Chris' 2005 Iron Butt Rally

Chapter 12 

Carolina On My Mind 

My main concern was much closer than North Carolina.  I had to get south of New York City before the morning rush hour started.  If I got stuck north of New York, I would spend hours trying to get past the city and would never make the North Carolina bonuses before sunset. 

As I headed south, I began having problems with the GPS.  It would turn off for no reason and freeze up while calculating the route.  It also was continually routing me onto side streets.  I was tired and becoming very frustrated with it.  I ended up in a suburb of Boston, which I knew was nowhere near the correct route.  I had almost resorted back to paper maps, when the problems fixed themselves.  The GPS seemed to now be working, but I probably lost about over an hour with the problem. 

I approached New York with traffic getting increasingly heavier.  Shortly after 4:00 AM I had to stop at a rest stop for a 10 minute nap.  I started out again, not feeling much better, but I crept toward my goal.  I took the road in 10 mile segments.  Just before 6:00 AM, I crossed over the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey.  Once southbound on the Jersey Turnpike, I pulled into the first rest stop.  I put the bike on the center stand, set the Screaming Meanie alarm for one hour and shoved it inside my helmet. 

            I leaned back on the bike and was quickly fast asleep.  Many of my friends have told me that they could never sleep while sitting on a motorcycle.  My response to them is always, “Well then you aren’t really that tired.”  I had no problem sleeping. 

            I awoke an hour later with a fresh layer of moisture coating me and the bike.  Dawn had broken on an overcast day.  I figured the clouds were the distant signs of Katrina, but I wasn’t sure.  I felt a lot better.  Unfortunately, I had again lost the Autocom, meaning no radar detector, but more importantly, no cell phone.  The only way to make a call would be to stop the bike and use the phone.  That meant I would be out of communication for most of the rest of the rally. 

            As I went south, I got some good news.  Katrina had stayed to the west, going up the Ohio Valley and was nearly out of the US.  I had thought I would run right into the storm on the way to North Carolina.  In fairly uneventful order, I crossed into Delaware, Maryland and into Virginia.  When I went to refuel in Virginia, I found that I had lost a credit card at the last stop.  I had the support crew (Nancy) call and cancel the card and continued south. 

            There were three bonuses in the Outer Banks, all lighthouses.  The Currituck Beach Lighthouse located toward the northern end was worth 3513 points.  On the tip of Hatteras was a lighthouse worth 1201 points and the big one on Ocracoke Island worth 19,222 points.  To reach Ocracoke Island you needed to take a ferry that ran every half hour from Hatteras to Ocracoke Island. 

            Once on Ocracoke Island, there were two ways to get to Denver.  One would be to take the ferry back to Hatteras and to retrace the long and tortuous beach highway north to back to Norfolk.  This was a 1900 mile journey with little opportunity to sleep. 

            The second path was a two hour ferry from Ocracoke Island to Cedar Island on the North Carolina mainland.  I would be able to sleep on the ferry and have 1800 miles to Denver.  The last ferry ran at 8:00 PM, but I did not think this ferry would leave me enough time to make Denver and avoid a DNF.  I wanted to catch the 6:00 PM Ferry from Ocracoke Island to Cedar Island to make sure I did not DNF in Denver. 

            As I headed onto the Outer Banks from Norfolk, VA, I got stuck waiting for a drawbridge.  I took the opportunity to call Nancy and firm up the ferry schedules.  She reminded me about the Currituck Beach Lighthouse and the Hatteras Lighthouse.  I was non-committal about either one of these and would decide when I got to the bonuses.  I had decided that I needed to catch the 4:30 PM ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke Island to ensure making the 6:00 PM to Cedar Island.  Backtracking up the Outer Banks was not an option.  I was just too worn out to do that. 

            I reached the intersection for the turn off for the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.  An hour or so to the north was the lighthouse.  To the south lay Hatteras and the ferry to Ocracoke Island.  The GPS showed me arriving in Hatteras just after 4:00 PM, without the detour north to Corolla for the Currituck Lighthouse.  I turned the bike south, foregoing the Currituck Beach Lighthouse bonus. 

            Traffic on the road to Hatteras was a horribly slow procession of beach combers, fishermen and vacationers.  Still though, I reached the Hatteras lighthouse around 4:00 PM and arrived in Hatteras proper in time to catch the 4:30 PM Ferry to Ocracoke Island.   

            As I settled down for the 40 minute ride, I called Paul to try and get an update on the other riders.  He told me that Bill Shaw had gotten the North Carolina bonuses and was already heading west.  John Ryan was having a good leg.  Then Paul asked me if I had gotten all three bonuses in NC.  I told him I had skipped the northern lighthouse to make the ferry.  He told me that Shane was in North Carolina and that he had gotten all three. 

            This shook me somewhat, because I knew that this put Shane ahead of me by around 1500 points or so.  I was a little down after this news.  I remember thinking that Shane was somewhere ahead of me down the road in North Carolina with the lead.  I did not think there were enough points to make up the deficit and overtake him.  I also remember thinking it didn’t matter anyway.  No one was going to catch Jim Owen, so if I finished 2^nd or 7^th, what did it matter.  I was not going to win. 

            What I did not know at the time was that Jim Owen, after one of the more remarkable and amazing runs in the history of the Iron Butt Rally, had broken down in Nevada.  His quest to lead the rally wire to wire was over.  He would DNF.  I also did not know that Shane had skipped the Campbellton Lighthouse in New Brunswick, leaving me slightly ahead of him.  As I sat on the ferry to Ocracoke Island quite dejected, I was in fact leading the Rally. 

            But at that time, I knew none of that.  I picked up the bonus on Ocracoke Island and then caught the 6:00 PM Ferry to Cedar Island, North Carolina.  I was able to sleep about an hour on the ferry which helped my mood considerably.  After that I was able to ride another 4 hours or so before running out of steam. 

Outside of Raleigh I pulled into perhaps the worst hotel I have ever frequented.  As the clerk slid me my receipt under the bullet proof glass, he asked me if I would like to put a deposit down to get a remote control.  I declined.  I was somewhat surprised there would be such a large market for stolen remote controls in North Carolina.  And I should add, remote controls for fifteen year old 12” televisions at that.   

I called Nancy before setting the Screaming Meanie for my last night in a hotel for the rally.  I was tired and wanted to ride straight to Denver, skipping any additional bonuses.  I wasn’t even sure I could make Denver at that point without a DNF.  I still had over 1600 miles to go and not much over 24 hours to make it.  Paul told Nancy that Shane was going to be at the Mabry Mill, VA bonus at 6:00 AM Thursday morning and I was supposed to meet him there.  At that point, I didn’t care.  I wasn’t quite sure where I was going to be at 6:00 AM, but I was pretty sure I was not going to be at the Mabry Mill bonus.  My only response was that I would try to do the best I could. 

I awoke before dawn and was off again.  I had gotten around 4 or 5 hours sleep and felt much better once again.  I touched base with Nancy before I took off.  My support team was headed for the airport to catch her flight to Denver for the finish.  She would temporarily turn all her support duties over to her our friend and coworker, Aileen while en-route to Denver.  I also did not know at the time, but my GPS tracker had been turned off because of the lost credit card in Virginia the day before.  Aileen tried in vain to get the company to turn it back on, but they would not without talking to me and getting a new card from me.  Once again, I knew nothing about this at the time. 

Nancy reminded me about meeting Shane, but I was doubtful that I could make it in time.  I was still probably 3 hours or so from the bonus.  I did not think I could catch Shane in points anyway, but I would try.  I got to the Mabry Mill bonus and then on to the bonus at the New River Gorge, WV.  As I headed west, I knew Shane was somewhere ahead of me, but I was not sure how far and I didn’t want to take the time to call Paul and find out. 

I set my sights on the bonuses in Missouri.  There were two ferries there, but they were both “daylight only” bonuses.  I wasn’t sure I could make them before sunset.  I crossed through West Virginia and Kentucky, knowing Shane was ahead of me….somewhere.  I did not know how far and I did not know if he was going for the Missouri bonuses or not.  More importantly, I also did not know that I held a slim 986 point lead. 

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