THE OFFICIAL NORCAL / RENO RAMPAGE CREW THREAD

This section will be used to describe the happenings and memories of our experience.

First off, I'd like to say this - to my old friends, it was of course, great to see you once again. To the new friends - (Mike, Tracy, Mike, Chris) - you kids are definetly kindred spirits, and we can only wait until the next rendez-vous.

A very special thanks to Mike for putting it together, and V-man for working that through. I'm genuinely glad we got to spend time as a group. Of course, as is totally natural, we ROCKED the rampage harder, better and faster than anyone or anything else. Chris - you're a terrible influence, and it's a good thing Mike's there to temper that! The only person worse in the group is clearly Art! (who loves ya old man? ).

Over the course ofthe next few days, I'll be collecting everyone's pictures in high-res (i'llt ell you guys how to get them to me) and putting it together on a special server for us. Also, I'll need all of your footage to have a movie spliced together.

Hey, does anyone know how much faster a 575 is than a 550? Oh, yeah, 4mph!



So I suppose I should recount the events in some semblance of order. Bear in mind, it's been a blitzkreig 72 hours, and there are DEFINETLY parts of the nights I can't remember.

The case of characters:

V-man: solid pimp material. So cool James Dean burns in jealousy.
Joel: party-goer extraordinaire. Few can think to keep up with such a monstrous force.
Francois: where does the solid pimp get his material? From the man whose got it in spades, after having given some off. Don't let his mild-manners fool you, he makes Art look angelic.
Dave S: nerd. geek. good to have you along dude. I better not say anymore
Rich: the redhead, tearing it up and pimping them down... he was to hot what V is to cool.
Mike G: an unstoppable rebel force, a scary man (who else can read his camera manual at 140?). He seems sedate, until you realize that he's as devious as he is cute (which is not very! )
Chris: there's no proof she exists. Obviously she was never in any photo. We have no evidence that she even came on this trip. If she was there, we'd imagine that she's pretty damn cool, but how would we know?
Mike S: the BMOC. Reno's original master of disaster, tempered by none.
Tracy: our closet lush, she was clearly the smartest of any of us (not that it takes much).
John: our road warrior incarnate, there's never a moment when he's not showing off those pearly whites. I think his smile is surgically fixed.
Judy: hopefully keeping John out of trouble as he smiles his way past 160.
Art: M A N I A C.
Diane: keeping the above alive - and doing an impressive job!
Dave and Missus B: GPS at 153? These kids were rocking harder than anyone else - and there's the horse photo to prove it!
Frank: the consumate king, he knew what was up before there was an up
Anthony: the blue mon-star! who else could turn $0.17 into $17k in blackjack, and blow by at 170?
Dan: a sweet innocent guy, we really didn't see him. He was doing 65-70 the whole way, and really didn't interact much with anyone.
Darf: our hero, our long lost brother, the man to whom all toasts lead.


Thursday:
9.30am - waiting for Rich.
9.32am - waiting for Rich.
9.34am - waiting for Rich.
9.75am - Rich is here
10am - we bounce to V-man's. Cruising up, it's pretty uneventful, except I made a bone-headed move and cruised up 37 instead of 29, wasting an extra 45 minutes. After I castigated David for being 15 late.

12.15 - we show up. I meet Francois. I am going to regret this a lot. Joel is rockin from the get go.
12.30 - cruise out to lunch, we see Art's bumble-bee there, the joshing and ribbing is already in full effect, and Art tells us how to switch from motorcycle to side-pod while racing at 120mph. This skill comes in handy apparently.
2.xx - hey, we gotta be at the winery. Oh yeah, it's 3 minutes away. We show up, Dave B, MrsB, John and Judy are there. I remember Dave. John, of course, si in full effect - and he shows up with what I later decide is the sexiest 360 of all time.
3.xx - wow, so the winery is cool and all, and V-man is the man for setting it up, but we gotta get outta here. Hey kids, let's take it easy, huh? Says V-man who fishtails out of the intersection...

The drive to Reno was quick - we stop in Auburn and pick up Anthony and Frank in the blue diablo. This turned out to be a good thing (I think!). I think we led most of the way, setting the pace around 110-120 - it was a gorgeous drive out, no real incidents (so much as I can remember), some good fuel stops, and the radios were definetly a good thing (once Frank figured out that we don't like to hear him snore! ). We tried to stage Art to get behind an ambulance - the comment was, however "he's smarter than he looks" - at least it's side by side.

As we were getting into town - V-man, of course, was on the scene with the master o' disaster himself, Mike. We get into town, Mike of course has set everything up A+ style at the Silver Legacy. Much needed showers and power naps happen before dinner. To be honest, I really don't remember dinner. Dinner - uh, it must've been pretty good - someone's gonna have to fill in a lot of details here.

After the dinner I can't remember (I can tell Tracy is rolling her eyes right now... and Art - you can stop giggling like a little schoolgirl)... a few kids decide they've got to go back home and/or to the hotel to get some sleep. four of us pack into a cab and decide to see what Reno's all about. Rich is happy. We made it back by 4am. This will turn out to be the earliest we make it back of any night for the weekend.


FRIDAY:
8am (?) - wake up, ok, my head hurts a little, but a shower and some breakfast (hah) will fix that up.

Mike - being the superstar he is, has decided that we're going to run the Virginia City HillClimb run on our way out to Vegas. Now, as you kids know, I have long heard stories about the run, from all of the big kids who hold the FCA records (AR, TP, DW, etc) - and I've always missed out on both the June and September events. This for me was huge. Rich, as we ran it, decided that Mike G needed a 45 second head start. Then he decided that in a mile and a half, he could catch up to MG's 575... uh... yeah... R was quick. We decided a photo op was a good idea - Chris showed off their little mascot.

After getting arrested there (spread em, put your hands behind your head!), we cruised out to Vegas via whatever. I don't remember the route. I do remember a few salient moments:
1) average cruising speed was 100-120.
2) Mike S and I were way ahead of the pack
3) They left me at the bank (the money came in handy later)
4) About 6 minutes later, I walk out. Vegas is one way, death valley another. I head to vegas.
5) I realize that doing 100 is not gonna get me caught up, as they're probably doing 100. I'm not worried about it, so I speed up. To 160. That's when I passed the cop (who was right behind a car going the other way, i needd to get into the other lane to pass the car in front of me)... the same cop who slammed on his brakes, flipped on his lights and radar, and then flipped a ***** to follow me.
6) Here I am deliberating the nuances of the different foliage growing (or not) , when I think to myself, what would Vincent do? - and then decided that 160 is fast enough to prevent mr. 5-0 to catch up (lest we forget motorola).
7) I see the group, and in a very calm docile voice (as they're slowing down waiting for me ont he side of the road), inform them about the officer approaching (whom I didn't see, btw) - i see cars jumping out of control and hope and fear for the maranellos behind. Then again, maybe the cop'll see Art's bumblebee and the rest of us can write him letters in jail. Diane will make really nice pies and cakes (although I bet I wouldn't get any). It'd be ok.
8) They start jamming, the cop apparently catches up, i'm a little too far ahead, John tells me no one got arrested or pulled over even, I'm happy.

Oh yeah, at one point we passed some cops at 100mph radared - they let us go.

Does anyone know how much faster a 575 is than a 550? 2mph. Well, video evidence suggests that the 550 travelling at 181 will be passed by the 575 travelling at 183. We need more road.

Rest of the cruise is pretty ok. Traffic into Vegas sucks. Vegas roads suck (unless you like fishtailing). I talk to Clarence, we make it to the hotel, all is good. We get checked in, get our cars washed (Mike scores again), and decide naps are in order. Except we don't have time to nap, so everyone kinda lounges, our suite is pretty decent, we decide we'll be relatively on time for the group dinner thing at Margaritaville. The food - meh. The drinks - they kept coming. The stories, good times. And the people - i dunno what's up with the rest of the rampagers, but it seems that the only people who had any solidarity were the NorCal/Reno crew. The rest - meh. Rob of course came over when he realized it was monterey all over again, except this time Jennie wasn't feeding him shots left right and center... instead he drank more on his own (more on this later).

Good to meet some people, Clarence of course took care of things. Being Mack Daddy means exactly that... the secret mack daddy hang-out room, the secret mack-daddy parties, if you don't know, then you don't know. We were happy. So, the post-dinner deal was simple - we'll go out, get smashed, and do something. I supposedly managed to finagle a box of Ashton VSGs, in memory of our dear dear good friend, some alcohol (im sure the hotel is clearing about 8 kajillion % on this stuff), and some people. Right. So, now that we're happy, drunk, and puffing away, we decide it's time to go out. Cruising the strip, i think our plan was to hit every watering hole to wherever we were going. Except we weren't going anywhere, and everyone was out of water.

What I do remember is that there was supposedly a fight (or almost) and the odds were definetly in my favor (not that I condone or would ever engage in fisticuffs or altercations of any sort ), Carbon almost lost his life (damn, so close) - and he blames me, there were *really* random people tagging along, Rob was plastered, V-man was vee-pimp, Joel was rockin, David was knockin, Rich "I don't do shots" did some shots, I - I was drinking bottled water the whole time, being a very good boy. Supposedly we went back home. I don't remember that. I don't remember how Daryl came to our room and brought many women back with him. Nor do I remember anyone else who was there. Memory suggests that Ryan came out too, and Todd, but I couldn't tell you for sure.


SATURDAY:

8am - I wake up. We're supposed to be at the shelby museum and then pahrump. I get us rallied and lead the late crew (who wasn't very late) to the shelby museum. Clarence is the man for setting it up. The museum sucks, but I hate looking at still cars. Or moving cars. yeah. So a bunch of people get horny about going to the track and watching stuff, I decide that sometime in the course of the night (between the 5am we got back and the 8am we woke up), that 100lb weights had been surgically attached to my cranium, which had been expanded about eight-fold as well. Upon this fascinating discovery, I decided that the track wasn't worth it, went back to the suite, got a lot of water, some fruit, and a box of tylenol. Two hours, a nap, and finding Joel later, ew head to the track for lunch, where the usual suspects were causing trouble. After watching the red radical eat it a few times, and the black 575 (the Mike/Chris wanna-be car) fishtail it like a pro, we decided that watching everyone was lame (duh!), and headed back. A brisk drive back (cali license, NV cops - you do the math), and the party plan was in effect. A little naptime, and then cigars and drinks poolside with the boys. The crew grew, and we found a few stragglers. John and Judy were showing off their athletic prowess, high-diving and swimming miles at a time, and we decide that we had better make dinner a bit earlier cuz of the dessert/champage bar thing CT put up.

Dinner @ Mortons - asides from the table of women who were causing 85% of the noise (some misogynistic bastard, we won't name names, suggested that allowing women to congregate like that is a bad thing... ) - Mike does it again. Mike has definetly gone way out of his way (especially since the dinner group grew from 15 to 25 in about seven minutes, and some joker in a champagne 355 messed up our parking deal) again, and Mike G was gracious enough to make a toast in his honor. Food was good (i got full fast), carbon got plastered (surprise surprise), Mike and John were sitting like two godfathers (cappo di tutti cappo), Chris of course had her camera snapping, and everyone seemed to be having a great time. Did I mention I was full? Yeah. Oh, and Carbon, you still don't get your $2 back.

So here's where we decide that the champagne thing is dead... and it was... until we walked in. Clarence of course was in full effect, but unfortunately the rest of the group looked like zombies. We fixed that up a-ok. A few more drinks (Tracy the closet lush started demanding cocktails right away!), and a few snacks later, Carbon came to tears when Clarence presented hmi with a piece of heat-shielding from an Enzo (you know those ugly little things that supposedly go kinda fast - it's like an F40 w/o balls or style or much of anything else). Rob and Jennie decided that they needed to fly out early and said goodbye. Good to see them of course! Unfortunately, we had to part ways with Tracy and Mike - but with the promise that we'll be running into them again in short order. And you had better believe I'm going to hold them to that promise.

Incidentally, I ran into d|ck roria... who knew? Good to see he's alive, kickin, and causing problems. Had I know he was going to be there, I'd have not shown up! So, the rest of the night - well, the basic synopsis is, gambling - learned to play craps the hard way, and then V-man and I lit up two tables, bringing them to money and life... and then we ran into Frank and Anthony, who showed us how to lose it all in blackjack. This is after 3 hours of just cruising hotel bars, drinking here and drinking there. So, 4.30-5.30am I lose more money in blackjack courtesy of those jokers, and then decide that when i start snoring at the table, it's time to go to bed. V-man, the pimp meister, decides that 7am is the time to sleep. Of course, five hours earlier, he also drunkenly professed that he'd be ready to go by 8.30 even if he got one hour of sleep. Well, uh, yeah, I got up before you dude. A little blitzed (not really - Rob wasn't funneling drinks down our throats - I'm convinced he's got some liver transplant devices company setup going on), we're ready to roll.

SUNDAY

Wake up at 8, decide another hour is ok. My eyes are rosso barchetta right about now... but that's ok. It was a short trip, but I think everyone was kinda happy to go back home. The leaving was ok, we parted ways with those crazy G kids Mike and Chris - to be continued there. Deciding to take the quicker route (and back in cali), we kept it reasonable. Mostly. Well. Kinda. A few incidents of 5-0 watching aside (thank you V1), it was pretty uneventful. Lunch in tehawhaddafukka was stupid - 2 hours burned for lousy food and lousier service. I blame Art. Well, we kept cruising, and at the last shell stop before the final run home, everyone parted ways. Hugs and numbers exchanged, the great group slowly started to peel away. Art and Diane decided that the Harris ranch makes a good stop. A few of us kept going - John and Judy with the longest ride ahead of them (stopping in stockton and then cruising back out to mendocino tomorrow - we hope they're doing ok right now), David made it back to Davis, in a moment of trying to say goodbye to Vince, Rich managed to skip past 152W and so we had to meet up with Dave B a little later (he waited around), Vince and Francois are clearly home by now, Rich made it back and decided that he's gonna do this trip next weekend, Mr and Mrs B should be ok right now, and I'm sitting here.


I have to say, I am humbled to be in such fine company - you guys have been an absolutely awesome crew to roll with. One is only as good as their company... it was a great weekend.


Oh - and I'm AMAZED that our group, as a final touch to its just unstoppable prowess, has gotten NO tickets and had NO incidents of report. YEAH.

Alright - over the next few days I hope you guys will be filling in with more details, and I'll be collecting all of your pictures and videos in various forms to put up in a special place for the true blue crew.

--Dan

 

Oh yeah, and for today... I forgot... there's video of the "fly-by"...

--Dan

 

That's because yours didn't, old man!

Let me show you what's up...


--Dan
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