Saturday April 22
(467 miles)

Got up on time with my alarm and drank coffee while briefly reviewing my plan of attack from Dry Ridge KY. I’d originally planned to hit Louisville first, figuring traffic would be light, for a trio of bonuses in the early a.m. , but my late arrival to the hotel had extended my rest too late into the morning. So instead I planned to head directly for a bonus grouping worth about 2500 points due west in Mitchell IN, then working my way south to collect my remaining four EAGLE combo bonuses.

According to Basecamp, it would give me about an hour or so cushion to reach the finish by the 3pm rally deadline. I commenced the morning routine to get the bike packed up, ice in the thermos, etc. My gloves had dried out nicely with the heater on full blast. Grabbed a very quick bite in the hotel breakfast bar on my way out the door.

Next door at the Speedway, I clocked out of my REST bonus with receipt #2, showing I hadn’t put any miles on the bike during my 4.5 hr stop.

I also took this opportunity to avail myself of a 6-pack of Blue Moon to satisfy the requirements of the 6PACK bonus – intended to ensure there would be libations to enjoy at the finishing banquet, which is in a dry county. They had only crap beer in cans so I took a chance with bottles and stashed them away in various parts of my bike luggage, to hopefully survive the day’s ride.

The ride west out of Dry Ridge on KY 467 was a fun morning run in the semi-darkness that helped perk me up. I picked up I-71 south for 30 miles and then another nice ride on US 421 north to cross the Ohio River and the state line into Madison, Indiana.
Because I had changed the route up a bit last minute and hadn’t originally intended to come this way, I almost missed the Hanging rock bonus just a mile and a half off my route. But the town name jogged my memory (always read the rally pack!), so I checked nearby places on the GPS and added it to my route. A quick ride through town and up a hill to this striking Hanging Rock by the side of the road, for some unexpected points.

I continued west on IN 56, making good time on the straight road and chatting with Ken by phone, who was running about an hour ahead of me at this point. We seemed to have the same basic plan for the day, though our bonus point values didn’t match up based on our different start locations. He warned me of a posted detour up ahead and recommended that I ride all the way up to the barricade, as he’d found the local detour route around the closure.

As I rode through Scottsburg at I-65, there were signs warning of the Route 56 closure four miles ahead, and directing through traffic to hop on the interstate for who knows how long to get around! Though I felt apprehensive, I trusted the tip and it paid off. I got all the way up to the Road Closed signs before I noticed a small local farm lane to the left. I took that left and my first right following very non-descript detour signs for locals, and boom, back on 56 within about two miles!

I veered northwest on IN 60 out of Salem, making good time to Spring Mill State Park, about 45 minutes after they opened up for the day.  There were two juicy bonuses in this park. The first one was right inside the front gate, so after paying my $9 out-of-state entry, I pulled up to the little museum honoring Gus Grissom, ran in and got the photo of the Molly Brown space capsule.

I then headed deeper into the park, where it turned into a one-way loop of narrow lanes wending through the woods and campground area and eventually down to a large parking lot. My GPS directed me to continue past the lots and back up a hill, and then suddenly told me to take a left onto a fire road walking trail that looked to be heading straight back downhill to the large open area with the parking lots. Foiled again by Garmin! I put the hazards on and the bike on it’s stand, and started walking down the path, but quickly thought better of it. The GPS was plain wrong about this path! I had to get back to the lots, which meant doing a complete loop around the park again on the one-way lanes – what a time trap!
Finally back down at the parking lots, I parked my bike as close as I could get to where the GPS waypoint seemed to be. Grabbed my flag and began walking up the paved footpath, then jogging, then walking, etc. There was a maintenance guy in a truck cruising slowly up the path, so I flagged him down to confirm that yes, there was a mill up ahead if I kept going. No, I couldn’t go back and get my bike to get any closer!

Apparently, the mill is in the middle of a historical village recreation area. The rally pack mentions no long walks, so I knew the rally staff were enjoying themselves immensely when they scouted this bonus. I must have walked/ran at least a quarter mile (not fun in MC boots) before coming round the corner of trees to see the mill house and get my photo.

Breathing heavy in all my gear, I stumbled back to the bike, knowing I’d just used up a good portion of my day’s time cushion.

Having gone twice round the park, you’d think I would be an expert on this loop by now, but I was flustered from my unexpected hike, and followed my GPS’ suggestions to exit the park through a camping area loop road and via some abandoned farm road that didn’t appear to exist anymore. Arrgh!

I finally got back on the main loop and to the park entrance. Just a couple miles up the road in Mitchell, I bagged this Gus Grissom memorial statue, to complete the bonus trifecta for this little area of the map.

After this point, I’d planned only to get the four remaining EAGLE combo bonuses I needed before heading to the rally finish. However, I recalled a couple bonuses due south sort of on my way and did some quick on-the-spot routing on the GPS to add them in to my route – it only added about 20 minutes or so, still getting me to the finish with a bit of a cushion, including the time zone change to Central. I had to be efficient though, so I got moving south mostly on IN 37, passing through Hoosier National Forest and making my way back down to the state border at the Ohio River near Cannelton.

A quick jaunt along the river brought me to the next bonus, a house modeled to look like a lighthouse.

The next bonus was just up the river a ways. It was major points for Ken apparently, but very low for us VA starters. It was right on the way, however, so I pulled over and snagged the photo of this little spring along the river.

I crossed the river back into Kentucky in Cannelton, at this point, only then realizing that I’d failed to find a ZIP bonus for Indiana, even though I’d passed right through several towns. No help for it now, so I continued south on KY 69, playing with the GPS to see what it could do to find nearby post offices.
Turns out just searching for “post office” brings up a list including mileages and clicking for more info give you the address, including the zip code! I had just passed through Fordsville when I checked this list again and realized the PO was right off my route. Pulled a U-ey and got my ZIP points for Kentucky.

I had run the whole first day of the rally with point-to-point routing, entering each waypoint after reaching the previous one. Towards the latter half of the this morning, I punched in all the remaining bonus stops in order, so I could keep track of my arrival time at the finish. My time cushion shrunk at one point to 20-25 minutes and the adrenaline was flowing, me absolutely positive that I would hit traffic or some accident or some even more unthinkable devilry from the RallyMaster. Weather was overcast with occasional sprinkles and maybe a heaver shower or two. Nothing like last night.

The next two EAGLE combo bonuses were in the Hartford area, separated by only a few miles. I had the two bonuses in the incorrect order, so I had just past the high school when I happened to see the route on the GPS showing that I’d need to come back. Pulled another U-ey and did things properly.

Now I had a trek down a good 60 miles into Tennessee via the Natchez Parkway and I-65, which allowed me to make up a bit of time. I chatted again with Ken, who was picking up some extra TN bonuses before heading to the barn and feeling a bit greedy for doing so. I stayed focused on my eagles since all the nearby bonuses on my list were lower point values and finishing on time to avoid a DNF was of topmost concern!

I picked up the next EAGLE in front of a Portland bank and then cut over to I-24 through Springfield. I continued north back into Kentucky and realized that, once again, I’d failed to get a ZIP bonus while in another state (TN). I had one last gas stop I needed to make, but it went very smoothly and I lost almost no time.

My last EAGLE was at a cemetery entrance, and I ran into another rally rider who pulled in behind me and was kind enough to hold my flag from flapping in the wind while I got off a photo.

That was it! My final bonus was bagged and now it was an easy 50 miles to the finish, with an ETA about 25 minutes before the deadline. Once I realized this, I deliberately slowed my pace from full rally mode to “let’s get there in one piece without any LEO encounters” mode.

I leap-frogged the rider from the last bonus a few times on the way to the finish, just taking it easy and keeping an eye on the clock. More rain showers here and there, but I barely noticed. Our event had pretty much the entire state park lodge booked, so the finish line was right at the front door.

I checked in with the rally staff and gave them my final ODO reading. They asked for my 6-pack to add into the several huge coolers of iced beverages already waiting under a pop-up canopy there. I fished the Blue Moon bottles out from their hidey holes in my luggage and all were intact (though I later learned one must have leaked out a bit, as some of the clothing I used for packing material was wet and beery smelling).

They gave me my envelope to take to scoring and, after parking the bike, I found myself a table inside to camp out and process all my paperwork. Some angel had had the hotel provide a big pot of hot coffee and the rooms were buzzing with riders and staff everywhere. I got my scoring sheet and receipts in order and checked in to verify my scoring. They had nice big monitors lined up so you could see the list of your scored bonuses, etc. along with the scoring guy. I was given credit for all bonuses I’d claimed, and left nothing at the table, which was my first concern. I think I ride these rallies start to finish thinking that I’m doing something basically wrong and will only find out at the scoring table. My final score didn’t match up with theirs by a significant amount, so I was passed on to see a “real scorer”, where we figured out that I’d been given credit for a full six hour rest instead of the four and a half that I’d taken. We got that fixed and signed me out for 1435 miles and 39887 points.

I then met and thanked our awesome rally master, Lynne, for all the effort that had been put in to ensuring that a bunch of crazy riders could have fun riding around the country looking for LOVE in all kinds of places. I also ensured she knew how much I appreciated getting my morning jog in for that mill house bonus in Indiana! Then I checked in to my room, cleaned up and broke into a couple cold ones and chilled out for a while in the hotel lobby, telling tales and swapping tips with the other riders. Ken and I caught up and turns out he gave up on that Spring Mill Park mill house after riding the park loop twice, so I felt a little better about my efforts. 🙂

The dinner banquet was a lot of fun: a buffet of tasty catfish fillets, sliced beef, hushpuppies, and other fixins. Got seconds on the catfish! Had a great table of folks to chat and laugh with as we wound down from a great ride. For swag, we received a square porcelain tile with the printed photo of ourselves doing goofy rock start poses on with our bikes for a pre-rally bonus.

After the meal, we got an update from the RM on some riders that didn’t start or didn’t finish for one reason or another (never great to hear but everyone was OK), followed by the trophy presentations. The trophies (1st thru 3rd place for each start location) were awesomely unique, musicians made of welded metal parts. I’d coveted the first place drummer trophy since a photo had been posted, but knew it was highly unlikely I’d be going home with one. As they called the names and scores of the top ten finishers from each starting location, I was surprised and pleased to discover I’d managed third place for the Danville VA group – a little guitarist trophy guy.

I came in a whopping 4000 points behind the first place VA rider, Jeff Wilson, who’d ridden 140 LESS miles and gotten six more bonuses – nice efficient ride! Ken took home a second place sax player trophy for his efforts from Youngstown, so looks like the similar routes we chose were *almost* the right ones. 🙂 Turns out the decision to skip Louisville had been fortunate as the evil RM knew that ramp-up events for the Kentucky Derby were already underway, making access a mess at most hours of the day. And even if I had remembered to find post offices in IN or TN, all the zip codes along my route were pretty low point values. I lost 2580 points total due to the shortened REST bonus, but I hadn’t lost much time at stops or in traffic before the rest, and based on my finish time could have only rested another half hour for 900 points. Better (or more realistic) routing choices would have been the only way.

For other interested RnR riders, my route ended up (excluding pre-rally bonuses): START, ABLE, ZIPVA920, BLOVE, FLOOZIE, DEEPLV, LSHACK, TKROLL, RAIN, ALLOVE, LVHS, HUMP, ZIPWV977, HWSD, EAGL7, EAGL8, REST, 6PACK, HANGROCK, MBROWN, SMILL, SPACECB, RIVERLH, LSPRING, ZIPKY343, EAGL2, EAGL4, EAGL1, EAGL6, finish.

This was a fun rally and included some beautiful riding and some challenging conditions, great camaraderie, and delicious catfish. The staff did an amazing job of tying everything together from four different starting locations and keeping everything organized and flowing efficiently. The ZIP bonuses were a great twist to keep you thinking while on the bike. Did I mention there was pie? I will definitely be back!