2005 Ride report from Mason Dixon 20-20

By John Tomasovitch #22

May 26, 2005 the usual pre rally jitters were in place of course, but I had made it to York, PA, with plenty of time to notice that I had forgotten my Polaroid film, off the store we go, no problem.

May 27, 2005 The Rally meeting was the usual questions and answers, and corrections with no surprises.  My plan was only to list all the stops on the laptop then pick a destination, and then adjust route along the way. I didn’t want to be the last guy out the gate, as I was in the previous year. Loaded all the destinations in GPS then tried to pick a route, I knew the route would have to remain flexible, which later proved to be true. We were off and out of the gate about 1130 and headed north bound up 81 to Canada. I managed to get most of the stops along the 81 corridor, before changing direction. I realized that I wouldn’t make it to the stop in Quebec. Then on to the plugs, which for all non rally persons plugs where needed to retain all points collected, this was not going to happen.

On to Plan “B”, “Right turn at Clyde,” over to Potsdam, NY.  The rain started at this point, this was going to be a long night to Rangeley, ME. I had no problem crossing into Canada, “Welcome to Canada sir, enjoy your visit.” I was a little concerned with going thru Montreal, PQ, but I figured, with it being late at night, this shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve been there many times before. To my surprise, there was a back up on the bridge crossing the Seaway, a Tour bus decided to rear-end a fully loaded container truck. The truck seemed to win the battle, because there were ambulances as far as the eye could see. I did my best at lane splitting and still lost 45 min.  When I tried to cross back, in Canaan, VT on Rte141, I needed “License, Registration, proof of Insurance and can you open all of your bags, sir.” 30 minutes later, Welcome to Vermont. The lady at the customs booth told me to be careful of the moose. “Yeah Right sure thing!” I was happy just to be moving. With the hard part behind me, I was off to Rangeley, only a hundred miles to go, dawn was approaching, fog lifting, and my spirits were up at this point.

I was approaching Rangeley there were a couple of long straight stretches, on one of these stretches I noticed the road was not quite right, something was out of place. When I finally figured out what was wrong with the road, IT started moving; sure enough there was a MOOSE, “holy smoky treats!” Well time to check the ABS system on my fine German motorcycle, Crash! Stop! throw out the boat anchor Captain we need to stop. When I finally came to a stop I was about 75 feet away, plenty of space, Thank You God! Now at this point, the moose that looked like a giant from my view. He decided he didn’t want anything to do with this crazy looking biker, the MOOSE tried running, this is the comedy part, because the moose couldn’t find any traction like my German motorcycle did, because it looked like he had ice skates on his feet.  I look back and thought, “Boy I’m sure glad that’s over.” realizing the MOOSE was probably thinking the very same thing. I was still about 5 miles from my next stop at the Rangeley Bagel Shop, and a gas station next door it was perfect for a gas and bonus stop. At the gas station the attendant told me, “that the moose like to stay in the road, because they don’t like the bugs,” so my analogy is that if you don’t like bugs lie in the road, the attendant laughed, so did I.

My next stop was Bridgewater, ME. To find Uranus it was 260 miles from Rangeley. This leg of the trip was uneventful. I was traveling south on US 1, and bumped into Rob Nye, who would be the rally master for the next rally, I was to attending. Asked if him and the fellow rider he was with if they were was ok, he said yes then told me who he was. I then noticed he was standing in front of Neptune, and I put 2 and 2 together and marked the location, I then informed him I would see him in 2 weeks, and ride safe.

Acardia National Park was my next bonus for Thunder Hole, also uneventful except once I got in there, the tourist trap made it difficult to exit especially where I had to go to get the bonus.

Next, I was trying to make it home for a rest bonus, which I accomplished with 1900 miles before my first rest bonus; I stopped at the end of the block to fill up and to get a receipt. I was home for a shower and 4 hours of rest. All of this accomplished, I was up and moving in 4 hrs and 45 min all I needed to get done was my two plugs, one in Piper, PA., and the other in Paw Paw, WV. In Paw Paw, I fueled up and got a bonus at the same location, while there I asked an old man if he knew where there was a tobacco barn, his answer was “that stuff will kill you,” my answer was that I needed a picture of a barn with a tobacco sign on the side of it, he then proceeded to tell me of one about 14 miles away, I thanked him and away I went. Sure enough 14 miles later I had my picture. My next stop was York, PA. My GPS showed I would be there about 40 minutes late, time to put this bike in the wind. By the time I entered 83 south bound, I noticed a K1200LT behind me and figured that we both still needed to pick up about 4 minutes and only had 25 miles or so to go, traffic was cooperating and we made it back with a minute to spare.

It was a great ride. I later learned that this was to be a very respectable ride with approx. 2400 miles and earning 25,354 points.

I would like to thank to Rick Miller and his staff, and a special thanks to his wife Jean Miller for allowing Rick to build us a nice sandbox to play in.

Thanks for your time John J. Tomasovitch Jr.