esCarpade Day 0 - Scrutineering and Welcome Dinner

The boys woke up early in the morning... after having coffee, they decided to go for a bit of a wander around downtown Lismore...

They stumbled across the back alley gallery.

This old phone booth was a free book exchange.

Apparently the boys are here!

A very old belltower on the old post/telegraph building.

The river is way down there... it's astounding how much water must have gone through Lismore during the floods...

Hoges was impressed by this tree...

So many buildings still under renovation...

Once the time had arrived for scrutineering the boys lined up...

After getting ticked off at scrutineering, Retro Rock-It had a quick bath, fuel up, checked the fluids and was put to bed for the rest of the day...

Time for some snacks and a quiet drink before dinner...

Pretty much taking over the motel...

esCarpade cars...

As far as the eye can see...

Even out the back!

Time for the driver briefing...

This blurry photo says there are 53 entrant cars, 14 official vehicles and 168 people on esCarpade this year!  The cars will travel through 31 towns, and coincidentally it's the 31st year of esCarpade!

Lined up waiting for dinner!

Lismore Heights bowling club has a nice view out the window!

And shimmy, shimmy!

Damian and Hoges with the CQ frame...

Selfie!

The wait is almost over... one more sleep until the boys will have the first day of driving for esCarpade 2023.

And the fundraising total has continued to sneak along, now sitting at $16501.. It's not too late to donate if you want to help the boys reach even higher!

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Two sleeps till esCarpade 2023 - time to start packing!

Two more sleeps till esCarpade 2023, so it was time for some last minute checks and balances... Up on the ramps and checking the bash plate is in good order...

Cherries for Hoges...

Out with the old Giggle...

In with the new!

Oh lookie... a blank space!

Not any more!!

Damian's lost the plot a bit here...

See the space... fill the space (with a sticker)!

This brake light isn't used - the one on the spoiler is.

Problem solved!

Plenty of room on that door...

A heady mix of old and new!

Boring!

Better!

Struggling to find spots now...

But room for that one!

And the boot is packed... seems like there's way too much room!  Must be the enormous boot of the EF Fairmont!

Fuel cans (2 x 10L) in the rooftop pod...

And an annoying loose wire on the safety lights that Damian spotted yesterday...

Fixed!

Voila!!  Works like a bought one!!

Thanks to the amazing people who have sponsored Retro Rock-It in the past few days, bringing our current fundraising total to... drumroll please...

$16,081

Last but not least, a few people have requested the route be uploaded... here's a PDF of it for your viewing pleasure!

2023 Camp Quality esCarpade Route Map

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Four sleeps till esCarpade 2023!!

With only four sleeps to go until esCarpade 2023, Damian finally had time to get out to the shed to seek out all the bits and bobs that go into the boot/car for esCarpade.

Of course, testing the lights is always fun!

And finding posters done for the boys in a previous year... a timely reminder of why we do this!

There's most of the stuff and things that are required... Now to close the lids and carefully stash everything in the boot!

This is where the night ended though, as Merlin decided to disappear off into the bush... after much searching and getting scratched up, Damian and his sons finally found Merlin and brought him back home... by this point, no further work was even considered...

On a brighter note, the fundraising tally stands at a delightful

$13576

Top effort everyone!  Thanks to all who have donated so far!  

You too  can help the boys reach their goal of $15K by clicking that big, yellow Donate Now button at the top of this page! 

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Rooftop Pod Completed and Reinstalled

The yellow squiggle Giggle was looking a bit underdone, so Damian added another coat of yellow...

And another...

And yet another!

Now that the colour depth was a bit better, it was time to rejig the black parts... and this is the end result!

Since he was having so much fun with the black nikko, Damian decided to so some outlining on the rear of the rooftop pod also!

Well, it's marginally better...

And with just a little bit of help from the lovely Tricia (not shown), the rooftop pod was reinstalled.

After a snappy test drive to make sure all was well, it was time to test the lights...

Don't panic... Booger Mobile wasn't stolen between these pictures... Damian went for a cruise under the guise of "moving it out of the way of the cupboard at the back"!

And the obligatory video of the safety lights, and the fancy green ones... 

Retro Rock-It is back together and ready for scrutineering in a few weeks time...

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