Stage 3:
Hollenburg to Village of Coalscoop
Temperature at mid-day: -5°C
Night-time Low: -10°C
Weather Conditions: Today, winds are calm, but a thick cloud cover releases ample amounts of snow. The evening marks little in the way of change, but it clears up quickly around 5 moon.
Camp Challenge: “There’s No Replacement.” (Highest Displacement)
When we wake up, we discover that everything has vanished under a blanket of fresh fallen snow. After packing up the camp, instead of leaving on the same road we came in on and returning to the blissful, smooth, fast highway, we leave on a different road that more resembles the “good” roads from Crugandr. It’s paved with something vaguely similar to blacktop, but it’s marred with potholes and patched with tarred gravel, covered in cracks, and then coated in a slushy mix of snow, salt, and sand.
The speed limit signs claim 40 MPH / 65 km/h, but it’s immediately obvious that we’re not doing that easily. One, there’s traffic in the form of filthy coal-trucks coming up the road at us, and empty ones on the way back, trundling along under the speed limit. Occasionally, one does the speed limit, hangs the tail out on a curve, and then proceeds to trundle along a hell of a lot slower for a while. Two, the road conditions just won’t let us make that pace without taking risks.
As we get closer to our destination, the conga line of coal truck traffic has turned the snow-covered road into a mix of salt, sleet and sludge. This nasty, heavy sleet does nothing to speed our progress. Instead, we witness that more of the trucks are slowing down, some are stopping so the drivers can fit tire chains, and others are just idling along, looking for a spot to chain up in.
We soon find out why. As we start to see the village up ahead, the road suddenly turns icy. Our modern vehicles handle this far better than the old trucks did without the chains, but with the chains… We’re being passed by trucks that we passed a while ago.
The village of Coalscoop is quite clearly a mining “town” with less than 10,000 total people inside it, two active coal mines, and a third inactive mine that we’re allowed to set up camp in. Despite it being small, they have a railway stop nearby for loading steam trains with fresh coal, or carrying it away in great big wagons. What are all the trucks for, then? Bringing coal to Hollenburg for personal heating, at a higher price, of course.
Next Stage Expected Conditions:
Road Speed: low
Road Condition: good
Traffic: very low
Police: low
Results here:
Team Shift Happens
Unofficial highest displacement: 21,715 cc, both vehicles. (1,325 ci)
Other than a lot of blared horns in response to the local truck drivers being less-than-careful around the pair of HD-GV units, this was a relatively relaxed stage.
VS Mobil Generator AB
While setting off had a few squeaks and squeals from slipping wheels, once the train was up to speed, it was, as usual, a smooth trip, with Valentin following the advice from the station-master to take it a bit easy as some of the other trains might be a bit slower today.
Team M.A.D.
Despite traveling separately, it seems there may have been a slight agreement to stick together today, as the two vehicles finish nose-to-tail.
Team Sinesian Rejects
While Ianis hasn’t learned much from spending 12 hours in jail and proceeds to boot it hard in the Itan ute, though nowhere near as aggressively as before, leaving the Imbe behind, it’s with the Imbe and the Trio of Tragedy that the real interesting stuff happens. Something under the hood went bang, after all, and it took nearly 12 hours of tinkering around in there to get that engine going again.
Team Not-So-Slow
Other than tailgating part of Team Sinesian Rejects in their ute, there’s nothing much to say about the journey that Team Not-So-Slow made today.
The Ambassadors
When the IVERA Executive blew two tires, it was the crew of the Mayland who went almost 20 minutes out of their way to attempt to find replacements. After almost 13 minutes of discussion, and another 20 minutes of driving, the Mayland returned to drop off the new tires. The IVERA crew, however, got to spend basically an hour waiting, and 7 hours playing round-robin with the tires to get the two good modern radial tires on the front axle, and the four inner-tubes and tires mounted on the IVERA’s rear axle. With significantly less grip out back, the crew limped the second vehicle into camp and sought out the Shift Happens crew for a “tire patch.”
The Knockouts
Kate manages to learn nothing from the previous day’s experience facing down a Dyre and the whole police force, choosing to zoom ahead in her 1325 Facelift, while Octavia has a pleasant drive in the Papillona, enjoying the view as trucks occasionally drift around her.
Team Mravolinski-Chitco
After yesterday’s drive-shaft pole-vault, it’s clear that the Kontir Cunningham is a little bit hurt. After smelling burning gear oil for several miles, they stop and find that the transmission has a small crack in it. They drive it closer to the camp and choose to fix it on the outskirts of camp in case attempting to weld on the oil-filled gearbox turns into a very bad idea, though after 4 hours and some really ugly booger-welds, the truck rolls into camp under its own power.
Team HETS
Another lazy “sunday drive” for the two elders and their crews. The only real excitement was watching a coal truck do a big drift and end up dumping half of their load on the side of the road.
Team Flaming Gallahs
Priscilla II and her crew have an easy time today, even if they’re passed by just about everything on the road.
Team Friendship! 
Other than another bus traveling not far behind, it’s a slow stage for the crew. They’re slowed up for a moment when a police officer notices a large vehicle with no driver inside, who spends 15 minutes trying to figure out how he’s going to write up this report without being accused of being drunk.
Team Hillbilly Rollers
With the beer still safely locked away, Marie has no choice but to drive another clean stage. She makes up for this annoyance by tailgating the Rugger and blaring the horn at everything that moves. Meanwhile, the crew in the Rugger put on some good music and try to ignore the stupidity-in-motion behind them.
Team Sane Insanity
A ticket for the sports car is the only real bit of excitement here. Otherwise, it’s a trouble free stage.
Faolan Industries
When the van’s engine just “up-and-quit,” the Aether 11/2 was used to get some spare parts from a local village to fix it. After the Aether 52 H was running again thanks to some “close enough” spare parts, the crew ran at a reduced speed as the road was full of hidden potholes, obscured by the snow and slush, and neither Ze’ev nor Storm wanted to risk damaging the vehicles more than necessary.
Team Taciturn
The cloaked aliens received another warning about speeding today. Thankfully, it was just a polite, “Hey, you two might want to slow it down before you end up meeting the front of a coal truck coming around the corner.”
Team ReUnity
A crossover, 4x4, and a lead foot make quick work of this stage.
Team Spy Kids
The choice to split up left the lower-power Reekayns way out in front of the Mocabey today.
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Team J3
A few too many hidden potholes dislodged one of the Tiharris’ front coil springs. Without proper tools, what should have taken a competent mechanic about an hour to fix took almost 14 hours, and several big scares. Getting into camp and learning that Rukari lost half a leg because of a spring like that was, shall we say, a bit of an eye-opening realization of how close to death or injury they all were.
Team Aeromad
Camp Challenge Winner - 16,286 cc, both vehicles. (993 ci)
It’s all fun and games until the Torrento starts having engine trouble. Especially the fun kind where the throttle sticks wide open. While trying to fix it, a police officer asked what all the noise was for, and in trying to explain the Torrento had a stuck throttle, the officer instead asked, “No, I meant with the truck.” When trying to explain that they had an airplane engine in the truck, someone cranked over the Torrento and the officer had to resort to yelling that these two vehicles were just “too damn loud.”
@Tzuyu_main & @FallingComet
Team Black Rabbit Disavowed
Between threading-the-needle in the Seikatsu and getting a ticket for it as well as speeding, and the same cop, a mile later, busting the Dauer for speeding as well, it was certainly an eventful run on this stage.
Sheriff Scott’s Posse
When the Warren Warlock got pulled over and warned about their speed, the goof-offs in the Bowie Bearcat decided to blare their horn and pass while covering the officer in road slush. They ended up getting a speeding ticket instead of a warning.
Team “486”
The two vehicles hurtled through the slushy roads at not-so-sensible speeds, luckily managing to avoid a breakdown with the sirens blaring behind them.
Team Magdelena
The driver of the Baumhauer got a pleasant warning that they were speeding before the two vehicles were able to make it into camp.
Team Machinas Con Passione
With the Blue Wonder being the blocker for the Faenza, they were able to pull enough attention off of the speeding cheese wedge to get themselves a nice warning about driving like a bunch of idiots. Then they managed to get the truck stuck on the road with the nose parked in a snow-drift so badly that the front tires were off the ground. A local, just wanting to deliver his truckload of coal, dragged them out after 46 minutes of watching the idiots fighting to get their weird truck out of the ditch.
Cunning Stunts
After an early speeding ticket, the Contra UTE got stuck behind a timid truck driver for 5 hours, 24 minutes, and 10 seconds. Eventually, traffic cleared up enough to pass.
Team Till D End
No breakdowns, no tickets, just two very filthy vehicles covered in snow, road-grime, and coal dust.
Basedworks
After the disaster of facing down shotguns and giant werewolves in the previous stage, the driver of the Edgelord Special chose to back things off a little. As a result, they ended up with a speeding ticket today after choosing to stop. Not to be outdone, the American Reality RV driver gunned the engine and blared the horn because the ticket writing was taking too long, earning a verbal warning for interfering with police business.
Team Gunship
While nothing has appeared to go wrong, the inside of the Haapala Streetcruiser looks like a dirty chocolate-chip ice cream shake.
4 Dicks in a Truck
Other than a warning because their trailer ended up in the oncoming lane a time or two around corners, it was a decently quick run for the four dicks and their (t)rusty truck.