(a.k.a. Mason Dixon 20-20 Rally Trip – Part 3)

DAY 4 – Bedford PA to Martinsburg WV
Sunday, May 28
(~ 460 miles)

I arose at the alarm and got going quickly after obtaining my ending REST receipt at the same gas station up the street. There wasn’t a coffee maker in the hotel room and I didn’t want to take the time to get some at the station. So it would be a slow gradual awakening for me – something I’d later regret, as I was ripe for making mental errors. The next bonus was just a couple miles away, and I continued on from there in there, collecting all the FORBES combo bonuses (mostly historical markers) as the dawn light crept into the sky behind me and became morning.

The Forbes Road went through a lot of small towns and I was glad to be getting through most of them in the wee hours. This plaque for Fort Ligonier, for example, was smack in the middle of a town square and riders getting in during the day faced the crowds attending some sort of open market.

So here is the second to last bonus in the FORBES combo, bonus ID 207-W. What you cannot see in this picture is the large granite block monument immediately to the right of the frame, standing in those rocks.

Remember this – there will be a quiz later.

The last combo bonus was in Pittsburgh itself, up atop the height of land next to the meeting of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers, overlooking the site of Fort Duquesne. I had heard rumors through the grapevine at the last moment about a bridge being out in the city, but I hadn’t had time to check into it. I kept seeing huge blinking signs as I approached the city, letting me know the Liberty Bridge was impassible. Well, I should have guessed, but of course the Liberty Bridge is the one that my GPS needed me to take and it wasn’t happening today.

Detouring around downtown Pittsburgh to find another way across the river was…challenging. There were three different detour routes signed and it was really confusing to figure out which to follow, on top of which the tall buildings began messing with my GPS signal. At least it was before 08:00 and at least the traffic wasn’t too heavy!

I finally navigated my way to the Smithfield Street Bridge, a four lane minor bridge next to the Liberty. When I turned onto the bridge, I was looking head-on at a city bus coming at me and I braked hard to evaluate what the heck was happening, the car behind me honking in displeasure. Though the bridge was four lanes, the middle two were apparently flex lanes that could be used for either direction, indicated by the green/red light signals above the lanes. I was OK to cross in my (far right) lane only and I quickly continued on my way, slightly rattled.

I finally found the correct road to climb up the mountainside to Grandview Ave. You needed two photos: one of the veteran’s memorial outside the museum, and one looking down at the site of Fort Duquesne and the meeting of the rivers. I ran into some other MD2020 riders who pointed the way to the observation deck and said that the view was fogged in but the Rallymaster was aware and just asked for our best effort.

Luckily the fog had cleared a bit by the time I walked out there and I was able to see the magnificent fountain down in the park. It would have been a shame to miss this view, as it was my first time ever going through Pittsburgh.

I skeedaddled out of the city as quick as I could now, heading for my last critical bonus, one more T stuck out in eastern Ohio. I luckily remembered the COW wildcard bonus where we could take a photo of any dairy cow and spotted this shy girl on a hill along the way.

I continued on US 30 in a northwest direction into Ohio and took OH 45 to skirt Salem and then west to Alliance to grab this last “T” castle photo for my tower (~160 miles out and back!). I did have one more bonus penciled in off the highway for the way back, but it would have put me too close for comfort to the time limit and I decided to scrap it.

Now I just had to make the long run of ~250 miles back to rally headquarters. A few state roads brought me eventually to I-76, and I settled into a brisk pace with about 20 minutes cushion to make it back and hoping for no traffic jams or other obstacles in my path.

Well the weather hadn’t had it’s final say in this rally yet. Somewhere in SW Pennsylvania along a remote stretch of highway going through the mountains, the skies that had been growing uglier finally burst open. This section of I-76 didn’t really have any exits or pull-offs and was chock full of hills and curves…nowhere safe to pull off to get buttoned up. On top of it all, of course, I really had to pee!

I finally found an “emergency only” pull-off area and got all my jacket vents zipped, had a quick nature break perched precariously at the top of a steep hill in the underbrush and driving rain, and then took a quick minute to get my wits about me. I pulled back out onto the highway and the rain got worse, the heaviest precipitation I’ve ridden in to date. The cars ahead of me had their hazards on and I followed suit, barely able to see 50 feet ahead and slowed down to 30 mph or so through huge sheets of water on the roadways.

I could see the edge of the storm cell with brighter skies ahead. Within a few miles, as suddenly as it had arrived, the rain petered out and the roadways were bone dry. That turned out to be the last of the weather I’d face and I made good time all the way back to the finish, checking in with 25 minutes to spare.

I entered the hotel and found a spot to settle down and prep for scoring in the dining area. I verified and transcribed my scribblings to legible rally copy, then filled out my tower diagram. Only then did I realize the first huge mistake I’d made. You needed three T bonuses to complete your tower’s top level. With Boston’s Fort Independence bonus being worth two T’s and the other T from Bloomsburg early on Saturday morning, my late rally run to Ohio had been absolutely unnecessary and wasted a huge amount of time and bonus point opportunity. I could have darted around the Pittsburg area with all the time savings, picking up at least another couple thousand points.

I filled in all the rest of the tower squares and for some illogical reason now lost to me, used three E bonuses for my spares (spares could be used if one of your primary chosen tower bonuses was denied at the scorer’s table).

Kicking myself over the extra T, I finished my prep and went down to the scoring room, where I was put into queue to be scored. While I sat there chatting with my compatriots, someone who had been scored sat nearby and mentioned something about the bonus in front of the BP station – bonus ID 207-W  (I told you to remember that, remember?). There was apparently a granite marker and plaque there that was the correct photo (right next to the historical marker sign). My heart sank further as I flipped through my bonus photos on my phone (I chose to email photos from the road for this rally to be scored ahead of time). I had indeed taken the wrong picture….second huge mistake! Because  that bonus was part of the Forbes Combo, I thus forfeited the 1758+ points for that combo in addition to the points for the bonus itself!

I’m going to borrow two photos from other riders to illustrate the deviousness at play here:

As you can see in the first photo (which was almost correct), the BP station is at an intersection, so pulling in to the lot is the safest place from which to take the photo. Once there, the Historical Marker sign was the obvious target – the granite slab located right next to it just blending in. Having just taken pictures of several signposts like the one shown, it was easy to forget (for about half the riders at least) that there was a darn sample photo of the correct plaque in the rally book, which of course looks like photo #2 if you just walk around to the road side of the slab!

After running what I’d been feeling was a spot-on-time rally and feeling good about my route and performance throughout, I was now bummed out about my two major oversights, nothing but mental errors. I sat down to get scored, knowing I was no longer even hopeful in the running for a podium placing, though maybe a top ten…?  Everything else checked out fine but that one bonus, 207-W. As we got to the tower scoring, to my horror I realized that I’d used 207-W for one of my W blocks in the tower and (third huge mistake) I hadn’t specified a spare W. This means the W, O, and T levels of my tower were all worthless and I would only earn the 100% base point value for all my bonuses.

Even worse: had I been thinking clearly I could have changed the damn thing to one of the other W bonuses I’d visited before sitting down at the scorer’s table, while I was waiting = fourth huge mistake. My tower (and hopes of a decent finish) had crumbled. The famous rally epithet for not following instructions properly goes “…and you will be sad.”  And I was. 🙁

After scoring, I went upstairs with my tail tucked, to clean up and call my wife, which helped a little.
I knew others had made the same mistake on 207-W, though maybe not all had compounded their error by using it on their tower like I did with no backup spare. I knew that (eventually) I would look back and laugh and learn from this, so it was time to relax and commiserate with/cheer on my fellow riders at the banquet. We were treated to some wonderful BBQ brisket and burnt ends, cooked up right outside the hotel over several hours that day by the rally staff (thank you…yum!).

(Forgive the poor resolution of these next photos, I deleted them accidentally and only recovered the thumbnails)

Following the magnificent feast of meat and cake, awards were presented. Among the first to be mentioned as they worked backwards to the winners, I managed to place 34th out of 40 bikes that completed the rally. Doing the math later, 207-W cost me 5th place and my little jaunt to Ohio cost me the podium (all other things being equal of course – I know other riders can say the same thing). It’s all about keeping your wits about you while under the strain of the ride and the clock – you end up with the score you deserve.

I talked with a few others who had found higher point routes than I’d imagined possible, only to have 207-W cause their world to come crashing down as well. I love playing this game. Rick and his team really gave us a good run, with some history and interesting gameplay (tower) mixed in. Brilliant playing, Mr. Rallymaster…I look forward to our next duel!

Here is my rally track (~1589 miles):

Bonuses visited in order:
149-E, 221-E, JIM, 53-E, 3-W, 239-T, 222-E, 51-0, 153-S, 172-S, 155-W, 117-W, 224-E, 230-E, 113-R, 190-R, 22-W, REST, 200-W, 200-R, 150-E, 28-E, 34-W, 85-W, 81-R, 220-E, 207-W, 219-E, COW, 198-T