Coraopolis PA
Sun June 18, 2023
(0 miles)

Final day of waiting. I was able to sleep in a bit, rising around 08:00, grateful for the last full night of sleep I would likely get until the 30th. After another good breakfast, I felt like getting a bit of exercise to help digest and do away with some of the antsy-ness of the waiting. Gerry was up for a walk, so we headed out to explore the immediate neighborhood a bit on foot. We headed up the hill behind the hotel, keeping a sharp eye for traffic behind us as there was really no shoulder. We hiked a little loop up and over the hill, picking our way back down through an industrial park, enjoying the good weather, quiet streets, and light conversation away from the hubbub of rally central.

Returning to the hotel, we found riders taking care of last minute packing and maintenance of their bikes in the lot, also whiling away the minutes and hours until showtime. Steve Giffin was looking bright and stylish, with both bike and person decked out in dapper yellow & black. Here you can see his minimalist approach sans panniers for this year’s rally. I thought of the pounds and pounds of food and gear to be loaded on my ST (my toolbag alone probably weighs over eight pounds) and wondered if there was something to be said for taking the risk with fewer supplies and “what-if” gear to weigh you down.🤔

Back in the room, I set up my laptop for routing later tonight and prepped my files and Basecamp maps. I continued to try to get my HDMI connection working from laptop to the big screen TV. The TV has one of those dumbed-down remotes and seemed to be configured to block all attempts to use the additional ports and the entire desk was fixed to the wall. I wasn’t ready to give up on this challenge!

Based on a tip from Mr. Giffin, I crawled around under the desk and traced the cabling to a commercial-looking digital media box that was firmly mounted to the wall. It seemed all but impossible to maneuver my hand back there to get my cable plugged in. Bending my arm into an impossible angle, I managed to unplug the input cable from a port I couldn’t directly see and replace it with my own and… voila! I now have beaucoup screen space!

I got my gear and clothing organized, packed, and separated, including a bag of extra clothes, swag, and other stuff that I’d be leaving behind at the hotel during the rally. Close to 14:00, I headed downstairs and made my way to the assigned room for the general rider’s meeting. I made the mistake of sauntering through one of the many doors to the room that was NOT the main doorway where riders were being checked off for attendance. I was loudly called over by the gatekeepers to get properly checked into the meeting, ensuring my presence was recorded so I wouldn’t be held back from starting the rally with the rest of the field…oops! 😳

The meeting was conducted briskly, much more so than the past two IBRs. The rallymasters mentioned that the hotel needed us out in an hour, in order to prep the room for tonight’s dinner, so they didn’t waste any time getting down to brass tacks. Dale Wilson gave us a quick briefing on logistics for motorcycle impound (08:00 tomorrow), lining up for the start, and getting our odometer reading and final checkout done the following morning. In additional to some notes on next morning’s breakfast and storage of gear at the hotel, Lisa Landry’s primary message to us was “don’t make me open the red book!”, referring to the binder she kept with her at all times during the rally, which contained the emergency contact information for every rider. She and Bill Thweatt also covered logistics for arriving and checking in at the Tulsa checkpoint on Wednesday evening.

Jeff switched in to cover the bases on rules, speaking generically about process for things like the claim form, tracking bonus, call-in bonuses, rest, meaning of daylight, and so on. He called attention to a few minor rules clarifications, for example that “outside help” is now clarified to mean any type of information or assistance provided to a rider that could affect their routing decision. So no advice on avoiding weather or traffic detours, nothing. Also standard now is the social media blackout period that would begin at 08:00 tomorrow morning and last until 10:00 at the finish on June 30. He covered penalties to be aware of and warned us about excessive speeding, which would be monitored closely by staff via our satellite trackers.

They all spoke concisely and did not take questions due to the time constraints – the meeting was over before you could say “final drive failure”. Immediately following the meeting was a group photo in the hotel courtyard, courtesy of savvy staff photographer, Tobie Stevens. He got us herded into position pretty darn quickly for a bunch of independent minded SOBs!

After stopping Dale in the lobby to clarify the route out of the parking lot and which exact sections to park in, I ensured that I was already parked in an appropriate spot and facing the right direction. Then upstairs to chill out and finalize prep for tonight’s routing session. I reviewed the current weather and forecast around the country, to get an overall picture and note any major problem areas. Lots of heat in the south, a couple lows in western Canada and Maine, but a nice big high pressure system dominating the mid-Atlantic region. Looks like a nice clear morning for the start here in Pennsylvania tomorrow!

The long dinner line formed up shortly before 17:00 and moved pretty quickly. The food was good – your standard hearty Marriott buffet fare with plenty of salad, veggies, and a couple meat choices. Eating was probably the last thing on everyone’s mind at this point, as the hunger for POINTs was starting to take hold. But it’s important to stock up on something nutritious while you can, and anyway… food would actually soon be ruling our every thought and action for the next 11 days. 😉

After a full plate, I chased it with a cup of hi-test coffee and a small piece of lemon cheesecake, because everyone was raving about it. I’d prefer not to eat too many sweets just before the rally, but I have always eaten dessert at the banquet before the IBR start, because… what if? If something were to happen to me while out on the roads and byways, I’ll be damned if I’m going to leave this world after skipping out on dessert! I should have tempered the coffee with decaf, to ensure I’d be able to get to sleep when it was time to stop routing later tonight. First bad decision of the rally… check! ✅

I remembered to wander around the tables for a few photos. To be honest, it was far down on my list of concerns at the time, as we all were now ready to get those rally packs! Always glad I do it though, because it’s great to see the faces captured in the eager moments before showtime.

 

By 17:45, Lisa Landry was on the stage and welcoming us all to the 2023 Iron Butt Rally, whoo-hooo here we go! Without delay, they began the traditional process of distributing the rally packs, announcing each rider by name to walk up and claim their rally pack. Some may grumble at the time this eats up, but I rather enjoy this part of the process. The entrant list is not made public, even to the riders, until now. In my mind, the ritual of roll call allows the riders to officially see and recognize each and every competitor entered in this edition of the Iron Butt Rally (and what they’re riding), for the first time since signing up. We each are presented to our peers, in a way saying, “I am here. I am ready to compete. Ready to ride!”

And the rest are saying, “We see you. Welcome!”

The rally packs were enclosed in a black fabric zipper bag this year, with our rider number, last name, and the rally logo emblazoned on one side. We were warned not to open them until directed. My pal and IBR rookie Rob had the honor of receiving the last pack this year, having the highest IBA membership number in this year’s field. I cheered him on hard, having been in that position myself in 2019!

Then the room was given over to the routemaster himself, Jeff Earls, who pulled on a chef’s hat, as he introduced the theme of the rally – simply enough… food. No hidden agenda or weird categorization – just places having to do, one way or other, with the growing, manufacture, preparation, and consumption of that organic bio-matter we love in all forms and flavors.

We were finally given permission to open our rally packs and place the emergency contact information card with lanyard around our necks, where it should remain for the duration of the rally. The rally packet also contained: the rally book – in the form of two fairly thin stapled sheaves of paper; a 5×5″ plastic card; and our rally flag of course. One sheaf contained the thin-looking Leg 1 bonus listing, including just 40 (!) location bonuses. The other looked quite different, as it was covered with a garish-looking Bingo card design that matched the one on the accompanying plastic card.

Jeff gave us a rundown of how they envisioned medal placings for rally finishers being awarded based on percentages of the total field of riders. We were given us a target point value of 12,000 to shoot for on this leg to be considered on-track for finisher status. Then he spent some time going over over the Bingo packet, since it was a bit non-standard.

“Gut Bomb Bingo” turned out to be a side-game of BOLO (be on the look out) style bonuses consisting of fast food restaurants. The bingo bonuses would be available for the entire rally and the point values would not change. Everyone has the exact same card pattern. Each square is worth a fixed number of points, and then there are 11 combo bonuses – one for each row and column, plus one for covering the entire card.

Most of the restaurants are smaller regional chains, but there were also a few nationwide franchises (easier to find, but worth less points). To claim a spot on the bingo card, the rider must take a photo of a restaurant from the chain with their motorcycle (and flag) in the frame AND obtain a valid DBR (dated business receipt) for a purchase from that establishment. The packet contains a reference section that lists all the US states where each restaurant chain could be found. Importantly, we could only claim a restaurant if it was in one of those listed states (or in Canada for Tim Horton’s) from the rally pack. 

Similar to the earlier rider’s meeting, this one was concise. All told, Jeff spoke for just 20 minutes before releasing us from the banquet. I walked briskly through the halls and lobby with the other riders and was able to snag a ride on one of the first elevators up to my ninth floor room. I was in my room by 18:45 and pulling up my email to grab the rally bonus data files and begin processing into a workable routing palette in Basecamp. I managed to do so after just 45 minutes, which is pretty quick for me! The low number of location bonuses and lack of any complicated puzzles helped with that. Here’s the scatter:

I spent a few minutes looking at the Bingo game rules and points. Points ranged from 73 to 466 for the single squares, ~600 for the rows/column combos, and 2000 for the complete card blackout combo. These amounts were in keeping with the Leg 1 location bonus points, but I know that later legs will likely have bonuses and possibly combos worth a lot more points. I confirmed that the entire game was BOLO-based and there were no specific coordinates involved. I saw how regional some of these chains are and figured that collecting some of them was going to be unnecessarily inconvenient and unlikely to achieve. Considering that along with the fairly mediocre point total for getting all combos, I decided that the side-game was intended more as a tie-breaker than a key strategy in routing for this rally. I shelved it momentarily until I at least had a base route chosen.

My attention was immediately drawn to three super-high value bonuses (purple) available for Leg 1: in Denver CO, Cedar Key FL, and Bar Harbor ME. The cluster of additional high point bonuses in the northeast quadrant (red) drew my attention first. I worked on my first route for a while, which was pretty easy to put together, based on the scatter and overall small number of bonuses.

There was a decent size group photo bonus scheduled on Wednesday afternoon, just over the Kansas border north of the Tulsa checkpoint. I tried to make that work, but eventually realized that it was a red herring if I hoped to maximize points on this leg. The group bonus photo would be snapped precisely at 15:00 local time. With only 70 miles or about an hour’s riding to the checkpoint (which opens at 20:00), that would take me off the bike with a good four hours of on-clock ride time left on the table – not acceptable. The only other bonus within reachable distance is down on the far side of Oklahoma City, which would involve four hours of full-out interstate riding through two cities, there and back to Tulsa for just a single mid-sized bonus. I had no problem dropping the group bonus from the route.

Around 20:00, I received a knock at the door and opened it to a camera flash and the grinning faces of Lisa, Jeff, John Harrison, and Tobie. They wanted to see how things were progressing so I bid them enter and please excuse the mess, including myself! I explained that I was really just getting started, but I had an initial route done and was starting to look at other options. When pressed for which I was leaning towards, I said New England was looking like the place to be over the next couple of days, to which Jeff casually remarked, “not a lot of bailouts on that one”.

OK, fine, sure! Ask me if THAT comment wasn’t re-playing over and over in my head during the next couple of days on the bike… good grief! 😰 After a few minutes, they wished me luck and filed out to seek out the next unsuspecting victim.

With a first-draft Plan A identified, I turned my attention to the other areas of the map, to see if I could beat it. I looked at a run down to Florida next, but it didn’t compare for points. Same with a Denver-centric route. I tried to combine the two, but there just wasn’t enough time to scoop up enough of the other bonuses along the way to make it worthwhile. A fourth option included a run down to pick up some bigger bonuses through Memphis, Mississippi and New Orleans before circling west through Texas up to Denver, but that also fell short and felt too ambitious to be doable anyway.

Once I’d eliminated the other routes and decided to stick with Plan A (per usual), I looked at tweaking things and adding some Bingo bonuses along the way. I took some time to look more at the Bingo game now and marked up the card image on the rally book with notes on which states the the more unfamiliar restaurants were in. I’d be sure to target those when near those areas during the remainder of the rally. For now I focused on the ones that I should and could grab during Leg 1, and used Google to find locations right along my route. Minimizing time spent on these bonuses would be key, since they aren’t as significant overall. I managed to add seven to my first leg route plan.

Somehow, I ended up playing what-if games with the route and researched Bingo bonus stops until past 01:30 – way later than I needed to be up for such an obvious plan. I wasn’t feeling overly sleepy and realized now I should have skipped that full-strength cup of coffee at dinner. I called it good enough at this point, transferred all my route options to the GPSes, and created my routing sheet with ETAs for the tank bag. I closed down the laptop around 02:30 to finally get some sleep.

I knew that I’d probably made a strategic error by not getting to bed earlier than this. I’d be starting off the rally with a sleep deficit and was going to need every bit of wakefulness I could muster to get through the first leg. The die was cast, however, the clock was already ticking, and I set my alarm for 06:30. I was happy with my route, but with so few bonuses and hence route choices available for the Leg, I knew that the standings were going to be pretty bunched up at the first checkpoint. Nobody was going to run away with this one quite yet, but I just hoped I’d be able to keep pace and not shoot myself in the foot too badly.