Yahtzee - Riding the Void Rally

Yahtzee - not just a game with dice!

The Void always take a different flavor from year to year and 2014 certainly was no exception to that tradition.  From music themes to  weather, the Rallymasters always find something new and entertaining.  The theme this year was Yahtzee.

The concept is simple.  Fill out a Yahtzee scorecard by riding to various bonus locations.  It is much easier in concept than in execution.  Straights must be gained in order without interruption.  Full house, 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, Yahtzee all have places on the scorecard you must attempt to fill.  

All bonuses had a value of 1 through 6.  The challenge was to get to the right bonus in order to fill your scorecard and of course in the correct sequence.  If you failed to get a planned bonus, that could simply throw your scorecard into total disarray. 

The start this year was Macon, GA.  Cora, my 20 year old daughter, was riding this one - her first long rally.  To say she was excited would have been an understatement!  We departed on Thursday the 9th of October after she finished up a lab test in biology.  After a late start, we rode non-stop to Macon to meet up with riding companion, David Clark, and the other riders for dinner and rest before taking off the following morning at 9 AM.  

9:00 AM rolled around and we got our start receipts and made the necessary text to the RM with our starting information.  Our first stop was going to be northeast of Athens to fill a straight.  

First stop was a historical marker for the Center of the World.  Note that in order to fill a straight, it often required some backtracking to get the bonuses in order.  Our first cluster was no exception. 

Then in Royston for a historical marker honoring Ty Cobb - the baseball legend. 

Next was a bit of a challenge.  At the Georgia Guidestones, we had to get a photo of  a granite slab making sure certain parts were readable.  The sun was bright on the white granite and getting a photo that included Cora and the correct wording was difficult. We decided on this one. 

The next few bonuses fell right into order.  A child reading monument, historical marker of the Abbeville Opera House, some good old moonshine, a judge on the state capital ground in Columbia, SC, big fire hydrants and giant chains.  We did a good bit of backtracking and circling to get things in the right order.  

We headed across South Carolina getting bonuses at historical markers, Lonesome Pedro, to the town hall in Raynham where there was supposed to be a totem pole in front of the town hall.  

The totem pole was supposed to be beside the flagpole.  As you can see, it is no longer there.  We made a call to the Rallymaster to confirm, snapped our photo and were back on the road headed into North Carolina.  

Our first stop in NC was to spend a total of 9 minutes in The Void.  Simply, a break for a minimum of 9 minutes proven by receipts starting and stopping the break.  David has plotted a gas station for our stop, but I missed the turn and we ended up stopping in a rather questionable area.  The first station's receipts were off by a huge amount so we headed to another to get a start receipt close to the actual time.  These worked and we spent about 10 minutes snacking and walking around a bit.  

Then we headed along the North Carolina coast through Surf City and Topsail Beach for a series of 6's!  It was dark and thankfully very little traffic on a beach road.  We got sharks, alligators, more sharks, and a tribute to a Gold medalist fireman. 

We stopped for a cool statue of a policeman coming out of a wall in Clayton, NC and then into Raleigh for a photo of PNC arena.  

Now it is time for our mandatory rest break.  We grabbed a receipt to start our rest break and headed to the motel.  It's around 1:00 AM and w e would only be there for 4 hours or so.  After getting into our room, the folks in the room next room next door must have decided it was time for a serenade since the woman starting singing very loudly and poorly.  Luckily, she calmed down by the time we got in the bed. 

After a quick sleep, we got our ending receipt and headed out in the dark for a photo of a water tower.  The words Zebulon has to be readable in the photo as well as the rally flag.  I snapped lots of pictures before we got something that we thought would work.  Lots of pictures would come back to haunt us at scoring!

The sun came up as we headed for a picture of a sign at Parker's Ferry.  The ferry is an old cable operated ferry manned by a little old man who may have been the first operator.  As we approached, the dreaded Pavement Ends sign popped up and the GPS said 1.8 miles to the ferry.  We had little choice but to continue on the hard packed gravel road.  We found our sign and snapped the picture.  

As I started to back up, I noticed the ferry had started coming across the river since the operator had seen us and figured we wanted a ride.  At this point David had the brilliant idea to ride the ferry.  Why I didn't protest this absolutely stellar idea escapes me still.  

The approach to the ferry was pretty steep, wet, and muddy.  I made it on to the very slick steel deck sliding to a stop only a foot or so from the pilot house.  David spun his way onto the ferry and across we went.  The steel deck has long since had all the non-skid surface worn away.  I asked the old man about how much gravel road there was ahead.  He pondered for a little while and said about as much as coming in.  He must not have drive out the way we went.  Instead of 1.8 miles we had about 3 miles of gravel before finally returning to the pavement.  AND now we had about 30 additional miles to ride to get back on track.  Oh well!  We did ride the ferry. 

We headed north towards Virginia grabbing some cool bonuses along the way.  We somehow were still on schedule.  

We found a Ruritan monument, a totem pole on the Virginia/North Carolina line, into the Great Dismal Swamp, arailroad museum and an old tank outside a VFW hall 

As we crossed Virginia, we also found the historical marker for Prince Edward State Park for Negros, a cool horse decorated for Halloween with a headless horseman rider, and a big cow.  

It's cold and wet and we have one more bonus to go before the finish line.  

The last bonus is in Fredericksburg National Battlefield Park.  The instructions were a bit vague telling us to walk into the cemetery from the Visitor Center and take a picture of a particular sign.  We wandered a bit before getting some directions from the nice lady in the gift shop. 

Now we have to get to the finish, fill out all our paperwork, and have it turned in before 4PM.  We had pre-filled our Yahtzee scorecard in hopes that we would not have to drop any bonuses.  Good planning, even with a ferry ride, works like a charm.  We hit every planned bonus and had some time to spare.  We checked and double checked paperwork before sealing our envelope for scoring.  

The rules state that you can have no more than 3 photos of each bonus.  What I failed to do was remove some of the extra photos from the Georgia Guidestones and the Zebulon water tower.  This cost us a tie for 3rd place with David!  With the penalty for extra photos, we finished 4th.  After cleaning up, we went to the bar and I collected on some free beer David owed for the ferry ride extravaganza.  

Cora was an absolute trooper!  I was very proud of her as we rode some 1250 miles during the rally on not a lot of sleep.  She was a very efficient co-rider keeping track of times and mileage for our bonuses.  Early in the morning of the 2nd day, she had a little trouble staying awake and banged the back of my helmet pretty regularly after taking some sinus medicine that probably made her really sleepy. She perked up after about 3 hours and all was well. 

The banquet was a success as usual with Scott the Rallymaster telling some entertaining tales of mishaps during the rally.  Food was excellent and we were more than ready for some sleep.  

Sunday was a 750 mile ride home in the cold rain.  It rained pretty steady from north of Roanoke to south of Chattanooga with one intense blinding rain just outside of Knoxville.  We stayed warm and dry and made it home in the early evening without incident.  

Next up is The Big Tex Rally.  I would have 2 days to clean up and head to Texas with Barbara.  

Cape Fear 2014 - The Dry One!

Cape Fear 2014

Another one is in the books.  It seems repetitive to say that after finishing our 8th consecutive Cape Fear Rally, but each rally brings something new to the table each and every time we participate.  So, 2014 brought lots of new and some of the same old, same old!

One thing we have always been able to count on with Cape Fear is the virtual guarantee that we will get rained upon, sometimes of biblical proportions while other times just the annoyance of having to ride in the dark and in the rain.  In seven previous rides, we ALWAYS have had rain at some level.  We were so disappointed when this year we failed to get our traditional dose of rain.  The weather was glorious…..sunny, clear, and warm.  Disappointed hell….it was fantastic!

Our start location this year was in Dyersburg, TN.  Others had the choice of starting in Crystal River, FL or Naples, NY.  Dyersburg was the logical choice for us so on Thursday we cruised up through North Alabama and Tennessee picking up a few Big Money Rally bonuses enroute.  

Our friend and riding companion, David Clark, was already at the motel when we arrived and after lots of discussion about which way do we go, we settled on a route that would push us beyond any prior accomplishment while at the same time garnering lots of points.  Our choices looked like this with red flags and squares high point values.  We settled on going south after seeing some nasty weather to the north. 

Seems counterintuitive to go from Dyersburg, TN to Mobile, AL to get to Wilmington, NC but that's where the points led us.  The projection was somewhere in the neighborhood of 1350 miles. 

The plan was to avoid Dothan, AL as it added more miles than we thought we could accomplish and take full advantage of the six hour rest bonus and lots of points that go along with it.  Remember this.....it will come back a bit later. 

With plan firmly in place, we had dinner with some of the other riders and settled in for a not so restful night anticipating what was coming the next couple of days.  Sometime during the night a vicious thunderstorm blew through Dyersburg, but Friday dawned crystal clear.  

To add a bit of a twist to the start sequence this year, you first had to get a starting receipt between 0950 and 1010 EST, text the appropriate starting information to the rallymaster, and then take a photo of Gen Strahl's Cannon located in a nearby cemetery.  Getting the sequence right was critical!

Our start receipt read 0958 EST, the right information was texted to the Rallymaster and off to the races we went.  The cemetery was less than 1/4 mile from our start so it was a cluster of folks trying to get the picture and on the road.  

Our next stop was Coffeeville, MS but first we had to navigate through Memphis.  There was a train of motorcycles all headed south as we successfully made it through without any issues.  

In Coffeeville, MS we had to locate a sign welcoming you to Coffeeville High School and to read the sign to determine what year the sign was donated.  We arrived at 12:51 PM and didn't even stop since Barbara read the sign and noted the correct information.  The train of riders thinned at this point since many had to stop and record the information.  Sometimes there is a benefit to having your scribe riding in the backseat!

Due south through Mississippi we went,  headed for the bustling community of SoSo.  Once in SoSo, we quickly found the SoSo Fire Department and took a picture of the sign as required.  Time is now 3:59 PM and we are 360 miles into our route.  We actually are 20 minutes ahead of schedule at this point.

Next stop is Mobile, AL for a picture of the entrance to Battleship Park.  We didn't plan to go through Bankhead Tunnel, but a missed turn forced us that direction.  My fault.....I knew better.  Traffic slowed as we merged onto I-10 but kept moving through the tunnel and out to the Battleship.  Arrival time 6:25 PM EST or 5:25 local - yeah rush hour!  We're now 34 minutes ahead of schedule and 492 miles under our belts. 

I-10 towards Pensacola is always a boring ride and we weren't disappointed.  We turned north at Crestview.  While sitting at a stoplight enroute to our next bonus, David pulls up alongside us and says that we have time and the he is going to Dothan for the 2010 point bonus located there.  His rationale was that we were ahead of schedule and would arrive at our scheduled rest bonus and have to wait to start our rest period.  Rest bonus couldn't start until 1201 AM.  We had discussed this at length the day before and decided to not add that bonus into our list.  My cheerleader on the back seat is all excited and encourages me to go for it.  Awwwhhhh hell, you can't win without going for the gusto so off we went.  This just added 42 miles into an already crunched schedule.  

A quick stop in Laurel Hill, FL for a photo of the sign in front of City Hall.  607 miles under our belts and 8:06PM.  We are 50 minutes ahead of schedule so maybe the Dothan thing will work out.  

Darkness is soon upon us as we go across country to Dothan.  We arrived at the bonus at 9:46PM.  It was a cool mural and a historical marker for Johnny Mack Brown.  Never heard of him before, but now we have.  My SPOT tracker was showing a low battery so we took a few frustrating minutes getting that changed while David took off and said he'd see us at the next bonus. 

We left Dothan on 231 headed due south back into Florida.  Dark country roads that probably would be a great ride in the daylight become dark tunnels of trees, sometimes turning into a canopy overhead.  

In Bristol, we had to find the Ranger Station and take a photo of the sign for the Apalachicola National Forest.  It was truly dark!

We were there at 11:13 PM and 760 miles into the rally.  Our original plan had us arriving at 10:48 so adding Dothan had cost us some time.  We had one more bonus to capture before taking our rest bonus in Thomasville, GA.  Off we go into the darkness once again. 

Jackie Robinson was born in Rocky Hill, GA and our bonus was to take a photo of the historical marker noting his birthplace location.  The HHM is in the middle of nowhere and when Jackie was born it really must have been nowhere!  We arrived at 12:21 AM.  We should have started our rest bonus 20 minutes before, but we still have to make the 20 odd miles or so into Thomasville.  We are 819 miles into the rally at this point.  

David has already arrived at the motel so we managed to start our rest bonus at 12:53 AM and after quickly doing some math, realized we had to cut the full 6 hour rest bonus down in order to make it to Wilmington before the 3:00 PM cutoff.  So we ended up with a rest bonus of 5 hours and 20 minutes.  Adding in the Dothan bonus and cutting our rest break netted us a grand total of 10 points and added 40 miles or so.  

We pulled out after the rest bonus at 6:13AM.   We have two bonuses left on the morning schedule before heading straight to the finish line.  GPS calculations say we would arrive with about 10 minutes to spare, but that doesn't include any stops for bonuses or gas or traffic or ???.  It's gonna be close!

As soon as we left the town of Thomasville, the world become engulfed in a thick fog.  It was so thick that water peeled off the windshield like it was raining and visibility sank to virtually nothing at times or as I measure it 3 white center lines.  We quickly lost David's taillight in the fog as we carefully negotiated the pea soup.  

In Moultrie, GA is a memorial to The Greatest Generation.  We had to have a photo with both of us sitting on a park bench with one of the Greatest Generation next to us.  We arrived at 6:47AM and luckily had caught David who snapped our photo.  It took several attempts since the fog was so thick the flash on the camera reflected and made the photo hard to see.  

It was a pretty cool bonus which I would preferred to see in daylight.  

One more bonus in Screven, GA was on the list and luckily as the sun came up it burned the fog off.  

We didn't know that there was a Quilting Trail but there obviously is from the photo.  Arrival was 8:53AM and 997 miles are under the wheels.

  

It is 387 miles to Wilmington and we have exactly 6 hours and 5 minutes to make it before being disqualified.  The GPS again says we'll have about 10 minutes to spare, but we have to stop for gas once and hope that the bladder doesn't scream stop again.  

I-95 through Savannah GA and then north was the route.  Traffic was very thin on the southbound side, but not northbound.  Bumper to bumper in both lanes with speeds going from slow to fast.  Why do people tend to get in the left lane and poke along?  Is there something in their DNA that prevents them from driving in the right lane?  Don't they see the line of traffic backing up behind them as the travel 1-5 miles per hour under the speed limit?  And don't even get me started on RV's and 18 wheelers that pass the vehicle ahead of them 1 mph faster.  Arrrrrggghh!  We are watching the clock tick down and getting more frustrated by the minute.  

During our one gas stop, luck would have it that there was a line for the bathroom so the clock ticked some more.  Full of gas and empty of bladder, the final push began.  Traffic thinned a bit and we were able to bump up the speed a little and make up some time.   Once we turned off I-95 for the final 100 miles into Wilmington, we could see we had it made and relaxed a bit.  

Last stop before the finish line was for a six pack of our favorite beverage.  We dashed in and out and crossed the finish line with a grand total of 19 minutes to spare.  

We had covered 1,384 miles in a bit less than 23 hours and 30 minutes!

Paperwork was quickly finished and we sat down for scoring.  No points were lost at scoring and our final tally was as predicted.  Showers, a couple of well earned adult beverages, and some tire kicking while we waited for the start of the banquet and announcement of final standings.  David has us beat in points due to the longer rest bonus he was able to take.  

Our names were called for a 3rd place finish with David finishing 2nd.  

In 2007, when we first participated in Cape Fear we finished 68th.  The subsequent six years saw finishes between 8th and 12th place so it was time for a top 3 finish.  

Rather than simply slog 600 odd miles home on Sunday we wandered around through South Carolina and North Carolina picking up some more Big Money Rally bonuses.   We got to see some beautiful scenery totally avoiding riding 
interstates.  

After a full meal in Johnson City, TN we crashed for the night at a highly recommended Red Roof Inn.  While we normally don't stay at this chain, if you are ever in Johnson City, this is one to pick for your stay.  Remodeled completely, very reasonable $55.00 a night rates, and a gracious staff made it a pleasant stay.  

Sunday night we turned the TV on for the first time since Thursday and watched the news about the tornado damage in Arkansas and the dire forecast for Monday through Alabama and Tennessee.  We had planned to go west for BMR bonuses, but once we hit Knoxville, we looked at the radar and decided to head for the house.  

We pulled in around 4 Monday afternoon without a raindrop.  

The route looked like:

The Aftermath!

As we got ready for bed Monday night, the legendary local weatherman James Spann was broadcasting full time watching the line of storms cross Mississippi and Alabama.  Everything appeared to be north of us, so we climbed into bed for what we hoped would be a peaceful night.  That quickly turned out to not be the case.  

Tornado's were popping up all around us!  The power failed so we watched the weather on my phone as thunder and lightning shook the house.  Reports had a tornado on the ground just west of our house when we lost cell coverage also.  It got real quiet and remained that way so the only option was to go on to sleep.  Power was restored sometime early in the morning but no cell coverage or TV and internet.  We had no idea of what had transpired during the night. 

I got in the truck and headed to a friend's house about 3 miles away to check on them.  The tornado had passed between us as evidenced by the trees down and damaged houses along the way.  Once at Gary's house, we realized the path of the tornado had gone less than 1/4 mile from his house.   This one followed the same path of the deadly tornado of 2000 when 13 people were killed.   Sketchy reports as I write this report one fatality in Tuscaloosa where a retaining wall fell on a house.  

Luck was with us!  We're safe with no damage.  A couple of quiet weeks and then we're off to Missouri and the Ozarks for a flower sniffing ride. 

2014 Spot Tracks look like this.  We've covered a couple of miles so far this year!  These trips include the 50CC, Cape Fear, and of course wandering around for Big Money Rally bonuses. 

The Ride Home after the 50 CC

The Ride Home

This report immediately follows our 50CC Quest – riding from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA in less than 50 hours. 

50CC Challenge is complete and here we sit in San Diego, CA on Tuesday, March 18^th.    Our riding partner, David Clark, has to be home in Athens, GA by noon on  Sunday so our goal is to make it to our house in Duncanville, AL Saturday so he can zoom on home Sunday morning. 

By the time we rested, got our paperwork done, and had a very pleasant sit down breakfast at a local Waffle King, it was time to head back east.  

The goal for the day was Sedona, AZ about 440 miles away.  First it was back through the mountains that had caused the levitation event the night before.  The ride through in the daylight was much more pleasant and we could actually take in the scenery.  One of the goals of the trip home was to avoid the interstate system as much as possible…….we had enough the previous two days.

From El Centro, CA we cut across country towards Sedona.  We rode through the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation area with huge dunes on either side of the road and blowing sand that would cover the road in places.  Neat to see such huges dunes that change shape daily from the wind.  This is a giant playground for folks with ATV’s, sand rails, and the like. 

Between there and Blythe we passed a huge mine of some kind.  We never saw signs indicating what was being mined, but it much have been valuable as evidenced by the miles of high fences topped with concertina wire.  The Colorado River provided a green relief from the starkness of the desert.  From Quartzsite, AZ we headed across country again through the Arizona desert.  There wasn’t much to see until we entered the Prescott National Forest and the Juniper Mountains. 

Jerome, AZ is a most unique little town.  Literally built on the side of a mountain, this small historic mining town has an interesting history.  Once the 4^th largest town in Arizona, it has dwindled to a community of about 450 and is filled with art galleries and studios.  Amazing feats of architecture with buildings and homes hanging off the side of the mountain.  You can read more at: 

http://www.azjerome.com/jerome/ 

The Sedona Motel was our resting place for the day and we pulled in at dusk after a long day of riding.  This is a neat, small, mom and pop operation with only about 15 rooms.  The owner,  who lives on site,  was a wealth of information.  We hit a local brewpub for drinks and dinner before a very good long nights sleep.  If you are ever in Sedona, check the motel out.  You won’t be disappointed. 

Wednesday was going to be a long day!  The Grand Canyon was on our list of stops since David had never seen the big hole in the ground.  One of the mysteries of the trip happened in Flagstaff where we stopped for breakfast at IHOP.  We parked and had breakfast coming out to discover that one of David’s winter gloves had disappeared from his bike.  Yes….disappeared.  We searched the parking lot thinking the wind might have blown it away but it was nowhere to be found.  The only explanations we could come up with were that some mean a@@hole stole only one glove or one of the big crows hanging around decided it would make a good liner for his/her nest.  Anyway, there is a good winter glove somewhere around IHOP in Flagstaff. 

The ride north to the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff is a great ride as you pass through the San Francisco Mountains.  The canyon itself is awe inspiring so we did the touristy stuff, looking around and taking pictures before visiting the gift shop.  The ride out is just as awesome going through a part of the Painted Desert. 

Our goal was Socorro, NM so we elected to cut through the Hopi Indian Reservation heading toward Window Rock, AZ.  There is little to see other than the despairing poverty of the region.  These folks scrape out a living out of nothing.  The only thing modern we could see were government buildings, schools, and the occasional store. 

With no choice, we hit I-40 through Gallup, and Grants, NM to just west of Albuquerque.  Luck was with us and the winds weren’t too bad.  We stopped for gas and elected to eat supper at the truck stop before continuing on to Socorro.  It is now dark and rather than go through Albuquerque, we cut across on NM Hwy 6.  The only thing we saw on this 28 odd mile leg was total and complete darkness.  At times, our motorcycles generated the only light that could be seen for miles and miles.  That and the seemingly constant flow of trains that tracked alongside the road.  We pulled into Socorro around 10 PM after a 560 mile day. 

Thursday was to be a short but busy day.  From Socorro, we headed through Alamagordo to White Sands, NM to visit the White Sands National Monument.  Along the way we passed the Trinity Site – home of the first atomic bomb test.  White Sands is a cool place where the sand isn’t sand but gypsum.  Blindingly white, it is a neat place to visit. 

From the top of one of the dunes,

From White Sands, we crossed the Sacramento Mountains and the ski areas of Cloudcroft and Ski Apache.  There were still lingering bits of snow on the side of the mountains.  Once we crossed the mountains heading east, we found our old enemy – the wind!  Constant, strong, gusting crosswinds would jerk us around and generally made life unpleasant.  Once we turned south, they became a strong headwind!  Stopping for a meal in Carlsbad we headed south into Texas.  The winds persisted and only started to abate as darkness fell. 

The goal for the day is Monahans, TX which is just a spot along the interstate.  A word of warning to anyone traveling through West Texas.  The oil boom in the area has every motel room for miles filled with oil field workers and business is booming along with the prices for motel rooms.  Never leave a motel room to chance in this area – make a reservation!

Once we hit Pecos, TX it was onto I-20 for the fairly short run into Monahans.  We hadn’t been on the interstate long before eastbound traffic was directed off and onto the access roads.  Inching along at a snail’s pace we tried to figure out what was happening.  Listening to the trucker’s on the CB revealed that there had been a deadly accident several miles ahead and the interstate was blocked.  We inched along in the darkness sandwiched between 18 wheelers.  The eastbound side of the interstate was a parking lot with some truckers relating that they had been sitting for over 4 hours.  We finally passed the scene of the accident and were able to get back on the highway for a short ride into Monahans.  Even though it had been a short mileage day at around 435, it was late when we finally checked in.  Shower and collapse once again. 

Friday was 515 miles of Texas backroads enroute to Huntsville, TX to spend the night with friends Chris and Nancy Stallings.  We managed to avoid the interstate across much of Texas and saw lots of nothing except oil wells and the every present WIND.  Texas roads for the most part are very well maintained and have speed limits to match the territory.  Most 2 lane roads are at least 70mph with many having 75mph posted limits.  We made good time pulling into Huntsville before dark.  Nancy had a nice supper waiting and soon it was again bedtime. 

Neat Courthouses

619 miles is the distance to the house.  We departed Huntsville around 7:00 AM and made our way north through Texas to the boring run of I-20 home.  We stopped in Shreveport, LA for a photo of the world’s largest mural.  I don’t know who the artist was but it was an amazing sight. 

On a side note, Shreveport has the worst section of interstate through town I think I’ve ever experienced.  We always use the bypass to avoid going straight through but couldn’t since we visited the mural.  C’mon Shreveport – do something about your highways!

Several additional stops were made gathering points for our participation in the Big Money Rally.  The BMR is a self-guided scavenger hunt that takes you to some neat out of the way places to photograph some cool sights.  One big theme this year is courthouses.  Some really cool architecture in these old courthouse buildings. 

A good rest break in Vicksburg, Ms and then to the house.  We pulled in around 6:30.  It was nice to be home and stationary for the first time in 10 days.  Showers, food, and rest were the order of business.  David launched early Sunday morning in the rain for his trip onwards to Athens. 

In the 10 days we were on the road, we traveled a bit over 6,000 miles.  Our largest expense was for fuel, followed by motels and food.  The trip looked like this!

Next challenge is coming in April with the 2014 Cape Fear 1000 Rally.  Stay tuned.  

50 CC Quest

50 CC Quest

One of the many challenging rides sponsored by the Iron Butt Association is the 50CC Quest.  Quite simply, this entails riding from one coast of the United States to the other coast in 50 hours or less.  The most popular route is from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA which when mapped out equates to 2372.6 miles. 

Simple math says to finish the trip, you must maintain an average speed of 47.45 miles per hour over the course of 50 hours.  This includes time spent resting, eating, fueling, etc.  Speeding is not required but keeping the wheels rolling is the solution. 

The Motorcycle Tourer’s Forum was sponsoring the ride providing witnesses in both Jacksonville and San Diego and assisting in completing and submitting the required paperwork to the Iron Butt Association.  Nine bikes were starting the trip with only one two-up….yep, that’s us.  Two riders were completing a 100 CC Quest going from coast to coast to coast in 100 hours or less.  Happily, we can report that everyone accomplished the mission, including the 100CC riders.  Kudos!

We planned the trip in great detail.  Gas stops were planned for every 180 miles with a 20 minute rest break at each stop.  A rest break of 8 hours in duration was planned for Junction, TX.  This would break the trip into 2 segments of 1205 miles the first day and 1167 the 2^nd day.  Planned total time for the trip was 44 hours and 11 minutes.  That was the plan.  The plan does not take into account variables such as weather and traffic.  An old saying goes something like:  The best plan in the world goes out the window after the first shot of the battle is fired.  Luckily for us, our battle plan remained pretty much intact.

Planning for any motorcycle trip involves a lot of watching the Weather Channel and the news was not promising for the first leg of the trip.  Heavy rains were forecast for Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi.  Radar indicated the front was moving northeast so we hoped it would pass before our arrival.  Ha!    We met at the start point only a couple of blocks from the Atlantic ocean and after getting paperwork completed, a last minute potty stop, and that crucial start receipt we were off.  

Departure was from Jacksonville on Sunday March 16^th at 5:16 AM.   We quickly covered the distance to Tallahassee for a gas stop and then onward to Milton for our second stop.  I-10 through Florida is boring and even more boring in the dark. 

Conditions started to deteriorate shortly after leaving Milton with wind gusts and torrential rain.  Weather band radio was broadcasting tornado warnings with the accompanying lightning and thunder of a good ole spring storm.  Good waterproof gear kept us dry and heated gloves and jacket liners kept us warm as we slowed but kept rolling.  Lightning flashes, rumbling thunder, accompanied by the heavy rain and wind gusts kept us entertained.   I’m not a big fan of tunnels, but the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile was a short break from the wind and rain. 

The skies started to clear as we entered Mississippi which was a welcome relief from the pummeling we had taken for the last 100 miles or so.  In place of the rain, we now had to deal with winds.  Crosswinds are tough on a motorcycle.  They tend to push you around, rattle your head, and generally make riding much less pleasant.  Louisiana is not normally a windy place, but it certainly was today. 

We rolled into Slidell, LA for our 3^rd gas stop about 550 miles into the trip.  Surprisingly we were still pretty much on schedule even with the wind and rain.  As we approached Baton Rouge,  traffic slowed and then stopped.  It took us over an hour to get through the disaster that is the highway system with merging highways and heavy traffic for a Sunday afternoon.  The only good point was the weather was pleasant and we didn’t cook in the heat.  Exhaust fumes were enough to deal with.

We feared Houston traffic would be an issue, but we sailed through without a glitch.  In Sealy, TX we stopped for gas and a quick meal at McDonalds, our first meal of the day.  Hamburgers tasted much better than they were supposed to!

The next obstacle to overcome is to get through the deer infested country west of San Antonio.   We saw several herds grazing peacefully along the interstate not even raising their heads to note our passing. 

Junction, TX is simply a small waypoint along the interstate in West Texas but a welcome sight it was to find our motel for the night.  1205 miles down and only 1 hour behind schedule at this point, all attributed to the Baton Rouge traffic fiasco.  Sleep was easy to find and the alarm not so pleasant the next morning!  The Legends Inn is a nice mom and pop motel with good rates and comfortable rooms.  Highly recommended as a stopover point. 

We cut our planned 8 hour rest to 7 and around 7:00 AM CDT we rolled out of Junction headed west after fueling up another tasty McDonalds meal.  Now we are fighting good ole West Texas headwinds which caused a serious drop in gas mileage.  Our average to this point was around 35mpg which dropped to less than 30 for this leg. 

Gas stops in Fort Stockton and Van Horn got us through the remainder of Texas and into New Mexico.  El Paso traffic was heavy but we stayed on the move.  We cruised across New Mexico into Arizona, stopping in Wilcox for gas and a Subway sandwich and another gas stop in Gila Bend, AZ.

El Centro, CA was our last stop before the push into San Diego. We also had to tolerate California gas prices at $4.20 for regular.   It is now 9:30 Pacific time and the last obstacle of the trip was crossing the mountains to the west coast of the United States.  As we started the climb across the Sierra Madre Mountains, we saw what appeared to be hundreds of red lights blinking in unison in the distance.  We’ve seen lots of wind turbine farms at night but never one that had all the lights blinking at the same time.  Quite the unusual sight. 

Winds in the Sierra Madre Mountains are notorious for gusting through the canyons and hitting you from every direction.  There was no disappointment to be had this night as one gust caught us so severely that it basically levitated the bike across two lanes of traffic and onto the rumble strips of the median.  Let me assure you, this is a butt clincher!

Temperatures plummeted from the 60’s of the desert floor to a low of 28 as we crossed the summit.  Thank goodness for the heated gear we put on in El Centro.

We broke over the mountains to the welcome lights of San Diego.  Traffic was light as we made our way to the final stop of our 50 CC Quest.  At 11:36 PM we got our final receipt proving that we had traveled from Atlantic to Pacific in 45 hours and 30 minutes. 

Mileage was 2,434 miles by the motorcycle odometer, 2372 miles by map, and 2,366 by GPS.  The motorcycle was moving for 33 hours and 4 minutes, stopped for 12 hours and 14 minutes.  Overall average speed was 52 mph with a moving average of 72 miles per hour.   

The Goldwing consumed 73.8 gallons of gas over the course of the trip.  Longest stretch between gas stops was 222 miles with the shortest at 98 between Junction and Fort Stockton.  Gas prices ranged from a low of $3.22 in Slidell, LA to the high of $4.20 in El Centro.  Overall average gas mileage was 33 miles per gallon which isn’t bad considering a heavily loaded motorcycle  with both rider and passenger, fighting winds most of the way.    

After getting our ending receipt, we found the beach and in the darkness  got our water and sand from the Pacific Ocean.  It was a short trip to the Days Inn for a fairly short nights sleep before rising to meet our witnesses verifying the completion of our trip.

Pacific Ocean!

Now all we had to do was get home but that is another story!