Knightstown IN – State College PA
Tue Jun 28, 2022
(~1313 miles)

Feeling like one of Pavlov’s subjects, my dedicated “rally” phone alarm got me up and off the grass with a small jolt of adrenaline. I’d actually slept for most of the 30 minutes and felt pretty refreshed. Food should help as well, so I unwrapped my sub and munched on that as I did some stretches and walked around the parking lot to get the blood flowing. There was a good chance this stop would get me through the night, with maybe a 5-hour Energy a bit later to keep my focus, when the sugar rush from the meal began to wane.

Once my app timer passed the 45-minute threshhold, I hopped back on I-70 eastbound. 15 minutes down the road, I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t actually clocked out and submitted the meal bonus yet. Shit! I did so immediately, then texted Jeff to let him know that I’d actually stayed at the restaurant for the full 45 minutes, and hopefully they could confirm with spotwalla. Again, it was no problem, he said, as long as the rest was over the minimum time limit.

I’d continued to experience sporadic problems with the Garmin XT resetting itself yesterday, even with the USB cord plugged in, which was a bit concerning. I was now punching every bonus in to Google via my POI Loader app as backup. While it takes extra steps after each bonus, it’s generally more efficient at routing anyway. Google does a great job getting you point to point, but I’d have to figure this GPS problem out soon, if I wanted to have my normal multi-point routing capabilities at hand. Using the smaller Zumo 350 was not as convenient and the screen is harder to see.

It had been a successful combined meal/nap stop, and now the empty night highway allowed me to make good time across the remainder of Indiana and then Ohio. When I reached Columbus just before 01:00, I took I-670 to OH 315 into the Franklinton neighborhood on the Scioto River. Cruising slowly up  West Broad Street, I reached the turn for the bonus, but the construction fencing blocking the entrance forced me to pull over and assess. Zooming in on the GPS and phone, the bonus should be right down the hill from here in a riverfront park, but the fence was literally blocking off every possible point of vehicle or pedestrian access to get there.

I texted Jeff yet again, to see if anyone had been successful in claiming this bonus yet. Luckily, he was still awake and responded shortly, confirming it was inaccessible and to proceed as normal with such situations. So I hung my flag on the fence and got a picture to show the blocked access to bonus AST13, which is a statue of one Lucas Sullivant, who first surveyed this area in 1795 and then founded the village of Franklinton with the acres of riverfront land he was rewarded.

Proceeding straight over the river, I rode by the Ohio statehouse and through quiet downtown streets to wend my way back out to I-70. The remaining miles through Ohio passed uneventfully through the early morning hours, and I merged north onto I-79 near Washington PA up towards Pittsburgh. I-376 brought me straight into the city around 03:30, crossing over to the Point and skirting the Monongahela River to the University of Pittsburgh campus.

I circled around a large quad onto 5th Avenue and pulled into a spot across the street from the coordinates, since there was no parking on that side. Thinking this would be a quick capture, I trotted over with my flag, phone and extra flashlight, looking for a tall pedestal-mounted statue as shown in the app photo for this bonus. Nothing. No statue in sight. Google said I’d arrived, but couldn’t see anything resembling the outline of the pictured statue. I began exploring the area and wandered around in the shadows for several minutes, acutely feeling the pressure of the rally clock as the darkness and unknown city pressed in uncomfortably around me.

A group of students were passing by (yes at 4 AM!) and so I explained I was on a scavenger hunt and looking for this statue, showing them the photo. When I mentioned the name of the subject, Thomas Starzl, one of them pointed right next to us at a bronze statue of a man sitting on one of the benches lining the sidewalk. I glanced at it briefly, but said, “No, that can’t be it because it has to look like this photo.” They said that was the only statue they knew of near there, and I thanked them for stopping.

Hmmm. I sent yet another middle-of-the-night text to Jeff, asking if this statue had been removed to their knowledge. I walked back over to the bike and pulled out the rally book to look at the official bonus listing. Ugh, the sitting statue WAS the correct one – the app was wrong! I texted my discovery to Jeff so he wouldn’t have to respond, then quickly jogged back over and got my photo of ASC15. Dr. Starzl performed the first human liver transplants and is often referred to as the “father of modern transplantation”.

I was perspiring quite a bit now, with all the anxious running about in my gear, and had used up a full 15 minutes at this stop. That made me about 50 minutes behind schedule now. I got moving again and even the slight breeze from movement was a relief. After one missed turn, I made it back onto I-376 heading back west towards downtown Pittsburgh.

Crossing the Allegheny River on I-279 and passing Heinz Field, I made my way to North Ave and parked by an entrance to West Park, close to the coordinates. Bonus APR59 makes Washington #10 for me and is a larger stone sculpture of George on a horse. Bonus multiplier is now at 675 points. Ideally, I should have collected this bonus before Starzl, to increase the multiplier first, but I was trying to make up time and this was the most time-efficient route through the city so I didn’t overthink it.

In the spring, I had purchased a hands-free tactical pocket-clip flashlight to use on the bike for doing rally paperwork and such at night. I’d learned in the Heart of Texas that this little LED beauty was powerful enough to use for most nighttime bonuses as well. It continued to earn its keep on this rally – the brightest setting did a fine job by itself of illuminating the statue and flag for this photo without requiring three hands.

North Street brought me to I-279 north, out of the city and eventually back to I-79. I took I-76 westbound back into Ohio, making for the next two bonuses up in Cleveland as the day dawned. The timing worked out perfectly. After zipping through the maze of interstate interchanges around this city, I snuck in from I-90 before rush hour on MLK Drive through the lovely and narrow Rockefeller Park area. I turned on a short windy road up a hill to East Boulevard and pulled over next to a small well-landscaped sculpture garden around 06:00.

Rallymaster Paul seems to enjoy placing two bonuses very geographically close to each other, so that it’s not immediately obvious on a zoomed out map that there are in fact multiple bonuses. Maybe they teach this at rallymaster school, because I’ve seen it on the IBR as well. 🙂 This was another such occasion, and I felt lucky that I’d noticed it, because again the two were actually just a few yards apart from one another. With my current multiplier, I’d also receive a total of 1350 extra points from this one stop.

ACL13 would be my second bonus in the Goethe & Schiller combination.

And with just a small twist to my right, AED15 is a bust of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, an educator and pioneer in the German gymnastics movement. Hey, I guess there are founding fathers for everything, right? This was a small bonus value, but with the multiplier points it made a nice extra capture for no effort.

I-90 brought me another 100 miles east into Pennsylvania’s panhandle, where I exited for a short detour to the village of Waterford. First, I took the opportunity to fuel up right off the exit, then continued south on US 19 for a few miles behind some maddeningly slow morning commuters. Next to the village historical society was a small park containing bonus APR60, a statue of GW (#11 for the combo) holding out a book, rather sheepishly it seems.

Local traffic was equally as frustrating going back up to I-90, with a big semi gumming up the works. Finally made it to open highway once more, but it wasn’t very “open” for long. So began several endless construction zones through the rest of Pennsylvania and into western New York, for paving work. I did what I could to work around the stalled traffic, but the long one-lane sections were a killer that were severely eating away at my ETA.

My stress level was rising, I ran out of water, and I needed a nature break pretty badly – I was in need of an all-purpose stop, all things considered. Luckily the NY State Thruway maintains a string of modern service plazas along it’s length. I began counting the miles to the one in Angola and organizing my to-do list for the upcoming stop to minimize the time off the bike.

I pulled into the service plaza and parked next to a familiar-looking Goldwing, which I recognized as belonging to Art Garvin. This plaza is somewhat unique in that each side of the interstate has it’s own pull-off and parking with service stations, but shares centrally located facilities in the median of I-90, reachable via an enclosed pedestrian bridge. I doffed my helmet and jacket, left the engine running, and went jogging across the skybridge, dodging other travelers along the way. It felt like I was running to catch a plane.

Restrooms first, then into the small store for a couple large bottles of water and to replenish my 5-Hour Energy supply. I met Art there in line and we exchanged a road-weary greeting while waiting for our turns. Sale completed, I gathered my goods and jogged back across the bridge, passing by Art and many others. At my bike, within 2 minutes I quickly dumped cold water to fill my thermos, drank the remainder, stowed the 5HE’s, disposed of the trash, and quickly geared up and got motoring again, . I tooted a farewell to Art as I left, my mind already on the task of calculating whether I could salvage any of the four New Jersey bonuses from my original leg plan after all this wasted time in construction.

A few more miles on I-90 and I exited to NY 5, skirting Lake Erie up to downtown Buffalo. It was just past morning rush hour, so it traffic moved pretty well getting into the city. I circled around a few blocks to the county courthouse on Franklin Street. APR62 marked my 12th Washington bonus, and shows the slim president holding another book tucked close, hand on one of those eponymous stone pillars.

I ignored my GPS route east through many city blocks and got right onto I-190 east out of the city and back to the Thruway. I ran into still more construction and heavy traffic on the way towards the Rochester area. With all these delays, it was now clear that I’d need to bail on some bonuses. The intermediate goal now was to make it to the big bonus in Jim Thorpe, then re-assess my options to see if I could still manage Philly and Valley Forge, both of which were vital to complete the 15 Washingtons combo.

Taking the I-490 loop up towards Rochester, I started getting lit with radar and Waze police warnings, all which turned out to be accurate. So I kept the pace reasonable as I approached the city. Nearing the downtown area, I exited into the small Susan B Anthony neighborhood and parked on a small tree-lined residential lane that bordered Susan B Anthony Square Park. The  former home of the revolutionary women’s rights advocate, now a museum, is close by within this picturesque neighborhood.

There were tourists walking around the streets in this area including a large group in similar t-shirts gathering in one section of the park. Of course, they were gathered right where I needed to go: around bonus ACR20. This statue commemorates the friendship of Frederick Douglass and Susan B Anthony, following a long-standing disagreement over the prioritization of civil rights for women vs African Americans. The statue seemed particularly important to the group getting photos there and I didn’t want to disturb them, so I removed my helmet before walking over. I stood a ways back and surreptitiously snapped a shot clearly showing that I was there and had gotten off the bike to make an effort for the photo, from more or less the correct angle.

Back on I-490, I continued to loop east through Rochester. The traffic was thick, but moving, and I had a rabbit to follow on the open portions. Hitting I-90 again, I continued east, amidst more pockets of stopped traffic. Ugh, I’ve always had pretty good luck making time on the NY Thruway, but today it was not to be.

North of the finger lakes, I took NY 414 north for a quick out-and-back to the lovely little community of Clyde, on the Erie Canal. The small well-kept town park there yielded bonus APR72, which was Washington #13 for me. That bumped my multiplier points up to 900.

That was a nice little ride on 414 for that bonus – getting off interstate for even a short stint into the rural hills and farmlands was highly enjoyable. But back to the interstate I must go, motoring east another 30 miles or so. Garmin and Google were fighting a bit regarding the best approach to my destination in Syracuse, and I opted to take I-690 along the southern shore of Onondaga Lake, with some pretty views. It was just past noon when I exited near the I-81 interchange into a depressed-looking urban landscape, working my way through local streets heading uphill from the highways.

3rd Avenue was a short inclined side road ending at the entrance to Schiller Park. Directly ahead of me, up a long steep flight of concrete stairs and atop the hill, was my third and final replica statue of Goethe and Schiller, bonus ACL14. Riders Lew B and Billy C were here, finishing up their bonus collection, and we all gave each other a wave while I found a level spot to lower the kickstand by the park gate.

A small group of young neighborhood kids was there playing, watching the strange motorcycle people in space suits trudging up the endless stairs with flags and phones to get a picture of a statue they probably don’t even notice anymore. One of them asked me what we were doing, and I told him we were in a scavenger hunt, riding all over the country to take pictures of statues like this one. He asked if there was a prize and I said no, just for fun. They didn’t know what to think of that, but asked no more questions.

The other riders had left by the time I got back down those stairs and submitted my bonus. I navigated through the city streets, down off the hill and out to I-81 to start heading south. Sounds easy and straight-forward, right? And looks that way on the map too. Little did I suspect that this next portion of the ride was to be such a brutal test of patience and physical endurance.

To start things off, I got stuck for miles behind a rolling roadblock caused by an oversize truck, transporting one of those insanely long wind turbine sections. It didn’t help that this highway has lots of curves and hills, with the truck often wavering across the lanes as he took the corners faster than a vehicle that size probably should do. Thanks to the tentative driving of all my four-wheeled companions on the road, who were either afraid or too distracted by their phones to pass the truck when opportunities arose, it took much much longer than it should have to get by.

Once I did finally get around that particular obstacle and back up to speed, it didn’t take long to realize that there was something seriously wrong with the surface of this interstate. For some ungodly reason, the NY highway department had decided to make 4′ long full-lane cutouts in the pavement, perpendicular to the lane direction, filled in with asphalt mix, creating a pattern of jarring bumps literally every 50 feet or so.

To illustrate what I mean here, picture what happens when a residential homeowner gets new water or sewer lines installed. The crew digs a trench across the road, and then covers the cut they made with asphalt that doesn’t ever quite match up with the overall road surface. Not too big a deal for light residential traffic at 25 mph. Now imagine that at regular intervals for dozens of miles on a high-speed interstate. I’m not sure what this stretch feels like in an automobile, but on two wheels at highway speed, it generated an uncomfortable and unstable pattern of jolting and suspension bounce, pogo-ing me up off the saddle each time, with no chance to recover from bump to bump. I couldn’t think of one reason for such alterations on an otherwise smooth highway that rolls through rural upstate New York in the middle of woods and farmlands – clearly there were no sewer or water lines out here under this road!

On top of that, and perhaps related, my GPS was getting REALLY grumpy now. Despite being plugged to USB, it kept briefly losing power and prompting me that “Fuel tracking is only available for motorcycle mode”. I would press OK, and the prompt would immediately come up again, blocking whatever I was looking at or trying to do on the unit. So I was trying to puzzle that fun issue out, while going over those horrid surface bumps for miles, which pretty much required two hands over every bump.

I managed to disable the Fuel Tracking feature to eliminate the prompts, but now the unit just kept turning off/on repeatedly in a machine gun rapid-fire pattern, reminding me of the final scene in Wargames, before finally freezing the screen. Now I was feeling pretty grumpy myself! Here is the track my GPS recorded in between reboots along this portion of I-81.

Something finally clicked about the GPS behavior as I thought it through, over the bumpy miles. The cradle was losing its power for a second, but the USB was also supplying power. So the GPS would issue the useless prompt about fuel tracking, which only works when the cradle power is detected. Then, once I disabled that, all it could do was tell me that power was off/on/off/on repeatedly. Since the GPS did work fine when off the cradle, this was definitely an issue with the cradle wiring.

The diagnosis was disheartening, as I thought I’d dealt with those problems once and for all (documented in past trip reports). To confirm my theory, I needed to block the GPS from detecting cradle power at all. I figured I would try to cover up the cradle contacts with electrical tape at the first opportunity, so that the GPS would simply use the USB cable for all power. In the meantime, I stuck the XT in my tank bag. I’d have to  rely on my trusty Zumo 350 and Google for the rest of the day.

I made a fuel stop in the town of Castle Creek, by which time I was feeling so punch-drunk, that I came close to walking into the store and yelling at them for not complaining to the state about the quality of these highways! (If I wasn’t on rally time…) On the way up out of that valley, I passed through a construction zone where it looked like THEY WERE ACTUALLY CREATING MORE OF THESE ABOMINABLE CUTOUTS across the lanes. Were they really doing this on purpose? WTAF!?

The highway finally smoothed out after that, as I came into Binghamton. In my opinion, that entire section of interstate between Syracuse and Binghamton is not currently safe for motorcycle travel. Maybe the GSA guys loved it, I don’t know. 🤷‍♂️😡 Either way, I called Ken to warn him about it, since I knew knew from chatting today that he’d be coming along this corridor in a couple hours.

There were still many miles to go on I-81, down through Pennsylvania to Scranton. I missed the exit for I-476 north of town and used an exit to go back a few miles to catch it, not realizing that I could’ve just picked it up south of the city. 476 is a limited access throughway and a nice scenic ride through the hills in this area, passing through many State Gameland areas down past I-80. I exited on PA 903, enjoying another welcome escape from the interstates on country roads.

This was my first opportunity to venture into the town of Jim Thorpe, named in honor of the famous Native American athlete of the early 1900s. It’s situated in the Lehigh River valley, which seems a quite a scenic area that I’d like to explore further. Ironically, the man himself had never actually been here, and the story surrounding his burial and the town’s naming is a bit sad. On the outskirts of town, there is a gravel pull-off around a small park with sculptures of Jim Thorpe performing athletic feats in the several disciplines in which he excelled. Bonus AXX20 was the statue of Mr. Thorpe carrying an (American) football.

I took some extra time here to do some stretches and walk around the little park while taking in some protein. The long miles, terrible jarring conditions in NY, and GPS stress were all weighing on me, so the short break helped me focus. The Garmin XT was completely useless at the moment, so I used my Zumo 350 to run scenarios for an ETA at the checkpoint. After the carry-over delay from Day 1 and all the construction delays on I-90 today, the New Jersey bonuses were definitely out of the picture at this point and may never have been realistic to include.

It was 15:40 and this was a key decision moment. If I headed to the checkpoint in State College directly from here, there were no more bonuses along the way and I’d be in early, but would be sacrificing the Washington combo. If I continued south, time would be tight, and it was going to be rush hour in Philadelphia – there was just no getting around that. Buuut who am I kidding? There was no real decision to make – as long as my ETA was still before 21:00, I wasn’t giving up the Washington combo at this point! How many malls had I visited during this leg for GW statues, for crying out loud!? All I could hope for was that perhaps getting in to downtown Philly might be OK against the outward commute, but I really had no idea.

Without further ado, I got rolling again, with a renewed sense of urgency. I covered the 80+ miles down to Philly as quickly as possible. I-76 was jammed completely, and it was a frustrating stretch there as I bobbed and weaved through the lanes to keep making progress into the city center. Adrenaline was pumping and the rally clock ticked ever so loudly. I pulled up to Independence Hall right at 17:00, about 75 minutes after leaving Jim Thorpe’s monument.

The street in front of this historic building is still laid with original(?) brickwork, creating a tipsy uneven surface for a motorcycle, especially with the car tire. The city streets were abuzz with rush hour and lots of people walking about enjoying the lovely late afternoon. There were no parking spaces immediately at-hand, so I pulled over to the flattened curb near the statue with my hazards flashing… about 30 feet from the nice policeman standing nearby.

I stayed in the saddle as I put down my kickstand and got out my Hammy-stick, fiddling with my phone. I gave the officer a quick wave and a smile, motioning that I was just getting a quick picture of the George Washington statue (bonus APR76) right there on the sidewalk. He seemed OK with it and didn’t tell me to leave, so I proceeded to get the awkward shot from the saddle. As I was stowing my stuff, he strolled over and asked why there were so many of us. I grinned, asking if he had seen other motorcyclists like me. He said yes, so I explained it as a historical scavenger hunt, to which he grinned and nodded with sudden understanding. I thanked him for his patience and for letting me pause there for a moment.

The next bonus was right next door, but there wasn’t even a bit of wiggle room to stop on this side of the road, so I pulled carefully across the creeping traffic to a corner spot on the opposite side. I hopped off, engine running, grabbed my flag and crossed the street on foot into a small park to snap bonus AFF62, a statue of Thomas Jefferson.

OK – Philadelphia…done! Get me outta here! I now had just under four hours to get to the checkpoint before penalty points began to accrue. Back onto I-76 I go, and while it was jammed in this direction too, surprisingly it feels like I made quicker progress heading west out of the city. Still, I watched my ETA increase with every mile I rode under the speed limit, so I was super-focused with adrenaline now. It took me about 45 minutes to ride the 25 miles out to Valley Forge National Historical Park, along the Schuykill River.

I exited in King of Prussia and took PA 23 into the park. This was my first ride through Valley Forge, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect in terms of gaining entry. I’d scouted it briefly online and it seemed like riding through it wouldn’t require any type of gated entrance fee, which turned out correct. It seemed fairly similar to the Minute Man Battle Trail Historical Park back up in Massachusetts, with public roads passing directly through, with small lots and pulloffs by the historical areas.

The ride through the park was quite pretty, with rolling hills and curves in the road, though the cars ahead of me were sticking close to the low speed limit. I passed right by bonus AFF40 (Gen. Nathaniel Greene) on the side of the road, fully intending to come back for it after snagging my last Washington bonus, to maximize multiplier points. Really, the difference would have only been 75 points, and I should have just pulled in to collect it, but …rally brain. 🥴

I found my way to the parking spot near a gate I’d found on Google Street View, allowing me to quickly run into the park and snap APR74, another bronze George-with-cane-and-pillar dealio. This was my 15th Washington, completing the combo at last! My multiplier points were sitting pretty at 1050, but now I’d run out of bonuses!

By the time I’d peed in the bushes and walked back to the bike, it was about 18:20. I knew the ride to State College would take about 2.5 hours, giving me only a 10 minute cushion. I was feeling anxious about it, so rather than ride back the last half mile to nab the other bonus for an easy 1300 points (with multiplier), I tucked my tail and ran for it. I had forgotten that Google has no record of my riding speeds and averages, so making up the time was pretty likely. On the flip side, I had no idea what other delays might lay ahead of me this evening on the home stretch across Pennsylvania, and opted not to push things too far.

I enjoyed the twisty little roads west out of the park to Schuykill Township, passing a few slowpokes when safe, and then down to pick up I-76. The highway was crowded, but I found a rabbit to follow for several miles until he suddenly cut his speed way down. I then spotted the LEO cruising up ahead at just over the speed limit and dialed things back as well. Unfortunately, this fine officer, beacon of self-control and public traffic safety, decided to stay on I-76 the ENTIRE 70 miles or so to the Harrisburg area, keeping me effectively pinned down behind his rolling roadblock where I couldn’t make up any time. Arrgh! Luckily, going even a few miles above the limit was holding my Google ETA at bay.

I followed the interstates around Harrisburg and picked up US 22 north. This divided highway is actually a nice ride, following the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers to the northwest, with some great views, sweepers and higher speeds. I was motoring right along and focused to the point of a needle. It was going to be pretty close call as to whether I’d need to stop for fuel or not, so I needed to move quickly, but with a light throttle hand for efficient gas mileage. The miles ticked by as the sun slowly sank and I watched my ETA hold at 15 minutes to penalty. I managed to hold that time cushion all the way into State College, pulling up to the porte cochere at the Hilton to get checked in by Tara Tong around quarter to nine.

Tara, bless her heart (in the good way), told me a lot of stuff about what to do next, but after that last mad dash, my brain being mush, and my general poor hearing, I didn’t make out much of what she said. I asked her to repeat the important bits, like “What do I do Right Now?” then rode over to find a parking spot near the other bikes. There were some familiar faces hanging around in the lot, some riders who weren’t in the rally who’d come to welcome us all to the checkpoint, including Greg Rice and Steve Giffin. Steve got a really bum deal before the rally after a fender bender with a dump truck very close to his home took his bike out of action, just after he’d left for the start in Cheyenne last week. It was nice to see these guys there to support the event.

Since I wouldn’t be staying at this hotel tonight, I had to think carefully about what I needed to bring inside with me. Never underestimate the fogginess in your mind after arriving at a rally checkpoint. I gathered those items and headed inside to prep for scoring, stopping once more to verify with Tara that my clock was indeed stopped for Leg A, and that I would have some time to fill out my score sheet. I found a spot in the lobby and got to work, filling in the sheet from my notes and checking receipts, etc. Really, it didn’t take all that long, since I’d already transcribed the first couple days during my rest, and all the bonuses were already submitted via the app. This was just making sure I had my ducks in a row and would be able to spot and question any discrepancies during scoring.

After about a half-hour, I let Jeff know that I was ready to score, and he brought me in and handed me my scoring report. Ummmm, that’s quite a bit lower than I’d calculated, so they set to work immediately to figure it out. Looks like I may have fat-fingered one of the bonus name selectors in the app for one of the combo bonuses. Once they confirmed that I had indeed been to all three bonuses and had the correct photos of each one, my record was updated and the combo score kicked in, resulting in a first leg total of 89,191.

I had no idea what that meant for now, but it sounded competitive. Most importantly, I’d left no points on the table, successfully collected all three targeted combos, and had maxed out my rest correctly with all three meal bonuses taken. Despite bailing out on the small sweep through New Jersey (all low-pointers anyway), I’d accomplished my primary goals for Leg A and that felt pretty great.

On my way out, they reminded me that the rider meeting time had changed from 05:00 to 04:30 tomorrow morning. I asked if those of us down the street should be checking out of our hotel when coming over here, or would we be released to route on the clock after the meeting. Paul confirmed the latter, suggested keeping the room, and followed up afterwards with an email to everyone containing this information as well.

Time to eat! Rather than a buffet, this hotel was presenting each rider with a choice of three dinner options to eat in the lobby restaurant area. It took a while to get this through my rally-addled brain, but once I understood, I ordered the meatballs and pasta, then sat for a bit with some other riders to swap tales from the road. It seems the hotel was cooking each meal individually, so it took a long time to get my food. Those were some damn good meatballs, but I was wishing I’d just skipped the meal and could’ve already been down the street in my hotel getting ready for bed. I wolfed them down and most of the pasta, then wished everyone a good night until the morning meeting.

I was feeling quite nasty in my two-day-straight LD Comforts and not looking forward to wrapping myself back onto that bike for the quarter mile ride down the street, but I managed it. I remembered to stop to fuel up at the handy station along the way, so I’d be ready for quick morning departure. Always more tasks to do! I squeezed 10.2 gallons into the tanks, so I’d certainly pushed it pretty close to get here without an additional stop on the clock! The porte cochere at the overflow hotel was full of bikes already, so I just pulled up behind the last one, to be ready to hop on first thing in the morning.

The Country Inn was quite nice and the friendly front desk lady checked me in pretty quickly. Hauling my stuff inside, I washed my LD Comforts first and set them to dry. I then took a shower myself and got my laptop set up for routing in the morning. All was in position and prepped by around 23:00, when I finally relaxed into stress-free sleep.

Bonus Stops: 14

 

 

Leg A Stats

Miles: 4539
Bonus Locations: 33
Meal Bonuses: 3
Rest Bonus Hours: 8
Combos: Sports Figures, Goethe & Schiller (aka “the Two Guys”), Fifteen Washingtons
Points: 89,191
Bonus Order: ANA20, AED16, APR90, XEAT1, APR81, API17, XEAT2, APR49, APR87, APR51, ASP05, ASP04, APR54, ACL12, APR55, API16, ZSLP1, APR50, ASP06, APR52, AEX74, APR56, XEAT3, AST13, ASC15, APR59, ACL13, AED15, APR60, APR62, ACR20, APR72, ACL14, AXX20, APR76, AFF62, APR74