Thursday, November 14, 2013

Ed's Last Resort Rally - 2013

Coming off a semi disappointing Cape Fear 2013, and a very disappointing Ed's Last Resort 2012, I felt I really needed a good performance this year to lighten my mood.  This last Cape Fear was my first rally with lots of rain to deal with.  And after being wet for 8 hours, I was really questioning why I do these rallys. (Of course better gear would help) This rally would prove no different.  I look forward to this rally more than any other as it was my very first rally, my first rally win, and I also have a stake in its success, as I do the website, manage the registration and funds, and the Facebook page.  But I was unsure going into it how I would feel if I had another bad performance.  But I won't know till I try.  Lets prep for Ed's!

Ok done.

I literally did nothing to the bike other than check tire and shock pressure and load all my crap in the tool and tank bags.  Thats one good thing about back to back rallys.  If nothing breaks, ready for the next one!  But the rear shock was flat again.  I have no luck with these used ebay shocks.  I guess I need to pony up the $400 for a Progressive shock that is repair/rebuildable. But so far I'm only out $150 for the 3 used ones off eBay.  I was able to get a few days of riding in before this rally, so that was a plus.  About a week before the rally we got a notice to bring a digital camera if we wanted.  It was not mandatory, but some of the bonuses we would be able to photograph if we felt it would help document our location.  I brought my waterproof camera and my iPhone w/ a waterproof case as a backup.  I took Friday off and headed out about 8:30 in the morning to help Ed get things set up.  At 8:45 I got a call from the office that 2 of our servers went down when the power flickered.  Great!  But luckily I wasn't 200 miles away.  It ended up being a quick fix to get them back up and running.  Plus I moved some power cables around to better load balance them on different battery backups to prevent it from happening again.  It was a pretty uneventful ride there.  I stopped to fill my tanks 10 miles from the campground and cruised on in.  Of course ELR is on a GA clay road, that gets a bit sandy if it doesn't rain.  It hadn't rained in about 3 weeks.  The trick is to turn left onto the driveway at Ed's house, then take the grass down the hill to the cabin.  I hit the sand right when I got to the house.  I was able to keep it upright and limped it onto the grass for a safe arrival.  Dad and Wayne had gotten there on Thurs so they were there already working.  We loaded coolers, built tables, moved a bunch of stuff, and fished a little.  I was going for another 10 lb catfish like last year.  I was able to finally hook one, but the hook broke as I dragged him ashore. I'm pretty sure he was about 50 pounds!  People started trickling in around 4 or so.  Not too many early arrivals this year.  The only casualties on the way in were David and Valerie Gillespie.  David hit the sand and laid his bike down.   And Valerie's kickstand sank in the dirt and her bike fell over in the parking area.  Luckily neither was hurt and the bikes just got a few new scuffs.  Eventually most everyone showed up and it was time to eat and get some rally packs!

This years theme was "Here comes the Judge".  I had an idea that courthouses would come into play.  When they handed out the packs I mentioned to Matt Hube next to me that it felt REALLY light, and was very thin.  Normal packs are 20-30 pages of bonuses and info.  And when opened this one turned out to be about 5 pages.  It was just a list of every County Courthouse in GA.  The rules state you must get a photo of as many courthouses as possible, as long as the courthouse photo has the name of the county on it.  OR just get a receipt in the city of the courthouse.  That leaves only 159 places to choose from.  And one of the Wild Cards was to get all 5 of the past State Capitals in the order they were founded.  That one was actually was easy as you could make a loop to get them.  But it also involves a trip in and out of Atlanta.   I quickly decided against that.  Plus it was over 600 miles and not a lot of points in between the 5 required stops.  I plotted a loop that would take me a county north, head straight west to two high point courthouses on the Alabama border, then follow the counties on the FL border most of the way back.  I finished a route of 25 locations, with 2 maybes if I am ahead, and 3 drops if I'm behind. It shows a scheduled ride time of 10.5 hours.  That gives me 1 hour to make my stops, and 30 mins for the rest bonus. I set my S&T average speed presets down a bit, so hopefully I can keep on schedule.  I'm sure it will be tight.  Dad has somewhat the same idea but his loop takes him a bit more north.  Points wise, they are all low. The lowest being 50, the highest being 450 IIRC.  And their values are dependent on distance.  So everyone will be very close on points which makes it impossible to plan a guaranteed winning route.  So mine was just based on getting the 2 high point bonuses and everything in between.  I didn't even add up my expected points.  I just laid out the ride, uploaded it to my GPS and was done.  I was a little frustrated because there was no obvious route, but that's why we call them rally bastards.  I would just ride my ride and see how I stack up.  At least I can go get some sleep.

Rally morning was painless.  But over bfast I got to thinking about what I needed to do to win this thing. My win here two years ago involved riding really hard for a long way.  But it was all on Interstates.  On my 2nd place Cape Fear ride last year, I actually took it pretty easy and came out good.  And my 2nd in the DSH I rode moderately.  So what do I do now?   After talking w dad previously about his Cape Fear win this year,  he kept mentioning how hard he had to ride for the win.  So there's 2 wins with riding hard.  Time to go for broke and see how hard I can push the ole girl with a bad shock and stay on schedule.  My plan is to make it to the courthouse and if there is no name on it, go get a receipt.  If there is a name, just snap a photo and go.  But that means lots of little purchases, and I have little cash, so stop one needs to be ATM instead of the courthouse photo.

Somehow I lucked into getting out of the gate first this year.  I survived the wet grass and the sandy road on the way out and it was off to the races.  Receipts had to show the city of the county seat, so I was watching for city limit signs prior to each stop.  Stop one was the ATM in Reidsville for a receipt and cash.  As I passed the courthouse, I did not see the county name on the building so good thing for the receipt.  Stop two was Lyons, GA.  No name on the courthouse, got another receipt.   In case this is what I will see all day, the process will be just to run in a store and buy whatever was on the counter.  Gum, lighters, candy... whatever
was $1 or less.  I started stashing them in the little glove box and just left the door open so I didn't have to unlock it every time w the key.  Stop three, Mt Vernon... Still on schedule.  Alamo, McRae, Abbeville, Cordele, Vienna... Still. On. Schedule.  Once I get to Americus, it starts raining.  Nothing bad, but I don't have ANY rain gear at all.  But being that I am dead on schedule, that means I have not used up any of my allotted stop time.  So I start looking for places to add to the route.  I have never added to a route.  Only taken away.  I add Ellaville and eat up some of my buffer.  I hit Preston, Lumpkin, Cuthbert, still ahead of schedule so I add
Georgetown before Ft Gaines, and still able to make up a bit of the buffer I lost.  The rain finally stops and makes the ride a little more bearable. I make the run to Blakely and then added Colquitt, and continue on the Donalsonville, Bainbridge, Cairo, and Thomasville.  I make up some more on my buffer.  I continue East to Quitman, Valdosta, and Homerville.  Somewhere on the way to Waycross, I get passed by a car that is in a bigger hurry than me, so I gave him a little room and let him run rabbit for about 25 miles and gained some more time so I added Blackshear. I picked up beer in Waycross just to be safe, as I had a hard time finding beer close to Ed's
last year.  I headed to Alma which was my last scheduled stop, but I was about 40 mins good on time, so I threw Hazelhurst into the mix which had me coming in 10 mins to the good.  Generally that is too close for my comfort, but so far everything all day had pretty much fallen into place better than expected.  I found a store on the outskirts of Hazlehurst and was able to shave about 5 mins off the ride to the courthouse, and headed back to Baxley.  On the way I see a rider stopped in the median of the road.  I pulled up and asked if he was OK, which he said he just making a phone call, so I
continued on.  It was Steve Eubanks, and he chased me down and followed me into Baxley.  Just before we got to Baxley, I felt something hit my foot.  I did a quick check and  my 2 GPS were still there as well as my SPOT tracker.  Everything seemed to be in my tank bag.... so I assumed it was a rock or bug or something.  Then Steve pulled up next to me and pointed to my back seat... where my 6 pack of beer was bungee corded.  I felt back there and realized I now only had a 5 pack of beer.  Luckily the bomb I dropped on Steve hit the ground and exploded away from him and he missed it.   So I used my last stop to get even more beer. The rest of the ride in was short and sweet.  I survived the sandy road again and made it in with about 10 mins to spare.  Done.

Now the fun part.  I have 30 or so receipts to organize to get scored out which I put in the order that I got them.  And of course while scoring out they ask for them in alphabetical order... ughhh.  But we got through it.  With all the WildCard and actual bonuses I ended up w right at 5500 points.  Not too bad I figured. Again, all the point values of the courthouses were very small and close together so I turn my packet into Jim Phillips who acted shocked at the amount of points.   I asked if it was good, and he said it was the best he'd seen yet.  But there were plenty of people still needing to score out and too soon to get excited, but I figured a top 5 was an easy possibility.  Time for a beer and a snack. One of the Wild Cards was bring back some boiled peanuts. A can of peanuts was allowed, so I bought one of the cajun kind since that was all the store I found them in had.  But WTH!  Last year I brought in a can of peaches instead of "a peach" and that wasn't allowed, but a can of boiled peanuts are???  Whatever.  This year I got the points, and I got to try canned boiled peanuts for the first time.  I LOVE boiled peanuts.  I stop for them at the road side stands all the time.  But anyone that tries to tell you that the canned ones are just a good... slap them.  Maybe it was the fact they were cajun, but those things were horrible!!!  We all milled around for a while before diner and got to talk of our woes of the day.  Come to find out I was the ONLY person that got rained on all day.  How did that happen!  But after a giant spread of BBQ and fixins, it was time for the awards.  There were only 18 finishers, so they read from the bottom to the top.  I had 5500 and dad had 5000, so as they were calling them out along with their points scored, our chances of a podium kept creeping up.  Once they got to third, Ron Allen, we knew we finished 1st and 2nd!  There are not too many events a father and son can compete at the same level, so it was pretty neat for me and pops to finish one - two.  It was a special moment.  I hope we can do it a few more times!  Maybe I'll let him win the next one.

Miles

Friday, May 3, 2013

Cape Fear 1000 - 2013

The Cape Fear 1000 is one of the largest rallys on the east coast.  The 28 hour rally starts in 3 different  locations from Florida, Tennessee, and New York and ends in Wilmington, NC.  And they have a 12 hour mini rally that starts and ends in Wilmington.  Registration generally opens at midnight, and is full in 10 mins.  This year they changed up the registration process to give everyone a chance to get in no matter what their sleep habits are.  They instituted an application process which required a 'riders resume' to be submitted to even be considered for a spot.  Just some basic questions on your history as a rider, history as a rally rider, as well as a "Why the hell should we let YOU in the rally" question.  I listed a few of my rally finishes, my SS 1000 time, and a PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me in the rally answer.   I guess it worked since I got a registration request a few weeks later. And Dad got his too for his 6th consecutive year.  Awesome!  Someone to split 2 of the 3 nights hotel room bills!!!

As always, I don't ride enough between rallys.  I needed something to do to prep for the 4 days on the bike for this Cape Fear.  Dad and I talked about just making up a faux rally and riding around FL and GA a bit.   Then I saw the link to The Grand Tour of Georgia and all that is documented in the previous blog post.  But on the GToGA ride, I noticed my front forks were leaking pretty substantially after I changed the seals and the oil a few weeks back.  But they were leaking from the top, not from the seals.  I ordered some more fork oil and did the repair again.  But this time I remembered to tighten down the  top bolts that the oil was leaking from.  I also was going to attempt to replace the front wheel bearings, but one of the jesus clips that held one of them in was broken, so I could not get it out without further destroying it.  They looked and felt OK so I'll do that at another time when I can order new retaining clips.  The rear shock I replaced last year after Ed's rally was already bad again, so I had to find yet another replacement.  This time I found one off a 2005, replaced the shock oil in it, and installed it.  The fork redo and the newer rear shock tested fine on a short RTE to Moultrie, 2 weeks prior to Cape Fear so I hope the issues are gone.  That's all the repairs/maintenance I'm doing.  I checked all the air pressures in the tires and rear shock and they were all fine so its time to rally.

I was getting a bit worried when I still had not received my rally pack in the mail with my sticker and rally flag two weeks after most everyone else got theirs.  It finally showed up a week before the start, and it had been sent to my old address.  Luckily this year there was no mix up with the bonus lists.  We got the right one the first time on Wed evening.  I use Microsoft Street&Trips to plan my routes on the computer.  But the coordinates in the pack are not compatible with S&T, so I had to copy and past them into Google Maps, name and describe them, convert that .kml file to a .gpx file, upload that to S&T, then color code them all in S&T.  That was a 3 hour process.   But when done, it gives a birds eye view of everything to start the route planning and makes it fairly easy to pick a route.  And also by using Google Maps, I was able to get down to Street View and verify that there was actually something there to photograph.  That prevents screw ups like last year where I mis-typed a location and instead of a post office, I was looking at a pine tree farm 30 miles away.  Or when the coordinates are mis-typed by the rally master, and instead of pulling into a restaurant, you are in someones driveway.  They all looked good.  Plus I was able to move the markers dead on the object, instead of the parking spot the person who got the coordinates was parked in.  This can save some time hunting if there are multiple monuments or objects that can mistaken for the bonus in the same general area.  Time to pick a route.

This year, there were a lot of bonuses in Florida.  In the past, there were only a hand full to get in FL.  But I think there were 25 this year.  And there were a lot of points in the Keys.  But the Keys are tough to get in and out of on a Fri/Sat.  But for 20,000 points it was worth a look since there were no other big points in FL.  One other thing we had to factor in was the weather.  A nasty cold front was moving in from the north West and headed at an angle to the South East.  It wasn't too wide, but from the way it was headed, you could spend 2 straight days in the rain depending on your route.  I chose a route that would cause me to ride through the rain Friday afternoon, pop out of it, then spend Sat nice and dry and scooping up the bonuses.  Numbers wise, I was weighted heavier on Sat for number of bonuses, but they were more tightly packed together.  I was done planning by 9:30 Wed night.  I called dad to see how he was doing.  Come to find out, we had the exact same route planned for Friday all the way up to Atlanta.  Then our routes were completely different, but the total point values were within a few hundred points.  We decided to ride the first leg together, then part ways.  Little did we know, 10 other riders had the same route planned!

On Thursday, I met dad at a truck stop near his place, and we started the boring ride south on the interstates to get to Wachula FL.  I-10 West to I-75 South, to whatever road West to Wachula.  It was about 315 miles and we were able to make it with out having to stop for gas.  Actually, I don't think we stopped all the way there.  We got checked into the hotel which was actually pretty nice considering the area.  We chatted with a  few other rider that were making their way in.  We rode into Wachula to scout out some good starting locations and check their receipts to be sure they had the information we needed printed on them.... correct time, city, and gallons purchased.  We found a few, so that won't be an issue.  Last year we had to use a CVS because all the gas stations had bad receipts.  We still had plenty of time to burn, so we just milled around the hotel meeting everyone.  Finally we headed out to dinner at a small place inside an old house.  Greg Rice said he scoped it out earlier, so everyone followed him with blind abandon.  Then he started doing circles downtown looking for it.  Here are 15 people, probly 25 GPS units, all bonus hunters ready for a rally, and no one had the restaurant in their GPS.  Not even Greg.  We looked like a bunch of Harley riders looking for a dive bar on a poker run.  But we finally made it to Paul's Place.  If you are ever in Wachula, and VERY hungry... go to Pauls.  For $12.99 I got a 12 oz steak, salad, soup, bread, rice, fries, beans... and probly some other stuff... enough food for 3 people.   You won't leave there hungry, or broke.  But since I'm lo carbing it... all I was able to eat was the salad and steak.   And I didn't finish all that.  As we were leaving, I was following dad and when we got to the stop sign, dad's bike died.  Just shut off.  No lights, motor, nothin! He pushed it across the intersection to an empty lot so we could take a look.  Red battery terminal was a tad loose, but not falling off.  But after jiggling it a bit, and tightening it down, luckily everything was fine. I needed some bungee cords to hold my beer bonus, and figured some Heet water remover/gas treatment may be good to have for the ride, so we stopped off at the Walmart.   Dad hit the electrical connections on the battery with a wire brush to prevent anymore issues, while I went inside.  Apparently our bikes and all the gear attached to them, piqued the interest of some of the "local" migrant workers, and a pair did a few drive bys hoping they would be left alone.   That of course never happened and we made it out of there without loosing any equipment, or having to stab anyone with my tire plug kit or box cutter.  The rest of the evening was just final planning and getting the GPS's all loaded up with way points and routes.  I learned from the last rally that if I upload the entire route into my Zumo 665, that any deviation from that route, and the GPS will recalculate to get you back to where you got off track, not recalculate a diff route.  So I chose to build the route in my GPS from the uploaded way points.  Only takes a few more minutes, and can keep the Garmin from freaking out if you get off track.  Did the same thing to my backup GPS and called it a night.  So far pretty stress free.

The next morning we ate breakfast and had to go back out to find somewhere to buy some money orders for a bonus.  We were supposed to be able to Paypal the money to a charity, but something wasn't working right, so they needed a check or money order.  Why would anyone bring a checkbook? We lucked into a money store that did money orders for free.  Easy 1000 points. Then we decided to look for one of the other Wildcard bonuses.  Public Librarys would be worth 250 points each, and we could get up to 4.  We found one right next door to a gas station, so that would definitely be our starting location.  We went back to the hotel and packed everything back up and prepared for the rally to begin.

Most everyone left out of the hotel around 9:30 to get to a gas station.  And most everyone ended up at the same gas station.  Me and dad just pulled up to the pumps and sorta-kinda blocked anyone from using them before us.  No cars were there when we got there, but there was a long line when we left :)  Start time was 10am, but you could get  start receipt from 9:50 to 10:10am.  Mine was for 9:52.  Got my splash of gas, stowed the receipt, and drove 500 ft to the first Library bonus.  I document the start there instead of the gas pumps since there were plenty of people waiting.  I texted in my starting information, took my photo of the library, wrote it all in my log book, and we left to get out of town.  Our first real bonus stop wasn't until Ocala, FL for a gas receipt.  It was back roads for a while to get to the highway, so I did another library search on the GPS and there was one on the way.  We stopped there along with 5 or so other bikes.  We got our photos and got back on the road.  We decided not to take the back roads north all the way to Ocala like my GPS wanted, so we followed dad's which took us a toll road and expressway west then north on 75.       Dad and I had our Sena bluetooth headsets on intercomm mode and were in constant comms the whole time.  But once we were on I-75, I turned mine off to conserve the battery since my plan was to ride until

around 1 am.  I would turn it on and off on the long stretches of interstate. Back on the boring hwy, we made it to Ocala and did a gas n go at the Hwy-40 exit.  In and out in 5 mins.  Then another long boring stretch to Perry, FL for the Ray Charles house bonus.  We stopped at the first rest area on I-10 to put on our rain gear.  It want raining yet but we were headed right into it.  I chose not to put on the rain gloves at it was still about 90 degrees and I was hot and sweating.  As we were approaching the front, the wind was slapping us hard from the side.  A few times I was blasted into the other lane by the strong gusts.  I was not looking forward to the actual storm.  We made it Perry and ran into 3 other riders there.  We got back on 10 and headed to Banbridge GA, via Tallahassee. Once we got off 10 and headed toward GA, that's when the clouds got VERY dark.  We pulled over one last time to get all the gear on, which for me was just the gloves.  But after riding all day in the heat, my hands were sweaty.  Trying to get them in the new gloves wet didn't work out so well.  I could not get the pinky finger or thumb to go all the way in.  I fought for about 5 mins, then gave up and hoped I didn't have to grab the front brakes too hard since I could barley reach them with the ill fitted glove.  Off to Bainbridge via Havannah.  We got there a bit wet, but nothing too bad.  Got my gas, and pulled off from the pumps to go in and get some water.  I'd already finish off my 2 litre camel pack on the ride in.  I drank a 16 oz water in line, and then purchased that and a 32 oz water for the camel pak.  It was then dad realized the gas pumps were running 30 mins fast on time.  I checked the water receipt and the same thing.  Not a big deal normally, but they were threatening to check all times between gas stops to prevent people from running 100mph between stops.  I figured we were in the clear with stopping twice for rain gear and a bonus stop and we were not running fast anyway.  But I HAD to get the problem glove on or go back to non-waterproof gloves.  I tried this on the last stop, but it didn't work... I ran the fingers of the glove over the clutch handle until it bottomed out in the fingers.  It took a few tries to get it right,  After that my fingers went in fine, and I had no other issues.  I was glad to have the waterproof gloves since the next 4 hrs were all in the rain.  But the non-motorcycle, waterproof boots I bought... not so much.  They were full of water in about 10 mins.  That would not have much of a problem
except once the rain started. temps dropped from 90 to 45 degrees.  My other rain gear kept the rain out, but I was so wet from sweat, I was soaked under my rain gear.  Lets just say it was a bit chilly on the ride north.  We made it to Cuthbert, GA in the rain for yet another gas stop.  We ran into 4 more riders there.  It was apparent that we all had the same basic router to get to Atlanta.  Which was the right route for points and for weather.  Our next stop was a plaque in Pine Mountain, GA, near Callaway.  This is where my exact marker placement and street view came in handy.  It took us a different
route than most, but it made for a better parking situation on the side of the hill we were on.  That was a bit of a bad place to be on a motorcycle in the rain.  But we got our photos and left.  We saw 2 riders on the way in there, and 2 were at the location when we got there. On the way out, we ran back into the 2 we saw riding out, and tried to run with them to the next location but curvy roads and lack of passing zones and they lost us.  Plus it was Ed Tillman and Richard Buber, and its almost impossible to ride with them.  But we caught them and 3 other riders at the next location.  There were 7
of us there trying to get a photo.  Its weird you don't see them on the road, then we all end up at the same place.  Goes to show you the different routes each person/gps chooses.  Dad and I almost got split up in Columbus because my GPS said go one way and his said another.    But we continued on to a grave yard just east of Atlanta, and there were 2 riders there already, and by the time we left 2 more coming in behind us.  I was freezing so I took some extra time to get my jacket liner in.  Which entailed taking off the gloves, rain jacket, riding jacket, zipping in the liner, and getting both jackets and gloves back
on again.  Took way too much time, but worth the extra layer of insulation.  We were about 30 mins behind.  We made it to our last common stop north of Atlanta, and as soon as we pulled in, Ed and Richard pulled up behind us.  We got our photos and parted ways.  We were officially 45 mins behind.  But I heard Richard tell Ed they were an hour and a half behind.  So I didn't feel too bad about it.  I followed those two for a while to get around Atlanta on the racetrack interstate.  That place is hell to get through.  But I survived and I was

on my own for the first time all day.  And it was well past dark now and effin cold.  I had 3 stops to make before I took my rest bonus.  I had 3 lined up in a row off the interstate, and the plan was to get down the road closer to SC before I took my rest.  But this was my first time riding in the dark in a looong time and the first time since my eye doc changed my contacts to correct one eye for astigmatism.  I was having a harder time than normal seeing and focusing well in the dark . I was not able to ride as hard as I needed to, to make up any time.  I got off the interstate to get my last 3 stops and passed a gas station.  I looked down to see if I was OK, and I
had run about 325 miles on both tanks.  I had plenty to make it to the town the last bonus was in so I kept going.  Then 10 miles later I remember that we have a 350 mile max range between gas stops.  It was after 11pm, and in bumfuck GA, most places are closed by 10.  I pass a few that are closed before I finally find a gas station that is open.  I pulled up, swiped my card... CARD READ ERROR.  Crap.  I grab another card... Accepted.  I choose premium gas and start pumping.   But the gas was trickling out, and the pump was not counting.  WTF.  I crank up the bike and go to another pump.
Swipe the card, this time choose mid grade, and it pumps $1.62 worth of gas and turns off.  AND NO RECEIPT!!!  So I go inside and tell the clerk I need $10 worth, and something is wrong with the pump I tried first.  "Were you trying to get Premium or Mid grade?"  Yes I was.  " Oh. We aint got none of that." "Then you need to mark that on the pumps you dumb ass hillbilly so no one else does what I did." I grab the receipt and go.  But the receipt only shows the dollar amount and not the amount of gallons purchased as required for the gas log.  Well maybe I'll pass another open station in the next 10 miles and get a better receipt.  NOPE!  By
the time I found one I was over the 350 mile limit, so I would have to be to use the bad one at scoring.  I get to the road to turn for the Ty Cobb monument, and the GPS says turn left.  But the sign on the road points right.  I'll follow the GPS since I know it was right from seeing it on street view.  But as I pull up, the entire building is surrounded by temporary fencing due to it being under renovation.  WTF!  And as I peer through the fence, there is no monument.  I took a photo of the construction, and headed back the other way to find where  the sign was pointing.  I found the location for the Ty Cobb
museum and got a photo of that and hoped it would be OK. I got the next monument photo without incident, and headed to the last one. It was a double, as the monument I needed was in front of a library.  This would be the last one I needed to have the max of 4.  So I got both photos and was done for the night as far as bonus hunting.  It was 12:01am.  I was wet, cold, an hour behind, pissed off, and ready to get off the bike.  I pulled up hotels on the GPS and there was one .2 miles away, so that's where I headed.
There was already one bike in there with a Cape Fear sticker.  I got checked in, took a hot shower with the drain stopped up to thaw out my feet, and created a new route to get to Wilmington in the least amount of time possible to be done with this crappy rally.  Did I mention I was pissed.  That's how miserable I was.  So I plotted a new course, made up a new route cheat sheet, and went to bed.  It was a bit past 1 am, but I set the alarm for 5 am.  5 am came way too soon.
As the alarm went off, I jumped up, got dressed in dry clothes, packed the bike and went to check out.
How I did all that still asleep, I don't know but I did.  When I finally got checked out, I was right at 5 hrs for a rest break.  But I was rested, in a better mood, and ready for a new DRY day.  As I'm headed to the Carolinas, I figure I was an hour behind, but I took an hour less rest break than scheduled, so I should be even for the day.  I'll just go with my original route and be back in this rally.  I pull up the first stop and get moving.  As the sun is coming up, I decide to pull up the entire route in the GPS to see when I should arrive to the end just to be sure I was calculating it right in my head.  According to the
computer, I should be there about 2:10.  And if I was not behind, I could pick up on more high point bonus and head in.  I have until 3 to make it to the finish.  The GPS is telling me I'll be there AT 4:30!!!  WTF!!  How could the computer and Garmin be off that much.  I check the route to be sure I didn't add the wrong one, or in the wrong order... Nope.  WTF.  I guess I was lucky I did the other route last night, because that is what I have to fall back on now.  I pull off to fill up, and add the new route to the GPS.  I get it all in and sure enough, I'll be in about 1:30 so I have all the time in the world now.
No sense of urgency at all.  I start picking them off one by one, they were all easy, got my photos, and kept moving.  After 7 of them, I was still way good on time, so I pulled up the way points to see if there were any more close enough to get.  I picked up the last one, and 2 extras, and headed to Wilmington.  I stopped 10 miles out to get the beer bonus 6-pack and eased it to the hotel.  I just kept praying it didn't blow up at the end again.  I made it to the finish at about 2:00 and started the scoring process.

Since I lost all the points from having to reroute the entire day, I could not leave any points at the table.
I checked and double checked, and triple checked my paperwork.  I had it all ready and got scored out by Lisa Erbes.  She was tough, but fair.  The only points I ended up loosing were for the bad gas receipt that didn't show the gallons purchased.  But it was only a 500 point penalty and not a full loss of the gas log bonus.  That put me out with 42,xxx points.  About 6000 points less than I had anticipated.  But I figured it would be out of the top 10.  I didn't bother going to shower before the meal this time as I was already in my clean clothes.  I just hung around the conf room until dinner telling and listening to a lot of stories. But finally after the BBQ dinner, they finally got around to the door prizes and awards.  Dad bought 5 raffle tickets and 2 were
winners so we got 2 Cape Fear ball caps. But we didn't win any of the cash.  Once they finally got around to the winners they again did FL last.  I was not 10th, 9th or 8th.   Then they said how many points 7th got, so I knew I was out of the top 10.  But dad was still in the running.  6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd... Still no dad. Then they called me up there to get my "top Finisher" polo shirt from last year's finish.  Jim Bain made some comment about the Lee Family so at the point I was pretty sure Dad won it.  I got my shirt and sat down, and they called Roni Bazenger to get his 2nd place plaque which meant Dad had pulled of the win!!  They  called his name as the winner and he went up to finally get a winners plaque in a rally.  He's been doing these for 6 years and it finally all fell into place and he got the win.  I was so happy for him.  I hate to say proud, since he taught me how to do this rally stuff, but I was proud of him. He had a flawless ride, he got every point he went for, he did not have any issues... it all just worked as planned.  He always told me.  Plan your ride.  Ride your plan.  He kicked our butts with his plan.  I was originally placed at 11th.  But after they reviewed all the riders, I was bumped up to 9th.  Still not bad out of 23 finishers.  Had I got all my original points, I would have been 3rd. But that's a moot point.  DAD WON! DAD WON! DAD WON!!!

Now WTF happend to my route to cause me to be so late on the GPS and early on the computer.  It took me a while to figure it out.  I rechecked the waypoints on the GPS vs the computer, and I was actually one short on the GPS. That would not cause me to be late.  But when I got it zoomed way in on the GPS, my last leg from the bonus to the hotel was supposed to be on the I-40 south according to the computer.  POS Garmin for some reason decided that I-40 was way to far to go from the last stop, and I need to run the last 120 miles on 2 lane back roads instead of the Interstate 10 MILES AWAY!!!  What the hell Garmin!  And more than likely, once I was closer to the end, it probably would have rerouted to the Hwy but I just didn't have the ability to see that on the GPS from where I was.  Maybe I should go back to loading the route from S&T and deal with the screaming when I get off her route.  I have to make up my mind and pick one way of doing it for Ed's Last Resort Rally 2013 in a couple weeks.




Thursday, April 4, 2013

Grand Tour of Georgia 2013 - Leg 1

The past few years, one of our crazy cults of long distance riders, Team Strange Airheads, has put together a  ride in Georgia called the Grand Tour of Georgia.  Its basically just an excuse to get out and ride around the state and actually tell the wife its got a purpose...  To raise money for Eddies Road in support of at risk youth. They give you a 'passport' and you have to ride to the locations and get a photo of that location with your passport.  Unlike most of my rides, you actually get 6 months to get to all the locations, vs the normal 12 hrs.  And if you get the required 17 or more, then you get a certificate.  Not my normal kind of ride, but a good one.  So how can I turn it into one of MY rides.  I have the Cape Fear 1000 coming up in mid April, and Ed's Last Resort in May, and very few miles on the bike since I dropped it in Nov.  The GTG seems like it could make for a good warmup ride.  I talked to dad about it and he agreed.  Lest see if we can do this GTG in a day!!!  We got signed up and awaited the 'bonus' locations.  About a week later we got the email with the locations.  I imported them all into Streets and Trips, selected them all and hit Get Directions... 1650 miles.  Ok.  Time to break it up.  I do need the warmup ride, but I don't need to over do the warmup.     So I broke it up a bit and started playing with multiple options.  What I came up with was 2 rides.  One with 750 miles, the other is 1200.  That way we could work our way up to the longer ride.  Weather was bad the first 2 free weekends, so finally we got a break of a free weekend and no thunder storms March 30th.  Time to ride.  The route was pretty simple.  Leave the house, meet dad at a gas station on our route, and start picking off the locations.  We would have 8 planned stops, one 'if we are ahead of schedule stop', most likely a lunch break and 1 or 2 gas stops.  But we were not going to do this in full blown rally mode.  Just a leisurely ride, off the bike stops for photos, and take our time.  And that's what we did.
The first stop wasn't until almost to Jax.  We planned that leg first since we left in the dark, and I-10 is boring at night when you are tired.  So we got the crappy part done first.  It was about 45 degrees when we left, but tolerable.  I-10 lived up to its normal standards... long and boring.  We shot north just before the city limits and went to find the Cherokee Tribal Grounds in St George, GA.  I knew from google maps, it was behind a ball field, over the RR Tracks.  GPS took us right to it.  I followed the same process for just about every stop today... Got off the bike, took off my gloves, got my passport/camera/cell phone out of the tank bag, took a photo w my camera, then with the cell phone, and uploaded the photo to Facebook.  Put it all up, got my gloves back on, and off we went. 5 to 10 mins per stop.  NOT like my normal 2 min rally stops.  So we got the photos and headed back over the tracks back to the road.  I followed dad out since he got turned around first.  Over the tracks and back to the main road.  About 30 seconds later the train blew his horn and about scared dad off his seat.  It was then I realized I rode over the tracks without even
looking for a train.  30 seconds later and that could have hurt a little bit!    Lesson learned.  Look both ways crossing railroad tracks.  The second stop took us north up to Darien, Ga to Americas smallest church.  It was just off 95 so an easy in and out.  Got the photos and got back on the interstate.  Traffic was thick with Spring Breakers headed to/from the southern beaches.  But only once did a cager try and run into me from the side.  We made it up to Pooler, GA where there is an aviation museum.  We got off the hwy and my GPS said turn left now... dads
said go to the next road and turn.  We followed his route to a dead end where the road we needed to get on was under construction.  So we back tracked and followed mine right to the plane.  He needed a photo of the A-4 Phantom jet parked in the lot.  I'm sure there was some neat stuff in the building, but we took a quick look at the 2 other planes in the parking lot and headed out.  Those Migs were tiny compared to the Phantom! We headed up 95 a bit more then took a left and headed NW a up the state line.  We found the park and huge sign for the Battle of Briar Creek.  Hopefully the battle took place during the time
of year that the gnats weren't there.  I forget how bad they are in GA.  GA has the gnats.  FL has the noseeums.  Not sure which is worse.  But at least they weren't biting.  Now we started our westerly ride.  We were already 383 miles into the ride and past lunch time.  We had probably seen 5 or so BBQ places so far on the ride so we decided to stop at the next one to eat.  We made it to Statesborough and finally punched in a Sonny's in the GPS since we had not seen anything else.  When we got there it had been converted to a taco joint.  So I pulled up the next closest place which ended up being a  Shane's
Rib Shack.  Kinda like a Joe's Crab Shack... but with counter service.  But the hard wooden chairs left something to be desired after 7 hours in the saddle.  We finished up and made our way to our next bonus.  My GPS told me it was on the right.  Dad had his eyes open and saw it was on the left, and only clued me in after I passed it.  Thanks pops!  Luckily there was somewhere to turn around.  I got my photos of the horse drawn funeral coach and continued on.  We made the short jaunt over to Abbeville, GA and found the Wild Hog Express caboose.  We took a few extra photos of us and the the bikes in the pictures.
Something we hadn't done all day.  Stop number 7 on the list was an old steam locomotive in Sylvester, GA.  We had had our Sena headsets in intercom mode all day, but mine finally gave out before we got to the train.  I took it off and plugged in in to charge all the way to the next stop in my tank bag.  We took the pics and got back on the road.  Our last stop ended up being in Boston, GA.  We parked in front of the Carnegie Library and took our photos.   It was getting close to dark so we decided not to go for one more since technically we were behind schedule.  I hooked the headset back up, since it
had about an hour to charge, and it ended up making it all the way home.  I led dad back to his house, and he peeled off behind me while I continued on.  I made it in, right at 14.5 hrs, and a total of 725 miles.  It was a long day, and there was a tinge of discomfort a few times, but much less than anticipated.  And the next morning... nothing.  I felt like I hadn't been on the bike at all.  Nice.  I guess I am ready for the Cape Fear 1000.  Now to fix the front fork leak I discovered.