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About
seven months ago I found out that we were expecting our first child. As
exciting as this was, it kind of made a mess of my
MN2k plans as Donna would be quite far along by rally time.
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After a few days of racking my brain trying to decide whether to ride
solo, or find another passenger for the Two-up class, I remembered Bill Ager.
Bill is an ex-skydiving friend of mine. He is paralyzed, deaf, and
can't talk any louder than a whisper due to a combination of Cancer, nerve
tumors, and a skydiving accident. His
sidecar equipped gold wing has an electric shifter of his own invention and
has hand controls for the brakes to accommodate his limitations. Past that,
Bill is a rider like any other. Thats why I like him, he is more interested
in what he can do, than what he can't.
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Our plan was to switch off driving duties to reduce the fatigue of
fighting the hack for two days. As we would soon find out, sleeping in the
sidecar is next to impossible, and the driving seat of the Gold wing isn't
all that comfortable at times either.
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Three weeks before the event while poking around the TeamStrange
website I discovered that we were at negative points. Baffled at what had
gone wrong, I conferred with my lovely wife only to discover that she had
failed to include the self addressed stamped envelopes with our entry fee.
Horrors! A bribe was in order
in an attempt to regain those points. But,
what to send as a bribe? Money is of no value to these people; they would
want something of Real value. I rifled through my wife’s desk and found
some appropriate booty, two Beauty and the Beast band-aids, a breakfast
coupon from Burger King, and a coupon for 55 cents off a pound of bacon. I
enclosed them in an envelope along with the SASE's, and sent them to
TeamStrange headquarters deep in the bowels of Minneapolis.
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Bill lives in Racine Wisconsin, and rode up to my home in Watertown
SD a week before the event to prepare the bike for two-up driving. We
mounted a batch of running lamps on the nose of the sidecar, and installed a
seat and windshield in the sidecar as Bill normally keeps his wheelchair in
the hack and has little use for the seat or windshield. to get the
wheelchair over to Bobs Java Hut for the start and finish of the event, we
hitched a small trailer behind the Wing, and off we went.
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We burned of the 200 miles from Watertown to Minneapolis on Friday
morning and had several hours to spare before the Liars Banquet. We spent
the time wandering around the town visiting any motorcycle shops we could
find. We met Mr. Bruns at the
McStop and ran the odometer calibration back to Warner Power sports where
Dean and the Staff made us welcome. The banquet is one of my favorite parts
of the event as it gives me a chance to drool on all the cool bikes and meet
with friends new and old. Some of my favorites are Scott and Brenda Carlson
who compete in the two-up class on an Evo Softail. Being reasonably
knowledgeable of the HD line, I can assure you, there is nothing soft about
the ride of a softail. These are two very determined people!
I also got a chance to talk to Will Outlaw who's contagious
enthusiasm is a joy to be around.
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We received the first few pages of the bonus list and hunkered down
over the maps to argue over a plan.
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Saturday Am, Cost of items lost or destroyed-zero. (this would change
fast).
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Adam and Eddie dropped a few more bombs on us with four more pages of
bonus combinations and had we been trying to win our class we might have
considered them, however our goal was to finish without killing each other,
a goal that appeared unachievable more than a few times during the event.
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We got out of Minneapolis and onto 212 towards Bongards to get a shot
of the cow. Mission accomplished, I jumped in the hack so Bill could run us
over to Watertown while I tried to get a nap. While relaxing in the cozy
little compartment I had a chance to read each bonus stop in detail, in
doing so I discovered a stop in New Mexico that no one really wants to go
to, and we were invited to fill in an alternative stop. I filled in Granite
Falls Minnesota.
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Just outside of Dawson Minnesota Bill motioned for me to look back,
when I pivoted around to see what was behind us my baseball cap blew out of
my coat and away. I didn't bother to tell Bill figuring the loss of a hat
was a small price, but it was simply an omen. There behind us was Sean
Kirschenmann on his GSXR 600, the masochist!
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We pulled into Watertown running on fumes having stopped only once
for fuel on the way. This
constant battle with the Wings 100 mile fuel range would get even more
frustrating after dark in North Western South Dakota.
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The Motorcycle shop in Watertown is where I work part-time. After a
Popsicle and cold water from my wife, (the lady running the stopwatch) and a
brief conversation with Sean K., I spent the next few minutes waxing the
bugs off of the windshield and buying a new baseball cap while our mandatory
20 minutes expired.
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Next stop, The Corn Palace. Cost of items lost or destroyed-$10 for a
hat.
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Back on the road we headed south on hiway 81, we made it about a mile
before my spare half-helmet came off the luggage rack and tumpled onto the
road. This time I turned the rig around to retrieve it.
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We arrived in Mitchell and joined the throbbing masses on our way to
see the Grand Glory that is THE CORN PALACE. We had to take several photo's
to get one to turn out, but once in hand, we got back on the road to track
down the concrete gopher in Interior SD.
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Next stop Interior SD. Cost of items lost or destroyed $59 for a hat
and a mangled half helmet.
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The temperature on the bike was unspeakable. We arrived in Interior
SD and got the photo of the prairie dog and loaded the sidecar up with
Gatorade and ice water. The heat was beating us so we decided to drop
Pineridge and Wounded Knee from our plans and headed straight for Mount
Rushmore.
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As we rolled through rapid City I was stumped as to how we were going
to get Bill up to the monument to get the photo , we were saved though when
I found a place in the road on the way up to the monument that allowed us to
get the shot without having to get Bill off of the bike.
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I got back on the bike and piloted us back down the mountain, leaving
my brand new Kevlar reinforced riding gloves lying at the roadside.
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Next stop, Belle Fourche SD. Cost of items lost or destroyed
$104-for a hat, gloves, and one mangled helmet.
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In Belle Fourche we stopped to get a shot of the monument marking the
center of the US and inspect the bike as this was the turning point for our
first days riding. Oil level
was fine, and the engine temp was dropping, but the rear tire was destroyed
we would have to drop the northern most bonus stops and go straight across
through Mud Butte back to Watertown for a new tire.
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Bill fired up the Wing, and I jumped in the sidecar leaving my brand
new baseball cap on top of the tour pack, never to be seen again.
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Next stop Mud Butte. Cost of items lost or destroyed $114 for two
hats, one mangled helmet, and one pair of riding gloves.
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The Ben Ash monument is easy to find and I wrote down the wording as
instructed, upon returning to the bike though, I found that our tail lamps
had failed. Fuses would blow as soon as installed, there was no way to
repair the machine along side the road and we decided to attempt to get
through to Watertown for repairs.
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The first trooper caught us just outside of Gettysburg SD, wrote us a
warning and sent us on our way. The second trooper caught us in Gettysburg
and though very polite made it perfectly clear that if we attempted to leave
town before sun-up would cite us for "Failure to obey a lawful
command". He directed us to a city park where we would spend the next
three hours and the first of our three layovers lying on a picnic table
trying not to get hypothermia. At sunrise we grabbed another receipt to lock
in our points, and headed east, leaving my clear safety glasses lying on the
picnic table.
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Next stop Watertown. Cost of items lost or destroyed $134 for two
hats, one destroyed helmet, one pair driving gloves, and one pair night
driving glasses.
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Once in Watertown we burned our first four-hour layover before
attempting to repair the bike. Two hours of repairs later we were on the
road with a fresh tire and the sidecar tail lamp wired in independent of the
bike.
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Next stop Fargo ND. cost of items lost or destroyed
$254 for two hats, one destroyed helmet, one rear tire, one pair
driving gloves and a pair of night driving glasses.
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We got the photo's of Roger Marris's grave but were unsure if they
would be accepted as Bill couldn't get the rig very close to the headstone
without driving on the graves. We did our best and headed on to Manitoba
without losing anything new, or destroying anything.
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I expected trouble at the border trying to explain why we would only
be in the country for 5 minutes but the border guards both into and out of
Canada were very cooperative. We pointed what we were affectionately calling
"The Locomotive" towards International Falls for the final leg and
hopefully a motel for the last of our layovers.
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Two AM outside of International Falls blasting through the darkness
auxiliary lights blazing, Bill is hunkered down in the sidecar and I'm
trying to get us to town in one piece. In the oncoming lane a bike goes
past, at this hour, on this road, I know its another MN2K rider so I let out
a hearty "WHooha" as we pass.
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While gassing up at International Falls a bike rolls in, it was the
one we passed. Off comes his helmet and there stands Will Outlaw. Will needs
fuel and is wondering how we are doing. He is more than a little shocked
that we are still running after two days of this torture.
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We warned Will of the deer and headed south to find a motel for a few
hours rest. As we continued on towards Minneapolis we grabbed the Crane Lake
and Cloquette points. We never did find a motel with a vacancy, and rolled
into the Trackstar parking lot with a 4-hour layover unused. We pulled over
50 feet from the finish line and got a receipt from the Motor oil cafe to
begin our 4 hour layover.
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By this time the bike was burning coolant, a sure sign of a blown
head gasket, and I was running out of things to lose or destroy. Bill slept
while I organized photos and filled in the info for our bonus points. If my
preliminary scoring stood, we would collect over 18,000 points, not too
shabby considering everything that went wrong.
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By 1 pm Carlsons had still not returned . They had not called in and
I was worried that something had happened to them. By 1:30 though they were
back and smiling.
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Our score netted us a solid second place, and had we been able to get
all of the bonus stops that we dropped, we would have still taken second
place, so it worked out well, I'd say.
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The Kramers first place finish in the Two-up Class would be good
enough for 6th place overall making me wonder if it isn't time to retire the
two-up class.
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I'll be back next year either Solo or with Donna on the back to make
another run at it, say hi to friends and lose or destroy a few hundred more
dollars worth of parts and accessories.
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