It was hard to believe, but the 2004 Mason-Dixon 20-20 would be my 8th endurance rally.  They fly by so quickly - soon after, all that's left is a memory of being in a big hurry and wishing it wasn't over so soon...and of course a burning desire for more.  This year was my first opportunity to ride the MD 20-20 and do a longer format rally.  48 hours sounded fun, but there were plenty of unknowns.  Would the back of my neck knot-up into unbearable pain like it does in 24-hour rallies?  Would the taller Concours handlebars I'd added to the 250 make a difference?  Would I be able to get decent sleep on the ground along side the bike somewhere, or would a motel be a better option?  Having never traveled in the Northeast, would I get trapped in an unknown endless traffic snarl on a holiday weekend?  Would the quieter muffler I'd recently installed on the little Ninja 250 allow the bike to work properly? Would I be able to formulate a route given the rally packs would not be available until the start?  Would I still have fun after 48 hours in rally conditions? I needed to get it all figured out in anticipation of a much larger adventure looming 15 months in the future.  This would be ideal practice.

I've ridden several rallies with Rick Miller as a competitor, including my very first Palmetto Ramble back in 2002 when I finished just behind him.  Rick is a tough thinker and knows his stuff, so imagining the sinister rally he's capable of producing was slightly intimidating.  My in-laws just happen to live about 30 miles from the rally start in York, PA, so [my wife] Heather and I trucked the bike up to York from our home in Nashville Tennessee. She could visit family over the holidays while I rode - or suffered - through Rick's glee.

Everything went as expected at the rally start, with a really nice brunch and a short lecture from Rick.  He passed out the rally books, which contained a twisted web of possibilities.  Groups of bonuses, group bonuses, wildcard bonuses, massive sleep bonuses, and fuel log bonus hidden in with other group bonuses - this wasn't going to be simple.  I'd borrowed a laptop from a friend, so once Rick said go, I immediately looked for a wall outlet in the hotel banquet room.  Once I had my map of the Northeast spread out on the floor and the laptop fired up I went to work. I'd already plotted the 24-hour locations on my map knowing some of them would probably be used in the 48-hour version.  I was right, several were used.  I utilized Streets and Trips to find the rest and got all 40 or so locations plotted.  I probably spent too much time doing this, but I didn't want to pass up any obvious routes and figured with 48 hours to burn, I could afford to be thorough.  The first thing that popped out was the larger group bonuses only had two locations.  Each had one destination, which was quite a long distance from the start location and carried a huge point value, and the other was closer with a low point value.  The three wildcards could each be applied to one bonus in any group.  So I decided to use them for the farther bonuses in the three highest point groups and then try to ride to the closer locations, thus getting the large "group bonus" for each.  It turns out to reach the closer location of three largest groups would required a visit to Swift run, VA [on the Blue Ridge Parkway], Westview, Illinois on the west side of Indianapolis, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH.  Running this route showed about 32 hours / 1600 miles.  I really wanted to get in 2000 miles for a Saddlesore 2K, and figured I'd have enough time left over to find a few more small bonuses to add mileage at the end.  Now I had to figure out what I was missing in this plan...can't afford any big mistakes up front.  So I carefully reread the bonus requirement.  Each was available 24 hours except for Cleveland, which was daylight only.  Running the route going to Cleveland first put me there in the middle of the night.  That won't work.  Going the opposite direction put me in Cleveland at 2pm Saturday.  That works - let's go!

At this point the entire banquet room had cleared out.  I'd spent over 2 hours planning my route.  Seemed like 5 minutes.  I was trying not to panic at the fact everyone else was gone, but of course when the heat's on you sweat a little.  I asked Rick if leaving last was a good sign or bad.  He said, "Could be either."  Maybe I was OK.  The thing about this is once you've committed yourself to a plan you're sort of stuck with it...in this case, for 2 days.  But learning how to do this is why I'm here - so let's do the best we can and let the chips fall where they may.  Onward!

One of the fears heading up North was not knowing anything about the area.  My very first mistake was made exactly 200 yards out of motel the parking lot when I turned left on Hwy. 30 and headed for Hanover, PA for a whopping 24 points.  I'd always heard to never pass up points, and on the map it looked like this was right along the way over to I-81.  But what I didn't know was this would be a 2+ hour 30mph (68 miles) nightmare.  Wow, there sure are a lot of people living here!  Once I realized how slow it would be, it was too late to turn back.  So I pressed on. 

I did get a chance to ride through Gettysburg, PA. Ironically Hwy. 30 passes through some of the battlefield.  I saw the movie, but actually being here was different. Three days in July 1863 resulting in 51,000 casualties - It's a sobering thought.  Men who were all fighting for what they believed to be American freedoms.  Right or wrong they ultimately were fighting and dying for the freedom which today allows me to ride my bike in this rally [...it seemed like good logic at the time].  Being here sort of put an exclamation point on the Memorial Day weekend and what it means.  Even though I was behind, I was glad I came this way...

By the time I made it to I-81 I knew I was way behind, but still had 5 or 6 hours extra to get to Cleveland the next day before dark.  I pushed on to Swift Run, VA where I discovered my chain was dying a quick death.  I'd checked it before the rally and decided with 18,000 miles it would make it a couple thousand more, but would need to be replaced after I got home.  Now I was kicking myself for not changing it sooner.  Heather and I had just bought our first house two weeks earlier and had been consumed for the 4 previous months with all that's involved in a first house purchase.  I had barely enough time to get the bike rally worthy, and hadn't taken the time to worry about the chain.  Now I was worried.  Back at a Harrisonburg gas station I adjusted it hoping for the best.  It was badly stretched in one spot, so it was 'pulsing' the engine as it rolled across loose, tight, loose spots.  My mind was racing to think of what I could do as it was now dark.  I guess I'll just push on and hope for the best, spraying on as much PJ1 as it would hold (that's chain lube for all you shaft folks) I also pulled out the laptop to see where I was.  Cleveland was slipping closer to dark, but I was still OK.  Goshen Pass was only a 20-mile side trip off I-81/64 worth 475 points, but I needed to bypass it in favor of larger possibilities later.  Main thing was to get to Cleveland on time some 25 hours later for the 10,500 points available there. Onward to I-64 that would take me from Lexington, VA to Lexington, KY where I would stop by Shakertown for an extra 4825 points.

Somewhere in the night on the dark, twisty West Virginia Interstate all the stress of the past several months of insanity at home seemed to crash down on me in a massive way.  I got the yawns, and then the nods, and before I knew it was manifesting all the signs of needing to stop.  Having vowed off caffeine per the IBA Archive Of Wisdom a year and a half ago, there wasn't much to do except stop, walk around a bit, maybe buy something in a gas station, get something to drink, pop a couple Altoids and get going again.  That would last about 30 minutes until I'd again know it was time to stop.  That inner voice was screaming 'stay alert', but the body was sternly refusing to cooperate.  Eventually I realized I needed to take one of the rest bonuses and get some sleep.  I think it was about 1:30am.  I'd wanted to wait until around 4am to sleep which is the toughest time for me to stay awake/best time to sleep.  But there was no way - I had to sleep. 

I was at a small truck stop with a gravel parking lot.  Over in the corner I spotted a concrete barrier like the temporary ones used in highway construction, so I parked the bike out of the way and sat down behind the wall, setting my Screaming Meanie for one hour.  I sat there wondering how I was going to fall asleep.  I was wired up tight, and every little noise in the parking lot seemed to startle me.  Suddenly the Meanie was going off - what's the deal - I thought I set it for an hour?  Wait - it *HAS* been an hour...wow that was quick.  Got the second receipt to verify I'd been there an hour.  It had actually been an hour and a half - time to get going!  GPS says I've only gone about 400 miles in the first 13 hours.  I'm making terrible time - My SS2000 isn't looking good.

On into the night toward Lexington. I stopped three or four more times. This was proving to be the most uncomfortable night I've experienced on the bike.  The pattern that seemed to work was to ride about an hour and look for a place to stop.  Spend 15 minutes off the bike and get recharged for another hour.  By the time I got to Shakertown after what seemed like and eternity, it was daylight.  I asked the guard if anyone else had been through there and he said, "Yeah, two other guys were here early this morning about 2am."  I wondered to myself if they'd had the same idea I did. (later found out one of them was Peter Leap on his first place ride) My original schedule had me here around 2:30 am, so those guys must be doing OK.  The sign which I needed to take a picture of - which had been missing last year - and which Rick had said was replaced - wasn't here.  I took pictures of the 'new' sign, which didn't contain the 'map' specified in the rally book, but then figured I'd better call Rick to be sure.  After waking Jean AND Rick up at the crack of dawn, he told me to just get something with 'Shakertown' on it.  Done. 

The sun was just coming up over the beautiful rolling hills of southwest Lexington, and the fog was hanging low in the valleys.  Each pocket of fog was only a few hundred yards across and maybe 50 ft. high.  They were positioned all over the hillsides and across the road in places, but it was perfectly sunny and clear in-between.  It was one of those moments out of the movies, or a coffee commercial - just beautiful.  I'd suddenly shifted from the agony of a long painful ride through the night to the total euphoria of an early morning ride through some incredibly beautiful countryside.  It was starting to warm up to where I could turn off my electrics.  I was wide-awake and ready to go.  Way behind, but having a blast!  Can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to be sitting right where I am, right now.  Man I'm having fun!

On to Louisville, where my friend Jeb from Ninja250.com lives. I figured I could stop by his house and borrow a chain if necessary, but mine seemed to be doing OK.  It had loosened just a bit but was apparently going to make it to the finish without further complaint.  On to Indianapolis, and then west to Westville, Illinois passing up the exit to Cairo, IN.  I figured I'd stop on the way back to see how I was doing on time.  No problem at Westville, picking up another 17,764 points.  Back at the Cairo exit I again checked the computer which showed I'd be arriving in Cleveland at 7:45pm.  I'll be cutting it close.  I had the presence of mind to look at the GPS sunset time, which showed 9:01pm for a mid-Indiana latitude.  Looking at the side-trip up to Cairo, it was going to be at least an hour out of the way assuming I could find the bonus quickly.  That may be too close at Cleveland.  So I had to make the tough decision to leave the 4,960 Cairo, IN points out there and get the bigger bonus in Cleveland.  Grrr.  Sure wish I hadn't wasted so much time going to Hanover.  You can't look back in these things during a ride - Live and learn.  Note; I later was told the IBR considers 'daylight' to be one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset, which would have given me plenty of time.

On to Cleveland via Columbus.  I'm surprisingly fresh after the tough overnight.  Funny how your body plays such tricks.  On to Cleveland where I've never seen so many Highway Patrol cars on duty.  Must be the holidays, but I saw at least 30 patrol cars along the way to Cleveland.  It's much cooler here which was nice after riding through the heat of the day.  Found the Rock & Roll HOF well before dark.  It's really a beautiful place, right on Lake Erie.  My rally flag picture had the sun coming through the large glass pyramid building - wish I could have hung out here longer.

Now that I'd met my goal of reaching Cleveland and had bagged the three largest group bonuses I could relax a bit and figure out the rest of the rally.  So I rode south just past the OH turnpike where I found a McDonald's for dinner and some juice for the laptop.  What I discovered really made me frustrated at the fatigue the previous night and the poor decision to visit Hanover.  If I went south to Marietta and rode OH 26 I could pick up 1675 points *and* if I'd hadn't blown off Cairo, IN - which was the other half of the bonus - I would have added another 4,960.  I'd left a total of 9,800 total points on the table.  Oh well, the goal was to have fun.  Besides, I had no idea if one of the other long routes would score significantly higher or not.  I've done the best I could... 

Looking at the map the next highest point value was to see George Fetsco in Windber, PA available 6a-9a Sunday.  I had plenty of time to get there, plus time to take the 2-hour sleep bonus.  This was the highlight of the rally for me.  I wasn't in a hurry, not worried about being late.  So I took my time and stopped at one of the rest areas along the OH/PA turnpike for 2 hours of sleep.  Made it to George's by 5:45am, where George, his wife Jennifer, and the rest of his extended family were all there to make us breakfast.  Several other riders appeared and eventually some 24-hour folks showed up.  I needed to take a picture of a 24-hour rider holding my rally flag for one of our wildcards.  Turns out the 24-hour folks needed exactly the same thing for one of their wildcards - but they didn't have cameras - so they needed to ask one of us to give them a picture.  [Excellent bonus Bubbas, lots of creativity points for that one].  At 6:35am George turned me loose, and I headed for York.

Along the way on the PA turnpike I encountered three tunnels.  For anyone who's ever ridden through these on an early morning ride with no traffic, you can imagine the ear to ear grin glued on my face all the way through.  Wow what fun!  Each tunnel is about 1/2 mile long and perfectly straight.  You can see the exit way off in the distance as you enter.  Riding into each tunnel you feel as if you've sped up to about 300 mph.  It's like being shot out of the launch tube on Battlestar Galactica.  There is no wind - The air must be pulled through the tunnel by the other traffic?  What an experience!                        

On to York - I was about an hour and a half early so I decided to head up to Jim Young's grave at Fort Indiantown Gap.  I'd read about riders going there on several different rallies and I was looking forward to paying my respects to Jim even though I never knew him.  It wasn't hard to find his section in the sprawling military cemetery, as there were several other riders there.  It took a minute for a couple of us to locate the right marker among the large field of military stones, each positioned flat against the ground, but soon we found it.  It was wiped clean - the grass pulled back from the edges by other riders who'd been there throughout the weekend.  I humbly took my picture, and allowed the guy next to me to borrow my Polaroid - as his was out of film.  I figured Jim would have done the same thing.  If this would have been the only bonus I visited all weekend, it was worth it.

On to York where I finished with about 30 minutes before the penalties began.  Inside the hotel I began to work on the score sheet.  Rick had been very clear on his insistence the score sheets would be filled out perfectly by the rider to get points. Make one mistake and you don't get the points.  I overheard one rider say he didn't get points for going to Florida due to leaving the bonus letter "O" off his score sheet (i.e., 02 vs. O-02).  As difficult as it is to get everything perfect, it's compounded many times when you've just arrived from lots of hours on the road.  So I carefully figured my score, going back over everything 4 times until I was fairly confident it was perfect.  But was there something I've overlooked?  At the scoring table, Jean Miller did my scoring.  When I sat down she said, "I have 4 questions to ask you" [I think these were the questions];  "Are you ready to be scored?"  "Yes," "Are your score sheets filled out accurately?"  "Yes," "Do you have all of your documentation?" "Yes," "This is your last chance to make any adjustments before we begin, are you ready?" "Yes."  I had remembered that Leon Begeman lost several positions in this rally last year due to a clerical error he made on his score sheet [he didn't put his starting odometer reading in both places it was required], and I was hopeful I wouldn't loose points due to a mistake.  After Jean gave me two or three scares by saying "Oh, wait you can't do this ... Oops, Yeah, it's OK", she apologized saying she wasn't trying to give me a heart attack on purpose.  "You're doing a pretty good job," I said with a smile.  Eventually my score was good - No mistakes.  No points lost.  Total score over 67,000.  Probably not the best, but at least respectable. 

My goal for this rally was to finish a multi-day ride and still want more, have fun, and finish respectably.  As I pulled in the hotel I was a bit disappointed it was over so soon.  I was completely ready (physically) to go out for another day.  I was definitely still having fun.  And my score was decent - so I think I'd met my goals.  Despite the tough start I had the first night, I had a great time for the rest of the rally.  My chain on the other hand was toast, so it was a lesson learned.  Don't take chances on equipment.  My neck bothered me the first day, but by the second I'd forgotten all about it - the higher bars really helped.  Rick's insistence on score sheet perfection was annoying, but it was also a good lesson for the future.  I'll never do scoring the same again. 

At the banquet, Heather and I sat next to Peter Leap.  In talking about our routes it was apparent Peter and I had gone a similar direction. He also thought using the wildcards for the three big bonuses was a good idea.  But then he started mentioning several additional places he'd gone, including Cairo, IN and Michigan.  Several folks around the table began tapping him as the winner.  Sure enough he'd blown the field away with over 88,000 points.  Way to go Peter.  Incredible ride!

Many thanks to Rick & Jean Miller, Dale & Tracy Horstman, Don Arthur, Louis Caplan, Leon Begeman, the Fetsco clan and everyone else involved in organizing this a top-rate event.  Had a great time, learned a lot, had fun, and look forward to returning again next year. 

On a personal note - many thanks to my wonderful wife Heather who I love dearly for putting up with all of this and being such a trooper.  And thanks to her excellent family who are totally supportive of their crazy son-in-law's habits and whom I believe have more fun hearing about this than I do.


Ride Details;

Miles Traveled (GPS)       1836
Moving Average               61.8 MPH
Overall Average               41.0 MPH
Moving Time                   29:41
Stopped Time                 15:04 (wow!)
Total Time                  44:45 (2+ hours planning & returned early)
Gas stops          5
MPG          ~ 52 (Rick kept the receipts)        
Engine Revolutions          ~ 15,172,500
Oil Used          None