Bill and Judy Kramer's Ride ReportAfter
several solo endurance rallies, we decided to participate in the two up class in
this year’s Mn2K. Judy and I ride
together a lot, but up to now, she has avoided the seemingly grueling rallies.
I had a handful of simple goals for this ride, most of which we met.
First, like all rallies, my number 1 goal is a safe rally.
Secondly, we have been waiting three years for a couple of “driving”
awards to clear, so that we could get out of the high risk insurance pool.
We needed to complete this event ticket free (the lower cost insurance
policy application was in the mail, and one “award” would ruin it), or
continue to pay high dollar insurance. By
the way, the two awards we have been waiting to clear were Judy’s, not mine,
but that is another story. Third, I
wanted to make sure to not push it too hard, or this would be Judy’s first and
last rally. Fourth, I was hoping to
get a few of the western IBET sites that I would probably not see again this
year. Finally, I wanted Judy to
complete a SS2K as a passenger. With
these goals in mind, I was targeting a ride of between 2,000 miles and 2,200
miles. My past rally
experience had shown that the limit for me per 24 hour period is about 1,500
miles with a few stops, and 1,250 miles with many stops.
Even on a slower eastern route, I figured we could average at least 50
miles per hour, excluding layovers. A
western route would likely increase our average speed.
At this point of course, we had no idea what direction we would travel.
The rally schedule was a little over two days, at 52 hours.
Planning for a four hour layover each night, 50 miles per hour would
limit us to 2,200 miles. Frequent
stops are usually a disadvantage on a rally (ask me about the second leg of the
’99 Butt sometime…..). Making fewer, but bigger point stops is usually the
winning strategy. On the other
hand, blasting to Wyoming, picking up a bonus, and blasting back, would not be
an enjoyable ride for either of us. From
prior rally experience, I knew that extra stops dramatically cut into the miles
traveled per day, and large city stops (particularly on a holiday weekend)
should be avoided at all costs due to heavy traffic and likely delays.
Our strategy was to make more bonus stops, sacrificing speed, total
miles, and probably rally finish as well (but we would have a much more
interesting ride). I
was hoping for a western loop on the rally, returning to favorite sites such as
Carhenge and Mount Rushmore. Although
we live in Eastern Pennsylvania, we cannot get enough riding in the West, and
take at least one trip West each year. Route
Planning the Night Before: At
the pre-ride banquet, we were supplied with some (but not all!!!) of the rally
bonuses. A quick review of the
options showed that a Western route was a loser for bonuses.
An aggressive western ride would yield about 20,000 points, while a more
conservative eastern route (bonus set “B”) could yield 25,000 points or
more. So it was time to focus on
bonus set B. My
strategy on laying out a route is to only look at the large bonuses first (in
this case, 1,500 points or more) and ignore all smaller bonuses.
Once the basic route is established, I then review the smaller bonuses
and see which ones are close to the route (and add them to the route).
The large bonuses that caught my attention were Iowa City and Burlington,
Iowa; Alaska, Wisconsin; Hell, Michigan; Hannibal, Louisiana and St. Louis,
Missouri; Windsor, Ontario; Indianapolis; Chicago; and Columbus, Ohio. There
were other large bonuses as well, but chasing those would have quickly put us
beyond the 2,200 mile mark, and would have left us out of position to pick up
some of the other bonuses. The only
problem I saw with this route, is that it would violate my "avoid large
cities" guideline. But like
any rally, you never get the perfect route.
The rallymasters are smart enough to force you to make some distasteful
choices along the way. One
key to routing is to read each bonus CLOSELY.
Many bonuses had time limitations, for example, stop at a Harley shop in
Iowa City and buy a small souvenir. Since
the shop was only open from 9AM to 4PM on Saturday and Monday, and since the
rally ended Monday at noon (and Iowa City is over 3 hours away from the
start/finish), this bonus could only be obtained Saturday.
This
basic route kept the mileage only slightly over 2,000 miles.
Based on my calculations, if we kept up a steady pace, and including the
four hour layover on the first night, we had eleven hours extra to play with at
the end. A conservative route to
say the least! Route
Changes in the Morning: We
received several additional bonuses the morning of the start.
Other than adding many more points to the Columbus loop (which I had
already decided against), I did not see any route that made more sense than our
original plan. It did clarify the
layover bonuses, with a total of three bonuses, eleven hours total, for
layovers. I tentatively planned on
a four hour layover the first night, with the remaining seven hours held in
reserve for problems (or a long layover at the end).
Assuming we took all the layovers, we now had four hours in reserve to
complete the route. It was
important to note that a three hour layover only netted about 900 points, while
a three hour side trip like Windsor, Ontario, was worth over 2,500 points.
So all things being equal, chasing bonuses usually was worth much more
than any layover. Rally
Prep: Rally
prep was simple, I hand wrote directions on a stenopad, which I attached to a
small clipboard mounted on my dash. At
each bonus stop, I wrote down the approximate mileage and my predicted arrival
time. I had no GPS, no fancy
tankbag/bonus holder, no mounted computers.
Note, I do have a GPS mounted to my regular rally bike (the ST), but do
not have it mounted on the Wing yet. Rally
Start: We
left with the “pack” although it seemed like we were one of only a few
riders heading south. What had we
missed? I seem to experience this
every rally, doubting my own route, but continuing on as at this point, as it is
really too late to make significant changes. I
was a bit relieved at the first stop, Iowa City, when several riders arrived
when we were leaving. Our second
stop was Burlington, Iowa, “Snake Alley”.
This turned out to be one of our favorite stops.
I appreciate being introduced to stops we would probably never make on
our own. We will return to
Burlington again I am sure. The
next stop was Hannibal, which was having a street fair.
Thanks Eddie…. Lots of
traffic, although no problem obtaining the bonus, and continuing on to
Louisiana. Louisiana was our first
(and only) IBET stop/Mn2K bonus stop.
In
many ways, this is my favorite part of a rally, deciding to put one bonus worth
about 2,000 points at risk, to collect a 500 point bonus.
The gamble is that you might get both of them.
Lose the gamble, and the 500 points net you a 1,500 point loss.
To be honest, I have lost more of these gambles than I have won, but for
some reason, I still enjoy the challenge (maybe this time I’ll get it
right???). So
we were off to the ferry. Our first
stroke of luck was that the ferry was just getting ready to leave when we
arrived. We were the last vehicle
on board. This was a small ferry,
on an even smaller river crossing. My
fears of lost time on this ferry crossing were totally unfounded.
After the ferry, we headed towards Alton, Illinois.
Although we did not have much time to spare, we took a couple of
unplanned stops to consult the map (i.e., got lost, where is the GPS when I
needed it???). There are just a few
places in the USA where I hate to ride, and on top of that list is the East St.
Louis/St. Louis area. No way was I
going to divert through East St. Louis, so we stayed on I-55 all the way into
St. Louis proper. Near the Arch,
there was one lane of the freeway closed (for the fair).
This made a great place to pull over to take the picture.
We made it! The next step
was to get off the freeway, loop around, and head East on I-55.
Simple, right? Wrong. Every
ramp downtown was closed. I ended
up going down a few streets that made East St. Louis look like Beverly Hills.
We lost the better part of an hour, but finally got moving in the right
direction. Our
next stop was Troy, Illinois, for fuel. This
rally required each rider to maintain a fuel log, with ACCURATE receipts.
Have just one bad receipt, and you forfeited 2,000 points.
Imagine my surprise when the pay at the pump receipt listed the location
as Troy, California, with a California zip code.
This would not work!!! So it
was off to the cashier to get a backup receipt.
More time lost (but at least we kept the fuel log bonus alive).
We were now significantly BEHIND schedule, partially due to the extra
stop at Kampsville, but mostly due to St. Louis traffic.
At the same time, this was another decision point.
Do we take a side trip to Oglesby and Norway, Illinois, adding about 75
miles to our route, some of them slow miles?
Or do we head straight to Hell? (Michigan that is)?
Another gamble, possibly putting the 7,000 points between Hell and
Windsor at risk, in order to collect 1,800 points TOTAL for the two additional
stops. Again, the decision appeared
to be easy. We still had a couple
of hours in the bank, as well as all of our layovers.
In addition, I had regretted not getting a picture of the Norway Plane
Crash site two days earlier (on an IBET visit to Little Rock, Illinois).
I needed that Plane Crash picture!!!
So when we reached Springfield, Illinois, we diverted up I-35 to Oglesby.
The Oglesby bonus was to note the location of mile marker 55.
Simple, right? Wrong!!!
As we counted the mile markers, 52, 53, 54, 56.
What, where the @*!# is mile marker 55???
Now what? So we backtracked
at the next exit (did I mention we were behind schedule), and sure enough, going
southbound, there was a mile marker 55. Although
the bonus did not require it, I stopped on the bridge to take a picture (not a
good place to stop, a bridge couple of semis, common sense kicked in and we were
off to Norway. At
Norway, we spotted our first fellow Mn2K rider since Hannibal, Missouri, Kevin
Wynn. With about 150 riders in the
event, it sure seemed like we should have seen more riders.
I guess we picked the wrong route, where was everyone else?
To make matters worse, in talking with Kevin, we found out he was heading
in the opposite direction, and was going to Alabama next.
“Alabama? Huh??”
At this point, routing remorse set in big time.
Of course, it is way too late to change the route, so it was off to Hell,
MI. Although
it probably made sense at this time to backtrack to the Interstate, and head for
Michigan, I never like to backtrack, particularly to ride on such a sorry
section of interstate in eastern Illinois, like I-80.
So we headed north, to try our luck on US 52.
I had not been on this stretch of route 52 since I was a kid (a few years
ago…..). As it turned out,
route 52 had several sections down to one lane for construction.
Did I say we were BEHIND SCHEDULE? Oh
well. At
this point, the smart move would have been to stop in Joliet for the night.
Joliet has lots of hotel rooms, and there are few hotels east of Joliet
until Michigan (a few hours away minimum).
But I grew up in Joliet, and something just didn’t sound right about
stopping in Joliet on an endurance rally, so we continued on.
At
2AM, we reached Portage, Indiana, and I knew it was time to stop.
This is when we made another mistake.
To take credit for a layover, you need a computerized receipt at both the
start and finish of the layover. Rather
than get a room FIRST!!!, we got the receipt first.
Then it was off to the hotel across the street.
We walked in the lobby while another customer was walking out.
He had the last room, and there wasn’t another room within 150 miles.
Lesson, Get the room first, then the receipt!!!
The room clerk recommended an obscure $$ resort in the area, that
“always had rooms”. We gave
them a call, and sure enough, they had a room for us.
With the clerk’s “excellent” directions, it only took us an hour to
reach the hotel (about 8 miles away). So
now our four hour layover was going to be a three hour layover.
And the room they told us was available, wasn’t (at least we weren’t
charged the $150 room rate)!!! As
we started to head for the picnic table out front, I guess the sight of the two
of us was enough that they quickly offered the couch in the lobby instead.
Unfortunately, it was about the noisiest hotel lobby I have seen (at
3AM). So I headed to the picnic
table, just in time to hear the first of several freight trains rumble by.
Soon enough, our time was up, and we headed back to Portage for our
ending layover receipt (at least we knew the short route).
We probably netted 30 minutes rest max for this four hour layover. We
then were off to Hell, MI. Amazingly,
we arrived to Hell within an hour of my original schedule (which did not include
picking up three additional bonuses). So
we were close to being back on track!! We
got our picture (Polaroid only, should have taken a regular picture as well),
then it was decision time. Since we
were close to schedule, this one was easy, head to Windsor!!!!
Unfortunately, the trip to Windsor took much more time than planned.
It took a half an hour to clear Canadian customs alone, then another 20
minutes to clear USA Customs. All
to get one lousy gas receipt. When
stopped at US customs, we were asked the standard question: “How long were you
in Canada?” I made the mistake of
asking if he wanted me to include the time spent waiting in line.
I said ten minutes plus the wait…..
Then the custom’s official asked what we did in Canada?: “bought
gas”. Realize that the cost of
gas in Canada is about double the price in the USA, and many Canadians cross
over to the US to buy gas (but never the opposite).
I explained we were in a contest, and needed a gas receipt prior to
heading to Minnesota. He shook his
head and waved us through. We were
now over two hours behind schedule, but still within our time window. Our
next stop was Summit, Illinois, for a La Famousa giant burrito.
Judy bought two tacos that were quite good.
It seemed to be taking them a long time to make my burrito.
After waiting almost half an hour (did I mention we were behind
schedule), I realized it was not coming. I
asked the waitress what happened to my burrito, and I got one of those “what
burrito” looks.
Despite
now being about three hours behind the original schedule, we still had an hour
to spare, PLUS the remaining seven hours of layovers.
So we headed to Alaska, Wisconsin, our last large bonus.
Just
before Milwaukee, the weather rapidly deteriorated.
I was listening to the radio, which reported a tornado warning.
Unfortunately, as with most warnings, it was listed by county only, and
we had no idea what county we were in (later we found out that a couple of
tornadoes struck about 2 miles up the road from this point).
At the same time, one look at the sky told me that we must be in the
middle of it. So we took the next
exit, and sought cover at a convenience store.
We got in just as the sky opened up.
I decided this would be a good place for our next layover.
So I got my start receipt, just before all power was lost.
The wind was blowing hard, the rain was horizontal, and lightning was all
around us. Needless to say, sleeping for this period was impossible.
In my experience, when a storm hits this hard, it passes quickly.
Not this time!!! Wave after
wave of storms pounded the area. Power
was lost in an area about 10 miles (so much for my ending receipt), and all side
roads were flooded and impassable. In
short, it looked like we were screwed…..
We extended our stop to the full four hours and decided to go for it.
By then, I could see traffic on the freeway, so at least it was clear.
Storms were still all around the area, but surely we could get past them
now. The trip to Windsor, Ontario,
was starting to look like a bad gamble after all. Just
north of Milwaukee, the storm subsided. This
was our last decision point, head into Minneapolis, or take the longer route up
to Alaska. Since we were past the
last of the storms (I thought), I felt comfortable heading to Alaska.
Since we were behind schedule, and now on a good road, it was time to
pick up the pace and make-up some time. Almost
immediately, we encountered severe fog. Great,
so much for picking up time. This
eventually passed. Now it was time
to leave the interstate, and head onto state roads to Alaska.
We then encountered another wave of storms.
The wind was blowing hard, and the rain was horizontal.
But we were committed to Alaska. This
too, passed. Now for that city
limits sign. We found it!!!
It sure is dark out here!!! Now
for the Polaroid. Lets see, flash
on, push the button, wait a minute (I thought these were instant pictures…).
What, the sign washed out due to the flash.
OK, try it without the flash. Take
the picture, wait the minute, great, you can’t make out the flag.
OK, what about the lights on the bike?
Try the brights, wait the minute……
Try the brights and the PIAAs, wait the minute….
Ten pictures (and 20 minutes) later, we finally had one (by the way, the
one I took with my regular 35mm camera didn’t turn out either).
Did I mention we were BEHIND SCHEDULE?
And we didn’t get quality sleep yet this rally? Now
it was time to “head for the barn”. Damn,
its dark out here. Turn on the
PIAAs, turn on the Hellas, hit the brights.
That’s it, now its OK. Damn,
its cold out here (about 50 F on my temperature gage).
But no problem, just turn up the Gerbing vests to full power.
That’s it, now we are warm. OK,
just for the heck of it, better check the volt gage (it was on temperature,
rather than voltage). WHAT??
11.2 volts. OK, who wants to
turn off their vest? Or do we turn
off the extra lights? We
needed the lights to see the road, so guess who’s vest got turned off…. Now
I am starting to get tired. No
problem, time to talk to the passenger. “Hello,
what are you doing back there? Hello?
Hello? HELLO???”
“Huh, yeah, I was sleeping…” “OK,
start asking me questions.” “Which
was the first state in the USA?” “Delaware,
Right?” “Did I get it right?
Hello? HELLO?”
“Huh, yeah, I guess I fell asleep again….”
This continued with Judy falling asleep before I could answer a single
question… I
was now REALLY tired. I knew we
needed to stop, and in so doing, the Monticello bonus would then be out of
reach. So at about 5:30AM, we
stopped at a convenience store. I
headed for the lawn. “Wake me in
half an hour.” I fell asleep
immediately. For some reason, I
woke up in exactly 30 minutes, and got up just as Judy was approaching to wake
me. I was refreshed and ready to
head in. We
arrived in Minneapolis at 8AM. We
had two choices, head to Monticello, or take our last three hour layover.
This was decision was easy. We
headed for the hotel (we had reservations) and checked in.
The room clerk told us “Sorry, you can’t check in this early.”
“No, you don’t understand, we have a reservation for LAST NIGHT.”
“Huh? OK.”
We got up at 11, cleaned up, and headed in to the finish.
The ride was done. The
Finish Now
it was time to tally our score. One
of the great things about the Mn2K is that you score yourself first.
Then your score is checked, and any differences noted.
If you need to protest any ruling, or debate any difference, it is done
right then. I have finished more
than one rally, and not gotten credit for some bonuses, and not gotten any
explanation. When you ride hard for
one day or two, you really want those points!!!
And when you don’t get them, you want to know why!
Great job Adam and Eddie!!! We
ended up with 33,049 points, and 2,136 miles. While
we wait for the final tally, we can’t help but talk to others to find out how
they did. It is starting to sound
like we did OK. Lots of scores in
the 2x,xxx range. We will see…. We
were in a small class, so we figured we should finish OK.
Now it was time for the announcements.
“Third place (two up), 12,xxx points.”
“Huh? Judy, I think we did
pretty good.” “Second place,
18,xxx.” “First place,
33,049.” As it turned out, we were competitive with most of the top finishers, and would have placed in the expert class. And the top finishers? Yes, they rode to Columbus, Ohio… |
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