BkerChuck
Second hand vegetarian
The Mason Dixon 20/20 was the first rally we ever rode in back in 2013. I’d learned of its existence at a RTE breakfast in Bedford, PA and thought Mona and I might like to give it a whirl. That first time we were woefully unprepared. No heated gear at all, no under armor cold weather layers, and barely any idea of what we were getting into. In retrospect I’m almost surprised we ever did another one. We rode through temperatures in the low 30’s from Martinsburg, WV through parts of Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland covering over 1100 miles in under 32 hours. We learned that HHM meant historical highway marker, that extra lighting was indispensable in the West Virginia Mountains at night, and that we had a whole lot to learn. In spite of that we were hooked.
Rick Miller and his wife Jeanne are the rally masters for the MD20/20 and from our first meeting made us feel welcome and at home. Maybe that’s part of why we’ve gone back each year since on Memorial Day weekend at the expense of other events and family picnics. Each year these folks come up with a theme and new twists to make each time a new and interesting adventure. We’ve fought the “Battle for Lexington” suffered through the “Return of the Cheese ****” and added some class with the “Sweet Sixteen” and now for this year, “Say What?”. Throughout the year Rick has made updates to the rally website and posted pictures to the Facebook page giving little clues or perhaps ominous warnings of what was coming. Mona and I signed up to ride, booked our hotel room, and waited for the other shoe to drop, the release of the bonus locations.
The bonus locations are the heart and soul of a rally. These are the places that are “in play” so to speak. The very first time I saw one of the lists I was shocked. With a start and finish point in Martinsburg, WV the first list back in 2013 offered locations from Cape Cod in the north to a spot west of Chicago, IL to the Atlantic Ocean and south into Georgia. Thankfully I’d read the ride reports from past rallies and understood now the term “sucker bonus”. Some of these are just on the list to waste your time, making you try to plan a route hoping for the big points but eventually realizing they’re just too out of reach to make sense. In every Mason Dixon though, there is one stop all riders must find the time to make.
Indiantown Gap National Cemetery outside of Lebanon, PA is the final resting place of James Young. Jim was a former rally rider and former soldier who lost his life during a rally in Colorado. Rick feels it’s important that all of us stop and pay our respects to the man and to the rest of those men interred here. It’s a somber reminder to all how precious life is. Jim in some ways is also the reason behind one of the rules on the Mason Dixon. Before leaving, at the very start of the rally all riders must declare their route in writing to the rally masters. You can make changes later due to weather or time constraints or any reason at all but Rick wants to have some idea where you planned on going in the unlikely event they need to come looking for you.
All of the rallies Mona and I have participated in are not for profit charities. In this case the charity of choice is the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. One month before the rally start a list of small dollar items is put up for everyone to see. This list usually includes items like, ten dollar gift cards to a specific store, inexpensive ear buds, nice water bottles, nerf ball and hoop sets, or other similar products. All of these are turned in at registration before the official rally start at the host hotel. These items are donated to the Children’s Center and used as prizes for the kids in the hospital to play bingo. Each year the rider’s generosity amounts to over 2000 dollars in small prizes to brighten the day of a hospitalized child.
The bonus list was finally revealed on Sunday May 22 leaving all of us with about 5 days to try and plan our rides and see just what kind of scores we could hope to achieve. Once I unzipped the file, fed the .gpx into Basecamp to see the riding area and opened the Excel spreadsheet to look at point values the “Say What” theme suddenly made sense. The Bonus ID names and town names looked like it was cobbled together in a junior high school boy’s locker room. Sexual innuendo and double entendres galore! Anal, ***, Crap, Head, Knob, and more along those same lines. All point values contained the number 69 and even the total number of locations was 69. I could hardly wait to see the rally masters wife Jeanne to hear her opinions of her husband’s work!
No particular route jumped out at me through the cluster of points in Basecamp. There was the obvious sucker bonus in Dildo, Newfoundland. But with a mileage cap for the event set at 1700 miles, only 31.5 hours and a 3 hour mandatory rest bonus that was impossible. Beaverlick, KY was worth a decent amount of points and had the added distinction of being able to be used as a wildcard in any combo bonus but one. The combo bonuses each consisted of 4 bonus locations that could be attained in any order and you’d get the points for each individual location plus a premium for getting all 4. I think I ran more than 20 routes in Basecamp trying to find something Mona and I could hope to complete and score well within the time allotted. We really wanted to head south but ultimately settled on a route that kept us almost exclusively in our own home state of PA. The always mandatory visit to Fort Indiantown Gap cemetery to pay our respects to Jim Young was a big reason to stay close to home. Additionally one of the bonuses involved in the combo we were going for was only available on Sunday forcing us to travel counterclockwise around the state.
Mona and I discussed the route at length as she was actually hoping for more miles. The plan included hitting 17 locations in just under 900 miles with an almost 6 hour rest break as opposed to the 3 hour minimum and had us finishing with a little more than an hour to spare. Other routes approached 1100 miles but only had 12 stops with more interstate riding. As I’ve stated we know we’re not going to win we’re out to have fun, ride motorcycles, and see some sights we’ve never seen before. Plus if we did everything according to plan our route showed an efficiency of almost 55 points per mile far better than the other possibilities I’d looked at. Now that we had the route nailed down the next step began.
I was told before our first ever rally that you should never load your entire route as one file. You want to break it down into smaller more manageable chunks of only about 2 or 3 hundred miles. The reason for this is that if you happen to miss a turn or have to use a detour the GPS will only have to recalculate the leg you’re on rather than the entire route. Back into Basecamp and chop up our saved route into 4 relatively equal pieces and rename them. Figure out a sensible place to stop for our rest bonus then research and locate lodging nearby. Call and reserve a room, on a holiday weekend, with only 2 days’ notice. Surprisingly our route made this easier because we were staying away from resort areas. All that’s left to do now is pack.
As most of you know travel by bike is always a crapshoot. Weather determines much of what we do and how much or little fun we’ll have doing it. Forecasts for our planned areas looked to be sunny in the mid to upper 80’s with only a chance of spotty afternoon showers. Mesh jackets with rain liners it is. We both opted for wicking t-shirts from EOM last year. Representing! I had the whole day off Friday but unfortunately Mona had to work. Making it even worse she had to start at 3am even though she had a scheduled leave early locked in to get out at 11. I spend Friday morning finishing my packing, checking tire pressures and oil levels, and gathering up our snack foods and bottles of water.
Of course as the week has gone on the rider’s forum for the Mason Dixon as well as the Facebook group have been full of trash talk. Proposed routes with impossible scores. Pictures of disassembled bikes with wiring harnesses that look like someone threw a colander of colored spaghetti under the seat, and more. This year we’re even gaining a new rookie rider to the fold. A virgin in fact in this of all years. There is a father aged 70 I believe, his adult daughter who has been rallying for years and for the first time the 18 year old granddaughter who just passed her MC test is coming along on a Honda 250 Rebel. I imagine their planning session was entertaining.
Mona gets home from work around 11:30 and jumps right into the shower as I scramble around helping gather up her stuff. She tells me what she needs and I stuff it into her saddlebag liners as she finishes dressing and within an hour we’re on the road. I reset one trip meter to see just how many miles the whole weekend will cover. An uneventful 90 minutes after we leave we’re checking into our hotel and rally HQ for the weekend. Checking in with the rally staff, we fill out our final paperwork, go ride a 16 mile loop odometer check then are issued our rally swag which includes a t-shirt with your rider number printed on it and a very nice wind breaker style jacket with the Mason Dixon 20/20 logo.
Friday evening is a light dinner for all of the riders and rally volunteers and staff. We’re greeted by riders we may only see once or twice a year yet everyone seems like an old friend. Friday night is a mandatory meeting for all novice and rookie riders but just about everyone stays hoping to glean some extra information or an early hint about any last minute wild card bonuses. One of the easier combo bonuses require only 3 stops. There is a series of gas station/convenience stores headquartered in PA called Sheetz. The combo 13 bonus was to purchase any item at a Sheetz location, get and claim one listed bonus, then purchase an item from a different Sheetz location in another city. Somehow this went right over my head as the “between the sheetz” bonus. Duh.
We turned in early since bikes were to be staged at 4:45 am and rider’s meeting was set for 5:15. We’re up before the alarm and jump in the shower to wake up and accept it may be our last chance to do so for many hours. 44 bikes are lined up in the parking lot all facing the same direction awaiting our release. The rally master calls the riders meeting to order and hands everyone an identical Fed-Ex envelope which we’re not allowed to open just yet. Before we open the packet that contains our rally book with all of the final directions and spaces to record you time and odometer for your stops we’re informed that in lieu of a rally flag, this year your rally t-shirt must be in all of your photos. A collective groan echoes through the room as several riders have elected to wear them and now realize they’ll need to go change shirts before they leave.
Everyone opens their envelopes and riders busy themselves looking over their chosen stops, filling in the start information on the cover sheet and filling out a “declare your route” sheet which they hand to a staff member. Glancing through the rally pack I spot a wildcard bonus, TIX. This is an easy chance to pick up some points. This bonus simply requires you to purchase a 2 dollar scratch off lottery ticket in MD, PA, or WV and turn it in, unscratched, at the finish. I point it out to Mona and we quickly plot a stop that fits in with our plan. A few questions are asked and answered then we’re released into the wild to go bonus hunting.
Our plan has us heading north back into our home state of PA for the duration of the rally. We hop off the interstate only about 40 miles in at a Sheetz store. We each buy a bottle of water and a 2 dollar scratch off ticket. You have to record your odometer on your receipt so we write it on then we’re back to the slab. Our first real bonus in named KINK and it’s the Kinkora Pythian Home outside of Marysville, PA. Fortunately since we’re in our home state we already knew the road we needed to be on was closed with a 27 mile detour to get around the road repairs being done and will be closed for 3 months. We make good time and as we arrive we see another rider already heading away from the stop, a rider dismounting to take his picture and another rider in our mirrors. We get our pictures, record time and odometer on index cards to put in the rally book later then we’re off already knowing there’s another Sheetz store we’ll pass on our way to the next stop. At our second Sheetz we each grab another bottled water and write our odometer on the receipts. We’d already been warned at the rider’s meeting to be sure and stay hydrated. The weather forecast calls for temps in the high 80’s to low 90’s this weekend and we’re already sweating in our mesh jackets. We chuckle at the thought we like a little kink between the sheets.
Back onto I-81 North for about 40 miles to Fort Indiantown Gap National Cemetery to pay our respects to Jim Young. This is the mandatory stop that all riders are going to be making and as he’s done in every past year the rally master has admonished everyone to be very aware of their speed while riding through here. As you enter this hallowed ground you’re greeted by the sight of thousands of US flags representing each deceased service member interred here. This is our 4th visit and yet each time it never gets any easier. We take our photos and record the time and odometer for in the rally book. At this stop everyone spends a little extra time thinking about what this place represents and the men and women who rest here. My meager words and pictures can’t begin to do enough to honor these folks.
Leaving here it’s a short 6 mile ride to SWAT. This is a historical highway marker for Fort Swatara which dates back to the late 1700’s. Next stop Virginville, PA about 40 miles away to get a photo of your bike with rally t-shirt in front of the fire hall. We’re slightly ahead of our schedule but know better than to get too cocky. The next stop is only 34 miles away but on mostly secondary roads the trip takes almost an hour. AQUA is the bonus name for the Aquashicola fire department. I’ve lived in PA my entire life and I’ve never even heard of these last two towns. This is the end of our close stops for a while and we’ve got a ride ahead of us now. 2 hours and over 100 miles through the mountains and the town of Jim Thorpe where we get our first taste of traffic.
The Nipponose Tavern is on the outskirts of Williamsport in an area known as Battress. We take our pictures, record our time and odometer readings and take a short break to eat a little out of the stash of feed in our tank bags. 30 minutes and 18 miles later we stop in Balls Mills at a church for our seventh stop in about the same number of hours. Another church in Cherry Flats comes an hour and about 45 miles later. Our next stop is planned for the Hyner View State Park and the 60 odd miles through a series of small mountain towns will eat up an hour and a half off the clock. Hyner View is one of the only locations in PA where folks can hang glide and the view is phenomenal. We have to ride to the summit and get a picture of the sign listing the elevation. It’s a 4 mile switchback road that isn’t set up for any type of speed. Arriving at the top we park and begin searching for the sign.
As we walk over to the overlook we watch as a hang glider pilot sets up to take flight. Looking around the area we can’t find the required sign. Another rally rider rolls in, Tina, on a BMW 1200GS and dismounts nearby. Now there are 3 of us trying to find this sign. Looking at the picture in the rally book it’s hard to be sure just where it should be. When there are problems we’ve all been told, call the rally master so I pull out my phone and discover I have no signal up here. Tina has the same issue and we ask around among the visitors to see if anyone can help us make a phone call. It’s no use, cell phone service up here just doesn’t seem to exist. Finally Tina shoots a text back to rally HQ to Rick. We’d been told at the rider’s meeting that if we have a problem we’re to call. Do not text! Desperate times call for desperate measures and we can’t get a call out. Rick responds that another rider had already called in after leaving the summit having taken a picture of another sign. The three of us go to the sign mentioned and finally after almost 20 minutes complete the bonus.
The next stop Mona and I plotted is in the small town of Driftwood, PA. This was a bonus location in last year’s event so we already knew what to expect. We also knew there is only one way in and out of town that’s paved. Avoiding the almost 9 mile goat trail we took last year we rolled in to take our pictures and move on. At this point we’ve been on the road almost 12 hours and realize we need to consider a dinner stop soon. An 80 mile ride to Pleasant Gap, PA where we need a picture of the fire company but we must insure the mailbox is visible in the shot. We need to keep moving if we hope to make our next stop before it gets too dark. We’re off to take a **** picture. It’s a plaque dedicated to Elmer “****”Crossman and it’s a little over 60 miles away through some small towns on secondary roads.
Our next bonus is 37 miles away but the trip takes almost 2 hours as its all secondary roads through the mountains. We spot a few forest rats off in the fields but thankfully they stay off the roads. We had one bound across the road Saturday but had a car in front of us as a cushion. The bonus this time is Shy Beaver boat sales near Lake Raystown. I’m sure the shop owners wondered while all these motorcycles were stopping in front of their sign on a Sunday morning. This is the final of four we need for a combo bonus netting an extra 2500 points. One more stop and then it’s back to rally HQ. We point our bikes southeast to a church in Knobsville to take a picture of the cornerstone of the building indicating when it was built. We arrive in good time and easily find what we need. Pictures taken and paperwork done as we prepare to leave another rally rider rolls in. We stick around for a few minutes and I hold the rider’s rally t-shirt to help him get his picture. Packed up and ready to head for the finish we’ll need one more fuel stop to get there.
Entering Maryland Mona tells me her low fuel light has come on so a few quick pokes at the Garmin shows us where to get gas. We’re good on time so we take some extra time to get a cold drink and refuel ourselves as well as our bikes. Less than 20 miles later we pull under the canopy of the host hotel and rally staff record our odometer readings and finish times on index cards officially stopping our rally clocks. Parking our bikes we grab our rally books, cameras, and notes to head inside and finish our paperwork. I copy photos to my tablet and we finish recording our information then wait our turn to be scored.
Scoring is done by a staff of volunteers often former IBR competitors or rally masters from other events. Mona and I are scored by the rally masters of the Void Rally an event we’ll ride in come October. I manage to get through scoring unscathed with a total of 48,949 points. Mona, unfortunately is not so lucky. Somehow she’d overlooked recording our first bonus, KINK, which also wipes out her “between the Sheetz” combo. Her score should have been the same as mine but by leaving these points on the table she nets 41,411. She’s disappointed, mostly in herself. Anyone who rallies will tell you sooner or later everybody makes this mistake.
Checking into our room we unpack the bikes and take showers then mix up a couple of adult beverages to soften the pain of lost points. Strolling back out to the parking lot we socialize and tell stories until the banquet. 6:00 and we all regroup in one of the hotel banquet rooms for a meal of pulled pork, brisket, beans, mac and cheese and more. There is a cash bar available and beverages are flowing. Following the meal results are announced and trophies presented. Out of 44 riders who started we had 42 finish. Our 18 year old rookie had a low side in some gravel resulting in an ankle sprain and a Honda Rebel that didn’t want to stay running. It’s at a dealership near State College, PA. Another rider impacted a car near Baltimore, MD likely ending the 250 Ninja permanently and leaving the rider with 50 stitches. I wish I could tell you it was the car’s fault.
Mona’s paperwork mistake leaves her in 38th place among the finishers. My score places me 8 spots up in 30th. We thought we had a decent route but when it all played out 70,407 was the magic number. Our 900 and change route pales in comparison to the 1600 plus put up by the winner Eric Bray. For this accomplishment he is awarded a spot in the 2017 IBR! Congrats on a well-planned, well ridden rally. The party breaks up fairly early as many riders will have long journeys in the morning. The rider we met at Knobsville, he’ll be returning to Michigan. One rider has Colorado tags and one is from Texas. Mona and I have a short jaunt of under 100 miles. Morning breakfast is spent wishing each other safe rides and good natured ribbing about lost points. Shortly before 9:00 am Mona and I point the bikes north wishing it were still Saturday morning and the end was just the beginning.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
Rick Miller and his wife Jeanne are the rally masters for the MD20/20 and from our first meeting made us feel welcome and at home. Maybe that’s part of why we’ve gone back each year since on Memorial Day weekend at the expense of other events and family picnics. Each year these folks come up with a theme and new twists to make each time a new and interesting adventure. We’ve fought the “Battle for Lexington” suffered through the “Return of the Cheese ****” and added some class with the “Sweet Sixteen” and now for this year, “Say What?”. Throughout the year Rick has made updates to the rally website and posted pictures to the Facebook page giving little clues or perhaps ominous warnings of what was coming. Mona and I signed up to ride, booked our hotel room, and waited for the other shoe to drop, the release of the bonus locations.
The bonus locations are the heart and soul of a rally. These are the places that are “in play” so to speak. The very first time I saw one of the lists I was shocked. With a start and finish point in Martinsburg, WV the first list back in 2013 offered locations from Cape Cod in the north to a spot west of Chicago, IL to the Atlantic Ocean and south into Georgia. Thankfully I’d read the ride reports from past rallies and understood now the term “sucker bonus”. Some of these are just on the list to waste your time, making you try to plan a route hoping for the big points but eventually realizing they’re just too out of reach to make sense. In every Mason Dixon though, there is one stop all riders must find the time to make.
Indiantown Gap National Cemetery outside of Lebanon, PA is the final resting place of James Young. Jim was a former rally rider and former soldier who lost his life during a rally in Colorado. Rick feels it’s important that all of us stop and pay our respects to the man and to the rest of those men interred here. It’s a somber reminder to all how precious life is. Jim in some ways is also the reason behind one of the rules on the Mason Dixon. Before leaving, at the very start of the rally all riders must declare their route in writing to the rally masters. You can make changes later due to weather or time constraints or any reason at all but Rick wants to have some idea where you planned on going in the unlikely event they need to come looking for you.
All of the rallies Mona and I have participated in are not for profit charities. In this case the charity of choice is the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. One month before the rally start a list of small dollar items is put up for everyone to see. This list usually includes items like, ten dollar gift cards to a specific store, inexpensive ear buds, nice water bottles, nerf ball and hoop sets, or other similar products. All of these are turned in at registration before the official rally start at the host hotel. These items are donated to the Children’s Center and used as prizes for the kids in the hospital to play bingo. Each year the rider’s generosity amounts to over 2000 dollars in small prizes to brighten the day of a hospitalized child.
The bonus list was finally revealed on Sunday May 22 leaving all of us with about 5 days to try and plan our rides and see just what kind of scores we could hope to achieve. Once I unzipped the file, fed the .gpx into Basecamp to see the riding area and opened the Excel spreadsheet to look at point values the “Say What” theme suddenly made sense. The Bonus ID names and town names looked like it was cobbled together in a junior high school boy’s locker room. Sexual innuendo and double entendres galore! Anal, ***, Crap, Head, Knob, and more along those same lines. All point values contained the number 69 and even the total number of locations was 69. I could hardly wait to see the rally masters wife Jeanne to hear her opinions of her husband’s work!
No particular route jumped out at me through the cluster of points in Basecamp. There was the obvious sucker bonus in Dildo, Newfoundland. But with a mileage cap for the event set at 1700 miles, only 31.5 hours and a 3 hour mandatory rest bonus that was impossible. Beaverlick, KY was worth a decent amount of points and had the added distinction of being able to be used as a wildcard in any combo bonus but one. The combo bonuses each consisted of 4 bonus locations that could be attained in any order and you’d get the points for each individual location plus a premium for getting all 4. I think I ran more than 20 routes in Basecamp trying to find something Mona and I could hope to complete and score well within the time allotted. We really wanted to head south but ultimately settled on a route that kept us almost exclusively in our own home state of PA. The always mandatory visit to Fort Indiantown Gap cemetery to pay our respects to Jim Young was a big reason to stay close to home. Additionally one of the bonuses involved in the combo we were going for was only available on Sunday forcing us to travel counterclockwise around the state.
Mona and I discussed the route at length as she was actually hoping for more miles. The plan included hitting 17 locations in just under 900 miles with an almost 6 hour rest break as opposed to the 3 hour minimum and had us finishing with a little more than an hour to spare. Other routes approached 1100 miles but only had 12 stops with more interstate riding. As I’ve stated we know we’re not going to win we’re out to have fun, ride motorcycles, and see some sights we’ve never seen before. Plus if we did everything according to plan our route showed an efficiency of almost 55 points per mile far better than the other possibilities I’d looked at. Now that we had the route nailed down the next step began.
I was told before our first ever rally that you should never load your entire route as one file. You want to break it down into smaller more manageable chunks of only about 2 or 3 hundred miles. The reason for this is that if you happen to miss a turn or have to use a detour the GPS will only have to recalculate the leg you’re on rather than the entire route. Back into Basecamp and chop up our saved route into 4 relatively equal pieces and rename them. Figure out a sensible place to stop for our rest bonus then research and locate lodging nearby. Call and reserve a room, on a holiday weekend, with only 2 days’ notice. Surprisingly our route made this easier because we were staying away from resort areas. All that’s left to do now is pack.
As most of you know travel by bike is always a crapshoot. Weather determines much of what we do and how much or little fun we’ll have doing it. Forecasts for our planned areas looked to be sunny in the mid to upper 80’s with only a chance of spotty afternoon showers. Mesh jackets with rain liners it is. We both opted for wicking t-shirts from EOM last year. Representing! I had the whole day off Friday but unfortunately Mona had to work. Making it even worse she had to start at 3am even though she had a scheduled leave early locked in to get out at 11. I spend Friday morning finishing my packing, checking tire pressures and oil levels, and gathering up our snack foods and bottles of water.
Of course as the week has gone on the rider’s forum for the Mason Dixon as well as the Facebook group have been full of trash talk. Proposed routes with impossible scores. Pictures of disassembled bikes with wiring harnesses that look like someone threw a colander of colored spaghetti under the seat, and more. This year we’re even gaining a new rookie rider to the fold. A virgin in fact in this of all years. There is a father aged 70 I believe, his adult daughter who has been rallying for years and for the first time the 18 year old granddaughter who just passed her MC test is coming along on a Honda 250 Rebel. I imagine their planning session was entertaining.
Mona gets home from work around 11:30 and jumps right into the shower as I scramble around helping gather up her stuff. She tells me what she needs and I stuff it into her saddlebag liners as she finishes dressing and within an hour we’re on the road. I reset one trip meter to see just how many miles the whole weekend will cover. An uneventful 90 minutes after we leave we’re checking into our hotel and rally HQ for the weekend. Checking in with the rally staff, we fill out our final paperwork, go ride a 16 mile loop odometer check then are issued our rally swag which includes a t-shirt with your rider number printed on it and a very nice wind breaker style jacket with the Mason Dixon 20/20 logo.
Friday evening is a light dinner for all of the riders and rally volunteers and staff. We’re greeted by riders we may only see once or twice a year yet everyone seems like an old friend. Friday night is a mandatory meeting for all novice and rookie riders but just about everyone stays hoping to glean some extra information or an early hint about any last minute wild card bonuses. One of the easier combo bonuses require only 3 stops. There is a series of gas station/convenience stores headquartered in PA called Sheetz. The combo 13 bonus was to purchase any item at a Sheetz location, get and claim one listed bonus, then purchase an item from a different Sheetz location in another city. Somehow this went right over my head as the “between the sheetz” bonus. Duh.
We turned in early since bikes were to be staged at 4:45 am and rider’s meeting was set for 5:15. We’re up before the alarm and jump in the shower to wake up and accept it may be our last chance to do so for many hours. 44 bikes are lined up in the parking lot all facing the same direction awaiting our release. The rally master calls the riders meeting to order and hands everyone an identical Fed-Ex envelope which we’re not allowed to open just yet. Before we open the packet that contains our rally book with all of the final directions and spaces to record you time and odometer for your stops we’re informed that in lieu of a rally flag, this year your rally t-shirt must be in all of your photos. A collective groan echoes through the room as several riders have elected to wear them and now realize they’ll need to go change shirts before they leave.
Everyone opens their envelopes and riders busy themselves looking over their chosen stops, filling in the start information on the cover sheet and filling out a “declare your route” sheet which they hand to a staff member. Glancing through the rally pack I spot a wildcard bonus, TIX. This is an easy chance to pick up some points. This bonus simply requires you to purchase a 2 dollar scratch off lottery ticket in MD, PA, or WV and turn it in, unscratched, at the finish. I point it out to Mona and we quickly plot a stop that fits in with our plan. A few questions are asked and answered then we’re released into the wild to go bonus hunting.
Our plan has us heading north back into our home state of PA for the duration of the rally. We hop off the interstate only about 40 miles in at a Sheetz store. We each buy a bottle of water and a 2 dollar scratch off ticket. You have to record your odometer on your receipt so we write it on then we’re back to the slab. Our first real bonus in named KINK and it’s the Kinkora Pythian Home outside of Marysville, PA. Fortunately since we’re in our home state we already knew the road we needed to be on was closed with a 27 mile detour to get around the road repairs being done and will be closed for 3 months. We make good time and as we arrive we see another rider already heading away from the stop, a rider dismounting to take his picture and another rider in our mirrors. We get our pictures, record time and odometer on index cards to put in the rally book later then we’re off already knowing there’s another Sheetz store we’ll pass on our way to the next stop. At our second Sheetz we each grab another bottled water and write our odometer on the receipts. We’d already been warned at the rider’s meeting to be sure and stay hydrated. The weather forecast calls for temps in the high 80’s to low 90’s this weekend and we’re already sweating in our mesh jackets. We chuckle at the thought we like a little kink between the sheets.
Back onto I-81 North for about 40 miles to Fort Indiantown Gap National Cemetery to pay our respects to Jim Young. This is the mandatory stop that all riders are going to be making and as he’s done in every past year the rally master has admonished everyone to be very aware of their speed while riding through here. As you enter this hallowed ground you’re greeted by the sight of thousands of US flags representing each deceased service member interred here. This is our 4th visit and yet each time it never gets any easier. We take our photos and record the time and odometer for in the rally book. At this stop everyone spends a little extra time thinking about what this place represents and the men and women who rest here. My meager words and pictures can’t begin to do enough to honor these folks.
Leaving here it’s a short 6 mile ride to SWAT. This is a historical highway marker for Fort Swatara which dates back to the late 1700’s. Next stop Virginville, PA about 40 miles away to get a photo of your bike with rally t-shirt in front of the fire hall. We’re slightly ahead of our schedule but know better than to get too cocky. The next stop is only 34 miles away but on mostly secondary roads the trip takes almost an hour. AQUA is the bonus name for the Aquashicola fire department. I’ve lived in PA my entire life and I’ve never even heard of these last two towns. This is the end of our close stops for a while and we’ve got a ride ahead of us now. 2 hours and over 100 miles through the mountains and the town of Jim Thorpe where we get our first taste of traffic.
The Nipponose Tavern is on the outskirts of Williamsport in an area known as Battress. We take our pictures, record our time and odometer readings and take a short break to eat a little out of the stash of feed in our tank bags. 30 minutes and 18 miles later we stop in Balls Mills at a church for our seventh stop in about the same number of hours. Another church in Cherry Flats comes an hour and about 45 miles later. Our next stop is planned for the Hyner View State Park and the 60 odd miles through a series of small mountain towns will eat up an hour and a half off the clock. Hyner View is one of the only locations in PA where folks can hang glide and the view is phenomenal. We have to ride to the summit and get a picture of the sign listing the elevation. It’s a 4 mile switchback road that isn’t set up for any type of speed. Arriving at the top we park and begin searching for the sign.
As we walk over to the overlook we watch as a hang glider pilot sets up to take flight. Looking around the area we can’t find the required sign. Another rally rider rolls in, Tina, on a BMW 1200GS and dismounts nearby. Now there are 3 of us trying to find this sign. Looking at the picture in the rally book it’s hard to be sure just where it should be. When there are problems we’ve all been told, call the rally master so I pull out my phone and discover I have no signal up here. Tina has the same issue and we ask around among the visitors to see if anyone can help us make a phone call. It’s no use, cell phone service up here just doesn’t seem to exist. Finally Tina shoots a text back to rally HQ to Rick. We’d been told at the rider’s meeting that if we have a problem we’re to call. Do not text! Desperate times call for desperate measures and we can’t get a call out. Rick responds that another rider had already called in after leaving the summit having taken a picture of another sign. The three of us go to the sign mentioned and finally after almost 20 minutes complete the bonus.
The next stop Mona and I plotted is in the small town of Driftwood, PA. This was a bonus location in last year’s event so we already knew what to expect. We also knew there is only one way in and out of town that’s paved. Avoiding the almost 9 mile goat trail we took last year we rolled in to take our pictures and move on. At this point we’ve been on the road almost 12 hours and realize we need to consider a dinner stop soon. An 80 mile ride to Pleasant Gap, PA where we need a picture of the fire company but we must insure the mailbox is visible in the shot. We need to keep moving if we hope to make our next stop before it gets too dark. We’re off to take a **** picture. It’s a plaque dedicated to Elmer “****”Crossman and it’s a little over 60 miles away through some small towns on secondary roads.
Our next bonus is 37 miles away but the trip takes almost 2 hours as its all secondary roads through the mountains. We spot a few forest rats off in the fields but thankfully they stay off the roads. We had one bound across the road Saturday but had a car in front of us as a cushion. The bonus this time is Shy Beaver boat sales near Lake Raystown. I’m sure the shop owners wondered while all these motorcycles were stopping in front of their sign on a Sunday morning. This is the final of four we need for a combo bonus netting an extra 2500 points. One more stop and then it’s back to rally HQ. We point our bikes southeast to a church in Knobsville to take a picture of the cornerstone of the building indicating when it was built. We arrive in good time and easily find what we need. Pictures taken and paperwork done as we prepare to leave another rally rider rolls in. We stick around for a few minutes and I hold the rider’s rally t-shirt to help him get his picture. Packed up and ready to head for the finish we’ll need one more fuel stop to get there.
Entering Maryland Mona tells me her low fuel light has come on so a few quick pokes at the Garmin shows us where to get gas. We’re good on time so we take some extra time to get a cold drink and refuel ourselves as well as our bikes. Less than 20 miles later we pull under the canopy of the host hotel and rally staff record our odometer readings and finish times on index cards officially stopping our rally clocks. Parking our bikes we grab our rally books, cameras, and notes to head inside and finish our paperwork. I copy photos to my tablet and we finish recording our information then wait our turn to be scored.
Scoring is done by a staff of volunteers often former IBR competitors or rally masters from other events. Mona and I are scored by the rally masters of the Void Rally an event we’ll ride in come October. I manage to get through scoring unscathed with a total of 48,949 points. Mona, unfortunately is not so lucky. Somehow she’d overlooked recording our first bonus, KINK, which also wipes out her “between the Sheetz” combo. Her score should have been the same as mine but by leaving these points on the table she nets 41,411. She’s disappointed, mostly in herself. Anyone who rallies will tell you sooner or later everybody makes this mistake.
Checking into our room we unpack the bikes and take showers then mix up a couple of adult beverages to soften the pain of lost points. Strolling back out to the parking lot we socialize and tell stories until the banquet. 6:00 and we all regroup in one of the hotel banquet rooms for a meal of pulled pork, brisket, beans, mac and cheese and more. There is a cash bar available and beverages are flowing. Following the meal results are announced and trophies presented. Out of 44 riders who started we had 42 finish. Our 18 year old rookie had a low side in some gravel resulting in an ankle sprain and a Honda Rebel that didn’t want to stay running. It’s at a dealership near State College, PA. Another rider impacted a car near Baltimore, MD likely ending the 250 Ninja permanently and leaving the rider with 50 stitches. I wish I could tell you it was the car’s fault.
Mona’s paperwork mistake leaves her in 38th place among the finishers. My score places me 8 spots up in 30th. We thought we had a decent route but when it all played out 70,407 was the magic number. Our 900 and change route pales in comparison to the 1600 plus put up by the winner Eric Bray. For this accomplishment he is awarded a spot in the 2017 IBR! Congrats on a well-planned, well ridden rally. The party breaks up fairly early as many riders will have long journeys in the morning. The rider we met at Knobsville, he’ll be returning to Michigan. One rider has Colorado tags and one is from Texas. Mona and I have a short jaunt of under 100 miles. Morning breakfast is spent wishing each other safe rides and good natured ribbing about lost points. Shortly before 9:00 am Mona and I point the bikes north wishing it were still Saturday morning and the end was just the beginning.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
