Category: 06 FJR 1300

I grabbed the best of the best from our trip to on the Tail of the Dragon (us 129) from http://www.us129photos.com/

There are few more from Killboy.com but he doesn’t do electronic distribution.

Dad:

Me:
 

Kyle:

Joe:

Just got back tonight from 5 days of riding on the Motorcycle Mecca that is the the Great Smokey Mountains area.

We stayed in Kyle (Brad)’s Uncle’s kick-butt Cabin in the middle of the forest off of route 28 south of 74, which in and of itself maybe one of the greatest roads in the area to ride.

There were no YouTube moments, at least none that we have footage for.  Though Kyle’s buddy Chris did wreck pretty hard on his way home on Sunday.   For the record, (I) had nothing to do it with it.  He was on his own.  He is fine and will be OK.  (ATGATT = All the gear all the time).

Here’s the breakdown of the trip.

Wednesday (Day 01)

We all met up early like 6:30am early in Sharonville, to get through Cincy before morning rush hour.  We stopped at the Cracker Barrel in KY for breakfast (the first of many great meals).

This would also be the last time I’d get to use the iPhone, as where we were headed was technology challenged (No or very limited, Cell Service).

In attendance for the long haul to the cabin were; Dad, Kyle, Joe and myself.  We’d meet up with Kyle’s buddy on Thursday.

Shortly after Cracker Barrel, I was really hating my bike.   I’d done a ton of maintenance recently and felt like the steering was too tight.  Alas, this was something I didn’t have tools with me to fix.   About 6 miles down the road I checked tire pressures, and my rear was almost 15lbs too low.   I added air, and things were much, much better.   However, this tire had two plugs in it and had them since the MD2020.  I had put proper air pressure in the tire the night before so this wasn’t a good sign.   It would be in the back of my mind from this point on.

Somewhere before the GAP I checked my tires, they were down almost 2 lbs.  So I picked up another set of patches planning to re-plug the tire with thicker sticky strings that evening.

We traveled on down I-75 through Deals Gap where we tamed the Dragon and stopped for lunch.

If you’re not familiar with the Dragon, google it.  It’s route 129 in TN, and NC.  318 turns in 11 miles.

Of course we needed to visit the tree of shame:

If you crash at the Dragon (and a lot of people do), you’re supposed to leave something behind on the tree of shame.

From the dragon we continued on down to RT 28 below 74 to the awesome accommodations at ‘le Cabin’.   An A-Frame owned my Kyle’s Uncle.

The cabin is up in the mountains at approx 3000 feet, so it was 10 degrees cooler up there.  No AC, no cell coverage or internet.  No cable TV either but still a great place, including a super sweet garage to park our bikes in.

But before you could enjoy this peaceful place you first had to cheat the ‘Driveway of Death’.  Part Gravel, part pavement, probably a 20% grade for a few hundred yards.   The first attempt didn’t go so well for Joe.  We had to stop half way up to unlock the gate.  His bike was in a precarious situation and he dropped it.  No blood, no harm no foul.  By the end of this trip his fear of gravel will be conquered.

We unloaded our bikes and headed off the the grocery store (30 miles away) to get the weekends provisions.

Man food mostly:

Beer, eggs, butter, bacon, wheat bread, beer, pop, salad, and beer.

We did score 3 rotisserie chickens for dinner the first night.

So our first dinner was Chicken, salad with beer, followed by Cigars, scotch and beer.

It was a nice relaxing evening.  I patched my tire and all was well.

Thursday (Day 02)

We got up at a reasonable time and had breakfast.  Eggs and BACON.

Bacon would fuel us this weekend!

Our route today was supposed to be rather peaceful, yet exciting.  We were to run a route that would take us over Teleco mountain, over to Telico Plains, across the Skyway, etc.   About 45 minutes into the router we realized that Teleco road leads us to Otter Creak road, which was gravel, and getting worse by the mile.   We also discovered about half way up this gravel road that my tire was indeed FLAT.  One of the new plugs from the night before had come out.   We patched my tire in the hollers and headed back toward Franklin. 

(Fixing my flat down in the holler)

 

We had a 1pm meet time with Chris and couldn’t complete our intended route.

Along the way we passed ‘Cycle Crazy’ on route 28.   As we drove by, I thought to myself; “What are the chances that they’ll have a tire to fit my bike?”

We stopped for gas and talked it over.  We all agreed I should replace my tire if I could.  We used the power of Goog-411 to contact Cycle Crazy.  They did indeed have a tire.  So dad and I turned back while Kyle and Joe when off to meet up with Chris.

Cycle Crazy

These guys get mad props for hooking me up.  They stopped what they were doing to mount my tire.  They charged a fair price and didn’t try to ‘screw’ a traveler.   I highly recommend them and will give them what ever business I can.

I pulled my rear wheel so they wouldn’t have to clear a lift, they mounted the tire and dad and I hung out talking to these guys while we waited for the others to ride by.

We finally met up with the rest of the gang and decided to make the best of what was left of the day.

We headed out Route 28 through Franklin, up 64 through Highlands, a very cool little town.

Then to Pine mountain to take in a view.   The view was a 5 mile hike (maybe more).  Kyle and Chris hiked to the top.  Dad, Joe and I apparently made it about 1/2 way and gave up.  ‘Never trust a man who walked 300+ miles on the Appalachian trail if he tells you that something isn’t ‘that far’.  His view of ‘not that far’ is not the same as the rest of us.   A 5 mile up hill hike is one thing, a 5 mile up hill hike in riding boots and riding best work boots and pants is another.

After that little escapade we did what we do best.  We went to eat.

After another 75 or so miles we headed back to the Cabin and called it a day.

It rained nearly every evening, but our days were great.  Having bikes in the garage was even better!

Friday (Day 03)

Our goal was to get up early and head to the BMW MOA rally.  (one of our prime objectives for this trip).  By now Kyle had figured out that he too needed tires in the worst way.  What better place to get them at then at the Rally?  Generally speaking they have decent prices at these things.

We stayed up far too late the night before and got a rather late start to the day.  We made it to the rally in Johnson City around noon.  A really pleasant 150 mile ride.  (we wanted to be there at 10 am but it just didn’t work out).

We did what we do second best, shop for motorcycle stuff.  After registration we hit up the vendors.   I didn’t have much on my list.  Some Rev-IT socks, maybe a new pump since my portable tire pump died.  Sadly I didn’t find any of these things.

The ONLY tire vendor at the show was Metzler.  While I like my Metzler Z6’s that came on my bike, I didn’t like the way they don’t have tread in the middle.  They look fine, then 100 miles later you have cords showing.   But Kyle needed tires, at least a rear.   Unfortunately the booth was booked until Sunday.  They couldn’t mount tires for him.

We wandered around some more, hoping to find Michelin or Bridgestone at the rally.  Sadly again, neither was there.  We bumped into the owner of Cycle Crazy and he didn’t have a tire in a size to fit Kyle’s bike but gladly agreed to mount it for us on Sunday if we found a tire at the rally.  So we headed back to the Metzler booth.

I’m going to blast Metzler in another specific post.  But the bottom line is they wouldn’t sell us just a tire or even a set of tires if they couldn’t mount it at the show.  Not a good thing.

So we called around using the power of 1-800-Goog-411 and found a set of tires at Wheelers, at the south end of Deals Gap.  We’d head there first thing in the morning and get Kyle hooked up.

I didn’t have my camera at the rally so there aren’t any pictures of that day.

After much shopping in the vendor area, we headed to the beer garden for a couple frosty beverages and a little relaxation before heading back.

The ride back was fairly uneventful.  We did stop and have a nice home cooked meal at a little hole in the wall diner in the middle of no-where TN.

Back at the Cabin for another late night of Scotch/Bourbon, Beer, Cigars, and stories.   Oh, and we watched probably the worst Motorcycle movie ever.  Hell Ride a Tarantino flick.  Think Pulp Fiction on Motorcycles only not that good.  It was really stupid.  IMDB is extremely generous giving it 5.3 stars out of 10.

Saturday (Day 04)

Again, we didn’t get up an out on the road as early as we would have liked.   Normally when you go on these types of trips it’s kickstands up at 7:30a or 8:00a and you ride all day.   We were a little slow moving because we were staying up so late.

First stop of the day…  Wheelers at the tail of the Dragon so Kyle could get some new shoes…

Wheelers is a one man show.  We were there when he opened though so we were first in line.  This turned out to be a good thing.  He was diligent, but somewhat slow, mostly driven by the other riders that wouldn’t leave him alone to do his work.

This is where we met Larry or Barry.  A guy on a K1200 sport bike who needed to have his tire patched.   What a tool, for 60 minutes he didn’t shut up.  It was very clear to us why he was riding alone.  I don’t think anyone could stand to be with him for more than 60 minutes.  I know we couldn’t.

After the tires we ran up to the peak of the Cherohala Skyway.  About 1/3rd of the way.   Chris had a term paper due for his online-MBA so he stayed at the Cabin to get that done.  We’d ride for a bit then meet up with him so he could upload his paper.

 

The weather was perfect.  On the way up we came across a rider that had gone down.  Hitting some grass on the road left over from the crews mowing the sides of the Skyway.  He was OK, but bike was broken pretty badly. 

There were quite a few police on the Skyway running radar, but it was still a fun ride.

We met up with Chris at McDonalds in Bryson City.  We enjoyed a Mc Mocha the best we could while he uploaded his paper.  Still the worst $3.00 coffee on the planet but it was there and had caffeine).

We then set off for the good end of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

It was a beautiful day.  A tad chilly at altitude but a great day none-the-less.

 

I had intended to take us up to the top of Mount Mitchell but with the late start (2pm) there was no way we would make it.   We cut the ride short and headed into Cruso for fuel, then back down  276 to the looking glass waterfall.  Which was a Zoo on a Saturday.

Then into Brevard for a somewhat suspect Steak Dinner.  Our first and only of the trip.  I had ribs and pulled pork.  It was good but not special.  Chris’s steak looked really bad and I was glad I didn’t go with steak.  They did however give us a bag of peanuts for the road.   Moral of the story is never trust a steak place that advertises a $7.00 steak.

Up parkway road back to the Blue Ridge with an opportunity to watch a sunset.

After our meal we beat feet for the cabin, made a quick beer stop to restock and headed home for another night of laughing.

I think we heard the Big Earl story that night.

Sunday (Day 05)

Sunday would be Chris’s last day with us.  He packed up his stuff, we’d ride till lunch and he’d head on home to Atlanta.  We were told by Kyle’s Uncle that we could get a good burger at a place on lake Aquone.  Which was perfect because Wayah road was on our do-not miss list.  We stopped at the burger joint, Lakes End Grill.   It was good, with very bad service (slow) and ugly waitresses to boot (a contradiction to the description that was given prior).

 

After lunch we said our goodbye’s with Chris.  He headed south, we headed north (probably a mistake to split up then).

We weren’t sure which way to head, so we looked at what routes we hadn’t run yet and decided to run to Telico and run the length of the Cherohala this time from the TN side.  We traveled down 129 to the John Brown Highway.  Calling it a highway is a stretch.   We followed it around lake Hiwassee and took a gravel road for about 4 miles to get to 68 then up to Telico across the Cherohala and back home.

Our trip was uneventful.  Just a nice peaceful ride.   We were already somewhat exhausted from all the previous activities.  We were thinking Pizza but couldn’t find a place on the way so we stopped at Subway.  Clearly the healthier choice.

Later that evening we learned that Chris had crashed about 5 minutes after he left us.   He wanted to be home by 3pm and was on schedule until that meal at the Lakes end took forever.  I’m sure he was rushing to get home, blue a corner and over into a ravine.  He was fine because he had all the gear on.  His bike was able to be ridden home.  I haven’t seen photos yet.  We should have ridden with him till he got to a straighter road.

To bed early on Sunday since Monday was ride home day.  We needed to get up early and clean the cabin.  Leave it like you found it or better.

Monday (Day 06)

Up and at-em around 8am.  The plan was to be out by 8am, which didn’t happen but we weren’t far behind.  I was sleeping with ear plugs cause everyone of us can snore like a chainsaw.  Apparently that made me harder to wake up.

We swept through the cabin, hung the towels, put fresh sheets one the beds, vacuumed, swept out the garage and what not. 

One last ride through the dragon.

Then headed straight for home.  We didn’t waste much time.   We had to stop and buy some DOT 4 brake fluid as it appeared I was leaking but that turned out not to be accurate.  Just super-slabbed it all the way home.   One stop in Jellico for Gas and Arby’s, then another fuel stop just south of Lexington to top off so we can make it home from there in one shot.

More photos and maybe even movies coming as I get them.

High res full photos here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/mdisher/2009ManCampRidinInTheSmokies#

At 33,000 miles, my 2006 FJR is due for some maintenance.

Most of this is routine maintenance and not warranty work.  Since this is a ‘farkled’ ld bike, I prefer to do as much of the work myself.  No sense in having someone worry about my GPS/Radar Detector/XM Radio and other add-on items.   Plus I get to know the work was done to my satisfaction.

On the agenda is:

…Done… .

Final Drive Swap

…Done…   My final drive started weeping again.  I have all the seals but even better I have a low mileage (2700 miles) rear end that I nabbed of eBay a while back.  I’ve done the swap, lubed up the spines and will replace the seals in my original unit. .

Head Bearing Upgrade/Replace with Tapered Set

…Done… Special thanks to ‘Just Roy’ a forum member who makes an awesome head set socket and member ‘AllIn’ who loaned me the tools to remove the races and press in the new ones.

Ignition Switch Recall Work

…Done…  . A local dealer was willing to provide the parts so I could do it myself.  Work performed in this service bulletin.  It’s a complete crock that Yamaha only gives these guys an hour service time.   It took me a good hour and a half and I already had the bike halfway apart. .

Fork Service

Oil on order, currently just a flush and refill with new fork oil but I’m jonesing for a suspension upgrade. . … Done … Using Maxima 5wt Fork Oil. .

Valve Clearance Check/Adjust

I have a shim kit in stock and will do this in the next week or two.  This is the biggest item on the list and will take a good day for me to complete with coolant flush at the same time.  I should probably do plugs too but I did my initial set a little late and they looked great. . … Done … The 32K clearance check on my ’06 were: #1 LI = 0.008, RI = 0.007, LE = 0.009, RE = 0.008 #2 LI = 0.006, RI = 0.006, LE = 0.009, RE = 0.008 #3 LI = 0.006, RI = 0.007, LE = 0.009. RE = 0.009 #4 LI = 0.007, RI = 0.007, LE = 0.009. RE = 0.009 All in spec though a couple of the intake valves were leaning towards the tighter side.   Proving once again that having the shims on hand means you won’t need to use them! From FJR 33000 Mile mainteance .

Remove PAIR System and install the fancy block off plates.

Almost done, stripped a bolt removing one of the PAIR connectors. . … Done …

HID Headlight upgrade.

I have the kit and with the front all apart I might as well do this too. … Not sure I can use the kit that I have.  It’s really an auto-kit an the wires are simply too long for me to hide. .

Swap out BlueSeas fuse block for a smaller more compact and integrated unit.  (The FuzeBlock)

Have parts in stock, ready to do. .

Install Aux Plugs for heated gear

Installed, needs to be wired. .

 

Some photos of my work in progress:

 

Entire Album is here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mdisher/FJR33000MileMainteance#

Will update this post as things progress.

This memorial day weekend Kyle, my dad, and I all rode in the Mason Dixon 20-20 Motorcycle Endurance Rally.   Kyle and I rode in this in 2007 and had a blast.

We got Boondoggled in the rally last time, got led a-stray by Janice, the Garmin Voice.  She took us down what turned out to be a private drive and we got locked in, which totally screwed us in the end.

If you’re not familiar with these types of things.  It’s like a mini cannon ball run, or a big motorcycle scavenger hunt.

For the 2009 MD 2020, there were a few things that were different.

We were given the 80 bonus locations and point values about 3 weeks prior.   This year there would be (4) Mandatory locations.  Those locations I hit during my BBG run two weeks ago to scope them out.   But I didn’t really know what I was looking for. 

The rules this year were pretty simple.

• The Rally time was approx 5:30am until 2pm on Sunday.  Or Roughly 31 hours to complete your ride and collect as many bonus points as you can.
• To be considered a finisher you had to visit the 4 mandatory locations.  The little Smiley faces, one in Winchester-MD, Saint Mary’s-WV, Erie-PA, and Binghamton-NY.
• The locations are color coded by point values.  There’s no need to explain those now.
• The big bonuses were ‘Close the loop’ visit all (4) mandatory’s and get back to the one you started at in “24” hours.
• The ‘X’  Visit the mandatory’s in an X patter, but you had to visit them in this order:  Erie->Winchester->St. Mary’s->Binghamton.
• Another bonus that was pretty big was get all of the 20 point bonuses, (19 of them) the little blue triangles.   You’d get 19×20 (380) plus 333) so that was a lot of points.  But a number of those contained significant gravel roads to get so we passed on that.
• Some boni had other restrictions like daylight hours only, etc.
• The final caveat was that you must take a rest bonus of 3 hours in length (3 contiguous hours) spent in the same location, and this bonus must be started between the hours of 6pm Saturday and 6am Sunday.   If you didn’t rest you’d be DNF, no matter how many points you had. (more on this later)
• For the most part this was a ‘photo’ rally, which meant you’d be given instructions to take a photo of something.  To get the points you had to have your rally flag in the photo.  You also had to log the time and your odometer reading. 
  • Some were question answer bonuses too but the majority were photo bonuses.

After much planning the route Kyle and I and dad chose was basically this:

It wasn’t a winning route but if ridden properly would have scored almost 3000 points.

I figured it would take 3400-3500 to win and I wasn’t far off.   But we’re just not that hard-core. 

This year about 63 riders took off at 5:40 am from the Rally HQ.

Now having recently visited these four mandatory cities, and ridden around them, the biggest thing to influence my route was that Route 50 through West Virginia at night in the rain was not any fun.  In a rally you need to make time, that means riding the speed limit regardless of conditions.  You cannot ride route 50 in the dark, in the rain at the speed limit,  not easily and especially not if you’re fatigued.

So that being the case, we wanted to hit that stretch early if it wasn’t raining and in daylight.   We were off shortly after the start.   Kyle and I rode together.  Dad rode alone.   Two riders slows you down some, three riding together only compounds the things that slow you down.  Dad was running the same basic route.  We rolled out of the parking lot what we thought was probably a good 10-15 minutes before dad would leave.

We hit our first mandatory at Winchester at 6:12 am.    This meant we had 24 hours to get back here after visiting the other 3.   It also meant that if we were to spend our rest bonus in Winchester, we just shorted our 24 hour time period by 12 minutes because the rest bonus had to be started by 6am.  So we had to be back there by 6am.    (Of course we could have rested in side the 24 hours if we felt we could make that).

Off to our first bonus location on Route 50, a historic marker:

As we pulled up to this location.  Dad was already there.  We were somewhat shocked.   But it was ‘game-on’…

We were riding behind a couple from Canada, prepping for the big Iron Butt rally and figured if we can hang with them we might learn something.

We snapped our photo and took off.  We caught up to the Canadians and followed them at warp speed across Route 50 and the mountain(s). Great riding.  Dad was with us/behind us and I wondered how long that would last.

There was a 20 point bonus on route 50 that we dropped from our route because it was 10 miles off of Route 50 on a goat trail of a road.  That’s at least a 25 minute delay to go get that.   What we didn’t know at the time was that dad’s GPS had rebooted and he had lost a bunch of the bonus locations.  He knew where that one was and peeled off to go get it.  When Kyle and I stopped at the next location we discussed the fact that he went and got an ‘extra’.  Which meant, he would either (a) blow the 24 hour bonus, or (b) beat us…

The next stop was a marker that marked the highest point on the Maryland road system:

We pushed on across RT 50 to the Taylor county War memorial:

Then to a couple question/answer bonus locations, and finally into Saint Mary’s WV to get our fuel receipt.

Things were clicking right along.  We were spot on our times for each location.

We continued on up through PA on our way to Erie.  Along the way we stopped at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies. (Most of the boni were war memorial related, this being on Memorial day weekend and all…

We also hit this historic marker, marking the birthplace of the ‘Jeep’

Just prior to getting the Erie bonus we hit up the bonus at the Erie international airport.  This flying Walleye.

We were still on time.  One of the wild card bonuses was a receipt for a ‘Tasty Burrito’.   Chipotle came to mind but we didn’t have time to fine one much less eat one.   The caveat was a receipt that said ‘burrito’.  Our first attempt was at a gas station, one of those frozen heat and eat burrito, but the receipt didn’t say ‘burrito’ it said something like ‘food-item’.  We kept the wrapper and would plead our case at scoring if we didn’t find a better receipt.

In Erie we ran into a Taco Bell, and asked for one Bean Burrito.  I thought they were $.69, but no more.  That receipt also didn’t say Burrito, it said ‘B-Bean’.  We had the teller write burrito on the receipt, sign it, and put a phone number for verification.

We then hit the gas pump and headed north to NY, and one bonus stop off of I-90, this light house:

Back on the turnpike and making good time.  At this stage we’re cutting it a little closer but still  had a 2 hour buffer.

Then…

As I’m changing lanes I cross over a rather large tar snake and my bike now feels funny.   Kyle rolled up to me and pointed to the side of the road.  My rear tire was going flat and fast.

No worries, we plugged it and were back on the road in about 10 minutes.  It felt like a hour.  I was now worried.  Would the plug hold?  How much time did we burn?  How much energy and mental capacity did we just waste?

On to a big bonus 220 points, the original Jello factory and museum.

This was a typical Rally bastard bonus.  The location took you to the front of a building with the description ‘Take a photo of the truck shaped sigh on the front of the Jello factory museum’.   The problem was the sign wasn’t on the front of the building we were parked in front of.   It was on another building in the back.  We found it, got the photo and took off.    It was clear to us that other riders had already been there.  The rock on the railing to hold the flag was kindly left there for us 🙂

The next stop would be to count how many Cabooses made up the Caboose Hotel.  The answer is 5.   This is also where it went from being light out to dark out.  Meaning this is where I would have to change from wearing Sunglasses to the ‘clear’ safety glasses.  (With my windshield up, I often ride with my visor up, it’s quieter and cooler, but I still need eye protection).  This is where I learned two things.

a) $5.00 cheapo clear glasses will simply get all scratched up if you just let them flop around in your top case.  So much so that they become unusable.

b) When you’re tired, you really need to check everything twice.  This is where I *lost* my $100 Oakley sunglasses.  At least I suspect it’s where I probably set them on the back of the bike but didn’t put them away.  Grrrrrr….   When we stopped at the next stop, I wanted to put them in a special place, realizing that having them flop around in my top case was likely to scratch them up like the clear glasses.   This is when I realized they were gone.

The next stop was Horsehead, to get a  photo of the Horsehead rock.   Kyle was worried, even though the sign said Horsehead rock, it wasn’t horse shaped.

We flew to Binghamton, got our gas required gas receipt.   We were still on time, with a 1 and half hour cushion.  I had already mentally written of a bonus on I-81 that was 20 miles off the beaten path.

We went to Sweetwater to get a photo of a war memorial but the coordinates put us in someone’s back yard.  No memorial to be found.  We did find this about a block away and took the photo just in case.

We were currently being surrounded by thunderstorms and worried we’d have to ride the next 4 or so hours in the rain. And we did for a good portion. By now it was 2am, we’d been on our bikes since 5:40am the previous morning. Fatigue was really setting in. We decided to blow of the 2 bonuses and head straight for Winchester. We had to get there by 6am. It was dark and raining pretty hard at times. But the fatigue was killing us. We had to stop, and stop often. But we manned up and made it with a little time to spare. We punched our Winchester receipt at 5:25am which also served to start our rest bonus. Our original plan had us back at Winchester by 5am giving us time to get back to the Rally Hotel to sleep for a couple hours, but that didn’t work out. Instead it would be a few hours at the Iron Butt motel. This meant my therma-rest on a patch of grass behind the gas station. It was about an hour and a half of blissful rest. At 8:30am we rolled out of Winchester with the thought of getting the big 387 point bonus which is in the rally every year at Jim Young’s grave. About a 100 miles north of Winchester.

There were other bonuses to get but Kyle and I were beat and headed back to Rally HQ.   We didn’t want to be late.  Every minute past 2pm cost you 20 points.

We felt good about what we had accomplished.  Now going on 2 hours sleep in the past 36 hours we were worn out and still had to complete all of our paperwork for scoring.

My rally tip:  Write everything in the Rally book as you get it, not on a sheet like I did.  In copying everything over to the rally book I left off the Jim Young bonus.  So even though I had the photo, without claiming it in the rally book I got a big fat ‘0’ for this bonus.  That cost me almost 15 positions in the final tally.   Lesson learned the hard way.  This is my 3rd rally, and I’ve yet to not screw it up somehow.   Maybe next time.

Kyle missed one of the question bonuses, and for some reason they didn’t give him credit for that war memorial that they gave me credit for.

Dad, well he did well.  He didn’t DNF.  He didn’t close the loop in time.  He thought he wouldn’t make it so he went to the  hotel for the rest bonus instead.  He also screwed up some photo bonuses.  He didn’t check his camera settings and recorded them as movies.  But in the end he did well.  Had he closed the loop, he may have beaten me.

All in all it was a blast.  We rode 2300 miles in 3 days and spent almost 33 hours butt in the saddle on on the bike moving.   I’m tired and going to bed.  🙂