Ozark$
I woke up a little before 5 am. When I got downstairs Mrs AAZCD already had a breakfast ready for me and lunchbox packed. I ate, threw a few things in the Prius, and fed the feral cats. A little after 5:30 I was on the road for what Google Maps said would take a little over two hours. There was occasional light rain and it was dark, but the first hour of the drive was familiar and in an hour and a half, I was on I-40 at sunrise. Not bad.
I forgot to grab my Bluetooth OBDII reader, which is great to have along in an old Prius with a few known issues. This one still needs to have the clockspring replaced and a new capaciter soldered in to the dash display. Most of the time the display is good, but on a long drive if I turn the car off, there's a good chance that I will lose the display of my gas gauge and speedometer. When I got off the interstate, I filled the tank up along with a 2 gallon gas can just in case.
It turned out there was no need to worry. I kept the car running the whole day, 5:30 am until about 7:00 pm and still had a half tank of gas when I got home.
The waypoints were scheduled to be released at 7:30 am. I expected that some groups would be rolling out of camp early to hit all the points, but when I got to camp just before 8 am things were pretty chill. The burnout party and drinking had lasted well into the night for some of the campers. I didn't plan to do the 'serious' Gambler thing. I was happy to spend the day friends and casually cruise through the back roads of the Ozarks, going to whatever checkpoints looked good.
I parked near some of my friend's cars and walked around camp. Almost immediately I was met by another Prius owner. We each had questions while we checked out each other's cars. His was a gen3 with some body damage and a lift. He has the Prius hobby and a scrapyard. We talked about battery renewal - he uses a regular 12 volt 2A charger without any trouble - and various other Priusisms. Before I got the camera out, his teammate came over and wanted to get on the road, so I don't have any pics. From there, I walked through checking out the Gambler rides and chatting with some acquaintances from past Gamblers.
With my rounds completed, I hung out with a group of friends from Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma who had most of the checkpoints plotted into their phones. Being solo in my car, I didn't plan to do much navigating, but follow along and enjoy the drive. I didn't note what time we rolled out, but it was unrushed. I was in the middle of a group of seven cars.
There was some rain at times and we were in and out of the clouds as we drove through the mountains.
The weather prevented some long scenic vistas in the mountains, but it was still beautiful to be in the mountains of Arkansas.
At one point, a car in our group started overheating so we stopped on the roadside. Not long after we stopped some curious horses came to visit.
Lunch stop and a rustic cafe. It was absolutely packed with groups of locals, overlanders and hunters.
The Prius was great. No issues and people thought it was cool, but not quite Porsche cool.
At one point I even got to use the winch to pull a partially buried (Cavalier?) door out of the dirt to be hauled back to our dumpster.
I need to put the next one of these on my calendar. Oklahoma. Arkansas. Texas. Anyplace that is a short drive from Dallas.
I also need to get my beat up XJ running. It looks about as bad as anything in this thread.
Along the road, Poncho (one of the Lonestar Gambler organizers) cooked up some wonderful sandwiches under the hood of his car 'The Edge of Disaster'
Later in the day, the Edge of Disaster went over the edge and couldn't climb back up. Luckily there was a Honda Del Sol available to pull him back up.
After recovering the Disaster I decided to start my trip back home. We were about as far north and west as we had been all day and if I continued with the group, my trip home would be longer, in the dark, and in deteriorating weather. The first 45 minutes of the drive were still through the mountains, then I was on more familiar roads. Just when I arrived back in my home town a little after sunset, the rain started pouring. Perfect timing and a good close to my one-day Gambler trip.
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:
I need to put the next one of these on my calendar. Oklahoma. Arkansas. Texas. Anyplace that is a short drive from Dallas.
I also need to get my beat up XJ running. It looks about as bad as anything in this thread.
The next one up that I'm aware of will be the Texas Carnado. I think it's the second weekend in February every year. Beyond that, there's the Red River Rollout next June. If you are really ambitious and willing to do a longer drive, there's the Mexico Gambler in May. There's a few others around the extended area. Most of them are posted and organized on Facebook, but the Gambler 500 web page often has info too.
Next up for me is the Key Swap. We bring street legal cars with a title and trade them 'Dirty Santa' style. Drive home what you win. No complaining. I've committed to bring the Orient Red Boxster. I'll probably end up 'winning' whatever Junk car Billy brings again.
After that I'm planning to attend the Texas Carnado (in Oklahoma and Arkansas). Planning to take the Xbox this year.
