Our bonus locations were handed out at dinner along with our numbered flags and id cards we would have to wear for the rest of the rally. We were told not to open our bonuses until everyone got theirs. When we were allowed to open them we were hit with the big surprise, going to Deadhorse Alaska was worth 500,000 points.
After dinner I retired back to my room to plan my route. I plotted a number on my US map skipping the ones I knew I wouldn’t do. I knew already I didn’t want to kill myself on the first leg, I’d read enough stories about how people blew themselves out after the first couple of legs. With this in mind I knew I shouldn’t head back east toward North Carolina or even too far south in Lousiana and Texas. After all the plotting I saw my route, mostly along I-40 with a small north jaunt into Las Vegas.
With a route planned I got some sleep, or at least I tried, the night before the Iron Butt it’s impossible to sleep. I must have gotten some because I woke up the next morning and got a quick breakfast with Warchild in the hotel. He wanted to know if I planned on going to Widder’s and I told him of course, he wished me luck and told me to be safe.
Around 9 we had our last meeting before taking off. We got handed another bonus sheet of which I looked at and laughed at, places like Key West Florida, which were really meant for the people going to Alaska. I finished packing the bike which really only meant putting the bags back on, loaded my maps and got in line to take off. Right next to me was a friend of mine Roy Collins as was fellow 2000 Connie rider Harry Kaplan.
At 10:00 we were allowed to leave. I was around half way back in the pack so it took me a few minutes to get started, then 100 yards away from the start I stopped. I was waiting for Roy when we found out that we were both going the same general direction we decided to ride together. The first stop was to go towards Memphis, Tennessee for two bonuses. Along the way the first rain came. “This is it”, I thought as all year long whenever I would go away I would get rained on. I figured that for the next two weeks it would rain on me. Well the rain didn’t last long which was nice and within a few hours we made it to the Pyramid in Memphis. A quick picture and off we went to get gas and some food.
The next bonus was at Eric Faires’ house where we either had to swim or drive a tractor around the yard. I opted for the swim. We need to stay for at least 15 minutes so after the 15 minutes was up Roy and I left. Around Little Rock Roy and I split up, he was going towards Fort Worth and I was planning on heading due west. Little Rock was a bonus for two points, I didn’t think that it was worth the two points to go out of my way. I found out later that Little Rock was actually only a couple of miles off of the road. A quick stop in Fort Smith, Arkansas for gas and 75 points and again I was off and riding.
On my way though Oklahoma I saw one of the scariest things I’d ever seen on a bike, some idiot with a mattress on the top of a mini-van that was only tied with one rope. It was flapping around and I knew it was going to come off. Well I was around that person as quick as I could. A few hours later I heard that some biker had been hurt because of a mattress but could get no further information. I learned later that it was not a biker in our group and I hopped that it was not this idiot’s fault. That night I stopped somewhere in Texas though I don’t know exactly where. I set the Meanie for four hours, when I got up and got some breakfast from the lobby the woman remarked on my quick stay. When I left I found out that I was on Route 66 so I stopped and took a quick picture.
My first stop that day was in New Mexico, still a couple hours away. This was around the time when I knew I had to revise my route a little because I knew I wasn’t going to make it all the way across New Mexico and Arizona by nightfall. I stopped first at Anton Chico for a PowerBall ticket. This was only a small town in New Mexico about 20 miles off I-40. There was no problems finding the place, but what really got me was the free range cattle. Having never been out west much I’d never seen free range cattle and was quite surprised coming around a corner to meet up with some cows in the road. They moved themselves out of the way quick enough though so it wasn’t a big problem.
Back on I-40 I started thinking about my new route. I decided to go to El Morro National Monument. Originally I planned on skipping it because of the distance off of the highway, but now that I wasn’t going to make the daylight only photos of western Arizona I went for it. The directions said to go from Gallup, NM south, that’s not the fastest way to go because you go past it then back track. Well about 30 miles out of 40 on the road to the monument the road is under construction. Actually there was no road, not a thing except dirt as they had torn out the entire road.
After a mile or two of dirt the road came back, “well that’s over” I thought, but of course the road ended a mile or two later. Here I meet up with some other riders because there was a wait for the guide truck. Now I was worried, I could handle a mile of unpaved roads but had never been on dirt for long and it always scared me. For the last couple of months though I had been reading up on how to ride in different situations since I knew I would be doing it and dirt was one of the big ones. I decided to try what I had read, namely speed up to around 30mph and stand up on the pegs for the bigger ruts. I got through the dirt without a problem; this was probably the biggest thing I learned during the rally.
I got a quick picture of El Morro and left for my next stop, which was Gallup, NM for a gas receipt. On the way it started to rain/hail a little along with some not so fun lightning hitting the tops of the hills all around. The rain didn’t last long but it still wasn’t much fun. A quick stop in Gallup and I’m off again except for I see a sign for US 666. Well being the strange sort that I am I had to get a picture of it so I stopped.
My next stop was the Petrified Forrest in Arizona. My map was confusing because it said the park is on the south side of the road, but in reality you have to go through the Painted Desert first. I wish I had more time to stop and take a picture but I needed to get to the other side of the part before dark so I just looked as I road. When I got to the place to take my picture I found a couple of other riders there already. A quick picture of the bridge and I’m off again.
The next stop is Williams, Arizona for a picture of a statue. Along the way I got the worst gas mileage I have ever gotten, something like 170 miles before I hit reserve. That’s 50 plus miles of range that I lost and I figured it was the mountains that was doing it. At Williams I meet up with a number more riders and got someone to take my picture. On the way out it started to rain again, though it stopped about 30 minutes later. The next planned stop and bonus was Kingman, AZ another gas receipt. I stopped, got my gas, then got a sub from Subway only to realize that I had actually stopped in this same gas station a few years before going to Las Vegas.
On my way to the next stop in Boulder City, Nevada I stopped at looked at the sky. I don’t usually get a chance to see the night sky with no ambient lights around. I tried to take a picture but it didn’t turn out at all. Also along the way I stopped at the Hover Dam, which was a bonus but daylight hours only, and took a quick picture. At the Railroad Pass Casino for a gaming chip I decided to stop for the night, originally I wanted to get to California but I decided it didn’t really matter where I stopped and the price was right only 30 couple bucks.
The next morning after a few hours of sleep I took off for California and my first bonus at Exotic World in Helendale. Exotic World is supposed to be a museum in a bordello, though I didn’t get a chance to actually see it. Along the way I met up with Ed Phelps and we rode together to Widder Enterprises in Ojai. Along the way we stopped in Ventura for a gas receipt worth nine points, as usual for me when I need gas I can never find it though we did eventually find one station. Widder’s had food and drinks for us and I stayed for a while since now all I needed to do was make it to Pomona.
The ride to Pomona was pretty much uneventful except for the rain grooves in the road that I’m not used too. I didn’t get a chance to lane split like I wanted to because I avoided the afternoon traffic by an hour or so. I ended up at the checkpoint about three hours early, I could have gone to some other bonuses around LA but decided not too. I wanted to get some sleep after check-in but when I tried I couldn’t.
After my check-in I got a message that my mother’s family who lived in the area were trying to reach me. There was a real adventure just trying to get a hold of them, first I got the wrong phone number, then I found out that my cell phone was dead and the charger had broken. My family finally arrived an hour or so later. We tried to have dinner at a across the street but for some reason even though there was no one there they didn’t come help us so we left and had the food they were serving at the checkpoint. Soon they started handing out the packs for the next leg and my family left.
Pictures for Leg One
Leg Two: Pomona, CA to Sunnyside, WA