08 Not Superman Rally

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The continuing saga of my exploits with Effie my 2005 883 Low Harley Davidson Sportster. This is our 2nd endurance rally. The first one was the Cape Fear 1000 which is in another blog: 07 Cape Fear 1000.

I was one of 79 entrees in the Not Superman Rally (NSR), The NSR is a long distance endurance rally which started and ended at the Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau, MO. The brain child of the rally master Jim Puckett, the NSR proved to be challenging to experienced ralliers and to the first timers. At 6AM Friday morning riders equipped with a numbered flag and a digital camera embark on a 30 hour odyssey of riding, bonus hunting and problem solving all to be enjoyed while on a critical time schedule. The remaining riders would be similarly equipped but leave the next morning on the shorter 12 hour rally. The 30 hour riders were to arrive at the finish line before noon on Saturday. Penalty points would be awarded for each minute you were late, up to 30 minutes, after 30 minutes late and you were declared a DNF (Did Not Finish). A DNF is the dread of any rally rider.

All riders had received a list of bonus locations 7 days before the rally. The 131 bonuses were located in 22 states and headed out in all directions from Cape Girardeau. The list gave us instructions on how to get to each location and the point value for each location. Our objective was pick and choose locations from the available bonuses and plan a route we could ride in 26 hours accumulating as many points as we could. The 30 hour rally had a mandatory 4 hour rest stop. At each bonus we were required to do something, usually it was take a picture of the bonus with our numbered flag in the picture. I was rider number 27 which was determined by the order that I had registered for the rally. After accomplishing the requirements that were given us for one bonus your ride would continue to the next bonus location and so on until time was up and you were back at the finish line. At the end of riding the rally, another 3 hours is spent getting all your bonus documentation or pictures, gas receipts and riders log in order and being scored. The scoring process at the NSR was easier as each finisher electronically logged in their data and downloaded their digital photos to the rally website. The paper receipts and a gas log, which lists each gas stop by time, location and odometer reading was submitted in an envelope for verification.

I spent the 5 days after receiving the bonus listing planning several possible routes. When I left KC for the rally I had several route choices and alternative final segments for those routes depending if I had more or less time than planned. Which route I would ride the day of the rally would be determined by the weather and any last minute information given us in the rally books that were handed out the night before we started the ride.

The route I decided to ride was one that looped through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. The route according to my mapping software would take me 24 hours to ride, another 4 hours was allotted for the mandatory rest stop then 2 hours remained for gas stops and time at the bonuses completing the task needed to get the points. At 6AM odometer mileage was checked and recorded by the rally staff. My first stop was at the remote Moonshine Store (N39 11.433 W87 53.711) the objective was to take a picture of the store with my rally flag, double points were given if time was taken to eat a moonburger and bring back the receipt for its purchase. A moonburger was just one of the many new things I was to experience over the weekend. I placed my order for my moonburger at 9:40AM, then used the restroom which was an outhouse, as Helen Tuttle the owner and only person there at the time fried it up for me. Moonshine IL has 2 buildings and I had just been in both. As I ate my burger Mrs. Tuttle and I chatted. She informed me that the previous Saturday she had served 650 motorcyclists. I asked her what event had caused so many bikes to show up and she replied, ‘none, they just started showing up and kept coming’. This was my first visit to Moonshine, but its well known by bikers in the area and by many in the long distance riding community. It is well worth the time I spent there, the moonburger was great and the store contents was as entertaining as Mrs. Tuttle.

Leaving Moonshine I headed for the birthplace of Wilbur Wright (N39 57.485 W85 14.617) located near Mooreland IN. My goal was a picture of my rally flag next to a historical marker located at this National Historical Site. Surrounded by corn fields the house and grounds held several treats for visitors, including a remote control airplane flying field.

50 miles down the road found me at the gravesite of the female sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Her gravesite is one of those things that I just didn’t think would be busy, but there were 2 other groups of people there to see it as I was there. One lady was kind enough to take a picture for me. The plaque with more information about Annie had been vandalized and was now just a pole sticking out of the ground. I took a little time here to adjust some gear on the bike, it was a peaceful place.

The birthplace marker for President R.B. Hayes was just shy of a hundred miles away. I found the marker was pretty easy to find, the directions to all the bonuses were fairly clear. The directions to this marker said it was in front of the business at 17 E William St. and it surely was. The business was a gas station and it was in the bushes between the sidewalk and the gas pumps, almost camouflaged. Once I got in the right block it was easy to find. I kind of chuckled to myself when another rallier talked about all the time he wasted looking for that marker. There was around 200 miles in this part of the route that was on smaller highways. The reward was some great countryside and going through some nice towns and communities. The downside was time was being eaten away on all the stop signs and stop lights, I was ready to hit the super slab again and make some time. At this point I am still on schedule.

Somewhere after the gravesite of sharpshooter Annie Oakley (N40 15.822 W84 33.598) in Medford OH and the birth site of President R.B. Hayes in Delaware OH (N40 17.929 W83 04.031) but before the historical marker for the downed US Navy airship USS Shenandoah (N39 50.218 W81 34.522) in Ava OH my Sportster rolled her 100,000th mile.

The next section on interstate lets me relax a little and figure out where the farthest point is for my route. It would be in this next segment but this is going to be a out and back section. That is I am going to be coming back the same way I am going so I will stop for the Farthest Point bonus on the way back. I don’t want to be the mountains of OH after dark, better to just hustle there. The small mountain road heading to the Shenandoah HM was fun, having traveled a hundred miles on the super slab of interstate, the twisties of this road were a welcome change. The little town of Ava OH was about 5 blocks long. It was located on the side of a hill so there wasn’t many if any side roads. Half way through town there is a big memorial for the USS Shenandoah and its crew of 14. Commissioned in 1923 the USS Shenandoah was American’s first rigid frame Helium fill air-ship. It crashed in close to Ava during a storm when the winds drove it into the side of the mountain. The bow section of the airship was actually carried another 12 miles before it came to a rest near Sharon, OH. It had flown for a total of 233 hours when it crashed in 1925. Originally built as a scout ship for the Navy, it had been used instead in promotional tours across the U.S.. It wasn’t the big memorial though that I needed for my bonus, it was the little historical marker at the other end of town that I was looking for.

An annoyance for most of the day was the battery side cover. The inept HD guy that designed it and the laughable securing clips I hope he never works for NASA. I had replaced one of the top clips with a zip tie so the thing couldn’t fall off and jam up in the wheel, but it could fall down and hang. And it fell down all day long. OH roads were a little bouncy, it wasn’t the road as much as the patches that were made to them. The patches were like a single speed bump every 50 ft. Thump, Thump, Thump and there was no escaping them, every lane, and the entire width of the lane. After setting the cover back in place around 30 times I decided to just fix it. So while stopped at the USS Shenandoah historical marker I decided I needed to do something, for my own sanity. This did not prove to be easy, if it wasn’t for the threat of rain I would have just taken the damn thing off. But because I expected to be dawning the rain gear before I got back to the Drury Inn I decided I had better just lock it into place somehow. I finally found that a couple wire ties would hold it down on the little hooky thing that it kept sliding off of. Now 2 months later the same 2 wire ties are still holding it in place.

From Ava there was a long ride to Washington Courthouse, OH. That was the location of my next bonus, a picture of a WWII captured artillery gun in front of the county museum. I got to the museum but it took about 20 minutes to find it, the GPS kept telling me to turn around. I found that the road had done a slight Y and I had taken the wrong part of the Y so the museum was about ½ block to the side of where I was. I think this was the same intersection that one of our group had run the red light and t-boned into a minivan. That was just a bad intersection. It kind of snuck up on you and then you had to make decisions right then. That’s how I had ended up on the wrong side road. I could definitely see how a stop light could be missed there, plus you are getting within a half mile of the bonus location so extra attention would be on the GPS.

After I found the gun I decided that I would just find someplace here in Washington Courthouse to hole up for the 4 hour mandatory rest stop. The rest stop had to start between 11pm and 1am. I needed time, dated, and location stamped receipts to prove where I was at the beginning of the break and at the conclusion of the break. I had decided weeks ago that I was not going to pay for a motel to use for 4 hours, I had in the Cape Fear 1000 the previous year, paid $40 for the worst motel room ever. There was a hole in the door, no heat, the toilet overflowed and I dared not take any clothes off to get in the bed. As a matter of fact I slept on top of the bed spread in my rain gear, didn’t even take off my boots. Only 1 light in the room and its bulb didn’t work. WC was big enough to find somewhere safe enough to sleep for 4 hours. Oh, this crowd of riders that usually do this type of riding call this the “Iron Butt Motel”. I pulled into a bank and withdrew $20 from an ATM, collecting the receipt as my start receipt, then since I was hungry decided to get something to eat, I had not had anything since the moon burger I’d eaten at 10am that morning and it was 11pm CST now. I pulled into Wendy’s and just as I did they flipped the lights out, McDonalds, Subway, Long John Silvers they all closed at 11pm CST. It was Burger King that stays open late in WC. So in I went. Now I don’t eat out any more. So the menu for Burger King is way different than it was when I had to pay for my lunches 2 years ago. But the steak burger commercials that BK has are just too cute so I asked what was on them from the clerk and that struck up a conversation that would make my evening. I was one of three customers in the joint. We discussed the steak burgers then somehow we got onto why I was in WC and where I was from. The clerk was actually the asst. manager and was really curious about the rally, so I handed her the Rally Packet that I had brought in (to read through again) and she glanced through the pages. She was just amazed that Washington Courthouse would be part of the rally. So she asked if I had intended to nap at the BK and I said yes, unless you kick me out. She told me to go ahead and make myself comfortable. So after I ate I went to one of the booths out of the way and began my nap. The BK closes at 1am EST which is 1 hour ahead of CST. So they close at midnight CST. I woke up as one of the staff was mopping the floor around the booth I was in. I asked if she wanted me to leave and she replied that I was just fine, but remember the floor is slick if I get up. Did you know that BK uses blue mop heads? The strands of the mop head are colored blue, guess that would help to cover up a dirty mop. Anyway I went right back to sleep. So a little while later the assistant manager wakes me to tell me that I have over slept and its 3:20 am. I find out then that WC is in eastern time so I have another 40 minutes. I sleep for another 20 minutes, then start packing up to go. The BK crew is doing a complete kitchen cleanup and that is why they are still there hours after the store had closed. I asked the Asst. Manager to be in a picture with me so she pulled someone else up too and I put the camera on self-timer and we took a picture. As we are getting the picture Sharon the AM tells me that another one of the riders came in while I was sleeping. He was asked immediately if he was part of the rally and answered affirmative. She was so proud, stating that now she knows what to look for. Sharon had told him that I was also a rally rider and he said he knew, he recognized the bike. That was easy enough, I was on the only Harley in the 30 hour rally. I really appreciate the BK and them letting me stay there for my rest break. It made the break very cheap and safe for me and my bike.

A US Bank was right down the street so I go there to get my ending receipt. If I had seen it when I started this rest period I would have used it instead of the other bank. Using the USBank would have saved me the ATM fees I was charged for using the other bank. As I am looking at my starting receipt I realize that it is time stamped incorrectly. It has the equivalent of 10:20PM CST. I wasn’t even in WC then, so how do you explain that the bank ATM slip is wrong. That’s like the GPS odometer being inaccurate by 40 miles, rare to the point of being unbelievable. Now you might think that its okay that the receipt is early, because we could start the rest bonus early, but I had taken my bonus photo of the gun at 10:54pm CST so that is a no no, acquiring a bonus while on a rest break. If I was thinking I would have just gone down the street and taken the bonus photo again, so the digital camera picture would have an appropriate time stamp. But it had been a long day and I didn’t think of it. So at 4:01am I withdrew another $20 from my bank and stashed the ATM receipt away in the receipt baggie. Off to Hillsboro, OH to take a picture or the town limit sign that proudly proclaims this the hometown of Eliza Thompson, she was an early temperance crusader (N39 12.298 W83 38.095). On the way from Hillsboro back to the rally finish line I stop and take a picture of a Jefferson Township sign. Now I am collecting points for my HOGs Presidential Race challenge while I am competing in this rally. The Presidential Race is running all year, but I am not always going to be riding through these states so I am catching what I can as I travel through. Its 5AM when I pull a u-turn to go back and take a picture of a Jefferson township sign. I am feeling pretty good, I am a little ahead of schedule, I should make it back to the finish with plenty of time to spare, and its nice riding weather there is little traffic and the roads are sweet. Sun up should be soon, all is well with the world. So I park by the sign and get the required picture to get my PR points, hop back on the bike and pull up the kickstand, except my pants hem get caught in the kickstand. Bummer.. well wiggle and kick and twist…. Damn the pants are still caught in the kickstand. The pants have a loose enough cuff that I can put my foot on the ground but not loose enough to get my foot up where I can shift gears. I sit there contemplating my problem when I realize that I have to move, no one is going to stop here on the highway. Luckily I was in first so I start creeping down the highway about half a mile to a 4 way stop sign. Now there is traffic here, it must be the really early risers that commute into one of the larger cities, because this town doesn’t even have a 24 hour gas station or police department. There is a parking lot just off the intersection so I pull into it and start trying to wave down cars, this isn’t working I just look like a dude sitting on a harley trying to get someone to get out of their car. Not good. So I thought again about my options; continue to try to stop a car or lay the bike on its side so I can get my hand down there and disconnect my pants from the kickstand. Laying the bike over isn’t the issue, I can get it down safely and without scratching it. Picking it back up would be the problem. I opt to add hollering to my waving. Pretty soon there is a truck that has his window down and responds to my pleas to “please help me” with a ‘whats wrong?’ That makes sense because I am just sitting on the bike along side the road in a parking lot. Everything looks normal except I am waving and hollering like I am crazy. I tell him that my pants are stuck on the kickstand and I just need help unhooking it, won’t take longer than 3 minutes. I start moving my foot to prove it, you can hear the metal of the stand clanking around so I guess he thinks it is safe and gets out of the truck to come over and help. Taking far less than 3 minutes he unhooks me, suggesting that I cut that pant leg so it will not happen again, then pulls out his knife at my asking and cuts the pants leg so it can not hook up again. With that and my eternal thanks he climbs back in his pick up and heads off into the sunrise like a true hero.

By this time I am just ready to be back to the hotel. I had planned to stop at a Lincoln’s boyhood home but instead just keep going.

The evening banquet did have some really good food. Prime rib, veggies, rolls, and some really good tea. I had been drinking the tea since I had gotten back I think I was on my 3rd gallon by the time we ate. Following the food was the door prizes and trophies. There was a wide selection of door prizes mostly BMW stuff since the rally was sponsored by the local BMW dealer. I cringed as they held up the Monkey Butt as the next door prize. You ever had that feeling of destiny? I never seem to win, but I knew that was going to be headed my way. I don't want to sound ungrateful but my worst nightmare would be getting up in front of all these guys to collect my “Monkey Butt”. For those non-riders that might read this, Monkey Butt is a powder you put on your rear to help with issues of being saddle sore. I was so relieved when someone elses name was called. Butt no one got up. My eyes were actually closed praying my name would not be called when I hear “Cindy”. I am the only female rider, I know there is not another Cindy. I thought ‘suck it up girl and get up there’ and away I went with a nice thank you to the person handing out the prizes. The evening was over too soon. After the banquet it was back to the room to plan the trip home.

I was the only woman rider, I had the only HD in the 30 hour rally and I ended being 18th of the 30 riders that managed to finish the 30hr rally. I was pleased.

The funniest thing I saw was tactfull Jim at the starting line asking one of the riders if that was the only jacket he had. The rider had a windbreaker on, the rider informed Jim he had a heavier jacket in his saddlebag if it got cold. After a pause Jim says 'Okay'.

Homeward Bound

I had really enjoyed the trip through Washington MO on the to way so I decided I would just go back the same way, avoiding I-70 for a much of the trip as possible. I knew there was another PR city I needed to get on the way home. So it didn’t take too long to make the route home. The route home included Jackson MO & Jefferson Co MO. Routing back through Washington I found that there was a motorcycle run going on. Must have been a fairly big one as there were several big groups of MCs that went by as I was filling up and riding through Washington. A little north and west of Washington I started seeing signs for the bural site of Daniel Boone. So off I went on a little detour. Sure enough just a couple miles off the highway was the graveyard that Daniel Boone started when he buried Rebecca his wife. Later when he died he was buried there, then some scoundrels from KY came and stole his body to bury it in KY. But they didn’t take Rebecca. Daniel Boone left KY because of the debt he had there. I have been in NC and found historical markers about a tract of land that was the first land Daniel owned. His parents were not buried far from that marker. I have been in WV and seen the spot where his trading post was. KS in a historical marker claims the first recorded white birth in the state was his grandchild. His son was an Indian Agent in KS for a while. Now that Daniel Boone got around, pretty amazing considering his modes of transportation. And it seems that everywhere he went he made a difference. Almost every state from the Mississippi east has either a Boone county or Booneville or both.

The site was very interesting. A large boulder was used as the headstone. Writings there said that Daniel had often visited his wifes grave before he died. I am reading this as I am standing there. It made a connection with me. I love that feeling knowing that one of the great men in our history stood where I stand now. I had the same feeling in front of constitution hall they have footsteps there where Lincoln stood. But the whole area had the writers and signers of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence through there. Back to the gravesite..Earlier this year someone stole the large brass plaque that had been on the gravesite for nearly 100 years. They cut it up and tried to sell it as scrap metal, do you believe it? It was recovered from the recycling center in pieces the guy was charged with a couple different things. They had all the newspaper clippings posted there. Someone was keeping it pretty up to date as one of the clippings was less than a week old. The Gravesite is on a hill so there is some steps getting up to it. It over looks the Missouri river. I was surprised that there were so many people stopping by Daniels gravesite. 2 other carloads of visitors come by while I was there and I was only there for about 20 minutes. The rest of the trip going home was uneventful, enjoyable, but uneventful.

I traveled 2087 miles, rode through 5 states, collected 12 more Presidential Race sites. I can’t wait for next year.

I wrote an article for ThunderPress about the rally, it appeared in the SEPT north edition as a featured article. Page 47, "Moonshine, Wilbur Wright and Burger King".

I competed in the 2009 NSR (a 54 hour rally) the blog for that rally can be found here: 09 Not Superman Rally

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Photos

The Logo for the Rally is so Cool
This is actually a picture of Jim while he was riding the dragon, except he isn't quite so muscular and his son somehow disappeared off the back.

Rider Checkin
Here is Jim Puckett and Dave Derrick heavy in thought.

Riders Meeting Thursday Night
At the Riders Meeting we get a hardcopy of the rally book and some forms we will need to fill out for the rally.

At the Start
Here I am at 6 AM. Argh.

Bonus #1 Moonshine Store
What a hoot.

Moonbuger
I was going to hand this one in as the official Bonus shot, but Jim said it should be of the outside of the building.

Effie
Stopped for a nice pic of the bike while at Wilber Wrights.

Fun Shot : Annie Oakley
This nice woman took this phot for me.

Bonus #4 birthsite of President R.B. Hayes
This is a 2-for. It will also serve for the HOG Groups Presidental Race.

The 099,999 Mile Odometer shot
A practice shot. I took this while going down the interstate. Decided I would pull over the 100K shot.

The 100,000 mile Odometer shot
How funny the oil light is on. But have no fear its only on because I used the kill switch to stop the motor and didn't turn the key off.

USS Shenandoah Memorial in AVA OH
Here was a quick pic I took of the Memorial in town.

REST BREAK
Here is part of the Burger King Crew that adopted me that night. They were great.

Jackson Township
This is a picture I am not sure to forget. Who would have thought you could get stuck in your kickstand??
It being 4:24AM doesn't help any.

After I get back to the Hotel
This is after I checked in. I wanted a picture of me with Effie in honor of the odometer rolling 100K.

Marthaville
Another stop on the way home.

Comments

[Dave Barr]

You're amazing
Just sitting here reading your blog and all I can say is wow! A true inspiration for us all. Keep it up!