Friday April 21
(968 miles)

I was quite looking forward to riding my first endurance rally that began and ended outside New England, and had signed up back in January. The rally was planned to have four specific starting cities/towns around the eastern US. Riders could choose to start from any of the four, but we’d all end up at Kenlake State Resort Park in western Kentucky for a catfish banquet and awards presentation.

The closest starting city for me was Youngstown OH, but I decided to start from Danville VA in order to bag two Merci train cars on my way down (see my previous post). I also figured it might be nicer riding out of that location if the rally bonuses were set up to take us into the Blue Ridge and Smokey mountains areas. The other start locations were Lake City FL and Paris TX.

This rally, similar to the BMRx I’d ridden last year, was using electronic bonus photo submission, whereas you needed to use a camera phone to take the photos and email them to the Rally staff immediately. This would allow them to get a head start on scoring and avoid a big pileup at the end of the rally with everyone waiting around.

The Rallymaster (Lynne) was kind enough to send out our rally packs and GPX files a full week and a half prior to launch. After some basic processing of the waypoints into Basecamp, here was the spread of bonuses on the map.

Life was busy that week and I did a long weekend road trip for Merci train cars over Easter, so I didn’t seriously start planning my rally route options until a couple days before hitting the road. I’d reached Danville on Thursday night with a few route options, but still no concrete decision on where I’d be headed in the morning. I had a really nice route laid out down the Outer Banks and Carolinas coast for some high point bonuses, including an in-person limited time bonus with the Cape Fear RallyMaster. I had even gone so far as to find some high-value post offices for the ZIP wildcard bonus along this route and was very happy with the projected points.

However, after chatting with another rider, I realized that there would in fact be two ferries involved in traversing the Outer Banks – I hadn’t noticed the short ferry between Hatteras and Ocracoke in Basecamp. Now the math just couldn’t be made to work based on the ferry schedules even if everything went perfectly on the way there – I finally had to accept that this was a sucker route and move on.

Most of my other likely route options involved zigzagging around VA, WV and KY to get higher point bonuses, as well as completing the 6-part EAGLE combo bonus. After optimizing the order of stops to allow for daylight restrictions, I finally chose a route, made out my bonus waypoint list for the tank bag, and uploaded everything to my GPS.

I looked up hotel options for the Dry Ridge KY area, as that appeared to be about where I would end up when I’d want to rest. Yesterday, there had been plenty of rooms available on this search, but now most seemed booked, including the Quality Inn I wanted to stay at. I decided to call the hotel directly and sure enough, they had one last room available. Now my route was firm and I had a place to sleep tomorrow night. I think I was able to hit the hay before midnight. My planned route for the rally:

My alarm woke me at 05:30 (rally start was at 07:00 EDT) and I had some coffee while packing things up. I still hadn’t looked at the wildcard ZIP bonus for my newly chosen route – this bonus code allowed us to get a photo of one post office per state that had the city, state, and zip displayed on the PO building itself. The last three digits of the zip code would be the point value.

The RM had provided a handy site link for viewing zips codes by US map, so I was able to trace my intended route, identify desirable zip codes and check Google street view for the required information on the building. I only had time to identify two before I had to get moving, and figured I’d keep an eye out in the other states for whatever I could find on the fly.

I grabbed breakfast in the hotel lobby at 06:00 and came back to my room to pack up the bike, right outside the glass door of my first floor room (asking for a ground floor room paid off nicely). I checked the weather one last time. Right then, Virginia was in the clear, but that huge storm system was rotating counterclockwise as it inched eastward, with the worst row of storms aimed right through the heart of the rally area (by the Rallymaster of course).

I finished packing up, left the keys in the room and headed out to a gas station to be ready to get my starting receipt right at starting time. Yesterday before arriving at the restaurant, I’d scouted a Valero, less than two miles from the first mandatory bonus for all Danville starters, and verified it had good receipts with the required time, date, city and state. I arrived about 10 minutes prior to start, no other riders in sight, and watched the minutes tick down while I entered my odometer reading and got my camera phone ready.

I completed my paperwork, packed up and zoomed off, waving to the one other rally rider I’d just noticed who’d picked this same gas station to start. Feeling the adrenaline kick in but trying not to do anything stupid, I rode briskly to the first bonus location, a veteran’s memorial in a nearby park. I got in line with several of the other Danville riders coming from different start points. Ensuring that I did not have to appear in the picture, per the rally pack, I got my photo of the “Freedom is not Free” wall (and another rider’s derriere …sorry!).

Completed paperwork, packed up, and was on my way, headed north to Roanoke, a good 1:20 away for a daylight-only photo of this Jupiter rocket. The coordinates were a bit tricky as the rocket is located right next to a street bridge leading over several railroad tracks – the GPS succeeded in getting me up on that overpass to supposedly “arrive” at the destination, however there was no where to pull over for a photo. I pulled a U-ey on the other side, came back across and wended my way through a couple side streets, a parking lot, between some barriers meant to block ‘regular’ traffic and got my darn photo!

The weather was beautiful and I cruised up I-81 until I saw strange signs indicating a “Motorcycle Only Detour”…wtf!? How did the RallyMaster arrange THIS? Due to the number of signs indicating I’d be very sorry for continuing, I took the detour for several miles on US 11 paralleling the interstate through Buchanan. Not much traffic and I was back on I-81 at full speed fairly quickly. I pictured rally staff minions back on the highway behind me giving each other high fives and packing up the detour signs as I proceeded north.

My next stop was 1:30 away and would be my first ZIP bonus – in Afton VA for 920 points. I came up behind another rally rider with the same apparent goal and we both pulled in to the precariously sloped parking lot to get our photos.

Just a few minutes away was the next bonus, a sculpture at a vineyard spelling the word LOVE. This would turn out to be a common theme for the VA bonuses, as part of the state’s “Virginia is for lovers” motto. This particular bonus was visible in the distance but gated off this morning even though it was during the stated hours, so I took and emailed an extra photo showing the closed gate. The other rider was there too, but our paths seemed to diverge at this point and I didn’t see him again until the end of the rally.
 

I realized around this time that my phone wasn’t getting a data signal, so my SPOT track wasn’t updating and my last couple of bonus picture emails were still stuck in my Outbox. I fiddled a bit with it but just didn’t seem to have a signal, so I chalked it up to the nearby mountains and just decided to keep moving.

Next up was the bonus I’d been looking forward to since reading it in the rally pack – called FLOOZIE for Floozie’s Pie Shop in Louisa VA. You had to buy a slice of pie and take a photo of it along with your receipt and of course your rally flag. The shop is located in a small downtown area, but I found a parking spot almost right out front and ran in. The three ladies behind the counter were very pleasant, but obviously determined to get through their day at a pace much slower than “Rally – Full out”!

I asked for a piece of the delicious looking chocolate cream pie in the case. They asked if I wanted to take a seat, so I began to explain that I’d be eating it standing up, thank you very much, as I had to get going quickly. That’s when Lisa, another rally rider, made herself known behind me by echoing my sentiment for speed and asked for a piece of the same pie. We took turns answering their questions about what we were doing and where we were going, etc. but I was completely focused on mentally willing the staff to cash me out quickly. I mentioned to the nice ladies that some alacrity in getting me my slice would be rewarded with a generous tip and finally got one of them to set about cutting the pie and serving it out. I asked to pay immediately and to get my receipt, feeling like I had ants in my pants, and I wrote in a generous tip. As I set my pie down on a nearby table, I realized I’d left my flag at the bike so ran out to retrieve it.

I got the required photo and then wolfed down one of the best slices of pie it seemed I’d ever had, while standing and staring out the windows at nothing in particular. I emailed one more photo of the empty plate, just to show the smug rally staff that I was eating pie and they weren’t, (take THAT motorcycle only detour!) then moved on with many thank you’s to the pie shop staff. I would love to go back here to properly enjoy some coffee and pie when I am not on a rally clock!

Lisa took her pie to go in a box and was just riding away as I finished up my paperwork at the bike.

The next bonus was a quick 15 minute ride away, another LOVE sculpture on the shores of Lake Anna. This was another one where the GPS tried to take me directly to the coordinates from the road even though there was no driveway. I pulled another U-ey and picked my way in to get to the spot. Lisa was there completing her stop and we re-introduced ourselves and said good luck.

My wife, who was following my Spotwalla track from her computer, had been concerned that I wasn’t leaving Roanoke and had called me at one point wondering if everything was OK. I explained about the cell signal and as I rode to my next stop, I decided to reboot the phone – there being no mountains in sight and still no signal! This seemed to finally wake the thing up and get the data flowing once more.

An hour or so north to Warrenton and another LOVE sculpture on the manicured grounds of the Airlie Conference Center.

Weather was still great and I was thoroughly enjoying the scenic farmland roads of Virginia on this ride.

Then 45 more minutes to my northernmost point of the rally in Purcellville, which reminded me eerily of Pleasantville, with perfect little downtown streets with 20 mph speed limits, bump-outs for pedestrians everywhere, people laughing with their neighbors in the parking lots and sidewalks, dogs and cats living together…well you get the point. Got my photo of the train station and kept a rollin…

The next bonus on my route was a good hour and a half away, so I reminded myself to be on the lookout for something purple, for the semi-wildcard bonus RAIN, commemorating the anniversary of Prince’s passing. You needed a pic of something purple along with your rally flag and it had to be on Friday. Just north of Front Royal, I spied a mass of purple by the side of US 522 and the 500 bonus points were mine.

I continued south on US 522 for many miles to Sperryville, then VA 231 down to Etlan. The pleasantly twisty Blain Road brought me to Ducard Vineyards for the next bonus. Again the GPS had its little laugh at me, taking me on some goat path out to the very back of the vineyard where it crossed a running brook. Surely not…! Luckily there was a fellow working out there and he directed me back almost to the road where the GPS had taken me on the wrong fork. I followed ANOTHER somewhat nicer gravel path to the actual tasting room and yet another LOVE sculpture – this one made from wine bottles.

I continued down through the backwater burg of Syria VA and eventually down to US 33 which led me west over the Shenandoah Mountains to Harrisonburg. Had to navigate some downtown streets to get some more LOVE, but the GPS did me right this time down some one-way alleyways and traffic was light.

I now had a stretch of some 60 miles south on I-81 to I-64 west. I’d been chatting with my buddy Ken (also riding the rally) a couple times during the day just to pass the time, and this was a good moment to catch up. Though he started from Youngstown OH, our paths had converged and it turned out he was about an hour or so ahead of me heading for the same bonuses. Even stranger, we’d both booked hotels in Dry Ridge KY for the night, so he was headed along the same roads I’d be hitting in the coming hours.

I reached Humpback Bridge, just off the interstate and my final daylight-only bonus for the day, around 19:00. This LOVE-able bonus had a twist in that a riverside tree created the V in the word when viewed from the proper angle. The arched bridge in the background made for a pretty picture.

Back on I-64, I crossed the state line into West Virginia soon thereafter, and around 20:00 made a small detour to get the only other ZIP bonus I’d had time to map out for this route, in Smoot WV – a satisfying 977 points!

Darkness fell as I continued west on I-64, then north on US 19 through Beckley and up to the town of Oak Hill for a nighttime photo shoot of this memorial plaque to Hank Williams outside the town library.

I needed every bit of my LX5 aux lights on hi-beam as I cruised WV 612 in inky blackness and occasional rain drops heading back west to link up with I-64, twisting northwest toward Charleston. I waved to the daylight-only bonus in Charleston as I passed through and at some point or other, the rain finally started – in earnest. And I mean downpours. I hunkered down in my heated Gore-tex cocoon, focused on the road ahead of me, and tried to enjoy the dryness inside my gloves while it lasted (which wasn’t nearly long enough).

70 miles past Charleston I made it to my first EAGLE bonus in the six-part combo, which was a major factor in my route plan. It was 23:00 and raining in sheets, but the eagle statue was lit up and I aimed my bike’s lights to ensure as clear a photo as possible.

By this time, I’d already decided to forgo the next two planned bonuses (worth about 700 total points) from my route, and was focused only on getting to the next EAGLE bonus before hitting a nice dry hotel room. My gloves became quite soaked through over the next two hours and 140 miles of interstate, which is now just a blurred memory.

As I rode, I reviewed my final stops and the distance to the hotel, which I could have sworn was right up the road from the last EAGLE. Due to a drop of water on the screen, for many miles I was convinced that I had made a mistake and still had another 63 miles to go after the bonus. Got my second EAGLE combo photo in the rain, then pulled in to a nearby closed gas station to make some wardrobe adjustments under the roof and double-check my mileage.

I was deliriously ecstatic to see it was indeed only 6.3 miles to the hotel now, as at that moment I couldn’t envision riding a bit more in the dark rainstorm with cold wet hands.

Rode the last few miles into Dry Ridge and pulled in to a Speedway, right next to my Quality Inn, to get my starting receipt for the rest bonus at 01:32. I was an hour and a half later than I’d originally hoped to be, even after skipping out on two bonuses. I had been hoping to get as close to six hours rest as I could (for max points), but now I’d have to cut it short in order to get started early enough to make it through my planned bonus list, including four more EAGLES. My goal was to be back on the road by 06:00.

I grabbed a sandwich and snack from the store. Exchanged banter with another customer about the weather, waterlogged mess that I felt like, and I said I was glad to be getting to my hotel next door. The checkout lady overheard and warned me that the hotel was sold out – to which I smugly replied that I’d actually called ahead for the last room the previous night.

I rode the last few hundred yards next door, checked in – very quick process here, which I greatly appreciated! Showered, ate while I reviewed my route to verify my wake-up schedule, and laid out my duds for the morning with my gloves propped on the wall heater to dry out. Set my phone and the room alarm clock and drifted into well-needed oblivion for four hours.