SPANK 2006 – Near Gila Cliff Dwellings, NM
Scarcely more than a week after I return from Golden for the NAFO Rally….I have to hike my happy ass back across the baron boredom of Wyoming to the even less thrilling Nebraska stretch of I-80. My destination is Omaha, Nebraska where I will join a couple dozen other of George Zelenz’s SPANKwanauts ™ and engage in 7 days of SPANKleasure ™.
…crossing I-80 across Wyoming is almost tolerable when you can’t see it… – Warchild
I rode two years ago in his 2006 SPANK and was treated to an incredible motorcycle journey of the Native American Southwest that included a personal journey of life shaping visions and events. For the rest of my life names like Navajo, Canyon del Chelly, Chaco, Akoma, Gila, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Animas, “Set Phasers to SPANK”, Funky Chicken, and Uncle Bud will have special meaning during those heady 5 days in August 2006.
So, it’s such that I’m torn between the great memories of my first multi-day rally and the Southwest–contrasted with the BORING memories of slogging across Wyoming’s I-80.
To that end I won’t ride the I-80 route out there. I’ll ride the I-90 route and suffer what I’m told is a similarly boring South Dakota. However, the key distinction remains that I haven’t ridden I-90 east of Billings, MT…so it will be newly and differently boring to me. And for this change of pace I have to ride a scant 49 miles farther. It’s 39 additional minutes I’m willing to bare.
Once in Omaha I’ll engage in the routine of final mind and bike prep before the August 7th departure. This typically includes trips to stores for jerky and other provisions and arranging things in piles in the hotel room. Stuff that goes on the bike and stuff that I can live without.
I did learn in the ‘07 IBR that one doesn’t need shoes or even underwear as you live perpetually in your motorcycle boots and a pair of Spandex bicycle shorts. The latter even stays on when one splurges on the luxury of a shower and goes through a make-shift washing cycle. It’s an image that grosses even me out, but as one reading this blog has probably learned by now……details fill in the picture of what this LD Rally thing is all about.
Luxury things become whether one will pack an extra pair of socks or try and wash those as well….or the debate of carrying a razor. My prevailing thought has been that shaving at least a couple of times during the rally helps in case one does have an encounter a LEO. One looks less like a miscreant and deserve to be released back into the LD wilds without being tagged with a piece of paper. I haven’t proven or disproved this theory yet as I was only once briefly snared by a Tonopah park ranger and he thought I was and affable Yogi Bear.
What will be for sure is in the fun and challenging department. The mind of George is far more inventive and creative than my own. His right-brain centric style of rally organization guarantees to be a formidable challenge to my own left-brain bias. I have to tear down his holistic style and recompile in my own analytical framework. His random access approach conflicts with my need to be linear. His professional career as a modern architect is at odds with my software engineering skills to develop repeatable processes.
vs.
On the plus side…..I do now have his 5 day rally and an 11 day Iron Butt Rally under my belt. I know I can do the miles. Now we’ll see if i can solve his Martyoshka Doll of puzzles.
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Not uncoincidentally, SPANK ends in Tulsa, Oklahoma and feeds directly into the IBA National. This event is most like a 3 day seminar and social series where IBA types get to hang out, sniff each other’s butts, and hone their crazy craft…..like better ways to sleep on the ground over hotel rooms, shaving .4 seconds off a bonus stop, and ways of mounting that 4th GPS unit while still being able to see the oil pressure light.
