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!

Angels and Demons 2013

Angels and Demons Rally 2013

or

Into every life some rain must fall

or 

Don't leave home without it!

Ever since Cora completed a Saddlesore 1000, she has been dying to complete a real rally.  Scheduling is a challenge between her work and school but I managed to find a 10 hour rally that worked into the schedule so it was to come to be!  The Angels and Demons Rally for 2013, hosted by Ray King, was to start and stop in Brooksville, Florida around 600 miles from home.

Rally books arrived on Wednesday the 30th so Cora and I worked over the book trying to determine a good, high scoring route.  We ended with 2 choices with similar mileage and points.  One would take us into north Florida through Jacksonville (a ball game weekend) or south into the Everglades and back through Tampa (always a mess).  We watched the weather with great interest and decided on going south which we thought would avoid the worst of the rain for the majority of the day.  Oh how silly of us.......to attempt to follow one of the virtually iron-clad rules of the Iron Butt Association - Plan your ride and ride your plan!

Rather than dashing 600 miles to Brooksville on Friday we opted to break the trip up leaving Thursday afternoon to spend the night with my sister, Alison, in Panama City and then take a leisurely ride along the west coast of Florida into Brooksville on Friday.  We made quick work of the trip to Panama City and spent the evening catching up with Alison and Steve.  We were off early Friday morning and headed down the coast.  Old Florida is a joy to ride through....Mexico Beach, Port St Joe, Appalachicola, Carrabelle....all have the flavor of old fishing villages not tainted by high rise condos that block the view of the Gulf.  A pleasant ride.

Into the Apalachicola National Forest we rode occasionally meeting a car or two.  We saw signs for Tate's Hell State Forest and were intrigued by the name.  At a lunch stop in Perry, we did some research and discovered an interesting story.

1885    A tale that has been told for many years recounts how Tate's Hell Swamp got its name. Local legend has it that a farmer by the name of Cebe Tate, armed with only a shotgun and accompanied by his hunting dogs, journeyed into the swamp in search of a panther that was killing his livestock. Although there are several versions of this story, the most common describes Tate as being lost in the swamp for seven days and nights, bitten by a snake, and drinking from the murky waters to curb his thirst. Finally he came to a clearing near Carrabelle, living only long enough to murmur the words, "My name is Cebe Tate, and I just came from Hell!". Ever since, the area has been known as Tate's Hell, the legendary and forbidden swamp.

Now down the coast through Crystal River and Homosassa Springs and into Brooksville.  We arrived early afternoon and relaxed, visited, and got ready for the rider's meeting at 6:00 PM.  Our esteemed Rallymaster went over some details of the rally, handed out our packets and a final piece of paper detailing changes to the rally book.  Wild cards bonuses (finding something related to an Angel or a Demon) had their point values raised.  The killer was the inclusion of six MANDATORY BONUSES required to be a finisher.  This was a game changer if there ever was one!  Cries of indignation, anger, and disgust filled the air!

Quickly glancing over the six, we realized that neither of our two very well planned routes would work.  Time to start all over!  Now this normally would not present a big challenge - simply drag out the laptop with mapping software and re-do the route.  However, and a big however, I had opted not to load all that stuff since I had two very well planned and documented routes available.  So, no laptop, no mapping software, no cables for the GPS.  We did have a road atlas that at least showed major roads.

Let me pause at this point to simply say.........I am not in favor of  nor nor am I a fan of last minute changes to a rally that cause such dramatic changes.  Why even give a rally book in advance so you can plan your ride???  Frustrated, angry, and muttering obscenities, we headed back to the room to try and salvage the rally.

I quickly realized the atlas did not have sufficient detail so wandered to the front desk and the angel behind the desk has a real Florida state map.  With note cards and rally book pages scattered around the room, we used our phones and my Ipad to generally locate and mark the  mandatory bonuses on the map.  We filled in the locations of other known bonuses and tried to make sense of a route.  We had the choice of running clockwise or counterclockwise in a circular route that included Orlando and Disney World.  We tried to guess the weather patterns to determine which route would keep us out of the worst of the rain.  We opted to run counter clockwise thinking we would avoid the rain.  We remade note cards leaving lots of blanks to fill in during the day.  Ha!  This is what our plan looked like.  Note that we had no idea of timing, total mileage, just a general idea of where to go.

After breakfast and a final rider's meeting it was time to go. The Rallymaster apologized profusely for screwing up everyone's planned routes realizing the impact that the mandatory bonuses had on all riders. It was certainly to late to change the game again at this point.  We would ride what we planned last night.     Of course, it was raining.....big old Florida raindrops and at 7:00 AM it was still dark as pitch!

First bonus planned was south of Groveland and a photo of the Green Pond Cemetery.  It's 7:39AM and rain is still coming down.

We were headed to Sanford to find Angel's Soul Food and BBQ - one of the mandatory bonuses.  Watching the GPS, we saw a bonus pop up just off our planned route.  We quickly snapped a photo at 8:04 and were off.

Sanford has lots of old brick/cobblestone streets which are not only rough, but slick when wet.  We luckily missed construction detours and found our goal at 8:56.  One mandatory down!

Enroute to Daytona we found the All Saints Episcopal Church in Enterprise Florida.  Not scheduled but we grabbed the bonus at 9:12 and were off again.

 The Devil's Chair in Cassadaga, FL was a mandatory stop.  Legend has it that if you put an unopened bottle of beer in the chair it will be there the following morning.....empty but unopened.   No one had tested the legend the night before since the chair was empty.

n Daytona, we were to take a picture of the Angel and Phelps Chocolate Factory located on Beach Street.  Daytona is always busy even when it is not Bike Week.  As we approached Beach Street, we noticed a couple of closed streets and detoured around them.  Beach Street was also closed with a full blown street fair in progress.  The streets were filled with people, vendor tents, and other distractions, not to mention nowhere to park.  Realizing precious time would be wasted, we opted to continue on without the bonus.

On to the next mandatory bonus which was the Ghosts of Bulowville.  The ruins of an old sugar mill were on the "Loop".  A nice ride with old oaks covering the road it would have been very pleasurable if not for the rain and that incessant ticking of the clock counting down the hours and minutes left in the rally.  At 10:35 we grabbed the photo and we off.  We still had no concept of being ahead or behind - we were just riding as hard as we could considering the conditions.

 I am horrible with names so apologies in advance.  While at the Sugar Mill, a young rider was there on a Suzuki DL1000.  He asked us if we had a compass and which way was west.  I looked that GPS and pointed in the direction of west.  He thanked us and we were off.  After returning to the finish line, I was chatting with same rider and discovered that he had not only plotted and planned on paper and Google maps but finished the rally WITHOUT the aid of a GPS.  Evidently his Google map directions said head west from the bonus, hence the question about direction.  Kudos certainly should go to this rider!

Back to the beach area for a photo of the Devil's Elbow Fishing Resort.  This was another of the cursed mandatory stops.  We were actually thankful for the rain at this point since it certainly kept beach traffic to a minimum.  11:12 AM now and we are 216 miles into the rally.  Hmmmmm, maybe we are about half-way, maybe not.

Another bonus we had figured we could fit in was the lunch bonus worth 2,000 points.  The requirement was to take a photo of your lunch and stay in one spot for 30 minutes verified by a start and stop receipt.  I also figured we could gas up at this point and not have to worry about a another fuel stop.  Lunch was one of those gas station/Hardee's operations in Palatka, FL.  It is very frustrating to sit for 30 minutes without a schedule.

 While we were waiting for our 30 minutes to run it's course, I did manage to get the remainder of the bonuses sorted out and in the GPS for a route of sorts.  Thank goodness it said we could finish on time!  We spent 31 minutes at lunch!

Next bonus was less than 1 mile away for a historical marker photo and then on to Angel's Dining Car, another mandatory bonus,  which was also nearby.  Didn't dawn on us to eat lunch there!  We hit the diner at 12:32 and ventured towards Gainesville.

Enroute to Gainesville we saw another bonus and zoomed in.  Campville Ghosts.  The house is over 100 years old and looked it too!

 Into Gainesville we went at around 1:30.  Thankfully weekend football was out of town in Jacksonville.  The Devil's Millhopper is a huge sinkhole in it's own geological park and a mandatory bonus.  Time is 1:43 and we are 306 wet miles into the rally.  Looks like we'll make it to the finish!

We knew the next bonus was right off I-75 and was called Twin Angels.  Cemetery bonuses are always a worry since you never know if it will be a small or gigantic cemetery.  Luckily, as we approached the entrance we saw the bonus through the fence.  Other riders came in from a different direction and evidently spent a good bit of time looking for the angels in question.

One more mandatory bonus and we elected to chase down a bonus in Ocala worth a lot of points first.  Time is 2:43 and it really isn't that far now

Last bonus is a sign at the entrance to the El Diablo Golf and Country Club.  Some folks evidently didn't follow the instructions and took pictures of a very similar sign NOT at the entrance.  It's 3:25 and only 46 miles to the finish line.  

We did find:

 We hit I-75 running hard to the finish line.  As we exited the interstate, a Florida State Trooper was sitting right as we exited.  Thankfully we were being lawful citizens at this point!

At the finish line, we grabbed our last and and last Demon photo.  Valerie did have an angel on her t-shirt.

 On the other hand, the Rallymaster received an honorary demon rating for his antics with the mandatory bonus locations.  Sounded good to me!

Cori and I noticed the lack of bikes in the parking lot even though less than 15 minutes remained until DNF time.

We sat and quickly got our paperwork in order and headed to scoring.  We kept wondering why there wasn't a line at scoring.  We sat with Larry Meeker who went through our bonuses and approved them all - even the Rallymaster as a Demon!  We had ridden about 430 miles in some very trying conditions in less than 10 hours.

Supper was delicious as we chatted and enjoyed dinner.  The results were announced!

Until the official results are published I am not exactly sure of our overall standing.  

Bottom line:  Planning and operating off a paper map will work in a pinch.  For a first time rally rider, Cora did a marvelous job and finally got pretty good at figuring time/distance on the fly when we realized we just couldn't make the last high point bonus we wanted and still make it in on time.  

We rested and made a wonderful 550 mile ride home Sunday.  The skies were perfectly clear, temperatures hung around the low 60's, and traffic wasn't bad.  Why couldn't it have been that was Saturday?  

I remain convinced that if I say the word rally in a sentence then it shall rain.  Maybe I just need to go into the rainmaking business!   The 2013 rally season at least ended on a positive note.  No more big rides are planned at this point.  Who knows what 2014 will bring.  Just for fun....this is what the 2013 riding year looked like from a SPOT viewpoint.  This certainly isn't everything but does include all the big trips and all rallies!

Big Tex Rally 2013

After the whirlwind tour during The Void and taking a quick day off to wash and repack, it was time to head off for the 2^nd running of the Big Tex Rally.  David Clark from Athens was coming over for the ride out to Texas, encountered tire problems outside of Atlanta but made it to the house for supper and rest before heading off to Huntsville, TX where we were spending the night with an old friend, Chris Stallings, who would be riding with us during the rally.  

Off early and west we headed.  There is always the obligatory stop in Jackson, MS for breakfast and gas – I do love Cracker Barrel breakfast!  Spitting rain the followed us the rest of the way into Huntsville.  Of course it would rain, we were going to rally!  We spent a pleasant evening with Chris and Nancy resting up for the next few days.  Of course we kicked tires and compared motorcycle stuff.  I am continually amazed at the number of devices we use to navigate.  Between the three motorcycles, there were 8 different GPS systems which would often provide eight different ways to get somewhere.  We normally just went with majority rule.  

We were starting the rally in Victoria, TX, one of the four start locations for the rally.  Enroute to Victoria, we stopped in Brenham to tour the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory.  It is an amazing operation that takes the milk of 30,000 cows per day to keep up with demand.  Of course, we enjoyed the free samples at the end of the tour and the obligatory picture of Barbara posing in her Blue Bell Ice Cream hat.

We made in to Victoria without incident making another almost mandatory rally stop at Wal Mart to finish out our supplies for the upcoming rally.  There was a loosely organized dinner that evening so we enjoyed our dinner and beverages before settling in for an early morning start.   Rider’s meeting started at 5:30 AM with us finishing paperwork, sealing driver’s license and insurance information into a envelope (worth lots of points if you didn’t have an encounter with one of the fine law enforcement officers of Texas), and last minute instructions and admonishment from the Rallymaster to be safe. 

We kicked off the rally at 6:00 AM sharp and headed off to our first bonus of the day in Tilden, TX for a photo of a boot hill cemetery.  After our superb planning during the Void, we were fairly confident in our timing and routing.  This soon proved to be quite untrue!  South Texas is undergoing an oil boom so we had to deal with oil field traffic and construction.  Scheduled arrival at Boot Hill was 7:41 and we didn’t arrive until 8:05.  Not a good way to start, but figured we would make up the time in the long run to Brownsville.

Well, that didn’t happen either.  It wasn’t traffic, we weren’t going slow, we just kept falling further and further behind.  I can’t really blame it on the butterfly/dragonfly migration that was happening since all that did was make a mess of helmets and bikes.  Something was happening to our timing and we were at a loss to figure out why.  Scheduled arrival at the Palmito Battlefield historical marker was 11:04 and we arrived at 11:51.  Yep, losing more time with each bonus stop. 

There was but choice but to soldier on at this point, so we pointed our bikes north towards the City Hall of Rio Grande, TX.  There were 12 options to pick up Texas Icons at some point during the rally.  Anything from a photo in front of the Alamo, cactus, armadillos, rodeo grounds, etc could all be claimed at any point in the rally.  One of the icons was a posted sign from the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.  These distinctive blue signs could be found on any number of ranch gates.  We just kept going by them before finally spotting one and turning around to get the bonus. 

Scheduled arrival into Rio Grande was 12:57 PM and we finally arrived at 1:55 PM.  We were now an hour behind but snapped our picture and got out of there as quickly as possible. 

Laredo is the next stop for a photo of a granite bench dedicated to a Texas statesman.  Laredo sits directly on the Mexican border with several crossings into Mexico.  The GPS has us headed for one of the crossing for some reason or another.  Having absolutely no desire to cross into Mexico, we picked our way through a maze of one way streets to the bonus.  

Scheduled arrival was 2:47 and we arrived at 4:11.  We are 583 miles into a planned 1530 mile route and are almost an hour and a half behind schedule.  Something soon had to give and it was to be scheduled bonus locations!

We made the next bonus in Catarina at 5:33 still over 1.5 hours behind schedule.  Then we  off to Crystal City, TX for a photo of Popeye.  Crystal City, TX claims to be the Spinach Capital of the World and what more fitting monument than Popeye.  The statue was erected in 1937 in front of City Hall.  We snapped our picture of Popeye at 6:07 PM still over 1.5 hours behind. 

We consulted a bit and decided that we had to drop bonuses in order to catch up.  We didn’t drop a high point bonus outside of Leakey so that’s where we headed.  Now it was dark, we were in the Texas Hill Country full of curvy roads and a deer population as thick as fleas on a stray dog’s back!  Of yeah….we should mention that it started to rain.  Not a gentle spitting rain, but rain driven by a fall Texas thunderstorm!  Oh the joys of rallying!

We had gotten separated from David at some point but were all going to meet at the selected motel for out rest bonus.  As we approached the coordinates for the historical marker for the massacre of the McLaurin family by renegade Apache Indians, we found nothing even closely resembling a historical marker.  Road signs and an entrance to a ranch yes, but no historical marker.  We eased a bit further down this very dark, narrow, wet road and saw a sign that said the historical marker was a mile ahead.  We also found David who was quite frustrated at this point having searched the area for over 20 minutes.  Sure enough, a mile down the road was the marker so photos were snapped and off we went.  It is 7:55 PM, we are 897 miles into the rally and way behind schedule.  David went one way…..we went the other thanks to Ms. Garmin who has been known to take strange routes at times. 

It is raining, the temperature has dropped 20 degrees in the span of minutes, and it is 123 miles to our motel in Brady where we had made advance reservations.  There really was no option but to hunker down and  roll on through the storm.   We rolled into Brady and started our rest bonus at 10:04 PM.  Quick trip to McDonalds for some supper and soon were snoozing planning to take full advantage of the big points available for taking a full 8 hour rest bonus. 

We dropped 3 more bonuses in an attempt to get back on schedule for the 2^nd day of the rally.  We’re off to Luckenbach, TX – population 2!  

It’s a quite chilly morning with temperatures in the high 40’s and seeing the sunrise was very welcome.  Arriving at Luckenbach at 7:44 AM, we quickly found the required license plate, took a photo, and headed to Dead Man’s Hole.  And oh look, and armadillo too!  

One of the Texas Icon bonuses was to take a photo seated on the back of a Texas Longhorn cow.  Too early for the cow so that one was missed. We later learned the longhorn arrived about 15 minutes after we left. 

Dead Man’s Hole was a cave almost 200 feet deep filled with toxic gas.  A large oak tree stood over the entrance – perfect as a hanging tree.  The story goes that as the doomed man was hung and started to struggle, the rope would be cut, dropping him to his fate at the bottom of the cave.  The hole has long since been covered, but a historical marker commemorates the site.

We headed into Bastrop for the next bonus.  Ardys Kellerman, a legend in the long distance motorcycle community, was killed in a tragic motorcycle accident earlier this year at the age of 81.  Ardys didn’t start riding until she was in her 50’s but had documented riding over one million miles on BMW motorcycles.  Ardys was a joy to be around and always had a ready smile, a cheerful attitude and was best known by her nickname - Queenie.  Prior to her passing, she had mentioned to the Rallymaster, Wayne Boyter, that the statue would make a good bonus for a rally.  Named in her honor, Queenie’s Request, was a statue of a fireman saving a small child.  We were honored to include it in our route. 

The next stop in our tour of Texas was Auditorium Shores Park in Austin for a photo at the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue.  The rally instructions stated that at exactly noon a photographer would take one photo of anyone present.  You and your rally flag had to be visible in the photo.  We arrived a bit early, found a place to park and made our way across the park to the statue.  Everyone clustered around the statue trying to ensure they would be visible in the photo.  And exactly as stated, at noon a photo was taken and everyone scattered to the winds. 

Due to the horrible schedule of the previous days exploits, we modified our plan and headed to a big point bonus outside of Belton, TX.  Somehow Chris got separated from us as we followed David on a grand tour of downtown Austin and the state capital building.  We finally made our way to I-35, when David announced his rear tire was going flat again.  Knowing there was nothing we could do at the point, we waved and left him on his own.  We zipped up I-35 to Belton where we would find the next 2000 point bonus.

At the Golden Ranch, we would have the chance to fire a handgun at our rally flag.  In order to score the points, you had to hit your rally flag with at least one shot.  Obviously, everyone who had left Stevie Ray Vaughn has the same idea and the line to shoot was quite long.  We waited over an hour to shoot and I quickly managed to put all three shots into my rally flag. 

The deadline to be at the finish line was 6:00PM.  We still had to make our way to Stephenville, TX for a mandatory bonus at the Hard 8 BBQ where we had to sit down and eat a traditional Texas BBQ meal.  I-35 was shutdown north of the shooting bonus so we plotted a course avoiding the interstate and headed to Stephenville.  Thank goodness for the high speed limits on Texas two lane highways.  Often 75mph, we took full advantage and zipped into Hard 8 for some BBQ.  Slow service made us a bit nervous as the clock was definitely clicking down.  Grabbing gas for the final run into Dallas, we were off. 

We managed to check in at the finish with 15 minutes to spare!   We did manage to find a car with horns on it!

Scoring time now.  We got our paperwork in order and turned everything in to be scored.  While we waited, we relaxed in the bar/restaurant and spent time chatting with other riders.  Just so happens Auburn and Texas A & M were playing and the TV was on.  Being a big Auburn fan and fueled by a couple of margaritas, Barbara certainly let everyone know her allegiance as Auburn managed to defeat A & M and Johnny Football. 

David rolled in a bit late with a new rear tire courtesy of a very accommodating Kawasaki dealer in Austin. 

Scoring as horribly slow as a couple of the scheduled scorers had emergencies and couldn’t make it.  We enjoyed a couple more adult beverages, a delicious Mexican buffet, and good company for a long time.  We finally got our chance to get scored and it was a painless process as we always try to make sure we don’t leave points at the scoring table.  Scoring continued well into the late evening.  Knowing that we didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of being in the top tier, we gave up and headed to the room for a shower and bed.  We still had a 600 mile ride home Sunday morning. 

The hotel had some difficulty getting a rather meager breakfast out on time but we finally were able to eat and hit the road.  The weather was nice and cool, the interstate boring as usual but we made the dash home in a bit over 10 hours.  

After a 2^nd place finish the weekend before, it was quite disappointing to finish at the bottom of the list, but we did finish.  Overall, it was a great rally with the chance to see parts of Texas we had never seen.  We’ll be back next year with a much greater appreciation of planning a rally in the great state of Texas!  East coast planning doesn't work in Texas!