The Minnesota 2010 was a 2 say long distance motorcycle rally. The Minnesota rally is home turf for the legendary "Team Strange". By participating in this rally, I would forever by a member of Team Strange and assigned rider # 720 (some may argue that I have been a "Team Strange" member for most of my life....). This would be my first multi day rally and would provide excellent experience for the upcoming 5 day Iron Butt 5000 rally in August.
Another reason I registered for the Minnesota rally, was because the legendary long distance rider,
Eddie James, was a founding member of Team Strange. Eddie was to be the rallymaster for the Iron Butt 5000 before a tragic motorcycle accident took his life in Dec 6, 2009 on I75 in Atlanta. Eddie is sorely missed by the LD community. Participating on this rally was a way to honour him and to experience some of the crazy bonus locations that he was famous sending riders to.
A friend of mine, Tom, joined me for the ride from Ontario to Minnesota. We took a ferry, called the
Lake Express, across Lake Michigan to avoid the hassles of Chicago. The ferry ride was only a couple of hours and it is an experience worth repeating.....very smoooooth and fast!
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| The Lake Express Ferry |
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| My friend Tom beside the BMW GS and my bike....getting ready to tie the bikes down for the trip. |
Thursday night was the traditional "Liar's Banquet" hosted by the rallymaster Bart Bakker. Made some new friends. Lisa Erbs, Eddie's, fiancee spoke at the banquet about t
he Eddie James Foundation for Children which will provide resources to children and young adults who have suffered from abuse and neglect. The riding community is truly very special!
The rally book was handed out and after some last minute corrections, I retreated back to my room to plan the adventure. The planning went well and I was in bed by midnight. I was conservative in my routing as I was not sure on my personnel limits on a 2 day rally.
The rally started at
Leo's South motorcycle dealership in Lakeville, Minnesota. The dealership opened early for the riders and had coffee and donuts ready. Thank you Leo's.
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| Me at the start of the Minnesota 2010 - I just tell my friends to watch for "Big Bird" on a motorcycle! |
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| First Bonus Stop: Grotto of Redemption in West Bend, Iowa. All I can say is wow.... check of this link. |
On my way to the second bonus stop, I thought I had gained an hour on my original ETAs and thought I had time to ride to an unplanned bonus. About half way to the new unplanned bonus location, I realized that had become confused between Central and Mountain time zones..... I promised myself to come up with a Time Zone solution to prevent confusion during the Iron Butt 5000 rally. I quickly turned around and began to hustle to make a timed bonus at the Two Rivers Saloon.
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| Post Office, Irene, South Dakota |
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| Two Rivers Saloon, Niobrara, Nebraska. This was a high point value timed bonus, good only on Friday 1:30pm - 3:00pm. I was almost late for this bonus... |
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| Plat of Fort Randall in South Dakota. I added this bonus and later this turned out to be a mistake and cost me a higher point bonus later that evening. |
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| Scout's Rest, North Platte Nebraska. There was a huge fair across the street. Traffic was brutal getting to this location. |
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| The Sandhills historic marker near Thedford, Nebraska. It was very dark and I could not find this marker. I drove in circles for about 30 minutes. Finally in the darkness I could make out a semi truck parked at the back of the lot. I drove up to the truck and walked in behind it as there was only about 3 ft clearance. There was my marker...completely hidden by the truck! Grrrrrr..... |
After the Sandhills bonus, I was getting tired and decided it was time to use my rest bonus. Plus there just happened to be a hotel in Thedford, the first I had seen for some time. Turned out to be a good decision as it was many hours before I would see a hotel again in the morning. I got my dated/timed receipt from a gas station about a mile down the road. Crashed on the top of the bed with all my gear on and went to............ (loud train whistle sounds)...... Turns out that directly behind my room there was a train track. About every 30 minutes, my sleep was interrupted by a whistle. 4 hours later, I go up, threw some water on my face and went to the front desk. Turns out the person working at the hotel had gone into the back room and fell asleep. Took some convincing, but I finally woke her. She seemed rather upset with me. "You just checked in.....why would you want to checkout already"....
The next several hours I was riding on some quiet back road in Nebraska. No traffic. Off in the the distance there was a spectacular lighting show..... where lighting was streaking across the sky. It was an amazing, marvelous sight...... this is why I enjoy these rides.....
The colours of dawn was breath taking.... you can just get a glimpse of the colours in the distance as I arrived at the next bonus - Mari Sandoz in Nebraska. This bonus was on a lonely road with no traffic. I could have stayed at this bonus for hours enjoying the sunrise...
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| Mari Sandoz bonus - Nebraska |
A few hours later we were to be at a Checkpoint, in Hill City, South Dakota. I was 5 minutes late for the checkpoint resulting in significant penalty points. Oh well.....it was still great fun.
The next bonus stop was the
Mount Coolidge Fire Lookout located in Custer State Park. The lookout tower was located at a very high elevation in the Black Hills..... Th tower was accessed by riding up a twisty gravel road with an occasional switch back.... I do not mind gravel roads......but I hate heights. Needless to say that my mouth was rather dry when I arrived at the top. We had to count the # of stairs on the tower so I have no picture..... at that moment I was not having as much fun!
Some additional slow riding through Custer State Park on the
Needles highway and I arrived at the next bonus location, a information sign for the Eye of the Needle. On the way to this marker, I actually got to ride through the "Eye of the Needle"....very cool!
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| Eye of the Needle Information Sign |
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| Eye of the Needle |
A few hours north to arrive at the Geographic center of the Nation.
Next photo bonus location: Hugh Glass - Adventurer monument. The road to this monument was a challenging gravel road.
On to the Siting Bull monument near Mobridge South Dakota.
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| Siting Bull Monument. If you look closely to the left of the monument, I believe you can see John Coons, doing some kind of dance. Why? No one is sure! John went on to win the Iron Butt 5000 rally in August. |
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| Ipwich, S.D. Towns in rural South Dakota where small and far apart. You had to watch your fuel levels. |
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| All I remember about this bonus was that I was denied the points at the scoring table. It took me about 45 minutes of riding in the middle of the night on very lonely back roads to try to reach a bonus location, only to find the road closed with water across the road. It was very dark and there was flooding all around me. It was very eerie... |
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| Paul Bunyan's Boat Anchor, Ortonville, MN. Had no idea that Paul owned a boat. |
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| A bakery in downtown New London, MN. It was the middle of the night and nothing was open. Too bad as I was getting rather hungry. |
After the New London, MN bonus, I was getting tired. It was time to take my mandatory rest bonus. Tried for over an hour to get a hotel but everything was booked full. Finally stop in front of a closed Subway Shop in a small strip mall, put my gloves under my helmet and layed down on the sidewalk for a nap. Woke up about an hour later shivering from the cold. Fortunately, I carry a small emergency Bivi sack like the one pictured below. After crawling into the Bivy sack I was able to sleep comfortably for a couple of a couple of hours.
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| Emergency Bivi Sack. Packs light on the bike and works very well for use at the Iron Butt Motel. |
After getting my a receipt to document the end of my rest bonus (from the same location that I obtained a receipt at the start of my rest bonus), as I headed to the my last bonus, the famous Bob's Java Hut, I stopped for my first decent meal in 2 days, breakfest at McDonalds. You would be surprised at how good McDonalds can taste if you have not eaten in 2 days!
A quick stop at
Bob's Java Hut for a coffee and to purchase a mug and meet new friends. Bob is a huge supporter of the LD riding community. Check out his place when in Minneapolis, MN. The finish was only about 20 minutes away so I was in no hurry. Arrived at the finish with plenty of time to spare and began completing the paperwork. No bonus points are bagged until you thoroughly and completely fill out all paperwork and account for all receipts. Get sloppy here and you can loose many of the points who worked so hard for over the previous days.
Scoring went well, but I was denied points for the bonus location I could not get to because of flooding. Apparently, there was a way to ride around the flooding via a 70 mile detour.... the rules clearly state that if there is another way to the bonus, that the points will be denied. Oh well..... all great fun!
I ended up finishing a respectable 29 out of 78 starters. I was happy with my results. I now know that I can be more aggressive in my route planning and # of miles. All in all it was great experience for my upcoming Iron Butt 5000, but more importantly I had an amazing time. Most riders love the curves through mountains. I can say after this rally. that I prefer the ride through wide open spaces like those in Northern Nebraska, and South Dakota.
