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- Alas, I have recovered enough to
put my ride to words. I look back
on
- this years MN2000 and the one
word that comes to mind is FUN! Even
with
- fog, 2 storms, a house, cows,
cars, a big dog, more minivans and boats
- than you can shake a stick at,
and 1 dinosaur?! I had a blast.
Thank
- you Eddie, Adam and all the
volunteers. Well here we go.
-
- Friday June 30th
- Get out of work and head straight
down to get my OD check and come to
- find out later that it is pretty
accurate. Had some good chow at
Warner
- and then the time comes to get
the rally sheets and o boy did the guys
- at Team Strange put together a
wild looking ride. I go home and
start
- planning what I want to do.
Using Delorme Street Atlas (highly
- recommend for you computer users.
VERY accurate). Mapquest and paper
- maps I get a base route down.
Check the weather on weather.com and see
- it's going to stay clear.
My base route will take me out to Hell and PA
- (thought they were the same).
Plot the points into the GPS and time to
- get some shuteye.
-
- Saturday July 1st
- Get up and pack the last few
things on the bike and off to Bob's Java
- Hut.
Get there and the weather is clear and everyone seems in high
- spirits.
I'm so pumped up! I can't
wait to get started. Last minute
- instructions and then there is a
mad dash to the add on sheets and o my
- god.
You guys are evil! I look at
it on my way to the bike and
- realize that it isn't going to
change my plans so it's off to hell and
- points beyond!
- Collect my flag and down to
Baraboo, WI and then to Summit, IL and a
- Giant Burrito.
Finally find La Famosa and There are no shirts and the
- giant burrito is the size of a
football. There's no way I can eat
all
- of that and plus I'm not hungry.
So I have a few bites and apologize
- for not eating the whole thing.
It was a great burrito! and I don't even
- like Mexican food.
Head around to the south side of chi town. The
- traffic is horrible and meet up
with Aaron Neal and we decide to ride to
- Hell together.
Finally get out of Chicago area and head up through
- Michigan and get a few miles out
of hell at a fuel stop and find out
- that I have a fuel leak!
Aaron and I look at it and try to think of
- what it is we look and it's
coming out of the overflow we think? Decide
- to head to Hell and see if it
cure's it self. Even with my gps we
get
- slightly miss directed and it
ends up that the way we went, hell is at
- the end of a gravel road.
Get to Hell and the fuel leak hasn't
- stopped!
Leaving Hell we see couple different towns are having there
- fireworks.
Wow what a sight, riding along with the sky lit up with
- fireworks.
Get to another fuel stop and the leak looks to be getting
- worse.
Aaron and I decide to split up, he to PA and I back to the
- cities.
Heading back I almost come to tears thinking my rally is over.
- I contemplated calling Eddie and
tell him I'm on my way back so if I
- don't make it they can start
calling the state patrols along I94, I80,
- Hwy 20 and 52 and ask if there
has been a bike along the road that blew
- up.
I didn't and so I try to get some more points to try and finish
- with a few more points.
I decided to hit Lisa's tomorrow, if I can get
- there in time.
-
- Sunday July 2nd
- On the way back I hit Norway and
the I39 stop. Mother nature is trying
- hard to stop me from getting to
the cities on time I hit fog in eastern
- IL that is so thick I can't see
10 feet in front of me and in Decorah,
- Iowa I hit a nasty storm that
damn near blows me off the road, those
- weather wow's cut my time and I
couldn't hit a couple stops on my way to
- the cities and finally get to
Lisa's at 10:55am. That was close!
- Stumble off the bike and go up to
talk to Eddie and Adam and someone says
- "Is your bike supposed to be
leaking?" Yes!
So a couple people go look
- and I here some laughter and an
couple comments about seeing silver in
- my tire.
I go over and see that my tire is spent!
Great now my ride is
- over!
John tells me he can put a tire on if I would like.
I said I see
- if I can get this leak stopped.
So I proceed to tear my bike down in
- front of Lisa's and come to find
out that the leak is coming from the
- pressure release hose.
NO way to fix it so I stop the leak with a bolt
- and decide to do manual pressure
releases with the cap. Off I go to
- trackstar to get a new tire.
John sets me up. I take a 3
hour down
- time and I'm ready to go!
-
I would like to take this time to thank John and trackstar for there
- Help.
If it wasn't for John I would not have been able to continue and
- I would have sat at home and
waited till Monday to limp the bike in and
- finish.
Thank you so much! I owe you
big time!
- I decide to go to Alaska, WI.
Get to just west of Green Bay and mother
- nature opens up another storm on
my sorry butt. That makes finding
- Alaska even that much more fun!
An hour and what seamed like 50 county
- roads later I find Alaska around
10:30pm Take the picture and start
- packing up and waiting to see if
the Polaroid develops and over the hill
- from the farm house beyond the
sign comes this huge, very angry German
- shepherd running at me!
I fire up and take off in a big hurry with a
- dog nipping at my heals!
He is no match for the power of the ZX12R!
- Get down the road and finish
packing and look at the picture and it's
- really hard to see my flag.
I decide not to tempt fate with my new
- friend "spot" and hope
that the scorer can see it. I leave
after
- changing into some dry socks and
adding as much cloths as I can to stay
- warm.
-
- Monday July 3rd
- House in the road!!!
Shake my head and it's gone. Cow's
in the road!!!
- Shake my head and there gone.
Cars heading at me in my lane (4 lane
- road)!!!
Hit the brakes really hard and come to a stop and there gone.
- Get going again.
Dinosaur in the road??? Shake
my head and it's gone.
- Ok it's time to stop and get my
first bit of sleep sense Saturday at
- 6am.
4 hour down time in a truck stop in the middle of WI
- on one of the most comfortable
couches I have ever been on (like that
- would matter at this point).
Head out with the sun coming up. Finally
- the cities!!
I have another hour and a half till noon so I go out to
- Monticello and take a photo of
the good people at moon motors and head
- back with a few guys.
Put my 2000 glasses on and pull in with 7 minutes
- to spare!!
-
- Check in and count up.
With 2200 mile plus and what I thought would be
- 21750 in points.
I wait in line for a scorer only to find out that one
- of the receipts doesn't have a
time. Then we get the Alaska photo
- and the scorer can't make out the
flag Adam barely sees it and Eddie lets
- him decide........ I got it.
Thanks Adam! With a total of
19750 points
- I think I will do better that
30th last year. Learn that we had a
rider
- go down.
Hope he is doing ok and hope he gets better.
Some more great
- chow and I come to find out that
Aaron hand to pull out due to a broken
- speedo cable.
Sorry to here about that. Award
time and boy did I
- finish better, I got 2nd in the
sport class!!! Woohoo!!
-
- Congrats to all the other winners
and a great job to everyone that
- finished!
-
- And once again Thanks to
everybody at Team Strange and the volunteers
- for there hard work and for
putting on an outstanding rally!
-
- See you all next year
- Anthony Roy
- #311
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