Jan , Joe, and Jack (Los Tres J’s, rally-masters each in charge of one of the three legs of the rally) sent the bonus list for the rally a few weeks before the start. Cool, I’ll have plenty time to plan my "strategy" (that’s what I hear other riders call what they do when they’re done tearing their hair off after trying to read through and make sense of 20 pages of bonus description, and just decide to go for the big points and forget about the other 90% of the list.) So, having a month to plan and sort through all sorts of routing options, I waited till 2 days before I was to start for Mexico before I finally cracked it open and really started looking at the routes. After all, I want to give the other riders a bit of a chance, no? I reason that I should limit the time I would use to do my routing, to simulate the pressure of other traditional rallies. (Er, did I disclose that I tend to be a bit of a procrastinator? No? Well, I am, a little bit. I guess I just forgot to mention it till now.) Seven (7!!) hours later, I was still not finished going through the list, perusing the bonus descriptions, figuring out where they are located, and plotting them in MS Streets & Trips. Seven! You see, I already knew that I would never have the competitive drive to be much of a threat at the scoring table at the end of the ride. I had now plainly demonstrated that I didn’t have half the brain cells and assorted skills necessary to even get out the starting gate :-). Fine, it was now time to fall back on plan C: I just wouldn’t pay no mind to all those bothersome bonus points listed, and would just do my own ride along the coast. I had driven a couple times along the Pacific, up and down the highly entertaining Highway 101 and 1, but had never ridden a bike there: it was high time to correct that mistake. Of course, being an astute fellow (despite all appearances), and having followed the shenanigans of other rally masters, I just knew that there had to be a few last minute surprises à la Prudoe Bay that would be disclosed at the starting line banquet. I just smugly knew that a few big-point bonii would be disclosed along my out-of-the-way route, to throw a spanners in the works of all those overachievers who would have planned their routes down to the pee breaks, but inland. Ah! Who would be laughing then, eh?!

Well, it turned out that I was right in not, er, over planning the first leg. A last minute hitch meant that I had to delay my leaving Seattle. It turned out that I would have to pull a BBG (ride over 1500 miles in a day, with almost no rest) just to get to the starting line on time. Since this would be pretty much the first time I would be riding over 100 miles since last Fall, and since I didn’t necessarily relish the idea of not getting much any sleep before having to turn around and ride hard for another 7 days without much rest either, I decided to wait and miss the start. I could catch up with the riders in Boise, only a couple hundred miles from home, and ride up North. I would be out of the running in the rally, I would miss Mexico, but I could still travel up to Alaska. Mmmm, that will save me 3 or 4000 miles of riding. Great, it would keep me from overheating in Mexico and California. Cool, I wouldn’t have to risk life or limb or gastrointestinal tract in the wilds of Puerto Peñasco. Yeah, that was much better, after all, I knew it! A couple phone calls and faxes to the hotel to let Jan and Joe know, and I was out of the rally, just like that.

And, er, since I still hadn’t replaced the rear shock on my K1200LT, which was beyond shot, that would give me plenty time to leisurely do it instead of rushing it the night before I was to leave. Did I mention that I tend to procrastinate? Yes? Good. So, I contacted Ron Smith, who would be riding down to Boise to help out at the checkpoint on Wednesday, and arranged to ride with him Tuesday. I then of course somehow managed to wait till Monday PM to install the new shock. The instructions mentioned to take down a cover, the foot peg plate, undo two bolts, replace the shock, and button it back together. OK, 1 hour, 1 hour 1 / 2, tops if I had to take a pee break (well, I like to get a drink on the way and maybe catch up on my reading in the bathroom, if it’s all the same to you, alright?! Sheesh.) So, of course, after taking off all the Tupperware, removing the gas tank, and spending 5 hours or so on it, plus dispatching a little hair and a few nails and no-longer needed bits of skins and knuckles, I finally got it all buttoned up, and I could start packing the bike. Mmmm? Oh yeah, I hadn’t packed yet. There was plenty time for that, right? Awright, I didn’t really need to go to bed too early, right? Still wanted to get into the rally groove, wanted to be a bit like the other guys who had then been on the road for a few days (counting the time to get down to the starting line.) Actually, packing does go pretty quickly, as at least I’ve gotten that down pretty well over the years. I was in bed by my usual bed time (of 2 AM :-) (oh well, I was just having a leisurely ride down to Boise with Ron tomorrow, and would sleep there. Luxury.)

Fun ride down to Boise with Ron Smith. Nothing fancy, just headed down the freeway and tried to keep up with Ron on the very nice, long, fast sweepers that grace this route. The rear shock felt great, nice change from the pogo stick that used to be there. I could now really tell that I need to replace the front one :-). Dinner, and off to bed early. Before hitting the hay, I spotted a combat GS with Polio Plus stickers parked next to our bikes, but wouldn’t manage to catch up with the rider.

Next morning, Ron headed early for the checkpoint at Big Twin and I followed a bit later. I knew the place from the Northwest passage, when they already were a checkpoint. I found Joe and Jan, confirmed that they didn’t mind if I tagged along for the rest of the ride, and met the guys. It felt a bit strange to jump in at that point: everybody already knew everybody, they all had war stories, some had battle scars, and all were in the spirit of the ride. I definitely felt more like a gawker than like a rider! I introduced myself to various riders, and chitchatted, and slowly got into the swing of things listening to the big rides most everybody pulled: I was envious, but on the other hand, I couldn’t say that I was overly unhappy to only have a few hundred miles under my butt at this point, to have avoided the 110 degree heat in Death Valley etc., and to have had a good night of sleep! I knew that the next leg is going to be a long one, and that there would be plenty adventures there for me. I didn’t even know the beginning of it.

Oh, remember my "gamble" of betting that there would be big-paying surprise bonus locations away from all the "obvious" routes laid out by Jan? Well, it turned out that the man is not (overly) twisted and wicked, and all was above board, no nasty last minute surprises. Damn, who would have thunk, he?! Although I had (smartly :-) given up on planning an ambitious route for leg one, I had planned nice routes for the next ones. I am not in contention for anything at this point, but it doesn’t really matter for me and I’m still going to be hitting bonii. I don’t have much of a competitive bone in my body, I’m afraid, (not to say that I wouldn’t be thrilled to place well in a rally, but I’m more in it for a nice ride than for the contest) and I’m more looking for interesting places to visit, hopefully new to me, than gathering big points. Still, being from Seattle, I know a few of the roads around here, and had decided to visit some spots I know well to hit some "easy" bonii. I would be riding up 82 and hit Sunnyside Honda???, which was one of the checkpoints for the last IBR. It is right along the way. Then I would head for the woods and check out Rick Morrisson’s house, which is way out in the boonies - but I used to spend a lot of time right in that area (Lake Wenatchee) and I’ve mountain-biked or driven right by his house a few times without knowing he lived there! It’s close to Leavenworth, funky imitation-German tourist trap village, which offered a bonus as well. I know the roads, they are gorgeous and will offer some real cool, easy riding. Then Café Veloce, Mark Reis, pretty much right off I5 on the way North. Might not be the most point-bearing route, but it would be fairly easy. Then… Orcas island! I had an axe to grind with the island: two bonus locations were there for the Northwest passage, and I had been the only guy to actually go there and grab the big points. Unfortunately, the ferries (despite what Joe Z. will tell ya :-) can run late… I "fondly" remember the smug feeling I had back then when I found myself the only rider waiting for the Orcas island ferry, the newbie who had dared what no other had, and who was going to rack in some big ol’ points and show ‘em all, ah! And how that "smugness" slowly turned a bit sour, as announcements were broadcast on the loudspeakers that the ferry was going to be ½ hour late, then 1 hour, then 1 ½ hour… and how my cockiness came all back when I still managed to hit both boni and made it back in time for the return ferry! Returned ferry which promptly turned out to be late as well, and then had to wait another 15 or 20 minutes when it finally showed up, to let another ferry slip in! Still, I had plenty time to get to the next checkpoint in Calgary, and was very happy with the 5000+ easy points I had gathered and all the rest time I got while riding the ferries! If only I had read the instruction sheet better, and noticed that penalty points for being late were not 1 point a minute, as I thought, but 100 points a minute… I dilly-dallied on the way, stopped for a couple low-point boni that I should have skipped, wasted time getting a motel room in a convention-crazy town, and arrived 50+ minutes late – which cost me 5000+ points in penalty! Soooo, I really wanted to hit Orcas island and get to the next checkpoint on time this time! That was pretty much the only competitive goal I had set for myself. We’ll see if it worked…

Joe did have a few activities planned in Boise. We had to toss a big-ass hunting knife and, if you managed not to drop it on your foot, or on Joe’s, try to hit 3 targets (or at least not to miss the barn side behind them.) Depending on what you hit, you could choose one of the "mandatory" bonus locations he had planned. To my surprise, I hit 2 targets, but none of the bonus points interested me, and I chose to take the penalty points for skipping them. One was South from Boise, when I wanted to head North, and my schedule was already pretty tight (I wanted to get to Anacortes tonight and sleep there, so I could get on the 5 AM ferry), and the other was a location that I had already scratched after reading the description in the rally package: it mentioned something like "riding 300 feet on a gravel road." On the K12LT? No thank you, I rode up a gravel road once, and had no desire to do that again. The irony of my tentativeness would loom rather large later on.