Sunday, July 29, 2012

2012 Not Superman Rally July 23 - 27


The 2012 Not Superman Rally is in the books. Thank goodness! Barbara and I have done many of these scavenger hunt style rally events but this one is probably going to go down in our history books as one of the more memorable and not necessarily in our best memory category. This one was going to be a combination of Mother Nature’s fury, a comedy of errors that we created, and just plain ole bad luck. 


The 2012 NSR was scheduled to be 100 hours long. Launch was at 6:00 AM on Monday July 23rd from St Louis, MO and ending at 10:00 AM Friday July 27th. There were mandatory 6 hour rest breaks every 24 hours so how hard could it be? Ha!



One of the tenants of long distance riding and rally theory in general is to never make a major change to your equipment/gear/etc. right before a ride is to begin. This way you never encounter something detrimental and unexpected during your ride. I broke this rule and it came back to haunt me on the 2nd day of the rally. 



We have always run Bridgestone tires since they are proven to have good stability, decent wear, and predictable results. I elected to try a set of Avon Cobras designed for the Gold Wing so a fresh set was installed the week before we left. A short ride to test them didn’t bring out anything shocking. They rode well, had exceptional grip on dry roads, and seemed to be a good choice. You’ll see why this was not a good idea a bit later in the tale. 



We left early Saturday morning headed to St Louis to have a day of rest and sightseeing before the rally kicked off on Monday. Rather than suffering a long interstate ride, we headed up the backroads and were going to scout some of the bonus locations on the way in. The comedy of errors begins Saturday afternoon. 













The world's largest Clydesdale.  He doesn't pull wagons since
none of the other Cyldesdales match him in size.  


 The remainder of the day was spent checking in, resting, meeting the rest of the riders.  Some old friends from previous rally events and lots of new faces.  We all had dinner at a nearby sports bar and totally overwhelmed the poor waitress.  She did the best she could even though it took over 2 hours to get everybody fed with almost all correct orders.  

We were up early Monday for breakfast and be ready to roll at 6:00 AM.  We had planned a very aggressive route that if we could pull it off was going to be worth what I thought would be a top 5 finish for sure.  There was little margin for error or delays but it was going to be worth a shot.  

6:00 AM and we started rolling out of the parking lot.  Almost everyone initially was following the same route so it was leapfrog through the first couple of bonus locations.  All was going well until about 2 hours in when Barbara popped up on the intercom and said we needed to stop because she was going to be sick.  I found a pulloff and sure enough she was!  She lost everything rather violently.  After a fairly lengthy stop, we managed to get back on the road.  We knew it was going to be very hot and had been hydrating pretty heavily.  Barbara is now behind the power curve!

We went to such scenic locations as Fort Chartres State Park, Modoc Rock Shelter, statue of Popeye and Superman, Trail of Tears monuments, site of the Lincoln Douglas debate, and back to the non-existent Birdman of Alacatraz grave.  We stopped in almost exactly the same place we stopped Saturday and within 2 minutes found the marker.  We both must have walked by it 5 times on Saturday!

 Fort Chartres
Popeye
 Trail of Tears
 Superman
 The elusive Birdman of Alcatraz

Onward to the Wabash Cannon Ball Road!  This location was the old wooden railroad bridge where the famed Wabash Cannon Ball train had crossed. It had been converted to a single lane wooden bridge with loose boards and a narrow path to follow.  Quite an adventure on a 1000 pound motorcycle.  We managed to get across without incident…..just a lot of stress!




We saw a neat Red Skelton mural in Vincennes, Illinois before heading to Moonshine, IL - population 2.  


 Red Skelton 

Moonshine
We have all seen the news about the drought and the fate of the cornfields.  We saw these first hand and there is no doubt the corn crop is gone.  At a gas stop, one of the farmers said he was just bush hogging his crop and plowing it under.  

Temperatures have now climbed to 104 degrees.  It is HOT!  At a gas stop, we filled our hydration pack with ice and water and simply hugged the remaining bag of ice passing it back and forth.  We would stuff it in our jacket to keep our core cool and enjoy the cooling effect of the evaporating water.  


From Moonshine, we headed north of the home of Becky Burgoyne in Covington, IL.  Becky is the author of the book “Perfectly Amanda” the story of Amanda Blake who played Miss Kitty in “Gunsmoke”.  Just Google it and find out more - we plan on ordering the book.  She would have autographed a copy for us, but the motorcycle was just too full to safely carry it home.    She was an excellent hostess, had cold water available, signed our rally flag, took pictures, and marveled at what we were doing.  What a nice bonus location!

Now a long interstate slog to Louisville, KY and the home of the Louisville Slugger baseball bat factory and the worldest largest baseball bat.  




Across Kentucky we went until around 9:00 PM we elected to start our first rest bonus in Berea, KY.  Barbara was pretty much toasted from the heat and collapsed as soon as we were in the room.  We are only 45 minutes or so behind schedule.  Not bad considering the heat of the day and a sick passenger.  

4:00 AM and off into towards West Virginia.  Another critical mistake was made at this point by not checking the weather forecast.  I had checked earlier in the week and found nothing alarming.  Had I checked that morning our plan would have altered greatly.  

Everything went smoothly through some very crooked roads in western Kentucky, through the Nada Tunnel which is single lane and was hand carved through solid rock!  Pretty impressive.



Gentle rain had now started and the first indication we were going to be in trouble surfaced.  Those new tires which had so far proven to be excellent on dry roads were now like riding on greased marbles.  The combination of mountain roads, coal dust from the many, many coal trucks that rumble through the mountains, and rain proved to be our downfall.  The bike felt unstable as the tires would skitter a bit in the turns.  At any moment it felt as though the front end would just slip out from under us.  I can handle that back tire sliding a bit, but the front really puckers you up!  Anyone who has ever ridden a motorcycle in the rain can testify that this is one of the most unnerving feelings you can encounter.  

Gentle rain has now turned into rain of biblical proportions.  Visibility is reduced, water pools in every low spot even to the point where at times, the water would be over my footpegs.  We found the bonus for the Rocket Boys although you almost needed a boat to get to it.  The Rocket Boy bonus is a monument to Homer Hickman who wrote the book “Rocket Boys” on which the movie “October Sky is based.  Of course….Google it for more information.  


Nexrad radar on my GPS showed red all around us.  Red isn’t a good thing and means severe weather, rain, thunder, lightning, wind, etc.  I can tell you that is exactly what is going on around us.  Progress is unbelievably slow since we often have to stop simply because we can’t see the road or because I need a break from fighting to keep the motorcycle upright.  At one such stop under the cover at a gas station, I simply failed to put the kickstand down and over the bike went.  I stepped off, Barbara just stayed in her seat.  No damage to the bike or either of us, but it certainly was an indication that fatigue had really started to set in.  

We passed the New River Gorge bonus simply because it wasn’t safe to make the hike down to the observation deck in the rain.  

Finally in Sommersville, WV we stopped for another break from the rain and to evaluate the situation.  It is now late afternoon and we are hours behind schedule.  We both are soaked, I am exhausted and tremendously frustrated.  More red on the radar for as far as we can see.  The TV in the gas station is talking about the storm damage all around us……I believed every word!

According to the rules, you would have to acquire 26,000 points to be considered a finisher.  There was no way we could ride our planned route in the time allotted since we were so far behind.  I didn’t think that I could ride out of the storm safely to pick up an alternate route,  so after a bit of discussion we elected to withdraw from the rally.  Safety is always our first consideration.  Very reluctantly, I called Jim Puckett, told him the situation, and formally withdrew from the rally.  We would decide what to do in the morning when heads were clear.  

We found a motel, got warm and dry, had a bit of supper and collapsed.  

The next morning was clear and cool so rather than just go home, we elected to continue to ride the remaining part of our West Virginia route, do some sightseeing,  and then head back to St Louis.  





One of the neatest stops was in the town of Cass, WV.  Created as a lumber town in 1900, with a railroad built to haul timber out, the town has been restored to what it looked like in the early 1900’s.  There is an operational steam railroad engine that gives train rides through the mountains.  It was fired up and ready to roll when we went by.  






Since we were off the clock, we headed into Pennsylvania to the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA.  Don Leemhuis and I had been to the temporary memorial in 2008 and were impressed by not only the site of the crash, but by the plans for the future memorial.  The memorial is complete with the visitor center to be completed in the future.  A walk through the grounds, and the memorials certainly gives pause and wonder at the bravery of the passengers of Flight 93.  On our previous visit to the temporary memorial, there were many very touching memorials left ranging from the simple to the impressive plaques from around the world.  These have all been safely stored and will be on display in the visitor center when it is completed.   
National Radio Astronomy Labaratory in West Virginina











Let's Roil!


Memorabilia is collected and archived each day. 




Southern Pennsylvania is beautiful countryside as we toured through headed to the last bonus of the day.  The Lost Children of the Alleghenies is a folk story and a pretty neat one at that.  You can read all about it at the following link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Children_of_the_Alleghenies

Getting to it isn’t easy as you ride down a rough single track road several miles back into the woods.  Then it is a hike along a trail to the monument itself.  We parked and started back into the woods and were immediately swarmed by mosquitoes and flies.  We walked, waved our hands in an attempt to keep them from eating us alive.  We took the picture and quickly headed out of the woods!





We decided to start back towards St Louis via the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  Two lane interstate with no median.  Truck traffic is very heavy so if you are in the left lane, there is a concrete barrier inches to the left and 18 wheelers to the right all running wide open!  It is a toll road with only one exit for 100 miles.  Signs warn you that there are no services or exits so the only option is to keep going and don’t run out of gas!  It cost us $6.80 for the 80 odd mile run.  This is one to avoid!!!


We spent the night in Carthage, Ohio before making the 500 mile I-70 run back to St Louis.  Nothing to see but burnt corn crops, 100 degree temperatures, and heavy traffic across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.  Thankfully, there were no traffic backups through Columbus, Ohio or Indianapolis, IN.


Safely back in St Louis in the late afternoon on Thursday,  we rested and got ready to welcome everyone back on Friday.


Friday morning we started getting updates as riders were coming back in before the 10:00 AM deadline.  Most had encountered weather of some sort as riders came back in from as far north as Canada, as far west as South Dakota, through the heat of Oklahoma and Kansas.


Several other riders had withdrawn mostly due to heat exhaustion rather than biblical rain.  Of course, mechanical issues plagued a couple of riders creating humorous stories of breaking down in graveyards, in the middle of nowhere, etc.   Others had what I consider epic rides in some pretty adverse conditions.  Kudos to the winners!


We stayed over Friday night and visited went out for a great steak dinner and let Barbara have some world famous frozen custard from one of the St Louis landmarks - Ted Drewes.   Pretty cool place that has been featured on the Travel Channel.  It was packed at 9:00 PM!


Saturday was simply a test of endurance in the heat on the way home.  We stopped in Memphis to have lunch with Barbara’s college roommate she hasn’t seen in over 20 years!  Oh yeah, we hugged that bag of ice again Saturday afternoon.


The bottom line!  We made it back safe.  Lessons learned - lots!  1.  Do not make major untested changes before a rally.  2.  Check the weather frequently.  3.  Hydration is the key in hot weather.  4.  Hugging a bag of ice isn’t a bad thing in 100 degree weather.  5.  New boots that are supposed to be waterproof but really aren’t make for some really wet feet.  6.  No more rallies in the middle of the summer.


Next rally is in October when we will run The Void quickly followed by the Big Texas Rally.  For now, we are just going to stay cool.




































One of the bonus locations was the gravesite of the Birdman of Alcatraz in Metropolis, Illinois. Previous experience had taught us that sometimes grave markers are bit hard to find so we went to the GPS coordinates and started the search. For over an hour we stomped around in a fairly large cemetery searching for the headstone. We knew what it looked like…..had a picture of it…..had coordinates for it….but for the life of us could not find it. We asked several locals if they knew where it was but no joy. I even called the Rallymaster to make sure it had been positively identified. We gave up and headed on to St Louis after checking out a couple of other bonus locations. 

We arrived at the host hotel a bit later than planned and met Jim Puckett, the Rallymaster who assured us that the marker was there. Oh well…we would look again during the rally. I had made reservations a month in advance but when we went to check in, no reservations could be found. The motel was full and they could not accommodate us so we asked for alternate lodging suggestions. They had been checking and it seemed that with the Cardinals playing the Cubs, multiple concerts in town, that every room was full. We did make a reservation for the following night. We searched via the internet, smart phone, etc. and finally located a room 50 miles west of St Louis. Back on the bike and off we went. 

Sunday morning was spent taking a Brewmaster Tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St Louis. What an impressive tour. We got the VIP treatment, saw the Clydesdales, did a complete guided tour of the brewery, sampled beer in the cold room right before it went to bottling, and generally had a great time. Loads of history lessons from a very smart tour guide. I highly recommend taking the time to do a Brewmaster Tour if you are ever in St Louis.  One thing we noticed during the tour was the absence of workers.  Our guide told us that virtually everything was automated and controlled from a central control room.  We did see some maintenance workers fixing a broken machine on the bottling line.  Several of the buildings are National Historic Sites.