Sunday, February 26, 2012

The Big Money Rally

Rally season normally doesn’t kick off until April but this year we had an alternative known as the Big Money Rally.  Nope, no money is involved other than entry fees, but it gave us the chance to so some riding during the winter months and see some places we normally wouldn’t have chosen.

The concept is pretty simple.  Rally starts January 12 and ends May 12.  The Rallymaster – thank you Reno John – created a self paced rally with virtually unlimited choices of places to go and see.   Each little red flag on the map is a post office.  All you had to do is ride and find the bonus, snap a picture of your motorcycle, the bonus location, and your rally placard and send it to the Rallymaster on the spot with your smart phone.  Additionally you could find a National Park, a Shriner’s Hospital, a road sign that says “summit”, or cross an international border.  Easy enough huh?  That covers bonus listing # 1.  There will be future listings – who knows what those might be. 



Each little red flag is a post office, most of them in pretty rural locations.  Post offices are worth two points each, national parks are three points, summit signs are three points, Shriner’s Hospitals are 3 points and international borders are worth 15 points.  You have to achieve 120 points to be considered a finisher.  There are some other oddball bonus locations that you can throw into the mix also. 
Doing a little basic math quickly lets you figure out you have to find and properly document 60 post offices to be a finisher.  Of course, as with all rally scenarios, reading comprehension of the rules and adherence to the rules is crucial to a successful finish.  We have always taken pride in the fact that we have never (one exception In my first rally), left points on the table at scoring.  We might not ride the best route or make it to a bonus on time, but we have always properly documented our bonuses.  Well, this time we have screwed up our perfect record!

First….reading comprehension.  You have to read the instructions and be able to follow them!  First page of the bonus listing said: 




Pretty simple isn’t it?  I took off the morning of January 12th eager to start the rally and capture the first two bonus locations.  Moundville and Boligee post offices.  I failed to comprehend the start time of noon – Reno time – and submitted my first two bonuses early.  Oh well, it wasn’t a bad short ride – just wasn’t worth any points. 

The rest of the points gathering was broken down into 8 excursions.  The plan was to catch the close ones first, and then continue to venture out further from home.  Loop # 1 was north of home up through Berry to Muscle Shoals then over towards Arab and back home.  Pretty nice loop that was 376 miles and captured 8 post offices.  Woohoo!  16 points down!

Barbara and I took off on a westward loop through Mississippi repeating Moundville and Boligee then to scenic spots like Scooba, Kosciusko, and Sturgis, MS.  Note….the one gas station open in Sturgis does not have a rest room.  Pretty critical when you gotta go.  Oh well, let’s just say there are definite benefits to being male!  7 post offices and 14 more points. A little 335 mile day.   Kosciusko did have a nice looking post office. 



Big points was the object of the next ride.  I was overdue for service of my Traxxion suspension on the motorcycle, so planned a 3 day ride that would allow me to maximize points, get my service done, and see some really pretty countryside. The plan was to leave early on Wednesday the 15th of February, rack up points, service on the 16th and more points, and finish a big loop back home on the 17th.  

I took off right at daylight on the 15th and hit my first stop Brierfield, AL.  Now all of the post offices have GPS coordinates and addresses and I will admit that most are pretty accurate.  Note MOST!  Brierfield wasn’t where it was supposed to be and it took some back tracking and asking the locals where was the post office – of course you get directions like….go past the restaurant and fire department then look to your right. 



If you blinked you would miss it.  Short Rant follows.  No wonder the USPS is broke.  Here is Brierfield which you can tell is a really big operation.  Gotta pay a postmaster and employees, maintain the building, etc, etc, etc.  4 ½ miles away is Montevallo with a nice big building.  Why aren’t these consolidated? There are many other examples like this throughout the country.  Sorry Mrs.  Jones, you have to go another 4 miles to buy your stamps, mail your letter, or spend the morning gossiping with the little old lady who is the postmaster.  

The ride continued hitting scenic places like Ragland, AL.  Just after leaving Ragland, I happened to glance down at my voltmeter and realized that my alternator was no longer alternating and making electricity.  Having been stranded back in May in Del Rio, TX with an alternator failure, I really didn’t want to repeat that experience so I beat feet for the nearest easily found location – a Pilot gas station near the interstate.  A call to Barbara with instructions to gather the right tools, my spare alternator from the shop, drive from Tuscaloosa to the Pilot, pull the bad alternator out, put the new one in resulted in 3 hours of sitting in the parking lot twiddling my thumbs.  We did have the chance to watch two 18 wheelers run into each other – one leaving the parking lot, the other just didn’t stop and ran right into the other.  Go figure!

Alternator repaired – I have become a pro at replacing alternators on the Goldwing – back on the road.  The delay would cost me 4 planned stops but I managed to catch my last one of the day in Adairsville, GA before heading to the motel for the night in Woodstock, GA .
Another example of a fine rural post office was Muscadine, AL.  I think my living room was bigger than this place which wasn’t easy to find. 

Thursday morning brought rain and service at Traxxion in Woodstock.  They got me in and out in about 4 hours and I was on the road again headed through the rain into north Georgia.  Beautiful backroads and spitting rain made the remainder of the day.  I never found two of my planned post offices – Sautee Nacoochee, GA and Suches, GA.  Sautee Nacoochee wasn’t where the GPS said , no locals to ask so I headed on to Helen.  Suches wasn’t where the GPS said either and there wasn’t a soul in sight.    Stopping at an intersection where the post office was supposed to be I through I heard the faint sound of a banjo and a guitar dueling.  Rather than risk a “Deliverance” moment, I zipped on down the road. 

Last stop of the day was Cherry Log, GA.  Another example of a rural post office in the middle of nowhere!


Day three was gonna be a long day through GA, TN, and back down through north Alabama to home.   13 post offices and one National Park!  I saw scenic spots such as  Ducktown, Turtletown, Ocoee, Sequatchie, Chickamauga, Higdon, Flat Rock, Mentone, Valley Head, Fyffe, and Centre.  I made it home right before dark.

With a finish in sight, we planned another long ride back into GA.  Barbara, Benny Quimby and I took off at daylight with a planned 550 mile loop.  First stop was Rockford, AL.  Failure to follow the rally instructions got me here!  You have to have the post office, rally placard and motorcycle visible in your photo.  Notice anything missing?

When riding by myself, I always stick the rally placard somewhere on the bike and take the picture.  When you have a holder it is easy to forget the motorcycle.  No points for this one. 

Anyway, we continued on through to Horseshoe Bend National Park, Loachapoka (I have no idea how to pronounce it), into Georgia to Pine Mountain, Warm Springs, Forsythe (another failure!)
No motorcycle in the picture....another duhhhh moment!

Senoia and Newnan GA were our last stops.  Then it was a long interstate run home.  We made it back home around 8 PM.  I was excited since I figured I had 123 points – more than enough to finish.  Sadly, the two that didn’t count left me at 119 points – one point from being declared a finisher. 

The only choice now is back to Rockford to re-take the picture.  I did and made sure everything was where it was supposed to be. 

The highlighted routes are the ones we rode to get to all the bonus locations.

Summary:  Estimated mileage to hit the finisher level – 2,642.  Eight days of riding, two national parks, one admin bonus (5 points for printing my own placard) , 55 post offices in four states.  Temperatures ranged from a low of 34 to a high of 71.  One dead alternator and finished off a set of tires.  Although I have reached finisher level, I’ll continue to gather points as they are available.  We’ve got a ride next month to the IBA Pizza Party in Jacksonville, FL where we will ride in the Florida Mountain 1000 and then in April it’s time for the Cape Fear rally.  I’m sure we will find some more post offices somewhere along the way!

Rick and Barbara Bailey
Rider # 51
 

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