Chris' 2005 Iron Butt Rally

Chapter 9 

Onto the Maine Event 

            Shortly after 9:00 PM, Mike Kneebone announced the top 5 scores and the new bonus sheets were handed out.  As I looked over the bonus sheets, I became even more anxious.  The leg seemed to be very “point challenged”.  Not only were there no huge bonuses that could overcome the mistakes of leg 1, but it seemed that even a very good run would only net around 10,000 points. 

            I commented to Paul that Jim Owen could take a leisurely ride to Maine, pick up no bonuses and I could probably still not catch him.  And though I did not know for sure, I suspected that Jim and the other riders in the top 10 had no intention of taking a leisurely ride to Maine.  I told Paul that it was time to get aggressive.  Very aggressive.  And it wouldn’t hurt to get lucky as well. 

            Team Robo adjourned to a room to look at possible routes.  Shane and Rick Morrison had quickly decided to take an aggressive route north.  I looked at the route, but did not like the timing of some of the bonuses.  I also thought that the bonuses up north tended to thin out drastically near the end of the leg. 

            John Ryan was impatient and ready to ride.  He had arrived very early in Denver and had gotten a lot of sleep.  He looked at the bonus in Galveston, Texas and had decided to go for it.  We ran the mileage for Galveston and saw that this would require a ride of over 3,000 miles in about 55 hours.  Paul and I did not think the points in Galveston warranted such a big ride.  We tried to talk John out of the route, but he was ready to ride.  If there was one of us that could do the ride without a DNF in Maine, I knew John could do it.  We all wished him luck and he was off. 

            I eventually picked a route through St. Louis and onto to other bonuses east, though I wasn’t sure which ones yet.  I loaded up the bike and headed out of Denver around 11:00 PM.  Ed, Sean and Bill had all also decided on a route through St. Louis.  We would pass each other several times over the next 900 miles as we rode through the night and into the dawn.

            As the sun rose in the east, I became increasingly tired.  Riding into the sun seemed to drain all my energy.  Several times I had to pull into rest areas for short naps.  I had wanted to be in St. Louis around noon, but it soon became apparent I was going to be several hours behind that goal.  At one point, Sean and I had pulled into the same rest stop.  I was hot, tired and generally just beat.  I looked at Sean and just said, “Brutal”.  He nodded and pulled on ahead. 

            The bonus in St. Louis required a walk of about a half a mile to the middle of a bridge on old Route 66 to get a picture of a sign.  If there is one thing worse than riding in riding gear in hot weather, it is walking in riding gear in hot weather.  I pulled into the parking lot and looked at the bridge.  For a brief second, I contemplated riding to the center of the bridge to get the bonus, but the bonus instructions had specifically said that you had to walk the bridge.  I got off the bike, got my flag, camera, duct tape and bonus sheets and started walking.  

            I found the sign proclaiming Route 66 and took the picture.  Again I re-read the bonus instructions and found that this was not the correct sign.  The correct sign was 100 yards farther up the bridge.  After getting a picture of the correct sign I walked back to my bike.  Several other bikes were pulling into the parking lot.  We exchanged greetings as they headed off for the bridge.  I pulled out my laptop to run some possible routes. 

            I decided to forego the other bonuses just east of St. Louis and to head straight to Phillippi, West Virginia.  With the bike re-packed, I started to head out, when one of the riders came back from the bridge, followed by another rider.  I thought to myself that was pretty quick.  They must have jogged all the way there and back.  It turned out that one rider had forgotten his flag and the other one was out of film.  They had gotten halfway up the bridge before having to turn around.  I groaned at the very thought of walking up the bridge twice.   

            I rode on to West Virginia.  I wanted to get as close as possible to Phillipi to be at the bonus around dawn Sunday morning.  The bonus was a covered bridge that had to be photographed in the daytime.   In Kentucky I ran across Jim and Donna Phillips at a gas station.  They were riding the Rally on a Goldwing 2-up.  As I sat in the gas station lot eating a candy bar, I marveled at any couple that could ride the Iron Butt Rally 2-up.  Nancy and I have a hard time riding to lunch 2-up, let alone all over North America.  Jim and Donna would eventually finish the Rally in 11^th place, which is truly amazing.  My hat is off to them. 

            During the day I had gotten Roger on the phone and he had been able to solve my Autocom problem, if only temporarily.  I again had a working cell phone connection and radar detector.  I told Nancy and Paul that I had decided on a route from Phillipi that would take me to Alexandria, VA-Baltimore-Harrisburg-Philadelphia-New York-Maine.   

            Around midnight, I found a hotel in a small town outside of Charleston, West Virginia.  I grabbed some food at the Taco Bell, which was the only thing open and went right to sleep for a 5 hour sleep bonus.  The next morning, I headed out just before dawn in heavy fog.  My progress through the mountains of West Virginia was slowed considerably in limited visibility.   

            I arrived in Phillipi and found 2 other riders in the lot next to the bonus location.  I took my picture as I waved to them.  I was off again in just a few minutes.  This was going to be a long day and I needed to keep moving.  I continued on through the fog eventually coming out onto I-68, a road I know very well.  I rode east on I-68 heading right into my own backyard.

(Return to Index) : (Proceed to Chapter 10)