can form the questions on your rallyers' quiz. Step 6. Buy some bright-coloured ribbons or safety tape to use as rally markers. Mark each ribbon with the number of the checkpoint. You will need one ribbon for each competitor at each checkpoint. (Adding a couple of extra ones can't hurt.) Competitors must collect the markers at each checkpoint. Step 7. Write your rally instructions. This is the key to the success of the event, so take your time. Your instructions must be clear, fair and unambiguous. Never use actual street or road names -- that's too easy. Instead of saying "Turn left at Fraser Street", tell drivers to "turn left at the end of the oat field surrounded by a black and white fence". Simple riddles can also work. Use similar clues to tell the teams where each numbered checkpoint will be found. And make a copy of the instructio ns for each rally team. You can be as tricky as you want -- after all, your teams must be challenged! Judge your questions by the competitors. Just remember that much of the fun for participants is in succeeding, so you shouldn't make things TOO difficult. And be fair. If you tell competitors to "turn right at the Lombardy poplar past the church", make sure everyone can recognize the trees. Computers can be a great help here by making multi-copies of instructions and quiz sheets. Safety First Step 8. DO NOT time the race. That encourages people to speed or drive dangerously. To make sure there's no speeding, you might even penalize people who finish earlier than you know is legally possible. Instead, a winner is decided by using a list of questions competitors receive AFTER the rally. For example, they might be asked: "What kind of animals were in the field beside checkpoint #4?" or "Were the signals beside Checkpoint #6 regular traffic lights or flashing lights?" or "How many churches did you pass on the rally route?" Don't tell the competitors the actual questions before they start, but do warn them there will be questions, and give them some samples of the types of questions. Also, provide notebooks and pens for every navigator and passenger with a reminder that they should observe everything they see along the route because there will be a quiz at the end. The winner of the rally must have ALL the checkpoint ribbons and also the highest score on the post-race quiz. Step 9. Immediately before everyone arrives to start the rally, drive out and staple the ribbons to the checkpoints. Don't do it any earlier or they could disappear. And please, DO NOT trespass! Choose checkpoint locations that are public, or if you really want to use a barn door or other piece of private property, get permission from the owner. Make this rule very clear to all participants! Vary starting times Step 10. Stagger the start, letting drivers leave about five minutes apart. That will minimize the temptation to race, and will enable participants to find checkpoints for themselves instead of everyone simply rushing to the same locations. That's all there is too it. Once all the cars have started out, all you have to do is relax and wait to see who wins. If you want to do something more energetic, try skulking behind some of the checkpoints with your camera or video camera. And to complete the day, present the winner with a homemade trophy at a barbecue held after everyone has completed the rally. To facilitate this, consider starting the rally from your house and ending it at a local park or picnic spot -- or vice versa. And most of all, have fun!
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