Cape Fear 1000 Rally

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Cape Fear 1000 Rally

The Coastal Carolina Rally Krewe once again hosted the Cape Fear 1000 Rally in Wilmington, North Carolina on the weekend of April 15 – 17, 2011. I was asked by my friend and Rally Master, Jim B., to assist. I was honored and excited about precipitating in the event.

The riders started from three different locations on the 15th at 11:00 in the morning and started chasing the bonus locations. The weather was going to be bad and I felt sorry for the riders. In order to feel more like a Rally rider myself I also left my house in South Carolina at the same starting time. The difference was that I only had to ride 220 miles to get to the Econolodge on Market St. and the Rally riders had to ride a minimum of 1000 miles while searching for bonus locations allover the east coast.

I left my house with heavy cloud cover and dampness in the air. Luckily, I did not get wet on my ride up. However, I did have some issues of my own to contend with. As I was leaving the house I noticed that I had less than a half of a tank of gas in the V-Strom. I road highway 378 thru Sumter, SC all the way to I-95 just outside of Turbeville where I stopped at an Exxon Station to fill up with $3.69 a gallon gas. When I started the bike back up I had no headlamps. I pulled the seat off and checked the fuses, no problem with them, checked the connections and still no problems. After thirty-five minutes I decided to just use my auxiliary lights and continue on.

I followed I-95 up to North Carolina where I turned off onto US-74 and followed that into Willington. Just before getting to the hotel I stopped at a Chick-fil-A for a sandwich. When I got back on the bike, to head to the hotel, I noticed that my headlamps were working again. But that was the last time I saw them work during this long weekend trip. When I got to the hotel the lights were off again and I never was able to get them back on.

I was the second Krewe member (really first year volunteers are not really Krewe members, but who is paying attention to the fine print anyway) to arrive and we spent sometime in the parking lot kicking tires while we waited for the rest of the volunteers to start to show up.

By 5 p.m. most of the Krewe was checked in and working on things in the receiving room. The first thing that Jim set up was the computer that showed where most of the riders were and we started monitoring it to insure the safety of all involved. Next was the scoring section and I started setting up the dinning hall. This all took up until past midnight and then we all went off to bed.

While we were all sleeping in our warm dry rooms the riders were battling the elements. There was tons of rain, high winds and just generally bad riding conditions. During the night several riders found a warm hotel and called the RM (Rally Master) to advise they were out of the Rally. I was glad I did not ride this year!

My roommate (Steve from WV) and I got up early and went to Waffle House for breakfast, then I went hunting for some AA batteries. I realized the night before when I attempted to take pictures of the set up that my children must have “borrowed” the batteries out of my camera to power one of their game devices. I located some and headed back to the hotel to continue with my duties. Sorry there are not very many photos in my blog this time.

My next job was to check riders in and give them their ending times to take to the scoring table. I am happy to report that everyone made it in safely and very few were late for their check-ins. I could not believe how high everyone’s spirits were when they completed their rides. They had been on their bikes for 28 hours (this included there 3 hour rest bonus) and had ridden anywhere form 1000 – 1400 miles in really bad weather. Man they looked like they had a good time.

Next I went to the last scoring table to confirm every rider’s final score. I can’t believe how well everyone had done.

Later that night we had a really great awards ceremony and a BBQ dinner. One of the last bonus’s off the Rally was to pick up a cold 6-pack of your favorite beverage. The “favorite beverage” was served at the BBQ dinner. I have never seen so much beer in my life. Of course I did not partake in much of this “favorite beverage”.

By midnight everyone was off to their rooms for some well needed rest. Early the next morning most of the riders were headed home and the Krewe stayed around to clean up after the BBQ and ceremony.

By lunch I was also on my bike headed home. Still no headlamps.

Check out the results of the rally on the Cape Fare 1000 web page.

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