It's a fun event, in which teams of people in cars follow a set of driving directions to get from the starting point of the Rally to the Rally Finale. Along the way, the teams try to find answers to The RallyMaster’s questions, and write them on the Rally Answer Sheet.

The Road Rally is NOT a race! Cars follow the printed instructions as closely as possible, observing safe, indicated speeds, as they look for the answers to the sometimes tricky questions. The emphasis is on SAFETY, accuracy, observation... and fun!

RallyMaster's Note: This Road rally is the direct descendant of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern NH Road Rally (a.k.a. the Magical Mystery Tour) that ran for 16 years starting in 1991. We are happy to now be sponsoring another worthy cause that supports youth and families, and welcome all former Mystery Tour participants.

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You need at least two team members, a driver and a navigator, but 3-member teams are also allowed. However, there are two important considerations to keep in mind:

Three-member teams are asked to bring in $150 in donations ($50/person).

Also, to equalize things a bit, each team will get only one set of questions, so three-person teams will have to be especially good at communicating with and listening to each other.

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How do I collect donations, and how much is needed?

Each two-person Rally Team must bring at least $100 in donations to the Rally ($150 for three-person teams). These donations are the real reason we hold the Rally (aside from giving you a chance for some fun!). The Carroll County Restorative Justice Center needs these funds to support its work with area youth and families.

The easiest way to get your minimum donations (aside from writing a check yourself!) is to ask friends, relatives, and co-workers to sponsor your participation in the Rally for any amount. You can explain that all the money they contribute will be spent in Carroll County, supporting youth and families. The Rally itself is a volunteer-operated function, so the Restorative Justice Center doesn’t have to use a penny of your donations for anything but program services.

All donations are fully tax deductible, since the Restorative Justice center is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

Many teams try to raise as much as possible in donations, going well over the minimum amount per person. We like that! Several participants ask their employers to sponsor them, and raise other donations as well.

All donations should be brought to the Rally on Rally Day. Checks and cash are both welcome.

Besides a vehicle, a driver and a navigator, and the minimum amount of donations per team, all you need is a pencil or pen and a sense of adventure. The name of a good relationship counselor might prove helpful afterwards if you do the rally with your partner and you have a tough time communicating. ;-)

Let’s take a look at an excerpt from the first 2 miles of a previous year’s directions:

As you can see, the directions are as clear as possible, and tell you how fast to go and where to turn according to odometer readings (first column). The speeds listed are never higher than the posted speed limits, and are often a little slower, so you can be finding all those tricky answers. Also, the directions follow road signs. For example, when the odometer reading above indicated 1.9 miles, there was a STOP sign at an intersection.

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You bet, so here and there during the Rally, we throw in an "Odometer Reality Check". It looks like this:

If your odometer reads 2.0 before /after you pass the yellow RR sign, you can safely assume that you’ll have to add/subtract a bit from the odometer listings in the directions. We also include odometer resets several times along the way, so that long distances don’t magnify any differences.

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What if my vehicle doesn’t have a resettable odometer?

Not to worry… a pencil and some quick calculations should help you get through the Rally just fine. A team with no odometer actually won the Rally a few years ago! Remember, we keep you at a safe speed, and the non-driver(s) in the car can help with the calculations.

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Each team, in addition to the driving instructions, receives a set of questions/clues that are interwoven between the driving instructions. For example, here’s an excerpt from that previous year’s Q&A sheet (same driving segment as driving instructions excerpted above):

Start Turn LEFT when safe, proceed at 30 MPH

0.2 INCREASE to 35 MPH

CHEZ RUBBLE _________________

0.7 SLOW, stay towards RIGHT

0.75 Turn SHARPLY RIGHT (310^o), proceed at 25 MPH

RODENT COLLECTOR __________________

HEAVY, COLORLESS, GASEOUS ALKANE, C₃H₈ __________________

MALCOLM AND MAG __________________

GRIZZLY NEONATE, WITHOUT "B" __________________

1.9 STOP. Turn LEFT when safe, proceed at 30 MPH

As you can see, there are questions or clues placed between specific odometer readings, and a line for you to write the most appropriate answer. All answers can be clearly seen from the car, between the specified odometer readings, traveling at the recommended speed. (Exception: see "STOPS", below) In addition, unless otherwise noted, all clues/answers are given in the order in which they appear on the route.

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Well, it’s like this. The RallyMaster works day and night to perfect the driving instructions, making them as clear and easy to follow as possible. No team should ever have trouble getting from the start to the finish without getting lost. There are no tricks in the driving instructions.

Some of the questions are another story. This is where The RallyMaster gets to have his fun, developing humorous and not-so-obvious clues that require a little thought, and mixing them in with the easier and more straightforward ones.

Let’s look at the questions/clues in the excerpt above. Some clues are straightforward, general knowledge questions, even if they are a little obscure. For example, even if you flunked high school chemistry, you might be able to guess the answer to HEAVY, COLORLESS, GASEOUS ALKANE, C₃H₈ when you drive by the 8-foot wide, red "PROPANE" sign on a rooftop at the 1-mile mark. Remember, an incorrect guess hurts no more than a blank, so guess away when you are in doubt.

Other questions may be a bit trickier. Consider, for instance, RODENT COLLECTOR. You might be wondering, "Who the heck collects rodents?" but the clue actually refers to a rodent that is itself a collector. The answer appeared as the name of an antique shop just before the 1-mile mark, "PACK RAT."

As for CHEZ RUBBLE, "Chez" means "home of", and at about the 0.6 mile mark the route passed a sign saying "BETTY’S PLACE". Remember Betty Rubble of the Flintstones? The answer to MALCOLM AND MAG should be obvious as you pass the sign for "FORBES" Street, and the answer to "GRIZZLY NEONATE, WITHOUT ‘B’" shows up at "CUBB" Street: "CUBB" without "B" = "CUB".

Sometimes answers are clearly visible at the recommended speed, but not so easily seen. For example, occasionally The RallyMaster will include a clue in a stretch of the route that has a lot of signs close up, by the side of the road. The smart Rally team will also think to look off in the distance, where the actual answer might just be on an elevated sign, clearly visible in the distance, but not so close. Truly smart Rally Teams also look behind their cars occasionally, since an answer on the back side of a sign might only be visible after driving past it.

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You will be challenged with clues from a variety of knowledge areas. You may see clues from the sports world, literature, pop culture, current events, history, science, etc. That way everyone should encounter some clues that cover familiar territory, and some that will be less obvious.

One special type of question and answer that is a favorite of The RallyMaster is the anagram. An anagram is a word or phrase formed by reordering the letters of another word or phrase. For example, the letters in "satin" can be rearranged to form "stain"; "Clint Eastwood" can be rearranged to form "old west action"; "Osama bin Laden" can be rearranged to form "A damn, alien S.O.B."; "President Saddam Hussein" anagrams to "human disaster dispensed."

Note that all letters in the original word or phrase must be used, and used exactly the same number of times as they appear in the original. The number of words doesn’t matter, though.

All anagrams are clearly identified as such, in a special section of the Road rally without other questions to distract you. You will be given the rearranged format as your clue, and you will have to find the original word or phrase on the Rally route. For example, the clue might be, "Cool! Wet warmth to me." The answer, "Welcome to Tamworth," would actually be visible somewhere along the anagram portion of the route

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Glad you asked. Stops are points along the Rally Route where you are instructed to park the car and get out for a specified period of time, usually between 5 and 15 minutes. [NOTE: Cemeteries are a favorite of The RallyMaster, who earned an honest but humble living for several years as a gravedigger.]

Sometimes at the stops you are told to look for answers; sometimes you are told to gather some item(s) [not at cemeteries, though, don’t worry]; sometimes you have to sing a song to a stranger to receive further Rally instructions or needed articles. Who knows what might happen at a stop? Only The RallyMaster!

Usually at least one stop will include a bathroom and enough time to use it if needed, but not all routes allow for this. The RallyMaster will tell you before the Rally begins if that’s the case, so you can, umm, plan accordingly.

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Well just to make life more interesting... Each car is given a set of photos at the start of (or perhaps during) the Rally, and you help your overall scores with them. Sometimes they are photos taken along the route, and you might be asked to place them in the order in which they appear, or to list what town each photo was taken in, etc. Sometimes the photos have nothing to do with the rally route itself, but do have questions associated with them. They come with instructions; you'll know what to do with them on Rally Day. Pictures are just one more way that The RallyMaster tries to overload your brains challenge you so you’ll go stark raving mad have a fun and stimulating experience during the Rally.

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The Rally team with the best combination of accurate completion time and correctly answered questions wins. Let’s look at those two elements.

Accurate completion time: The RallyMaster drives the Route at the specified speeds several times before the day of the Rally. In this way, an exact, accurate completion time is determined -- precisely how long the route will take if you drive at exactly the specified speed, stopping for precisely the allotted time at stops. Some averaging is done to account for variations at traffic lights, traffic congestion, etc., but the correct time is always known within a range of no more than 60 to 90 seconds.

For every minute greater than or less than the accurate completion time range, the team earns a penalty point. Teams also earn one penalty point for each missing or incorrectly answered question. This means that it is never a good idea to turn around and re-drive a portion of the route where you missed some answers. You might shed a penalty point or 2 by finding an answer or 2 that you previously missed, but you will probably earn twice as many penalty points for coming in extra minutes late. Most cars come in late or right on time. They seldom come in early.

Correctly answered questions: As mentioned above, the more questions you answer correctly, the better your score (fewer penalty points). The bonus pictures can help improve your score by removing penalty points.

At the end of the Rally, each Team’s driving time score and answer scores are calculated and combined, and the team with the best combination (fewest penalty points for +/- minutes and missed questions) is the winner.

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