crazykz
08-23-2006, 06:38 PM
Hi All,
First off I want to thank everyone that supported Mike and myself on the ButtLite. I wish I could have had more contact but as the rally went on I needed to focus more and more. I liked being able to have people message me and thanks to everyone that did. It was great to know that I wasn't out there alone. It really did keep me going.
Although I owe you all I ride report from the ButtLite I know that there are a lot of you that want to know what happened with the Waffle House bonus which, in turn, caused my standing to slip from 10th to 17th. So I will explain it as it happened which is not the way Eddie will explain it. It is now part of LD history and the story will be told for years to come as long as Eddie is around. I will say that as much static as I got about the screw up from Eddie and Adam they both have a small thread of decency about it. Not a big thread but a little. It took me a couple days to get over it but I learned from it and I've moved on.
Here's the story:
The third leg of the ButtLite left from Atlanta on return to Niobrara, NE for the finish. I arrived in Atlanta very early, probably too early. I believe my arrival was around 7:00pm the evening before the checkpoint opened. I used this time to my advantage and took my sleep bonus at the Days Inn near the checkpoint. I picked up two receipts from McDonalds for my sleep bonus around 7:30pm and 10:30pm. The reason I got them both at McDonald's is that nothing would be open at 4:00am to get my last receipt and the hotel did not provide timestamps on their receipts. So I slept from around 11:00pm until 4:00am when the checkpoint opened.
I got to the checkpoint and had some breakfast then tried to sleep a little more. Eventually the last bonus packet was handed out and we were free to leave at anytime. I believe I left the checkpoint to go back to my room around 9:00am I think. I went back to my room and started planning my third leg. I spent about 2.5 hours planning a route that I hoped would at least hold my standing in the rally. However as I read one of the last bonuses I made a reading comprehension error and interpreted the bonus wrong.
The bonus read something close to this. "You can't swing a dead cat in the south without hitting a Waffle House or a Sonny's BarBQ. Obtain a receipt from any Waffle House or Sonny's BarBQ". The bonus was worth 441 points which is an easy 441 points. I thought this may have been a mean trick, that is not beneath Eddie or Adam (you know I'm right guys), to have us run around all day and collect receipts when we are tired and just want to head for Niobrara. Since it was at the end of the bonus pack I kind of panicked and wasn't thinking straight. No one was at the checkpoint at this point to ask questions of because I did ride back over to see if anyone was there. I found out later that I was not the only one that read the bonus in that way. However that person read it at the checkpoint and asked if it was one or as many as we could get. He was told it was only one and the scorers were told the same thing at Niobrara.
Since I interpreted this as a progressive bonus, meaning collect as many as you can for 441 points each I set out on a plan of action. I obtained a listing of all the Waffle Houses along interstate exits in all states. I then ran I-285 around Atlanta stopping at every exit where one was located. Sometimes there were 2 or 3 at each exit. I decided to truncate my route and collect these until late afternoon and then start collecting other bonuses that I had selected in my route. Then I would pick up more the next day across Tennessee. By the time the sun set I had collected 30 receipts in Atlanta by purchasing a coffee or a lemonade at about $1.50 a pop. I thought for a spur of the moment plan it wasn't bad.
I headed out to start collecting other bonuses at night through South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. I slept in Asheville, NC for the evening and headed across Tennessee in the morning. A lot of exits have them and at the end of that day I was done with collecting them. I know had 47 of them and had run out of ones to collect as I rolled into Iowa/Missouri. I still had a decent amount of bonuses to collect and focused on those as I rode through the night. I rode all night to get back to Niobrara on time but had to pull over a couple times to catch 30 minutes to an hour of sleep.
When I sat down to score myself before going to the scoring table I read the bonus again and read the scoring sheet. At that point I knew I was sunk. There were a few times my head told me this doesn't make sense because everyone would be doing this if that was the case but I didn't see other riders at Waffle Houses although one of them said there were 3 riders in a while before me that all wanted receipts also. I think at that point I was in denial and didn't want to be wrong but had this sneaky suspicion that I was. It was too late though at that point. I was ready to be scored and I wasn't going to present the receipts at the table. I asked Eddie at that point if the bonus was one or as many as you can get. Eddie said that you can only collect a bonus once. Then he said "If it was that way you could just ride around to all the Waffle Houses and win the rally". At that point I said "I know". Then Eddie obviously caught on and said "What? Did you go to like 40 of them?". I said "47 to be exact". Eddie busted out laughing and said that I had to tell Adam that. I had a feeling I wouldn't have to tell him myself.
As I sat down to the scoring table with Rebecca, who knew what I had done but didn't know that I knew they didn't count, I was waiting for Adam or Eddie to start in. I presented one valid receipt for the Waffle House bonus and got the points for it. Eddie thought it would be funny if I didn't get the points for that one because it was incorrect. As I presented the one Adam asked where the other ones were. I pulled the other 46 out of my receipts bag and put them on the table. Adam had me fan them out and he took a picture of them. David E.B. Smith posted a link on LDRider to the pic. I'll post it here for your enjoy meant.
Now a lot of people were supportive and said things like "it was your first multi-day rally" or "you were tired". Although there is some truth to both I don't accept either one of them as a valid excuse. I completely 100% screwed up. I was well rested. I was ready for the third leg and whether it's a single day rally or multi-day I approached each leg separately. It was nothing but a colossal mistake and all I can do is learn not to do it again. I did not consider the bonus deliberately misleading. I think it could have been worded better but it's also my responsibility to ask if I feel it is unclear.
So the story will be told for years but in retrospect it was not the only mistake made on the ButtLite and it, in my opinion, was not the biggest one, just the biggest one to me. At the IBA National Meet I won a $100 gift certificate for the most points lost on one bonus (441*46=20286). However I never presented the other receipts and the bonus was only worth 441 points so there was no points to lose and I still collected the bonus. However I realize it promotes the ButtLite and makes for a good story that Eddie, myself, and others can tell for years to come. So I'm fine with that. Anything that promotes the sport is fine with me. I will take solace in the fact that I placed ahead of a lot of people who didn't waste at least half a day on the last leg collecting receipts and still manage to place 17th. It is not an easy task to finish and I send out a congratulations to all of the participants in the ButtLite. Looking forward to the next. Congrats to my new found friends Alex, Mike, and John for their great finishes. Congrats to LDMike, Ron and Carrie Hanson, John Coons, and all the other people I already knew for their finshes also.
So who's up for Waffles?
Curt
P.S. I can't thank enough my friends that supported me through the rally and this ordeal. I value your friendship more than you will ever know. The first night was very hard to take and I was stopped from making an even bigger mistake even though I didn't realize it at the time. Thanks to all involved, directly or indirectly, for your support.
First off I want to thank everyone that supported Mike and myself on the ButtLite. I wish I could have had more contact but as the rally went on I needed to focus more and more. I liked being able to have people message me and thanks to everyone that did. It was great to know that I wasn't out there alone. It really did keep me going.
Although I owe you all I ride report from the ButtLite I know that there are a lot of you that want to know what happened with the Waffle House bonus which, in turn, caused my standing to slip from 10th to 17th. So I will explain it as it happened which is not the way Eddie will explain it. It is now part of LD history and the story will be told for years to come as long as Eddie is around. I will say that as much static as I got about the screw up from Eddie and Adam they both have a small thread of decency about it. Not a big thread but a little. It took me a couple days to get over it but I learned from it and I've moved on.
Here's the story:
The third leg of the ButtLite left from Atlanta on return to Niobrara, NE for the finish. I arrived in Atlanta very early, probably too early. I believe my arrival was around 7:00pm the evening before the checkpoint opened. I used this time to my advantage and took my sleep bonus at the Days Inn near the checkpoint. I picked up two receipts from McDonalds for my sleep bonus around 7:30pm and 10:30pm. The reason I got them both at McDonald's is that nothing would be open at 4:00am to get my last receipt and the hotel did not provide timestamps on their receipts. So I slept from around 11:00pm until 4:00am when the checkpoint opened.
I got to the checkpoint and had some breakfast then tried to sleep a little more. Eventually the last bonus packet was handed out and we were free to leave at anytime. I believe I left the checkpoint to go back to my room around 9:00am I think. I went back to my room and started planning my third leg. I spent about 2.5 hours planning a route that I hoped would at least hold my standing in the rally. However as I read one of the last bonuses I made a reading comprehension error and interpreted the bonus wrong.
The bonus read something close to this. "You can't swing a dead cat in the south without hitting a Waffle House or a Sonny's BarBQ. Obtain a receipt from any Waffle House or Sonny's BarBQ". The bonus was worth 441 points which is an easy 441 points. I thought this may have been a mean trick, that is not beneath Eddie or Adam (you know I'm right guys), to have us run around all day and collect receipts when we are tired and just want to head for Niobrara. Since it was at the end of the bonus pack I kind of panicked and wasn't thinking straight. No one was at the checkpoint at this point to ask questions of because I did ride back over to see if anyone was there. I found out later that I was not the only one that read the bonus in that way. However that person read it at the checkpoint and asked if it was one or as many as we could get. He was told it was only one and the scorers were told the same thing at Niobrara.
Since I interpreted this as a progressive bonus, meaning collect as many as you can for 441 points each I set out on a plan of action. I obtained a listing of all the Waffle Houses along interstate exits in all states. I then ran I-285 around Atlanta stopping at every exit where one was located. Sometimes there were 2 or 3 at each exit. I decided to truncate my route and collect these until late afternoon and then start collecting other bonuses that I had selected in my route. Then I would pick up more the next day across Tennessee. By the time the sun set I had collected 30 receipts in Atlanta by purchasing a coffee or a lemonade at about $1.50 a pop. I thought for a spur of the moment plan it wasn't bad.
I headed out to start collecting other bonuses at night through South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. I slept in Asheville, NC for the evening and headed across Tennessee in the morning. A lot of exits have them and at the end of that day I was done with collecting them. I know had 47 of them and had run out of ones to collect as I rolled into Iowa/Missouri. I still had a decent amount of bonuses to collect and focused on those as I rode through the night. I rode all night to get back to Niobrara on time but had to pull over a couple times to catch 30 minutes to an hour of sleep.
When I sat down to score myself before going to the scoring table I read the bonus again and read the scoring sheet. At that point I knew I was sunk. There were a few times my head told me this doesn't make sense because everyone would be doing this if that was the case but I didn't see other riders at Waffle Houses although one of them said there were 3 riders in a while before me that all wanted receipts also. I think at that point I was in denial and didn't want to be wrong but had this sneaky suspicion that I was. It was too late though at that point. I was ready to be scored and I wasn't going to present the receipts at the table. I asked Eddie at that point if the bonus was one or as many as you can get. Eddie said that you can only collect a bonus once. Then he said "If it was that way you could just ride around to all the Waffle Houses and win the rally". At that point I said "I know". Then Eddie obviously caught on and said "What? Did you go to like 40 of them?". I said "47 to be exact". Eddie busted out laughing and said that I had to tell Adam that. I had a feeling I wouldn't have to tell him myself.
As I sat down to the scoring table with Rebecca, who knew what I had done but didn't know that I knew they didn't count, I was waiting for Adam or Eddie to start in. I presented one valid receipt for the Waffle House bonus and got the points for it. Eddie thought it would be funny if I didn't get the points for that one because it was incorrect. As I presented the one Adam asked where the other ones were. I pulled the other 46 out of my receipts bag and put them on the table. Adam had me fan them out and he took a picture of them. David E.B. Smith posted a link on LDRider to the pic. I'll post it here for your enjoy meant.
Now a lot of people were supportive and said things like "it was your first multi-day rally" or "you were tired". Although there is some truth to both I don't accept either one of them as a valid excuse. I completely 100% screwed up. I was well rested. I was ready for the third leg and whether it's a single day rally or multi-day I approached each leg separately. It was nothing but a colossal mistake and all I can do is learn not to do it again. I did not consider the bonus deliberately misleading. I think it could have been worded better but it's also my responsibility to ask if I feel it is unclear.
So the story will be told for years but in retrospect it was not the only mistake made on the ButtLite and it, in my opinion, was not the biggest one, just the biggest one to me. At the IBA National Meet I won a $100 gift certificate for the most points lost on one bonus (441*46=20286). However I never presented the other receipts and the bonus was only worth 441 points so there was no points to lose and I still collected the bonus. However I realize it promotes the ButtLite and makes for a good story that Eddie, myself, and others can tell for years to come. So I'm fine with that. Anything that promotes the sport is fine with me. I will take solace in the fact that I placed ahead of a lot of people who didn't waste at least half a day on the last leg collecting receipts and still manage to place 17th. It is not an easy task to finish and I send out a congratulations to all of the participants in the ButtLite. Looking forward to the next. Congrats to my new found friends Alex, Mike, and John for their great finishes. Congrats to LDMike, Ron and Carrie Hanson, John Coons, and all the other people I already knew for their finshes also.
So who's up for Waffles?
Curt
P.S. I can't thank enough my friends that supported me through the rally and this ordeal. I value your friendship more than you will ever know. The first night was very hard to take and I was stopped from making an even bigger mistake even though I didn't realize it at the time. Thanks to all involved, directly or indirectly, for your support.