Rally in my backyard

I got a little nudge from my riding friend Jim Abbott about participating in the Team Lyle New England 8 hour rally I said why not and signed up. I'm glad I did! I had so much fun! And this rally was literally in my "back yard" with bonus locations in Vermont and New Hampshire.

The rally book arrived a few days prior to the event and it was easy to read and follow. There were all kinds of GPX files too. I felt like the rally crew had done the job for me and let me tell you - I stink at

The Rally Book has arrived

routing so just to have the file ready to load in to your routing program is a huge bonus! Thank you very much! Of course, I had other issues too. The night before the rally I had to put Blackie back together. She had a new air filter and I did some minor maintenance. Nothing like waiting to the last minute. So between the assembly of Blackie, which didn't take that long except for them fairings that always seem to take awhile to align right and screw back, and then a quick routing of the rally and pick bonus locations, I was ready to catch some sleep around midnight.

The alarm clock sounded too early on Saturday morning and it was raining outside. Oh well. It was rally day so up and go. The forecast for the day was scattered showers and a chance of thunderstorms. It was actually a little cool when I left the house. I rather layer and take off as the day goes along than be cold. I arrived at rally head quarters in Keene, NH and was greeted by Jim Abbott. He was one of the rally masters. Then I saw my riding friends Bruce Jansen and Ken Aman and I finally got to meet Ken's wife Felicia (it was her birthday! What a gal to go for a rally on her birthday.) I also met Mark Collins who was the organizer of the rally. After I got checked in, got my rally number (#30) and swag I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down to review the rally book and my route again. I had two routes laid out and decided which one to take. I was going to head west and go for the bonuses I had picked in Vermont first and then head to New Hampshire. I'm not good at routing. I will either be too ambitious or not enough. On this one I had a few more bonuses than I would be able to collect and figured I would drop them as the ride was going along.

Waiting to start the rally

The riders meeting went well and we found out what the wild card bonuses where. It was funny to see everyone get on their smart phones, tablets or lap tops to find businesses with the name Eddie or Eddy's in it. That was one of the wild cards and how fitting since all of this is really thanks to Eddie James, the co-founder of Team Strange. The other one was to visit Eddie's Place in Windsor, VT. However, if you were claiming the Ascutney bonus then Eddie's Place was only worth 50 points so I figured it wasn't worth it as I was going to get the Ascutney bonus. Yeah, I know, you should try for all the points you can get. After the riders meeting I met some other rider friends that I only know from social media like Grayson Cook and Joel Tolbert (inventor of JT Bubbler). You got to love social media to some extent - you make friends because of same interests and then you get to meet them in real life. That's pretty cool. Since the riders meeting was over fast and the odometer checks were done quickly we got a little bit of a head start on the rally and they let us out at 8.30 am. Off we went. It is always funny to watch the start of a rally and see how the riders are heading in different directions. Makes you think about what route everyone has picked. There were a few bikes heading in the same direction as I was - west towards Vermont. I grabbed the wild card in Brattleboro

Fast Eddie's - Wild Card Bonus

- Fast Eddie's. Then it was off to Williamsville and the covered bridge. I am still irritated with myself about that bonus (I know, I know... let it go!). The instructions were clear - take a picture of the "Reconstruction" sign at the bridge. What do you think I took a picture of? The history sign of course. The irritating part about this is that not did I only note what side of the sign to take a picture of the night before the rally but I even noted it as I rode by in the morning heading to rally head quarters!! Duh! No excuses except for a "blond moment" right then and there at the bonus location. It is NEVER good to leave points on the table by doing a stupid and simple mistake. Of course I realized this about an hour and half later but I wasn't going to ride back and correct the mistake.

The next two bonuses where the Glory Hole at Lake Whitingham and then Southern Vermont

The Glory Hole (spillway) 

College. The history of both bonus locations is interesting. I love looking up history on locations if it is available. The Glory Hole is the spillway for Lake Whitingham (Harrimans Reservoir) as the water levels in the lake are controlled. I was disappointed to only see a trickle but I guess they want to keep the water level high during the summer months. A few other rally riders arrived as I was leaving. At the Southern Vermont College the instructions where to take a photo of the tiered water fall behind the mansion. WOW! What a place! It must be

The tiered water fall

spectacular when it has water running down. I am going to go back some day and just walk around. I was so intrigued by the mansion itself and the cool little court yards. And one of the doors that was open. I want that door! At both of these locations I ran in to the same group of riders. And would at a few other locations too. That's the fun part about a rally, you never know who you are going to see.

Then it was onward to the next few bonus locations. The cheese truck sign in Londonderry, VT, which I almost blew by had it not been for the other rally rider who was stopped there (funny as it is, he told me when we were back at rally head quarters that he had almost done the same had it not been for other riders who were stopped) and then the telescope and chamber in Springfield, VT. After that a quick gas stop and to Mount Ascutney. This bonus required to

Fog swept summit

get off the bike and hike a short distance up the summit trail to take a photo of a trail intersection. It was very foggy on the mountain and there were a few times on the ride up that I couldn't really see anything other than white. I was praying that I wouldn't meet a car or a truck coming downhill. I was lucky! At the top I met a few other riders. I have wanted to ride up Mount Ascutney for some time but it sure wasn't something I had planned on doing in fog. Oh well. There were some parts on the road that were very bumpy, most likely due to frost heaves but I couldn't tell in the fog. All I could think of is that Max's BMW Motorcycles does a Mount Ascutney race! WOWSER!

After my little hike while munching on an apple I was almost sweating. It was humid and I still had my rain gear on. But since it was foggy and I couldn't really tell if it was going to rain or not I left the rain gear on. My radar app was showing spotty showers along the route. I continued on to the next bonus which was in New Hampshire. On the route I went through Claremont, NH and pulled a quick u-turn when I realized I could grab a bonus for the "Talk Like A Pirate" Tour that I'm doing. Nothing wrong with scoring another bonus during the rally. The Newport, NH bonus was easy to find and I was quickly on my way towards the next one in Henniker, NH. I didn't see any other rally riders at either one of these

The wood statue in Henniker

bonuses. The next bonus stop where some of the same riders from Vermont locations arrived at was in Antrim. That's also where my GPS decided to throw a fit and start changing things on me. With only an hour and a half left to end of rally I wasn't going to let the GPS decide where to go and how (I really think there is a angry little gremlin sitting inside that thing trying to see how much it can mess it up for you!) so I decided to head back towards rally head quarters considering I wasn't sure about the exact location of the next two bonuses. I probably could have followed the other riders and scored those bonuses as well but for me that's like cheating. I'm just glad the GPS didn't send me down some gnarly dirt road that would end nowhere (yes, I have had that happening). I do have a GS bike but sometimes you are just not in the mood for dirt riding...except for if you are my friend Mike. He seems to live for dirt riding these days. You go Mike!

The Cube at the cemetery

Heading back to rally head quarters and I was back in Keene with a good 40 minutes to spare so just for the heck of it I checked if there were any bonus locations close by - there was one 15 minutes away so I went to it. Wasn't worth a whole lot of points but at least it was something. It was a cube on a grave stone and in this photo your bike had to be in it.  I rolled in to rally head quarters at 4.46 pm and with 295 miles of riding. Felt good to be back.

Once I had peeled off all my riding gear as it was HOT I sat down and went over all my stuff. Checked the photos (Grrr... there was that one mistake of the sign at the bridge - I had managed to forget about that one!), checked the rally book to make sure all bonus locations had time and odometer reading and added it all together before I went to stand in line for scoring. Everything went smooth. Scoring was easy and I pointed out my mistake to the scorer (I actually think I may have had

Ardys is always with me

a few other riders get in trouble as they had made the same mistake as I had - or that is what my scorer said). My photos were clear and I was all good to go. I ended up with a total of 5,158 points. Since I had no idea where that would put me, other than not on the podium, I was still happy with my ride and most of all it had been a fun day. And as always, my riding angel Ardys was with me the entire time. 

We had tasty pizza, salad and cookies fresh out of the oven while we waited for the results. The top 10 where announced and four of my riding friends where in that group. Bruce Jansen, Joel Tolbert, and Ken and Felicia Aman (2 up). Ken and Felicia took 2nd place! What a great birthday present for Felicia!  All the top 10 riders had more than 6,000 points and let there be noted that out of the top 10 there were four 2-up couples. As Mark said, it pays off to ride 2-up. The overall results were sent out via email and I ended up in 19th place out of 32 bikes in the rally so I am very happy with that. In the efficiency ranking (points per mile) I actually got 17th place  but I still need to practice routing and efficiency at the bonus locations. I like to dilly dally too much and take in the sights but then I never enter a rally to win it - just to ride and be in it and I'm OK with that.For me, it is all about having fun before, during and after the ride and enjoy the sights along the route.

Thank you  Mark Collins, Jim Abbot, Jim Hatch, Bill Yarin and Dave "CDog" Reilly for a great rally and fun event! And thank you to Lisa Erbes and Team Lyle (Team Strange Airheads) for continuing to encourage and engage riders to participate in these events. You all rock in my book!