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Two Wheels to Featherlegs This year the Minnesota 1000 took some interesting twists. First and most important, it was not started in Minnesota. Second the staggered start times threw a great twist into the mix.
They dubbed it Two Wheels to Niobrara; a play on word, referring to the
book written by Danny Liska named Two Wheels to Adventure. Danny was a resident
of Niobrara along with his wife Arlene. Arlene still lives at a ranch just
outside of town. Danny and his wife Arlene rode several thousand miles through
60 plus countries in the late fifties and early sixties on a BMW
motorcycle.
This year the MN1K started and ended at the Two Rivers Saloon and
Steakhouse in Niobrara, Nebraska. I had been to the Two Rivers Saloon a couple
of years ago as a bonus location for the MN1K. I had the privilege of meeting
Arlene Liska at that time. After that visit I knew I would need to return, so
when Team Strange declared they would run a rally from here it was a no-brainer.
The second twist was the staggered start. Basically, you could sign out
and start your rally anytime between Friday morning and Saturday morning. You
had to be back no later then Sunday morning at 10:00am riding a 24-hour rally
somewhere in that time frame. To me this was the greatest change. All the other
rallies that I have been to, have had a definite start time. I have very little
time off work. This meant leaving Friday for the prerally festivities then
riding the rally from Saturday morning until Sunday morning. Then waiting for
the awards and a 300-mile ride home so I could be at work Monday morning. This
left little time for socializing and dare I say BEER. I knew the minute I heard
the format that I would start my rally Friday evening. This would allow me to
finish my rally Saturday evening and still have time for socializing, beer, and
sleep before my ride home on Sunday. It also set up the night travel when I was
relatively alert. I liked the setup.
The plan was to ride over with my friend Greg. Greg was not doing the
rally but wanted to see the spectacle and do some riding and camping in the
area. It is a very pretty area of Nebraska, right on the South Dakota border.
We left Iowa City about 9:30am. I am not an early riser, Greg is not a
gas tank to gas tank rider. He is more of a, ride 100-miles stop and smoke a
cigar, kind of rider. I had originally planned to meet Nels Gebben in Niobrara
and ride the rally with him. When we arrived in Niobrara Friday afternoon Nels
already had a beer in his hand. When he arrived earlier he told people he was
there to ride the rally with “Ken”. They told him that they read on the
Internet that “Ken” had to work and was going to miss the rally. It was a
case of mistaken “Kens”. Ken Bryant had to work. I needed to ride.
I signed in and received my first set of route sheets. This was a
surprise to me. I did not expect to get any route sheets until one hour before
my proposed start time. With these Team Strange guys it is not always what they
say but what they don’t say and how they say it. Never assume anything.
Two things pop up right away. You can sit through a talk by Arlene Liska
and receive 1960 points. The catch is that your rally starts when you sign in
for the talk. The second was Mother Featherlegs in Lusk, Wyoming. The week
before the rally I sat on my deck and over many beers heard stories from Nels
Gebben about Butt Lite 11. He told us about breaking his oil pan loose on the
road to Mother Featherlegs and strapping a 6 pack of Mobil 1 to his seat so he
could finish the rally. I had to go there. Masochist, maybe or maybe I am just a
weird thrill seeker. After a quick run through the first route sheet I had an
idea of where to go.
Bart Bakker and Stephen Fay rolled in from the campground.
They had arrived earlier and set up camp and spent some time with the
route sheets. Bart was riding his R100GS. Stephen was on his R1100R with a fuel
cell. They were set on doing very different rallies. I have ridden many miles
with both guys. I was riding my new to me R1100RS with a fuel cell that I really
wanted to test. Stephen and I decided to ride together. Stephen needed 1366
miles to receive his Ray Bentdahl award. That was his main concern so some of
our route plan was for miles and not efficiency. I was out for a fun ride and a
real test for my new ride.
The clock said 6:28pm when we signed out our second route sheet. This
meant that no matter what our rally would start at 7:28pm. The only other factor
was the Liska talk. You had to start your rally to collect points. Her talk was
to begin at 7:30pm. We let the minutes run down and had Eddie sign us in at
7:24pm. That meant that we had to be back before 7:24pm Saturday.
In the past at Team Strange rallies you were afforded a grace period if
you will. If the rally ended at 10:00am you were not time-barred until 12:00
noon. It would cost you points, as in 5 points per minute for the first 60
minutes then 10 points per minute until 12 noon then you were DNF. This year
they declared “NO Penalty Points” Come back before your 24 hours are up or
DNF.
The Liska talk would cut into our ride time. The mystery was how much
time. After Arlene started to talk it really didn’t matter. She was wonderful.
She had story after story. It truly was worth the price of admission before we
ever rode a mile. Adam let things roll for sometime past an hour then told
Arlene that some of us were on the clock already. He told her to take a break
and they would sign us out.
Stephen and I wasted little time packing last minute things and hit the
road. We took two lane roads South to North Platte, NE. for a gas receipt. The
area law enforcement was out in force. In fact we witnessed two stops of cars
following us. We used extra discretion resulting in zero tickets. From North
Platte we hit I80 West. I80 in Nebraska is not my idea of fun. It was a
necessary evil to allow Stephen to get his miles for the Bentdahl award. It was
an easy way to gain miles and not loose too much time. Believe it or not I kind
of enjoyed it. It was late and a beautiful night. There was no one but trucker
and us on the road. We made good time.
Our next proposed bonus was to be just east of Laramie Wyoming. The sheet
said to get off on exit 329 and look for the pyramid. “Who’s face looks down
at you as you ride up. The one facing I80.” We exit I80 and start looking. We
find nothing to the right. There is a sign pointing left for the Ames Monument.
This must be it. The signs sent us left then left again on gravel. This is not
your run-of-the-mill gravel. This is as bad as I have ever been on. We see
nothing, no more signs and no pyramids. We keep heading east on gravel for maybe
8 miles until a train stops us. We reread the route sheet. It is no help. When
we hear the second train, we decided to head back. I see nothing even remotely
like a pyramid on the way back to the hard road. We head back under I80 and into
Medicine Bow National Forest. We study the sign at the entrance looking for any
clue. I am thinking it may be a play on word and we are looking for an Indian
burial mound or something like that. As a last resort, we head back under I80
and turn right on a hard road. This turns to gravel and runs back under I80. We
follow this for what seems like miles, and then finally it spits us out at a
rest area. I look toward the restrooms and there it is a pyramid. Pay attention
folks this is important. We roll up to the pyramid and run to the front. Abe
Lincoln is looking down on I80 and us. Well that only sucked about an hour and
fifteen minutes more then I thought. No reason to dwell on the past. We found
the pyramid now we need to get back on the road and north to Lusk, WY.
We run east on I80 back to Cheyenne for gas then north on I25. As the sun
comes up we head east on two lane roads to Lusk. We follow the direction on the
route sheet and find the road. I have heard stories of this road, as chronicled
earlier in this ride report. I know Stephen was worried about the road, as
growing up in England he had no gravel to waste away his youth. I grew up
harassing my neighbors with dirt bikes on gravel. I have to say that this gravel
/ dirt road was a breeze compared to what we had already ridden near Laramie. It
was not, without incident. The first was an antelope or jackalope or whatever
those small deer like animals are that run around Wyoming. This creature ran
across the front of me then turned and ran right beside me. He was fine for
awhile then freaked out and bolted for the barbwire. He was still ok, but forgot
one important step. He forgot to jump when he reached the fence. He went right
through. It had to suck, I mean the puff of fur was like a small explosion. I
would have felt sorry for him, but I was laughing too hard. Besides as a rule I
hate deer or any deer-like creature.
We wound around gravel and dirt until we found the Featherlegs Monument.
We logged the miles and time and answered the question. Then we loaded up and
rode the ten miles back to the hard road.
The run up to Devils Tower was beautiful. This is a part of the country
that I had never seen before. Devils Tower was cool. We needed a national parks
stamp, so we had to run all the way in to the visitor’s center at the base of
the rock formation. It was only $3.00 to enter and there was not very many
RV’s in our way, so this was easy points.
Leaving Devils Tower we rolled through Hulett and on to Aladdin. We
needed to purchase something at the general store. We ran into some pilot car
construction here but nothing too bad.
We dropped back down to I90 and head for Deadwood. A quick stop in Beulah
for gas and off to Deadwood. This was an easy bonus. I made it a little harder.
It was back to Reading 101. I had it in my mind that we needed a $1.00 casino
coin from “The Deadwood Casino”. We rolled right past a big casino with a
huge parking lot and head for downtown. We reread the sheet and find that it
says “any Deadwood casino”. We rolled straight back to the big parking lot
and run into the casino for the needed coin.
When we roll out of Deadwood, we decide that we will not have enough time
to hit the Buffalo SD. Or the Mobridge bonus. We decide we need to head straight
to Chamberlain, then on home to Niobrara. As we are leaving town I remember the
Interior bonus. We just need a park stamp from the Badlands visitor’s center.
I tell Stephen about the bonus as we ride along. He says, “let’s go for
it”. As we approach the exit for Wall SD. Stephan uses sign language to say he
is out for the Badlands but it is fine if I want to go. I ponder blowing it off
for sometime but decide I want to go for it. In 1999 I did the Badlands loop
late at night as a storm was rolling in. It was one of the coolest rides I had
ever done. All I could see of the rock formations was the reflection when
lightning would strike. I wanted to see the park during the day. I know I could
have entered the park from the east and rode right to the visitor’s center but
I needed to do the loop. I was very mindful of the potential horror it could be.
35-MPH speed limit, RV’s, old people behind the wheel, all came to mind. It
wasn’t too bad. I rolled right through and got my stamp.
This is where the mind games begin. Part of the problem is I think in
Iowa time. Iowa is 65 MPH on the interstate and 55 on the two lanes. It is
mid-afternoon and I have 270 miles to Niobrara. In Iowa time this will be close.
All I can think about is no penalty points. If you come in late you DNF. I also
figure I will need to make one more gas stop. Fortunately for me I was not in
Iowa. South Dakota has 75 MPH interstate and 65 to 60 MPH on the back roads.
Those figures don’t help my thought patterns. I am fixated on the DNF thing.
Usually on my last gas stop I like to take a few extra minutes to go
through my route sheets and make sure everything is in order. I also like to
check for any easy bonus close on the way in. I was so worried about the time
thing that I got my gas and logged the info and hit the road. I rolled into Niobrara with 23 minutes to spare. I
look around for Stephen but he is nowhere to be found. He was in front of me,
why is he not here. I get my paperwork together and head for the bar. My friend
Greg has a beer ready for me. It is getting close to DNF time for Stephen, so I
head back outside. Stephen rolls up in time. I ask him where the hell he had
been. He laughs and says he had been meandering around for the last hour so he
didn’t look like a chump coming in too early. He also asks if I got the easy
bonus ten-mile down the road. I of course tell him no. I was too busy worrying
about the time and solidifying my chump status. We sat in the bar and double-check our route sheets
and gas logs over a beer. You need to be very careful with the route sheets.
Team Strange always throws a couple of freebies in if you find them. You have to
claim them. The deal is, you can’t go back through after you saddle up to the
scorer’s table. This year it was the Melody Alber’s bonus. 400+ points for
finishing the rally on time. You just need to log your time and ending mileage
in the correct spot. Also a one point per mile for the first 1000 miles. Again
you must claim it and log the info on the sheet in the correct spot. I had all
these in order and I finish proofreading first, so I head next door to get
scored. Adam has a procedure, gas receipts first. All was in
order. Then he runs down the list. All is good until he hits “The Great
Pyramid of Wyoming”. Abe is not the answer. That was 888 hard fought points in
the toilet. That took my first place expert ride of 12141 points to a fourth
place 11253 point 1406 mile ride. I of course had no idea I did so well until
the next day’s awards. I knew we had a good ride with few mistakes but not
that good. I was hopeful for a plaque. Stephen was close behind with 11213
points. My Badlands bonus was worth 40 more points then his Chamberlain and the
2-person town bonus. The post-rally meal and a few beers made the whole
experience kickass. We were camping at the State Park so it was an easy ride to
bed rather then a 300-mile ride home. The next morning, we rode in and ate breakfast. The
scores I was hearing from people were all really close. I was surprised to get
fourth in expert with the level of rider there. Stephen was fifth, but achieved
his real goal of the Bentdahl award. Team Strange put on a great event. We had a beautiful
ride and a fine test for my new machine. The people of Niobrara and the Two
Rivers Saloon were fabulous, and Arlene was wonderful. Stephen and I have had a fun volley of emails since
the ride. Keep in mind that we both know the rules and have no problem with not
getting the pyramid bonus. It started with Stephen sending a map of the area
showing the location of the Ames monument. Stephen said we had to pass the thing
twice. This made me curious so I did a quick Internet search and found a great
picture to send Stephen. After seeing the massive size of the structure I
lamented that “it is hard to believe that two seemingly intelligent,
relatively alert guys could miss something this big”. He then questioned our
intelligence. A couple of days later he sent me a great article on the pyramid.
It seems that the pyramid has a legitimate claim to being the origin of
“Murphy’s Law”. “Everyone must expect, and accept in good humor, that
‘what can go wrong, will go wrong’. I won’t relay the whole story here but
I did find it humorous and very appropriate for our visit. You can read about it
at http://www.over-land.com/ames.html.
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