Tioga Pass Prognosticator #7

[NoUglyOneYet]

Looks like Kinless won again this year?

The Pass opened on May 20 at 10 a.m.! LINK

[Southwest Dave]

The Tioga Road will open on May 20, 2009, at 10 am, conditions permitting.

As you can see from your link this was an estimated opening time, prior to the opening and does not represent when it was opened. It is about time they updated the page to save confusion but this link that was referred to earlier has the official date May19 th

[pkb4809]

PhilB [pkb4809] is only the second awarded winner in seven attempts. So congratulations to Phil!

Mark

Mark Thank you so much.

In award ceremony style I'd just like to thank a few people ... my school maths teachers without whom probabilities would mean a lot less to me, probably ... the weather forecasters at the BBC for showing me the way when it comes to predicting weather based phenomenon ... but mostly to all the other RTA forum Tioga Pass Prognosticators who didn't predict May 19th, leaving it free for me to have a guess at.
;-) ;-) ;-)

Thanks once again. I'll try to use my free gas wisely, and I'll be sure to use the advice and guidance from the RTA forum to help with that.

Keep up the good work.
PhilB

[Mark Sedenquist]

Phil,

Now.... you need to defend your title.... The road is not even dry yet, but we've started the TIOGA PASS PROGNOSTICATOR #8 about when the high country road will close for the season next fall.... More information here.

Mark

[exodus]

Congrats Phil! :D

[pkb4809]

Mark

Thank you so much ... the gas gift cards arrived in the mail last week :-)

I was delighted to see that you also sent an RTA baseball cap and RTA bumper stickers ... Thank You so much!!!

So if any forum readers see a guy in an RTA cap, driving a rental SUV with RTA bumper stickers around California (Los Angeles - Santa Barbara - Morro Bay - Monterey - San Francisco - Yosemite - Fresno - Sequoia - Bakersfield - Los Angeles) July 12-26, with a silly grin on his face like he's driving on free gas ... gimme a honk on your horn :-) ;-) :-)

Regards
PhilB

[Mark Sedenquist]

I'll be in LA on the 26th of July, so I'll keep an eye out for you!

Mark

[pkb4809]

Hi

Just thought I'd follow up with a picture that my daughter caught, with her camera phone ... of me pumpimg free gas into our rental car.



Check out the RTA baseball cap and the silly grin that "getting your tank filled for free" causes.

I had just about given up on using those gift cards. We hadn't seen a Mobil/Exxon gas station since we left LA (where we had picked up the rental car with a full tank) ... since then we had been all the way up the coast to San Francisco, inland to Yosemite and down to Fresno ... we had asked the receptionist at the hotel did they know was there a Mobil/Exxon station nearby and had been assured "No, there are no Mobil/Exxon gas stations near here ... Certainly none in Fresno ... I've only ever seen one on LA" ... so I'd decided that the only (and best) use I could make of them was to give them as extra tips to servers in LA restaurants/hotels when we got back there (the rental car could be returned empty and I didn't think the rental company deserved any tips ... story later) ... So imagine my surprise (or perhaps you can see it on my face in the picture) when we go out to eat and pass two Mobil gas stations in quick succession about 5 blocks from the hotel!?!

Thanks once again.

Regards
PhilB

P.S. I'm sure I will get around to producing a roadtrip field report eventually ... just need to get over the jetlag first.

[Mark Sedenquist]

Check out the RTA baseball cap and the silly grin that "getting your tank filled for free" causes.

This made MY day!

I had just about given up on using those gift cards.

Darn, I chose that card based on where I knew you would be driving -- I see them all of the time in the southwest. Phew! Sure glad you found one!

Mark

[pkb4809]

This made MY day!

Glad you liked it.

Darn, I chose that card based on where I knew you would be driving -- I see them all of the time in the southwest.

Don't beat yourself up ... I hadn't really looked very hard, and had believed someone when they told me that they weren't available locally ... so I was REALLY surprised when I found one ... once I'd seen one of their gas stations they seemed to be everywhere. If I'd have been that bothered I could just have typed "mobil exxon gas station locations" into google and would have found this site.
If I really thought about it, maybe it's an unreasonable question to ask someone ... I can't think what brand of petrol (gas) the station two minutes from my house sells ;-)

We had a really fantastic trip ... made all the better by the knowledge gleaned from RTA.
Thank you all.

Regards,
PhilB