Here are some before and after shots:
Then the last week in Sept we got a call from the bank, and they wanted to move up closing... which generally NEVER happens. We said sure.... when? They said Oct 5th! Pretty much 2 weeks early. Awesome! We finished up the painting and other minor repairs on the 4th, signed the papers on the 5th and started moving that evening. We have a great family and had a lot of help getting help with the move. We planned on 2 weekends to get everything moved... We got 90% of it done in 1 day! The houses were less than 1/2 mile apart, so we'd load up a trailer, take it down the street, and unload. And with a team of 10 of us... we made pretty quick work of it. We continued to deal with the little stuff for a few days, then moved my giant 90 gal saltwater fish tank the next weekend, and were pretty much done except moving our shed. Then... like a miracle... the wife said... Since we are done with the move, are you going to still do the rally? Hell Yeah!! If a spot has opened up... So I emailed Ray again, and he said there was a spot open. I'd be rider # 45. Awesome. Time to prep the bike!
Like many of the previous posts, I tend to not get the bike out enough between rallys. And this one would be no different. I probly put 200 miles on the bike from May to October. Luckily, Ed's Last Resort 2012 would be the first rally that I didn't break anything during or immediately after the ride. Yes the rear shock was toast, but I had already replaced that a few weeks back. So all that was left to do was change the oil and try to find all my stuff after the move. One other thing I decided to do along with the move, was sell my fish breeding business. It was 30 something tanks I didn't want to have to move again! So I found a buyer, and sold every piece of it. This allowed me to finally purchase a motorcycle specific GPS and a wireless bluetooth headset to hear the turn by turn navigation. I went with the Zumo 665 and Sena SMH10 headset. This will eliminate the ziplock bag over the GPS, and having to move the headphone wire from the GPS to the MP3 player and back. That's what got me in trouble on Ed's Rally after loosing the headphone adapter for the GPS. So I may have upgraded my status from 'Bubba Style' rallying to just 'Average Joe' rallying. But his time I rode the bike to and from work, 5 or 6 times in the 3 weeks leading up to the rally to work on my stamina... and play with the GPS and headset. I loaded up about 15 songs to a 4 GB microSD card for music, synced my phone w the Zumo to make calls, synced the headset with the Zumo, and got all the volumes sorted out for music, directions, and calls... I like this setup! Works like a champ!! Its nice to be able to listen to music on the long stretches of a ride, then still be able to get the alerts to turn. This is going to make the rallies more enjoyable.
All bonuses are the very common plaques on the side of the road, and in parks, that gives a little bit of history of the area. They gave us the names and locations of almost 400 of them. And the point values per bonus would be the serial number of the marker. Most markers in FL have an F number... F-123, F-35 etc. If there is no number on the marker, then its worth 25 points. But we would not be limited to the locations they gave us. We could find ANY historical marker in FL or GA and claim the points. So now there are only about 5000 to choose from. Time to start searching online! I found a site that had just about all the info I needed on many markers that were not on the list already... Exact GPS coordinates, maps, and most importantly... the serial number/point value. This way I could skip over the lower point signs and go for the higher point signs. There were huge clumps of signs in and around Tampa, Gainesville, and Cocoa, and the rest were scattered around. But many of the point values were 200 or less, and most were just the standard 25 points. But I was able to find on my secret site, most of the ones around Cocoa were 400-700 points each. So I began my route planning to Brevard County and not looking anywhere else. When it was done, I had 35 stops to make, all on the east coast, minus the 5 in Orlando, and one 5 miles from the start/finish. That is a LOT of stops on a 10 hr rally. Plus we had a 30 min mandatory lunch break. So really we only had 9.5 hrs. My route in Streets and Trips had me at 8.5 hrs with the lunch break included, so I had a buffer of 90 mins to do my 35 stops, plus whatever the Fire and Ice stops could be. Its going to be close. But I have a couple of drop offs if I get behind. I'm also using the latest version of Streets and Trips I just downloaded, and I tweaked the average speed settings a bit, so hopefully that will help with not getting too far behind.
I took Friday off to have a leisurely drive down to Dade City. Since my planned route was all on the East Coast, there was no scoping out bonuses on the way down... although I did pass a few on HWY 98. I'm just cruising and listening to music, taking my time. I make a few stops since I'm not rushing for last minute stuff like drinks and snacks. I made a stop at a Walmart to get some beef jerky to throw in my tank bag. I was not about to leave the new Garmin on the bike as I shopped, so I unhooked it and took inside w me to be safe. But when I was ready to leave, the GPS would not load the maps. I could hear the music fine, but the maps would not load. I turned it off and on a few times, and sometimes the maps would load, but no music. And others, music but no maps. WTH! I finally got them all working like they are supposed to and headed on down the road. Then the same thing happened on the next stop. No maps after I un-cradled and re-cradled the unit. This time I couldn't get the maps to come back but the music still worked fine. Well the music is on a micro-sd card that is NOT provided by Garmin. I used one I had laying around in my office and is probably a few yrs old. So I removed it just to see... Maps come right up. Put it back in... NO MAPS!! I did this a few times... back and forth. I could never get the maps to come back up with the music card installed. No brainer... I need the maps, not the music. The card stayed out. So much for riding with tunes. I got to the hotel and checked in and talked to a few riders I had not met before, and a few others I knew. We rode over to the riders meeting/dinner at Pappa Joes Italian Restaurant for some more trash talking and some good food. I got to eat with Jim and Donna Phillips, Ron and Denise Guire, Phil Ward, and Cregg Crosby. And according to Phil, my High Speed Photo Taking Apparatus is beginning to be not so Top Secret, as he had a similar device. And I heard a few others talking about trying one out. There goes my 2 min per stop advantage. But with this kind of rally, you need one due to all the stops. Once everyone had a chance to eat, it was time to get the official rally packs with our flags, stickers, and finally explanation of the wild card bonuses. "Fire" was to be any pre 1930s Firehouse, or pre 1950s firetruck, as long as its being used as a memorial... not a junker in someones backyard. And "Ice" fell true to Ray King's second love... Ice Cream. We needed a photo of our flag at any non-chain ice cream shop. So no Baskin Robins or DQ. The kicker is we are REQUIRED to get a min of 2, with a max of 6. I didn't like the required minimum, as last year I only found 2 of the wildcards. But I like the max, since last year the winners found a little fishing town and got 50 nautical wild cards. But hey... they lucked out and took full advantage. Just like I would have. I figured I would find a few ice cream shops out on the beach, so I didn't even bother searching for any prior to the start. But again there would be one more voluntary task we could elect the next morning, but we won't find out until the morning meeting. Last year I passed on that one, just because if you didn't complete the task you lost points. So I'll probly pass again. I headed off to the gas station to fill both tanks, and get some drinks, then back to the hotel for some sleep. I did a last min check of my route, loaded it all in the Zumo and my backup GPS, and crashed for the night.
I woke up at 5:30 to shower and re-pack the bike before the 6:30 morning meeting. The hotel has an OK continental breakfast, but I wish I would have gone to McDonalds instead. At the meeting they told us the extra bonus would be getting a numbered golf ball and photographing it, our flag, and the sign of a golf course at 5 different golf courses. Thats 5 more stops on top of the now mandatory 2 wildcards, and the 35 I had planned.... Nope. Not gonna do it. I think it was 5000 points to complete it, or loose 2000 if you don't. Not worth the risk for me. Plus I don't do well with last minute route changes, so I passed. I got my license and registration bagged and tagged to get, hopefully this time, the no speeding bonus. But my route was kinda conservative, so speeding shouldn't be required. Around 6:50 I went out to warm up the bike, and wait for the start. 7:00 came and went and no one was out telling anyone to go, but a few riders started making their way out of the parking lot, so I just followed them out. Here we go!
My first waypoint was 5 miles down the road, but since it was dark, I decided to make it my last stop on the way back, instead of trying to get a photo in the dark. My first stop wasn't until Melbourne, 2 hrs later. I was expecting to be dropping time on the GPS the whole ride over to increase my cushion since I would be making so many stops, but Streets and trips, and the Zumo both said 9:01 am when i left... and I got there at 8:59 am. Hmmm. I may get way behind with all these stops. But I had my drop dead time of when I had to leave the coast, so I would have to keep a close eye on that. I started picking off the stops down on Melbourne Beach. About 5 in, I checked my time and I was actually a few mins ahead of schedule. And on my way off the beach, I spot an Ice Cream place... Wild Card 1 done. I head north into Titusville to get a few more markers, and bam! Another ice cream store. WC 2 done. Now I'm legal, so anything else is icing on the cake. Then I spot a marker in a parking lot I just passed that was not on my list. It was black like the other higher point markers I had been collecting, so I figured I'd stop. It ended up being the highest point value I got all day. Cool. And since I was still ahead of schedule I decided not to drop the 2 markers out on Cape Canaveral and headed out there to get them. The first one was quick and easy, but the 2nd on I couldn't find. I drove all around the parking lot looking for it. Nope. Not there. But as I was heading out, I noticed a pole in a flower bed. That's where the sign USED to be. So I took a photo of the pole and my flag and hoped for the best. I picked up a few more signs on Merrit Island and around Titusville, then headed north to Cocoa. I found one group of 3 signs, 100 feet apart... each almost 500 points. That was a quick 1500 points. And once I got my northern most marker... my 28th, I decided to take the lunch break. This year it did not have to be a McDonalds, but that's what I found anyway. I was still right on schedule. Which means the 90 min buffer I worked in, was not needed, so If everything went as planned... I'd be 90 mins early. IF..... I got my start and finish receipts for the lunch bonus and started my trek south. I decided to stop and fill just my aux tank, to be 100% sure I'd make it home on gas. I got on 95 headed south to pick up one last marker right off the Interstate in Titusville, before I started West to Orlando. Where the marker was located, was up on a slight hill, in the bend of a road, and no parking. But grass everywhere, so I figured I run through the little ditch, and then up to the maker for the photo. No water to be seen and the grass looked plenty dry so the tires shouldn't slip if it was damp. Boy was I wrong. As soon as the front tire hit the bottom of the ditch I knew I was in trouble. It sank. So I gunned it to try and power through it. NOPE. Buried to the frame. I tried rocking it back n forth, and side to side... nothing. Buried. So like any good rally rider... I grabbed my flag and camera and got my photo. Then started to figure what to do next. A guy on a bicycle rode up and we tried pushing, but it wouldn't move an inch. I saw a truck drive by slowly but didn't stop. The cyclist said he'd go get his truck, but he was 3 miles from home. He left, so I tried digging a bit with my hands, but only ended up with an exhaust pipe burn on my wrist. The truck that passed slowly, came back with a friend of his who lived a block up the road. We attached a thin strap around the forks, and to his hitch to pull it out. The bike didn't move an inch before the little strap snapped. They went back to the house and came back with a 'fire hose' strap, and some plywood. I took the bags off the rear, and we were able to push the bike over far enough to get the wood under the rear tire, and then we built a road with the plywood strips. With all that, it pulled right out with out any issues. The front tire and brakes were clean as a whistle... the rear was nothing but mud. The good samaritan told me to follow him to the house and hose it all off before I destroyed the rear brakes with all that mud and dirt. It got a good wash down, and I tried to give him $20 bucks, but he refused. Just a biker helping out a biker he said. Bikers are the nicest people. Total time wasted... 45 minutes. Could have been a lot worse! But I am still AHEAD of schedule! I get back on the road, and as I'm passing by the mud pit, I see another rider there staring at the torn up ditch looking a little puzzled. I'm sure he's glad he didn't do the same thing with his Gold Wing. I wave as I drive by on the way back to the hwy. Everything felt ok w the bike but I did a few hard braking sequences and bounced around to make sure the forks weren't binding and the brakes worked. Off to Orlando. 
I decided to head back to Tallahassee that night... and what a mistake. About 30 miles up the road, the fog hit. That was the worst fog I'd ever seen, let alone rode a motorcycle through. Many times I had to slow down to 10 mph or less just to be able to see the lines in the road. It would come and go, but probably half the trip home was less than 30 mph. And it was a wet fog, so I was continually having to wipe the water off my face shield. Luckily I didn't have to wipe off the windshield :) I kept trying to fall in behind cars and follow their lights as best as I could A) just to have a reference to where the road was, and B) to take out any deer that may wander out. Luckily the cars never ran off the road or into any deer. But it was a long a crappy ride back. I made it home in one piece, showered again, and climbed into and nice WARM and DRY bed. Rally Complete! That takes my average finish back to 5.25 from 7th.
It wasn't until a few days later that I noticed something didn't look right when viewing the bike from the rear. The bags looked droopy. So I check the bag on the side the bike went down on, and sure enough, the 'antler' mounting bracket is broken. Some how the bag made the 300 miles after the drop w/o falling off. Then I looked the bike over even more, and found the left foot peg bracket was also broken. Again... luckily it was the bottom part where the retaining pin mounted the peg to the bracket that broke, and not the top so the pin stayed in keeping the foot peg from falling off. So add another $80 to the $200 or so for a new windshield... it was not a cheap fall. But again... it could have been a lot worse. The bike can be fixed. I ended up with a sore left wrist for a week or three, but nothing needing medical attention. I'm still waiting on the parts to fix everything, so 5 weeks later... I still have not ridden it. I think I need to upgrade/downgrade to an adventure bike with crash bars or something. I need the "off the pavement" security... but do I want to give up the comfort and protection of the big fairing-ed bike. Time will tell.
Miles
