decisions, decisions.....(part II)August 12 2006 at 1:51 PM |
Rev. Eddie James | |
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At 8pm AZ time (note—AZ is not on daylight saving time as many riders were surprised to learn on leg I) the riders received BLIIII routesheets for leg 2 of the event. The parameters are simple: Next checkpoint: BMW Motorcycles of Atlanta Checkpoint time: 6-8am Sunday, August 13 Time until checkpoint opens: 55 hours Riders were given two different routing options. Rally Master prediction for a solid competitive Leg II ride: 9000+ points Notables to note for those practicing their route planning at home: Large bonuses. A) By far the largest bonus on either leg was to have your bike custom painted with the ButtLite IIII logo by legendary artist/pinstriper Steve Kafka. Steve’s work is legendary in the pinstriping world, (he was called in to stripe the casket of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth a few years back) and we felt the opportunity of huge bonus points and artwork on your bike by a legend would be an irresistible appeal and souvenir to riders and ensuring that everyone would be visiting our friend Steve. B) Pick up a bag of pistachios from Eagle Ranch just outside of Alamogorda, NM C) Get sauced at Coopers BBQ in Llano, TX D) Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, TX (a perennial TeamStrange bonus and David E.B. Smith demanded its inclusion or he was walking from this event). E) Unknowingly retrace the route driven in Jasper TX when societal dregs Lawrence Brewer, John King and Shawn Berry murdered James Byrd. There were huge loops on both routes that offered riders the opportunity to bag thousands of points before visiting the Kafka bonus between 10 am and 4pm Friday. The bonuses offered to riders looking to start off with this huge loop included Palominas, Ajo, and Nothing, AZ as well as Essex, CA. Still got some free time before running over to Steve’s? The Bob Crane murder site 5 miles away offered yet another bonus add to your growing point collection. Long story short—a rider running an 800+ mile route in the early Friday am could have 4500+ total points down by the time they left Steve Kafka’s place around noon Friday. The plan then would have to include structuring ones time to achieve as many timed bonuses as possible (i.e Eagle Ranch, Coopers, Dr. Pepper, etc) along the way to Atlanta. Some riders argued that the Kafka bonus required 200 miles of backtracking to Phoenix and a 14 hour delay until the bonus opened. Surely, they argued, it would be better to head east, get the guaranteed daylight bonuses mentioned above and add to it from there. There are a huge array of bonuses once a rider gets east of central TX. Navasota, Galveston and Jasper come to mind, along with many in the LA, MS and AL states such as Hot Coffee, Ebenezer, Natchez, Buzzard Roost, Rosa Parks Museum, Jayne Mansfield death site, etc. The trick on this leg is simply this: does one go for the big score at the beginning and then add as much to it as possible, or blow off the first big loop in favor of getting everything else along the way? Each ride has it’s own pitfall: a rider doing the big loop before Kafka could outscore everyone initially, but they could also end up so far behind that they have to bypass every later bonus in a rush to Atlanta. A rider going east first could theoretically outscore the Kafka visitor, but only if the Kafka visitor couldn’t obtain anything they did. In short, if the rider can get all of the early bonuses and Kafka AND can then add any of the remaining list to my collection as well, another rider may not be able to catch them. Does the loop before Kafka confuse people? “Absolutely” maintains Ira Agins. “The whole mental concept of running hundreds of miles west on a route going east goes against the way many people run choose their routes”. I don’t think you’ll see many people at the Kafka bonus no matter how much it’s worth.” Another factor pointed out by David E.B. Smith is the obvious: What do you have in you? If you’ve spent your personal bank on leg I and don’t have any reserve and need to charge your batteries awhile, your big ride on Leg I may have you so far back that you’ll not catch up. Add in some out-of-the-way but still very tempting bonuses, and you have a route sure to leave the riders scratching their heads in confusion. Visitor center in Sanderson, TX Contrabando movie set in Big Bend? Worlds Deepest Hand Dug Well in Greensburg, KS? I think that if I had just ridden 11 kazillion miles getting to Tombstone, I might just say “heck with this, I’m getting some sleep”. On the other hand, I think I wouldn’t be able to ride with many of the folks on this event, most of whom are probably on the road right now again proving all of my scoring theories wrong. We’ll know more tomorrow. See you at the Atlanta checkpoint. Rev. Eddie |
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