Tony Roy’s Ride Report
Well with the recovery process well in hand I think I
can muster the energy and brain power to put this rally into words.
This year I wanted to do two things. To improve on my 2nd place in sport. The
other was to win one of the prestigious awards, The Ray Benthal or the Neil
Herdina. With over 1700 miles to get
the Benthal I figure that one is going
to be a toughie. With all the crap I
was accessorizing my Suzuki TL1000R sport bike with I figure I had a decent
shot at Neil's award.
Friday afternoon I head down to the OD check with the
TL loaded up. I
didn't want to spend Friday night loading up. I wanted to plan and sleep. Got a nice long
OD check this year. Off I go and I get
a couple miles down the road and come up on a U-haul pulling a car that's going
really slow so I move over to go around when at that time a moving blanket
comes off the car that has a pool on the hood of it. Not one of the brighter packing jobs I've seen. Well this blanket
flutters a little and decides to rap itself around the front of my bike and
then slide down and under my rear wheel! With a little hoop of the bike I get
over it cleanly. I'm think' "well there
is my one bad thing for the rally!"
Get to the Liar's banquet and pick up my last Mandatory
point and wander about and grab some good chow. Then the sheets are handed out
and my first incline is to go to SD.
This will offer me some good points and the outside shoot at getting my
Ray Benthal. So I go home to plan and I
look at it and decide on a loop around Iowa.
With my knowledge of Iowa's roads, having grown up there. I figure it would
be an easy 15,000 plus point run. Time
to sleep.
Wake up at the crack of 6am and I get ready to head
out. With some last minute adjustments
to my gear, I'm off to Bob's! Get there
nice and early for the nice end of the block starting spot. Start talking in a couple of my friends and
they are doing the same route. So I
decide to go against something I said after the 99 1k. That I wasn't going to ride the whole trip
with a group. I just don't seem to play
well with others. So we head out to Clear lake, IA to see the
memorial for Buddy Holly.
We loose Jen right off the bat. And head to Warner to let Al pick up his
last mandatory. Figuring we would meet Jen their sense she had to go there
also. No dice so we decide to head out
and let her catch up. First gas stop in
Northwood, IA and Al heads out then I go looking back a Bill to see if he is
coming and It looks like he got on his bike and was getting ready to head out
so I get on the interstate. Running
slow to let bill catch up I met up with Al how is doing the same. We stop for a bit on the side of the road
and nothing. So we decide to hit the
clear lake check point and let Bill catch us there.
Walk all the way out into that damb bean field. That was a nice hike on a nice warm
day. Get back to the bikes and no Bill
or Jen so we decide to head out and hope for the best. Off we go south to Hwy 20 and west to Sioux City
with a quick stop in Rockwell City in the middle of nowhere. Get to Sioux City and there is Jen. She ended up going a different route to
there.
So we go and see the big statue of Jesus and We talk
of going into Nebraska. Rule #2 in the Tony Roy handbook of rally riding. Don't get greedy. Well I broke that one and we went to Nebraska. Some fun roads around the north eastern corner of it. We bike up to Plainview.
And up to Nibrurururur what ever?
And then down to Monterey, NE.
where in the process I ran smack into a huge herd of butterflies. It makes it kind of hard to see when your shield
is covered with butterfly guts and wings.
Several miles of gravel roads to the town with a church and 3
houses. For a sport bike the TL seams to
like gravel. At one time I hit around
75 on the gravel. A little careless but
need to make up time and I felt confident in my off road abilities having
started on dirt bikes at 5 years old.
Try to make the Council Bluffs check points before they close and we get
just outside of Omaha and realize that we can't go 20 miles through Omaha in 10
minutes. So we stop to gather our selves.
With the collective wind taken out of our sails. We limp over to Stanton, IA. I remembered what the water tower looked
like before we got there. But we had to stop and then to I-35 where we stop to
dawn more clothes. It is starting to get chilly. Al feeling he has hit his limit decides to crash at the Ironbutt
Hotel. A smart move. You can't finish if you're laying in a ditch
after falling asleep in the saddle.
Jen and I decide to head down to the Missouri state
line and get gas at the station there for another bonus and then up to Des
Moines. What a pain in the but trying to
find an open gas station in Des Moines at 4am is. Just outside of Des Moines my right knee locks up on me! O the pain!!!! With 10 minutes of riding down the road trying to get it to pop
loose I finally work it out and it's a little more comfortable but it
hurts.
We head up to Clear lake again and I part ways with
Jen so she can get that one and I head back to the cities and grab some of the
points around there to try and salvage some kind of a score. Sleep deprivation
taking its toll on me. I have to pull
over a couple times and walk around and wake up. I only have time to pick up Harley park, the
fountain and the saint that likes to carry
things. Roll in at 9:45 with 1213.7
miles according to my street pilot.
I total it up and come up with around 12,000 plus
points. Then I go to the scorers and no
problems with the receipts and the monitories then we get to the other points
and what a mess. I forgot to write down
what the water tower looked like and I put an OD and time in the wrong bonus
for another bonus. I loose around 1300
and I get dropped to 10,9something.
Grab some good chow again and I sitting waiting for the awards and free
stuff and I wake up to find my plate gone and everyone is done eating and there
getting ready for the awards. Wow, I
had a nice little 40 mile nap! No
awards of free stuff for me. But I had
one small question for Eddie and Adam.
What class was I in? They said
that they only had 4 riders in the sport class and I wasn't on of them. Odd sense I didn't ride the GSS and I have a
TL1000R. The epitome of a sport
bike. I bring it up to them and come to
find out I got put in standard.?. I
will let them sort it out. I, for some reason,
have confidence in Eddie and Adam to get thing sorted out when they
have time and go back over things.
Bill DNF'ed due to a ignition problem I think it
was. He tried to start the bike at the
gas station and nothing. Sorry for
leaving you Bill. It didn't cross our
minds that you where having issues with that Kawasaki or having any problems at
all with it being less than 2 hours into the rally. We thought we just lost you.
As for my goals I didn't make a single one. My scoring snafu and breaking two of my
rules did that one in. The Benthal was
a wash due to the route and the Neil Herdina was won buy a guy with a very
interesting Vmax. O well as just about
any Cubs fan will say "there is always next year".
Thanks to Eddie, Adam and all the volunteers for
another great rally. Also congrats to
the winners and everyone else. Also a
big hell yea to all the GSS riders who set the record. May all look at you and wonder how they got that
many nutballs in one place to do something that bizarre.
See you at the Buckeye 1k
Tony Roy #311