After some careful consideration I’m going to be running this rally old school….under the radar….and won’t be blogging about it. The reasons are numerous, including specific prohibition by the organizers of communicating via blog or GPS to the public during the rally.

I’m sorry about this, but am sure you understand.

See you at the Finish Line in Spokane, September 4th, at 7 a.m. PDT. I’ll have stories to share!

Matt

Today is registration, technical inspection, and other details.  This video sums of Bob & Sylvie Torter with tech. inspector Tobie Stevens sums things up pretty well.

Today’s going to be one post and a running commentary and quotes…..many nuggets fall out of the mouths of this group of riders.  Check back through the day.

“I rode through Missouri yesterday…..the holy triumvirate of billboards……..Jesus, Fireworks, and Porn.” – Jeff Earls

“Any states that cops are an issue?” – Australian Davo after landing in our country already did a 50CC from the coast of Oregon to coast of SC and flew through a dozen or so states.

The “Daily Dispatches” have begun here.  Great reading.

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Thai food with a table of 10 was fun.  Spartanburg is a nice metro area.

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I got a pedicure today.  And at the risk of being accused a metrosexual….it’s purely for rally reasons….or mostly anyway.  It was actually suggested by a fellow rider with plenty of street cred and I admit being apprehensive about walking into a nail salon in my biker gear, but …..you know….if you can’t do something stupid in a town 3000 miles from home and get away with it you can’t do it anywhere.

And this very nice older Asian woman with three words of English vocabulary and limited non-verbal queues proceeded to slip nails, excise skin, and buff up my size 15’s to not only the most pristine they’ve been in 30+ years, but I get now that I wasn’t clipping my big toe nails right.  An hour later (about twice as long as the others who appeared regulars) my feet feel better and that guarantees me a spot higher in the finishers list.  $30 and I gave a $15 tip for the job well done.

…and it felt so great…..I’m going to have to do it again a couple times a year I think.

It was a long day!

First Skooter and I were woken up at 2 a.m. by a ruckus.

A clap of thunder ruckus that rattled the window. The followed by howling winds.

Outside our window was the worst thunderstorm I had ever seen and I was excepting a tornado to go by. Here’s what it looked like in Doppler….I was in the middle of the red at Bonne Terre.

From IBR '09

And when we got up at 5:30 it was, of course, raining. It spit on us for miles and lightened up to wet pavement most of the way to Nashville. We rode through a big thunder cell and tested our water resistance for the IBR….and passed marginally.

I actually used my GPS to find 14 Bar BBQ joints in the area and chose one that looked local. “Nashville Smokehouse” was in a sketchy part of town and was actually a tavern, but the BBQ was something Alton Brown would approve. A plastic plate, some brisket with sauce, a johnny cake (cornbread pancake built to sop up the juice at the end), turnip greens (like spinach with a bite), beans, and a bit of pulled pork. Mmmmmmm!

And as we ate another thunder cell dumped on us and we waited till it lightened up…only to find 3 more between there and Knoxville.

Turning off at Knoxville we went up the Smoky Mountains to the Cherohola SKyway. Great cruiser with wide sweepers….the Giant Slalom of motorcycling.

Then we made it up to Deals Gap and rode the infamous Dragon’s Tail….the tight slalom of motorcycle rides. This road is a motrocycle paradise, is WAY tighter than it looks in video, and locals even helped newbs out when to slow down.

We pushed dark and I had a headlight go out….so I convinced Greg to push all the way to Spartanburg.

We did stop and have a great dinner at Mac’s in Bryson City.

From IBR '09

And I had my first Po Boy. Grouper nuggets on a roll that was tasty after a long day of riding.

From IBR '09

Now, it’s time for sleep and get up tomorrow to trim the bike out to be rally-ready, shop for a few things, fix a few things, and get to know everybody!

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Back from Catfish Kettle and had a great meal.  Yet again the guy, Smitty, that has helped us beyond measure bought our dinner.  We couldn’t even get the check away from him!

Greg and I are going to have to thank him in some other way.

And Greg’s on the phone now because he offered to loan his SPOT unit.  Smitty just rocks!

From IBR '09

Bikes are completely serviced and happy.

From IBR '09

And I bandaided the hole I made in ‘07 with my CB antennae.

From IBR '09

I swapped tires, changed oil, and tightened up the steering head bearing this morning and we did Skooter’s this afternoon.  Even poured in a little extra oil additive with zinc, phosphorus, vitamin FJR, and other essential nutrients to extend the service interval to 11,000+ miles.

Headed to dinner with Smitty and crew and eat catfish!

We’ll be leaving in the early a.m. for the final push.

My good buddy, Greg Marbach (aka Skooterg) just dragged himself into the hotel and taking a nap.  We’re on different sleep schedules as I just got 8 hours, but the plan is for him to nap for a couple hours, service our bikes, take out our host for dinner, get a good nights sleep and depart early Thursday morning for the final push.  That puts us in to Spartanburg either late Thursday or if we have to a hotel short of there and early Friday.

I set up a blog for Greg here.

And giving shout-outs I have a list:

• Jason Jonas for the aggregate SPOT tracker page for 2009 IBR Riders.  19 riders to date are signed up and if you click on it now it looks like geese migrating to Spartanburg, SC….except for one lone one in Cali. for some reason.
• Ryan M. for the observation years ago that I (and presumably the other 100 riders) are nuts.  He said he can put his ear to mine and hear the ocean.  He’s right of course….I recorded this last night.   I opined that other IBR competitors have different sounds coming from their noggins. (i.e. dog barking, crickets chirping, gongs banging, etc.)

Started the morning with a final visit to Mt. Ayr. I got a haircut at Dick’s….the only barber in the entire county. No disrespect to Dick….he’s been in business for 45 years and placed in the Top 10 of barbers in Iowa at a recent competition and cut me down to rally trim. But, his shop, chair, and powdering of my neck just made me think of Floyd in Mayberry.

From IBR ‘09

I’ll say it again….the people of Mt. Ayr are just the nicest people I’ve ever met.

And to pile on more coincidence I was looking over a Pottorff family reunion document broken out by state.  There’s several in Washington…including one on 1117 Park in Pasco, WA!  Not only is that the town I live, but 8 houses to the west of my old house by the high school!  You can bet I’ll have to call and find out my relation when I get back…..I have no idea who this person is.

After that I rode south and had a phenomenal ride on Iowa backroads. Southern Iowa has a few small rolling hills and it gave way to more tree covered and varied terrain as I rolled south of Jefferson City and eventually to Rolla, MO.

Rolla, MO is also family history town at least for the birthplace and marriage of some of my Dad’s line. And I got lucky that the local geneaological society was open once a week until 4:30. I rolled in at 3 and used that entire hour and a half to find details on John Wesley Connell from the late 1850’s and his wife Emma C. Hill. Between Rolla, Winona, and Eminence….I have hillbilly ancestors.

Then it was even cooler roads in the backhills to Bonne Terre where I had dinner with my buddy Smitty.

Now, to surf a little bit and bed. Greg should be in around 7-10 a.m. and service bikes..probably after he naps.

For a full-sized map click here.

On Mom’s side of the family I’ve spent the day in Mt. Ayr, Iowa looking up Pottorff information. I found several obituaries and cemetery information for my 3rd Great Granparents and met a local that would be from Garrett’s brother’s line.

He even told me that Garrett’s mother, Nancy Allhands may have been Indian…and here I thought it was British. That makes more sense.

My plan in the morning is to visit the old cemetery where Garret and Cynthia (Herron) Potorff were buried in 1906 and 1907 respectively.

I can’t help but think I’ve retraced foot steps of my grandmother Marge that I was very close to growing up. And that my ancestors pioneered this town that is small, but vibrant….as I’m drinking a beer and munching a Caeser salad.

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In the small world department I stopped by City Hall and wanted to thank staff and the Mayor for a great stay. I told a lady there I was from southeast Washington and she said she knew somebody in “Richland”. Dumbly, I asked their name like I’d know them in a community of 45,000. She said “Dale McElroy” and I fell out of my tree with mouth agape.

I replied very dryly, “Dale is my bosses boss.”

Again my mouth went limp…until I started laughing. It’s a seriously small, weird world.

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I think after dinner I’m going to go to the council meeting and thank them properly. I’m missing my own council meeting and figure it’s my duty to thank a town that has greeted me so warmly. Then down to the Ringgold Cemetery to visit ancestors.

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Tomorrow is visit the family cemetery and then head south towards Missouri. There are a couple towns down there on my Dad’s Dad side with ancestor experience.

Well, it’s not really Arbor Day today, but I’m in Nebraska City where it was founded.

It’s also in Otoe County where my mother’s parents were born and raised. In fact, as I was cruising 2 east I spotted Palmyra…which figured in my memory of family history. Now that I’m on WiFi I pulled out that file and found Grandpa Burt Fifer was born there! I’m now standing in front of the Otoe County Courthouse…that opens in an hour. I think I’ll go find a cafe downtown for breakfast, wait, and see if they have any records for family.

Then I’m off to Mt. Ayr for a few more generations back on Grandma Marje’s side. Finding history of Sarah Emaline Pottorff and her father Garrett will hopefully be productive as I think they were town settlers. They do have a historical museum I’m planning of just hanging out and wandering around there for a day.

Oh…and I did a BBG to get to this point. Ugly rain for about 2 hours at the Nebraska border, but I didn’t see getting a hotel room. It was training trying my new Thermopedic pad and I’ll splurge on a hotel room tonight.

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Follow-up…I’m in Mt. Ayr and checked in to the one motel. I tell the clerk I’m here to do family research of my Pottorff line and she say in a mid-western drawl, “You’re a day late. They just had their big family reunion.”

I wilted…but they quickly gave me the phone number of two local Pottorffs that “love to talk.”

I’m going over at 5 p.m. after I nap and visit the library.

Life is good!

Saturday and I was a walk-on for the B Reactor tour at Hanford.  I’ve worked at the site for 18 years and haven’t been able to see this piece of U.S. history.

The rest of the day is odds-and-ends on the bike.  I may have bent one of the rules about doing modifications right before you go changing the Littllite to be on constantly and adding power to my spare GPS, but thought it out pretty well, fused the extra power lead, and have backups if needed.

The last big task is packing the pile of stuff in my living room into the two side-bags, Pelican case, bungee bag, and tank bag.  I usually wait to pack this stuff until just before I go…it’s become a habit or superstition….sort of like a pitcher stutter stepping across the 3rd base line.

The plan is either to leave about sunrise or if my sleep schedule works I’ll leave at 2 a.m. and try and beat Boise traffic.  Thinking 300+ miles ahead is an important skill I need to practice in the coming weeks.

Still in the final preparation department.  I have almost all the major bikes items resolved and actually even thinking about a few bonus things.

Garmin Übergeek

I had my Garmin 2730 die last year in the middle of the SPANK rally.  Although it receives and maps–it won’t upload data anymore and that’s very critical in the tactical department as hand entering bonus points is a PITA and not being able to either get XM or update the MP3 files would drive me batty.

So, I bought a 2820 this year as a replacement.  It’s even slicker because it has Bluetooth that at least the phone will ring.

And I was planning to carry the 2730 as a backup…just in case.  However, several people run two for several reasons that make sense.  One you can leave with your route intact as my baseline unit and the other I can reprogram and play “what if” games.  It’s a nice to have.

K&N 50,000 mile service

I’ve owned a few K&N filters over the years and always chuckled that you have to clean them every 50,000 miles.  Frankly, I’d never accumulated that many miles on a filter before….until now.  Pulling the filter there was a fair amount of crud built up on the intake side, the pink of pleats were only partly visible, and I found myself chuckling as reached for the leaning kit tucked far back on my shelf from 10+ years ago.

Basically, it consists of an oily cleaner that you spray on from a 8 oz. pump bottle.  You leave it for 10 minutes and then wash it out in the sink with warm hot water.

What came out was a big sploosh of yucky mud followed by a perpetual stream of milky grit.  About 60,000 miles and a continent full of dirt.  How water had such an effect on the oily mess is a chemical mystery to me, but I hope the folks at the sewer plant are OK with it.

About a minute after the stream subsided  I noticed I had a very clean looking filter with white pleats!  I hadn’t ever seen those before.

Then the second step involved spraying from an aerosol can pink oil on the still wet filter.  Wait 10 more minutes and spray some more pink on and make sure the white all has turned pink.  What was more amazing is that all the water that was in the filter drained out the bottom of the filter.

Good for another 50,000 miles of continent cruising….and pretty sure the bike is going to have some more snort.

What to visit on the way to St. Louis?

Planning a slightly leisurely departure on Sunday I figure I have 2000 miles to do in 3 days.   Some of the detours I’m pondering include maybe the Flaming Gorge in Northern Utah.  I’ve actually ridden through twice already, but it’s been at o’dark thirty and only saw the trees in front of me.

Or maybe the Medicine Bow Mountains in Central, WY?

And/or I’ve got family history in Eastern Nebraska and South central Iowa.  There’s an old homestead in Mount Ayr I may consider going out of the way to visit from my Pottorff family line.  IIRC, it was built by my 4th Great Grandparents.  There’s also some of my relatives in the Ringgold Cemetery….which is odd to think that around the same time I also have one person of the same line buried I found via Google here in Washington in the Marlin Cemetery.

Here are all the people that volunteered to include their GPS tracks in the 2009 IBR. People tend to identify themselves with initials. I’m “MCW”.

MCW – Matt Watkins – Veteran – Washington State – FJR1300
GM – Greg Marbach – Veteran – Arizona – FJR1300
DHJ – “Davo” Jones – Rookie – Australia – Concours 1400
JW – Jerry White – Rookie – California – FJR1300
ME – Mike Evans – Veteran – New York – FJR1300
DC – Charlie Clemmer – Rookie – Texas – R1200RT
600 – Dave Legnosky – Rookie – California – ?
BO – Bo Griffin – Texas – ?
GAR – Greg Rice – Rookie – Florida – ?
JEB – Jim Bain – North Carolina – Veteran, BMW K1200LT
AFH – Slonishku – Rookie – Oklahoma – 1975 Suzuki Rotary
KTY – Nancy Oswald – Rookie – ?-  BMW GS
WIT – Chris W – ?
DLP – Dennis Powell – Iowa? – ?
KJL – ? – Georgia – ?
NW – ? – Ontario – ?
RS – ? – British Columbia – ?
? – Catfish – Rookie – New York – FJR1300

Click HERE!

I had a new Garmin 2730 and XM Radio antennae in 2007 and although it was helpful….frankly I got sick of having to listen to the NPR channel with advertisements (which don’t exist on conventional) and my favorite 80s channel actually repeats after a number of days.

I even rode SPANK 2008 without it and ended up listening to six albums on my MP3 player over and over and over.

When I went to swallow the off-tasting pill as $50 or so in the whole multi-thousand dollar scheme of things seemed a prudent option….I was pleasantly surprised to find several significant changes that actually will HELP my rally strategy.

For $7.00 extra a month they add XM NavTraffic and NavWeather to the mix.  Last time I had looked a weather option was like $50 or $100 a month extra.  True that option is something pilots would use and full color radar precipitation maps on the pricey Garmin 478, but this cheap version will still help me at least gauge the weather in the direction I’m headed.

I couldn’t find an actual Garmin image, but it kinda looks like this.

And I remember there being some channels on the XM Radio that had voice reports of traffic in metro areas, but found it difficult to cross-reference with the map to determine that “traffic is at a standstill between Guanardo and Vine” in St. Louis.  The new version actually displays green, yellow, and red markers with map detail.

Again, no Garmin picture, but I found this one is pretty close for the overview map and you can imagine proximity alerts are given by distance.  For example, I know I-90 is crawling at 20mph eastbound near Issaquah right now.

Final good words….all this is $26 for the next month and supposedly I get some uncensored Howard Stern to keep me awake and shaking my head.  Well worth the investment even if I get annoyed about commercials on NPR.

I haven’t decided exactly what day I’m going to leave, but fairly sure it will be next weekend.  That gives me this weekend and evenings next week to sort out any final details.

Maintenance items include changing the coolant, changing the brake fluid, re-torquing the steering head bearings, resubscribing to XM radio (along with weather), and various odds and ends.

That and I’m making my final pile of things to pack.