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MN1K
through the shield of my Bell helmet Wow, what a weekend. Nearly 4000 miles, a couple of “issues” but home safe and sound. Here’s the story: I had been on and off about going to the Minn1k for some time, I wanted to go but had to burn some time off which could have been used in other ways. But I wanted to go…. I noticed several weeks earlier Harley Trash was going, so I dropped him a note asking if I could tag along. It’s about 950 miles from Pittsburgh to St Paul and I like company. He was cool with this, we figured we had plenty of time to plan later. Well, later came…. I have blown two attempts to get a SS1 in…not the riding portion but the documentation portion, seems I lose something everything and I never wanted to mail in something I was less than confident in…so I never did. Todd wanted to do a ss1 I guess for the hell of it…. I mean come on he’s got a 50cc north! I did want to get mine in so I figured it would be a breeze. In the mean time the early checkpoints came out…..hmmm Fargo it out of the way to pick them up during the rally unless your route goes through there. We decided to pick up the Ma’s Cycle and Moon Motors bonuses before and leave the Metro area ones for during the rally since the were concentrated. Thursday 6/21 5:30am we pull out heading set for West Fargo North Dakota. Travelling was uneventful most of the way to Cleveland. Then the rains came…by the buckets all the way to Chicago. We survived but got wet, you know you can run but you can’t hide from the crap. Todd made mention our pace was going to land us in Fargo around 8pm…..I felt it would land us in jail. None the less if he wants to lead that fast…I’ll follow. We get through some major traffic on the east side of Chi-town when “issues” arise. At about mile marker 16.5 on I-90 the Road Glide smokes a tire…. I see HT’s head a wiggling through a car window, he’s in the hammer lane and trying to get slowed. He does a good job remains upright and stops in the center of I-90. Me I’m on the berm four lanes away. Like a miracle the road clears and I run across. Yep its flat. Todd gets the HD bible out (HOG Roadside help) and makes a call. Half-hour they say. In the mean time we find the hole and plug it but it’s a bit too big so it still leaks, plus no I mean NO grass grows under this USA Iron, so the plugging can only be a temp fix. So we wait in the mean time the rubber neckers are out jamming the highway and a few even offer help….hey next time pull OUT of the fast lane and stop….its safer for everybody. BTW if anyone lost a cooler lid on 90 I found it and propped it up on the #17 mile mark. It was still there when we passed though going home. Help arrives…I’m not going to bore you with details. Just that Elgin HD rules. They got the Glide reshod and out the door fast. In the mean time I road to Wendy without a helmet for food (Pennsylvania requires a skidlid)….hey when in Rome ……Todd doesn’t let you eat on the road so I took the opportunity to get something to eat, heck he even had a burger (he is a finicky eater) Back on the road….we finally hit St Paul. Lots of traffic at midnight none in our way though we’re headed for Fargo. About half way between the two cities (St Paul and Fargo), we get the yawns. We keep stopping along the road, look at each other and say something stupid just trying to kick the sleep bug. Finally at about 3:30am we make it to Fargo. Need to find a witness and room quick. We at a SuperAmerica (find a witness) and a shot glass for the S.O.’s collection and hit the sack at 4:00 am after a bit of the weather channel. June 22,2001 Up at 10am get ready and head for Ma’s for the bonus. HT has been there before so it was easy for him to find. I got my bonus and a pair of gloves for the warm weather riding we were doing. The guy inside was super, shop was really nice….my type of bikes….Ducks and Brits. Almost wanted to take that Trophy home…not almost I wanted to! Next down to Moon for more bonus. They were busy, in and out. We had our 6 early points. We discussed some ideas and looked at maps over a burger at DQ (sorry can’t give all our secrets out) then decided we need to head for the room and odo check. We got to the room got cleaned up and stopped at the Mall of America for Howie’s gift. Remember how Todd would not let me eat while riding….I know why he doesn’t eat while riding…cause when in the mall he hits every vendor…ice cream, pop corn… We get gifts (I got a nice album) and do the odo check. I learned a valuable lesson for Todd during the odo check….you must pass as many bikes as possible. We finally landed at the Lair’s banquet and 7pm. I really don’t know many in the midwest group so good conversation was thin of course the queen of the prom Harley Trash was holding court, I did get to chat with a few Concours riders. This was my rude introduction to the world of Team Strange, Eddie and Adam compliment each other very well…like Abbot and Costello or Fred and Barney. Boy…. the rules took forever to get though. If I did not know better I would have thought Adam was a Lawyer….all that said he did not mention the things really needing said: more on this later. I did sign up with the AMA…and got a some nice give aways. Maybe next rally I’ll get the GPS (hint hint Buckeye). Well, the rally packs were handed out and I was pointed back to the room. I stop for gas and food at the SA next to the room go to put the bike on the centerstand for maximum fueling and boop over it goes. Lucky for me it falls on the same side its fallen every other time. I picked it up, while pop a nut and finished gassing up. I got milk and a sandwich and went to the room for planning. Todd arrived shortly afterwards. We worked independently on route, as we did not plan to ride the rally together, only ride to the rally. Our discussions bounced back and forth about locations and since Todd had been in the Butt Lite, he was familiar with several locations. I finally completed mine and Todd as not far behind, we compared…hmmm was he copying off me? They were close…we talked more made more changes came to a compromise and we had a good-looking route. That I guess we would start together but beyond that we were on our own. A hint: it was going to loop with Gills Rock in it. I finished my prep by marking maps outlining directions….NO flexibility in my system. When I plan I look at the route, not what is on the opposite side of the world from it. We hit the sack at 3:00am. June 23,2001 Up at 7:30 am head for the Java Hut. Check in and get ready to go. It has been normal for the RM (rally master) to hand out additional bonuses that morning….he did. I looked at it and thought WOW, some of these GSS guys are going to have big scores. I hop on the ZG and line up. Forth from the front with Todd second. I’m watching my clock and see Todd hop off, walk back and say…..WE NOT GOING TO GILL’s! HuH? What? I got all this planned! He went on about the score for the GSS being huge….he was right. Our plan was going to be tough to complete the addition of the GSS bonus and the other parts of our route in town had more points and a much easier ride. Oh well, toss this crap, wasted the night. We bust out, go to the gas station for the receipt where we broke off the GSS and head for the Poker run. We enter and purchase a checkpoint in one stop. Now we have route sheets for the Poker run. I’m not going into detail but this was not your dad’s poker run it was super charged. As we do the run for cards we also pick up a few odd and end points at the HD shop, Hudson and a few others. We search for the Saint with the frog for quite a while during which Todd’s Glide starts showing a charging problem, he says he is going to watch it and try to run the highway to see if there is more juice flowing then… Well we get done in town hit the gas station and start our GSS at somewhere around 4pm. Starting up I-94 Harley Trash pulls over. The charging is not happening and he can’t flip on the lights with out running down the battery. He says he’s out for now. This sucks. Todd and I really don’t know each other well but in a day and a half we were really having a good time….now I well gotta leave him behind. I offer any help I can but like a fatally injured soldier he says GO! without me. I start up I-94 and now I’m drained. I don’t know if I’ll see Trash again this weekend, I’m gonna have to ride back to Pittsburgh myself, I’m hot and getting pissy. I remember watching the odo clicking off miles. I finally snap out of it at mile 47, don’t know why I remember mile 47 but, I realized at that point I’m still in thing and I’ll be damned if I rode to Minnesota to be TIME BARRED or DNF or LOSE. I pull myself together. So I’m pulled together and blasting up the highway looking for exit 238 or 328 or something, I blow past West Fargo, no exit oh well, they are from around here, my guess is the Rally book is right and I’m wrong. I move on, a few more exits go by and I’m low and fuel. I pulled out the map compare to the my location…hmmm….how the hell did I miss that freakin’ exit. Stop for gas, mile are now way off for the GSS route and head back. We had gone to Ma’s the day before so I was familiar as to its where abouts. I get to the road…freaking exit number wrong, but hey maybe the know something I don’t. I get to Ma’s pretty late check out Gary Egans poster….think…huh I have a good record so far maybe I can get Duc to give me a ST4 someday, better yet how about a Triumph Trophy! There’s a ride for ya. Any way, I get my bonus and head for Mcd’s for my 3 cheeseburgers and a shake. I get those down and look at the route. Boy these sure is a straight highway…been looking forward to tearing up some miles out here is my chance. Back on the interstate, open her up a bit and hit the lock. Now I’m making some time and the exit comes quickly. I jump off look at the map and the road, wow this looks good. In Pennsylvania you can’t see more than a quarter mile without something in the way. Here wow, sunset on the prairie (I think I was on the prairie). I was really nice, who ever did the route did me a big favor and I couldn’t have hit it at a better time. I wind up the ZG and set the lock at a really brisk pace, and cruised easily. The entire time from the interstate to Aberdeen, I could not help to think I was most likely the last bike on the route. What type of terror the others had caused before me? Hell, I was going really brisk without peer pressure, what were the poor saps doing when they were in pack like wolves? I fear the answer. Now comes the part Adam missed during the briefing….I know I should not need my hand held but words of advice would have been appreciated. 1.When running at above normal speeds, fuel consumption is MUCH greater than at normal speeds. 2. Duck, when you come up on birds, they don’t fly very fast. They WILL hit you. By reading that you know by now….I hit 4 birds, I think I killed 3 of them and when I stopped in Gwinner to talk to the LEO (my choice) and the bike ran out of gas……nothing a tipping to collect on one side did not fix Anyway, I got to Aberdeen and it felt like rain. I switched to a clear shield, cleaned the lights (which smelled like dead fish from the bugs) and filled my Platty bag with water. The girl at the station was super, paper towels and cleaner….she was amazed I was riding a motorcycle from Pennsylvania. I buttoned down the hatches as she warned me of storms down the road. I took off looking around, the town looked like the town in the movie Twisted… Once out of town, the skies lit up. Not being from the area, I never seen storms like this, major lightening and my thick skull was the highest thing around. Great. My theory was to go head on into the storm and try to duck under and through it. It was unnerving but it was working, I was heading for Miller and only getting a little wet. As was barreling down the road I saw another rider along the road…stopped he was ok, putting on his rain gear. He wanted to ride along….really wasn’t sure if he knew I was going like a bat out of hell but I said “sure”. We took off I flipped on the big Hella and cranked it up. We rode through the storm and into Miller, where my impromptu partner convinced a kid in the store to open up for a minute so we could get gas. A grateful thank you goes out the kid (I slipped him $5 for the kind deed) and a way to go to my partner for a good job. It had seemed as though we got through the storm with little rain. Miller was a bonus location of which we picked up. Miller was also the turning point as we made the move eastward needing only two stops before the finish. By now its Sunday the 24th, I have now learned the guy riding with me has won this thing a couple of times…cool maybe I can learn something…wish I could remember his name right now. But we rode to the next stop, which was a rest area; we need to answer a question from the memorial. We demounted and drew aim on the area. As luck would have we would get wetter in the next 50 yards than through the entire rain episode. Being late at night the sprinklers were on. They cast a maneuverable web of high-pressure streams of water. I took a few direct hits going in but was more careful coming out….though it was too late I was wet. Back to the bikes and we are off, we kept a good pace but I was getting the yawns. I pulled over to catch a breath; I lost my co-rider but needed to gain some awareness. Since Millers, I kept seeing a couple on a ST1100, I think, seemed to be having a good time….I was able to keep my focus on them to finish. They sort of dragged me to Blue Earth, MN as we want back and forth a few times. Thanks.. Got my receipt from Blue Earth and headed home. It was a less than spectacular ride in, as the area seemed like a LEO infested area so I paced the leg. I did past the Senator and a few others, as I wanted to be at the checkin by 8 am, which I did manage to do. Once back, I did paper work and took my rest bonus at the end. Of course “Mr decide on the Move Witte” pointed out a few additional bonus locations I could have picked up, but I was spent and glad to be back. After some talking to others I knew I had a good run….not much more than that. My scorer said he seen a 19k score which did nothing to help me feel better. Thanks Jim! Wish I could have said some intelligent things after taking my prize but I was pretty much dumbfounded. But I had a very enjoyable ride and thought the Midwest was a site to see. Thanks to Eddie, Adam and everyone who made the rally happen. I know there are many more than the E &A show making these things work. Thank you. Another amazing thing was the motorcycle shops in the area. I can see why riding is so big in the area as some of the nicest, well-stocked shops were right there. Again thanks for having us. Last one….Thanks to Todd “Harley/Honda Trash” Witte for making the change in our plans, it should have been you up there. Thanks Well, Buckeye is next then some R&R till the Feast in the East… now where is that Butt Lite application? |
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