My first rally in the books. I think I am recovered to a point where I might be able to clearly comprehend and type some of my experience. I started out of TN and much like Ken I was shaking a bit after getting the list of bonus that consisted of 330 boni. My first step was to immediately start deleting any that did not make sense or were out of reach. Once I got it narrowed down I started laying out a couple of routes making sure I could work the TPA bonus (A bonus that required you claiming the location for one bonus consisting of a train, plane, and automobile bonus) for each day into the route. I laid out a route that did that and encompassed the outer banks bonus of 6,000 points. I then laid out a second route that had me riding less miles, I could use the entire extended rest bonus for a total of 6 hours rest, and still get TPA each day along with the sequel bonus (returning to a claimed bonus at least 8 hours after first visited). The second route gave me about 1,000 more points than the 1st route so I chose it as the better route as the rest bonus was highly attractive. I figured the extra 3 hours of rest was good in itself but it came with 1800 extra points, which I also figured I could not achieve that point value by riding an extra 3 hours either. So my route planning was set, I knew there were a couple that I could drop if needed.
So now came the riding part. I took off south out of Murfreesboro and my first few stops went great (which really helped calm the nerves and settle into the ride). At my forth stop is when I hit my first snag, it was a Home Depot bonus that required a picture of the home depot and a receipt with city and state listed to go with it. I went into the home depot and got a receipt and no city and state was on it. So next door is a Kroger with a gas station and I thought no big deal, I need fuel so I will fill up and that will get me the receipt I need. No go there either, no city and state. I go across the street and finally get the required receipt at another gas station. So know I've lost about 15 minutes on this bonus and the anxiety starts to kick in as my next stop is in downtown ATLANTA, and I mean downtown! Much to my surprise I was in and out with no traffic or issues, next up I sweep to the northeast side of Atlanta for my airplane bonus. Then it was back south to start hitting multiple boni that fell along I-20 between Atlanta and Augusta, this is where the route came to a screeching stop, literally, as I got to sit in traffic for about an hour and a half just south of Atlanta just after I thought I had it made and escaped Atlanta without issue. Once I finally cleared traffic I continued my planned route picking up boni after boni with little issue. In Augusta I snapped a photo of Cabelas and go in to get a bottle of water and my needed receipt, no dice as no city, state listed again. I headed towards my next bonus also in Augusta and thought I would get a receipt on the way, struck out again as there was nothing between the two to get the receipt, so I snagged the second bonus then went and found a gas station that met the requirement, now that I was past the half hour window from the picture to bonus I had to swing back by the cabelas and take another photo. I then went to Columbia, SC and heading north to Charlotte, NC. I decided on my way into Charlotte that if I was going to collect all of the rest bonus then I had to drop some planned bonus locations. I dropped four of them and 3 of those would of required a picture and receipt which I was not having much luck with. So I picked up XRY just north of Charolette and then headed to my rest stop in Salisbury. Once I started my rest I grabbed a meal at Waffle House (Curt would be so proud) and then headed to my room at the top notch econolodge (not really, I actually had concerns if my bike would be there in the morning). Tossing and turning thinking about the rest of my route I think I managed to get about 2 hours of sleep, but the shower helped a bunch and gave me the power to move forward with the ride. Once back on the clock from the rest I stopped at Lowes in Salisbury to pick up the bonus there and then headed back to XRY to claim the sequel bonus. I then jumped on I-77 to make my way towards the finish. The weather was a heavy mist, not a rain, just enough to mist your visor but not enough to bead up and run off. Combined with the 52 degree temperature it was really pleasant (that's sarcasm). But the bonus were going well and all of them for the morning were within 3 miles of I-77 or I-81 and were easy picking. The last three bonus to gather were the automobile, train, and plane. I decided early in the day to drop another bonus as I wanted to make it back to the finish with plenty of time to gather my paperwork and get it turned in and I didn't want to have to drop part of the TPA as it was worth way more points than the other bonus. By dropping that bonus the GPS was saying I would hit the finish at 3:10 PM and my finish window closed at 4:00 PM. Feeling mentally good about making the finish in good time I snagged the automobile and train bonus and head for the airplane. As I get about 10 miles out from the plane bonus at the airport I start seeing signs for the airshow at the airport. Talk about the sinking feeling at the end of the rally that your about to head into a bonus with an airshow going on and how you thought you had 50 extra minutes. I find my way in and out surprising easy, the difficult part was the bonus plaque you were to take a picture of no longer existed, after spending 10 miutes looking around the property for it I finally found an airport staff member and asked. I took a picture of the airport sign and headed to the barn door nervous. Not only if I hit much traffic was I not going to make it back and would DNF (Did not finish) my low fuel light was blinking. I made the decision to keep going and if I ran out of gas that was just part of it because if I stopped I probably would not make it anyway. Luckily I had enough gas to make it and got checked in about 3:45, but the clock was still ticking as your time did not stop till you handed in your envelope with the needed items to be scored. I ended up handing it over at 3:50 PM, ten minutes to spare.
At the scoring table I lost a few points for not writing my mileage on a couple of receipts. I ended with 49,679 points and finish 4th of the TN starters. I felt like I did pretty well for my first rally. I was intrigued to talk to the others and see what kind of routes they chose. The top three riders from TN all went to the 6,000 point bonus. I ruled it out because I had always heard how bad traffic was on the outer banks, plus the risk of losing 100 points per minute if you could not get the receipt quickly. Turns out one rider called the Lowes and gave them a heads up and they had nearly ever register open to move the riders through quickly.
Overall if a few things had gone better I could have finished a little better, but that is water under the bridge and something I couldn't control. In the end your finishing place doesn't really matter, its that you showed up, were safe, and had a good time!
