A record 50 cars turned out for the 21st running of the Tombstone Trail. We had only printed 40 sets of instructions, so we had a mad scramble to get photocopies made for the late arrivals. 47 cars returned to the Lion's Tap for hamburgers and refreshments.
This year the course was set up so that the contestants had to answer every question, which was impossible in the time given, so the contestants who made the best educated guesses would do well. The answers were given point values based on the letters in the word, with A being worth 1 point and B worth 2, etc.
It's better to be lucky than good, and the overall winners certainly proved that. Jacki Bingham and Ashley Cox got lost and only made it to one cemetery. In fact, the question for that cemetery they answered wrong, but they took a wild guess at the others and were close enough for 1st in Class C and first overall!
Mary and Mark Utecht led the field of non-wild guessers, taking 1st in Class A and 2nd overall. They used their own names for some of their "educated" guesses. Mary and Mark won Class C in 1996, Class B in 1997, and now Class A. Let's see if they can run first overall in 1999!
Dave and Rachel Fuss used a similar strategy to the Utechts, filling in "Olson" for all the unanswered 5-letter names and "Johnson" for all the 7-letter names, resulting in 2nd in A and 3rd overall. Beryl Ann Burton and Bruce Weinman took 3rd in A with the most scientific strategy, filling in all the unknown numbers with "5" and the unknown letters with "M".
2nd in Class C and 5th overall were Jim and Jennifer Konkler. Don Anderson and Lou Fuzz took home 3rd in C.
Craig Johnson and Deb Johnson took Class B honors in 13th overall, followed closely by Lea and Randy Hoffa. Jerry Traver and Sara Traver were 3rd.
Last year's overall winners Sharon and Dennis Doffing scored well and could have finished well up in the field again, but a transposition error in adding up their totals gave them an extra 10000 points or so, leaving them in the enviable position to pick up the trophy for "dead last".
Jeff Stanton and Jay Erickson won the best "costomb" award for their "EMTs from hell". Matt Fisch won the best story award for his tale of a lady who insisted that the man who died a week ago was in the grave dated 1964.
Thanks to Rachel Larson and Brad Odegard for working the event. Thanks to all the contestants who came out on a Friday night to compete. I'm afraid for next year we're going to have to limit the entries or figure out how to spread the contestants out over a bigger area. In any case, the 1998 Tombstone Trail was a big success!
You can see the event results here.
Mark Larson