Almost one year ago, life changed drastically

 I don't know why I'm posting this now, guess it is because it is almost the one year anniversary of our life altering accident. What started out as a nice, leisurely ride from the Gulf Island Beach to Flagler Beach, ended with a crash of serious magnitude.

Without getting into the gory details, we were rear ended by a Chevy Siverado pickup truck and were transported to Ocala via ambulance. Both of us were put in trauma unit upon arrival, with Tammy being rushed into life saving surgery. Over the next two weeks, she had multiple surgeries to stem the effects of the accident. She remained in ICU for almost 3 weeks. She spent a total of 32 days in the hospital and 5 months out of work.

My injuries were less severe. I spent 1 week in the hospital and 11 days in rehab, learning to walk again after fracturing my pelvis in 2 spots and my elbow. Below is a picture that shows day off, 1 week after and 1 month after. 

We both still feel the affects of the accident in various ways. As our orthopedic surgeon said "you'll be human barometers for awhile." My hip and elbow are an issue but I'm dealing with them. 

You may ask, are you still riding or did you hang up your helmet and gear.  Well, I am riding, probably not as much as I want to at this point but I have a faithful steed in the garage. I've been to the mountains and on a few long rides up to this point but nothing in the certificate category. 

I will end this post here and maybe I will revisit the incident on or about November 7th. Until then, I'm thinking of rides I want to do and planning an epic trip for next summer. Keep it tuned in . 

Be awhile but it won't be from now on

Seems I've dropped the ball...actually lost it for some time. When I started this blog, I fully intended to write up my rides and miscellaneous thoughts as they came to me. But as we all know, life gets in the way from time to time.

I've done a ton of riding since my last entry, finished a couple of Cape Fear 1000's, done some IBA certified rides and then some other trips. I'll try to get all those caught up over the next few months.

My intent is still the same, write about my adventures to share the love of the road and commit some thoughts to a page so that I can look back on them when I'm done riding.

Cape Fear 1000--Plus 1, Part Two

Rode down to the start point, beautiful Arcadia, FL...did I say beautiful?  Why yes, yes I did but I was being a bit sarcastic.  It is a quaint little town but not someplace I'd like to live.

On the trip down, I hit rain...which will probably be the order of the next three days if the weather guessers are right.  What I found out is that my 'water proof' gear ain't so water proof.  My boots leaked, my pants leaked...about the onliest thing that didn't was my jacket and it is mesh, lol.  Oh well, guess new gear is in order down the line. 

Cape Fear 1000--Plus 1

Where to begin this update....

We were supposed to receive our rally bonus listings yesterday at about 6:00PM via email.  With that in mind, I dutifully checked my email at about 6:05PM and viola, it was there.  I opened the file and started to view it on my computer...what the heck is this stuff?  Only 4 bonii in the state of Florida for Florida starters?  Most of the stuff listed was either in Alabama or north of the Mason-Dixson Line.  Something was terribly wrong. 

Off to the phone to talk with Danny and David.  Both seemed to think it was a cruel turn of the screws by the rally master and we should just proceed with what we had.  With that in mind, off I go to try to get the bonus locations into a spreadsheet to figure out a route. 

As I'm working on that, emails start coming in to my inbox stating that there may be something wrong with two of the rally packs sent out, TN and FL starters books may be wrong.  Now what to do?  I put the whole thing on hold and made some more phone calls to Danny and David. 

At about 8:30PM we received another email from the assistant to the rally master confirming our suspecting that the rally books were indeed wrong and to hold everything.  Much nashing of teeth and swearing was done while deleting all the work that I had already done.  Now to wait patiently for the new one.

9:00PM comes and in my inbox is the new rally bonus listing...all 32 pages of it and 115 different things to look at.  Now we are cooking with gas!  I call my friend Mike for some help with changing longitude and latitude into decimals (I have no clue what the heck that is all about but its got to be done) and he quickly forwards me a spreadsheet with the formulas already in it.  Score!  Big kudos to Mike for the help!

Now begins the laborious task of entering data into the spreadsheet:  page and bonus number, code of bonus, points, availability of bonus, what has to be done at the stop, longitude and latitude.  That took about 2 hours of typing...ugh!  Now it is 11:30 or so and I have to transfer data to Streets and Trips so I can see a visual of the data...what an ugly picture it is!  Big points are all over in west GA and AL with mandatory stuff in NC.  How to get some big points while still getting some rest and staying under 1360 miles for the ride AND getting back in to Wilmington, NC before 3:00PM on Saturday in questionable weather (according to the weather guessers).

Finally get the points on the map but I really don't like my 4 tier breakdown, it just doesn't delineate the point possibilities good enough.  Everything looks clumped up to some degree.  So I decide at 12:15AM to hit the bed and hope that today I will get a chance to get the tier breakdown to maybe 6 so I get a clearer picture in my head. 

Leaving work in a couple hours to head to Arcadia and more map guessing. 

Cap Fear 1000 Rally--Plus 3 days

I spent some time last night putting new brake pads on the front of the bike.  I checked the rear and they looked good, so I decided not to change them before the rally.  Other than that, the maintenance is over for this trip...unless I decided to change the oil or something else...who knows.

We receive our rally bonus packs tomorrow night.  I am patiently waiting for them to appear in my email sometime around 7:00PM tomorrow night.  Once I get it then the real mind games begin.  I'll have to take some time inputting the locations into a spreadsheet, then download the spreadsheet information into Streets and Trips.  Once in S/T, I'll have a bunch of points on a map to decide from for my route. 

The interesting thing will be what limitations or possible requirements the rally master will put on the routing.  I heard that a couple years ago, he made it lowest points win.  We have also heard that there will be a limitation on the number of miles that can be ridden and maybe some time variables thrown in to keep speeding to a minimum (some of the guys haul major butt).  I will look at everything and see what pops for me. 

All my planning or thinking will probably be for practice because Danny Lee will be planning our route.  Maybe I will have a different view that he won't see or realize, who knows.  I am stoked and apprehensive all at once. 

Cape Fear 1000 Rally--Prep

What is this fascination with Long Distance riding that compels some of us to want to ride 300, 400, or 800 miles for lunch?  Why would you want to ride 1,000 miles in a less than 24 hours just to start and finish in the same spot and only get a certificate for your efforts?  How about riding for 24+ hours to visit a location, take a picture or jot done some fact that a guy you don't even know feels is important enough for you to find, get some arbitrary points awarded to you if you do this correctly (proper documentation in a picture with your identification flag is a must) and then compare your efforts with others to see who 'wins'?

That is a question I am asking myself tonight as I write this.  Starting on Friday, April 20 at approximately 10:00AM, I will embark on my first 24 hour rally.  The rally is called Cape Fear 1000 and is a very prestigious East Coast rally.  The objective is simple:  get as many points as possible by visiting various locations in the southeast, document your visit to the sites with a picture with your rally flag in it or get a receipt, then present your findings to the affectionately know "Rally Bastard" for their scrutiny.  Hopefully your efforts will be rewarded with their blessing and points will be awarded.  When it is all said and done, person with the most points wins.

Cape Fear is interesting in that there are three starting points:  one in Tennessee, one in New York and one in Florida.  I'll be starting in Arcadia, FL.  I'll be riding with my mentor, Danny Lee.  He is my guide, my Yoda, if you will...teaching me the finer points of how to pick a route, ride efficiently, handle fuel stops, recording your bonii, etc.  It really is quite an interact process indeed.

So far, I have prepped my trusty steed, the KawaTanker.  She had an oil change, all systems have been checked and now I have to change the brake pads tomorrow.  After that, I have to get all my stuff together:  riding gear, various anti-pain meds (Allieve is my friend), some food for the road (Cliff bars...hmm, hmm good), pens, markers, computer, GPS's loaded with maps and tools for the road (hopefully won't need them). 

On Wednesday night we will receive a document via email, our rally book.  This is our road map for the rally.  In it we will find explicit directions on how we are to ride our rally.  We think this year we will have a mileage cap, along with rest breaks, call in bonus, and a listing of every bonus that we can visit along with their point value.  This is where the rally taxes your planning and routing abilities.  The goal is to maximize the points while minimizing the mileage you travel.  Now days, the use of spreadsheets and computer software makes it a little easier but it is a complex puzzle to solve with about 50 pages of things to chose from. 

I still have to get my software finished on the computer since my old computer crapped out on me.  I'll be working on that tomorrow after I do my brakes. 

Just a short Saturday RTE

For the past few years, I have wanted to go to the Moonshine Lunch Run in Moonshine, IL (see http://moonshine-run.com/Moonshine/ for more information) but something has always come up to derail those plans.  This year, I got to ride in the Wish I Were At Moonshine Lunch Run, a plan that was the brain child of my friend David.  He couldn't go this year either.

The plan was a "short" ride up to Sheila's Restaurant, near Cordele, GA...a direct trip of 250 miles for us if we slabbed it but more like 300+ via back roads.  The route looked something like this:

Lunch was outstanding...some of the best catfish and fried chicken I've had in a long time and the pecan pie was off the hook...all for $6.99 AYCE!  We got a chance to see some of our friends from the GA area that we don't see very often. 

While eating, I decided to see if my son Brad had the day off.  When he said he was, my plans changed for the return trip to include a 100 mile trip north to LaGrange to spend some time with him. 

The entire day was over 800 miles and covered most of the day.  A lot of fun and a great day in the saddle.