Day 2 – Milford DE to Streetsboro OH, 796 Miles
States Visited: DE, NJ, NY, PA, OH
Alarm clock set, it was time for sleep. In the room at 02:20, I should be awake at 03:30. When I awoke, I found it to be 07:15!!! I had slept through the alarm on my cell phone, and the alarm clock in the room hadn’t gone off … it didn’t make any sound. That was it … I knew I was done. Panic was starting to set in. I started weighing my options … do I call the rallymasters and let them know I had DNF’ed already, or make a straight line towards Wilkes-Barre? Back at the bike, I had the GPS revise my route with NJ no longer on the route, and also dropping the smaller Pennsylvania stops … basically just running up to Flanders NY, and then making a dash back to the checkpoint. Garmin told me with that revised route, I would be there just after 15:00, which was the magic window at which penalty points would start accruing.
Traffic was generally good getting through New Jersey and into New York state. I had no problems finding the giant duck at Flanders, with only one speed laser trap to have to avoid (which was really the only speed trap I had encountered the entire rally). By the time I stopped for the Flanders stop, Garmin was telling me I would be hitting the checkpoint right around 15:30. Not good … I needed to be making time, not losing time, and if I made it to Wilkes-Barr after 17:00, it wouldn’t do me any good at all.
Here is where I made my next mistake. I had misunderstood the penalty calculation for riders returning after 15:00. Knowing that the penalties increased exponentially after the 3:00pm penalty start, I had understood the calculation to be the number of minutes after 3:00pm, squared. Looking at my three possible PA stops enroute back to the checkpoint, two being worth 500 points and the other being only 87 points, it looked as though my penalty points would far outweigh the benefit of making the stops, so I pressed on for the checkpoint. In reality, the penalty calculation was to take the number of minutes past 3:00pm, divide that by 2, and then square that number. As it was, I arrived at the checkpoint at 15:21 and received a 110 point penalty.
Since the 500 point bonus that I passed up was also obtainable from the checkpoint, had I understood the penalty process better, I could have still claimed 390 more points that I managed. This would have moved me to 3rd place instead of 5th, but after the ferry incident and then oversleeping in Milford, I figured I was so far behind the curve that it wouldn’t really matter. By the time I made it to Wilkes-Barre, I hadn’t eaten at all, and had only gone through the water and electrolyte mix that I had on the bike and refilled at gas stops. I was rested, but frustrated … and not on a pace I could sustain for the rest of the rally.
With the checkpoint finished and scoring for the first leg complete, it was time to wait until the 17:00 riders meeting and the release of the next leg’s route sheets. Fortunately, the rallymaster team had planned for food to be provided at the checkpoint, so I was able to grab some much needed grub, as well as a couple drinks to bring up the fluid levels. Several riders were sleeping out behind the dumpsters or back in the dealership service area. I used the down time to grab a t-shirt from the shop (which was the bonus criteria for 500 points … had I done it before checking into the checkpoint). The idea was to spend time off the bike, and not at all focused on routes or bonus locations … recharge the emotional batteries as it was since they had been near depleted by the ferry and oversleeping problems earlier in the ride.
The funny thing about rally riding, at least for me … any time I think I did horribly awful, I end up ranked pretty well. The reciprocal is also true; when I think I’ve ridden a competitive segment, I find out that it wasn’t as competitive as I had hoped. As the 17:00 riders meeting started, I opted to not try and find out where I was ranked, as I expected it to only be more demoralizing. Because I hadn’t eaten or otherwise maintained a a sustainable pace, so I planned to hold back some on the second leg while still capturing competitive points.
Promptly at 17:00, the riders meeting started. New route sheets were handed out, this time routes C, E, and F. Route C had been posted online a couple weeks before the event, so most of us had a route pre-planned around that sheet. What we didn’t know was whether Route C would be used for the 36 hour leg 1, or show up on the 2.5 day leg 2. Route F was a revised version of the original Route A … 29 capitols available, this time the point values being larger than what was offered in leg 1. I wasn’t interested in the capitol tour in leg 1, so I quickly wrote off this option for leg 2. The other route of interest was Route E. While there was some reuse of bonus locations from Route D, there was also more possible locations than Route C. As people started heading out with what I thought was a completed route (only later to learn that several people simply left the dealership and headed to a nearby hotel at which to complete their planning), I decided to declare my Route C option and hit the road. I didn’t have a complete route worked out, but knew that I wanted to hit St. Cloud MN for the bonus at Donahue Harley-Davidson. There wouldn’t be many bonus options along this route, but I had a reason for heading to Donahue’s, it would be easy riding, held some competitive points, and would get me to some states I had not previously visited. My plan was to start heading towards Minnesota, and as soon as the local clock rolled over to July 4th (which made either of the two rest stops for this leg available), I would grab a hotel room to complete the route plan.
At just before 18:00, I pulled out of the Two Jacks parking lot, topped off the fuel tank, and headed West across Pennsylvania. This was my second time to ride across Pennsylvania, and the state continues to intrigue me. I definitely need to make it back and explore more of the state’s back roads. As I was headed west, still with the mountains on the horizon and the sun setting behind them, I was entertained by fireworks displays from several small towns scattered between Philly and Pittsburgh. Darkness would fall before I got out of the state, and right around 23:00 I would find myself at a truck stop in far eastern Ohio. I used this opportunity to pick up a Screaming Meanie … a favorite alarm clock among truckers and long distance riders, this thing is guaranteed to wake you, the dead, and the people sleeping 3 rooms down in your hotel when it goes off. There was no way I was going to accidently oversleep a rest bonus again this ride.
Back on the road and headed west, I made it as far as Streetsboro OH before the clock rolled to 12:01am and it was time to pull off and grab a room for the night. Even considering the experience I had out in Milford DE, I decided to stop in at the Super 8, managed to get a room, and decided to sleep first and then plan in the morning while I was fresh. It wouldn’t take long for sleep to come.
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