Therapy On Two Wheels

The H.O.T. Rally or otherwise known as The “Heart Of Texas” Eight Hour Road Rally was held on May 1, 2010. This would be my first road rally of this type. I CAN tell you it will probably be one of many that I attend and compete in. Let’s just say I’ve been bitten by the rally bug. This is not your typical rally when you think of a rally, or maybe it’s the other way around? Maybe they have it wrong? Anyways, this was probably the most fun I’ve had in quite a while in regards to planning and riding.

What is a Road Rally you ask? Well let me tell you. It consists of many, in this case, motorcyclist that will ride for 8 hours collecting Bonuses. Think of a scavenger hunt. Basically you could start anywhere in Texas that you would like BUT the Rally would begin at 7:00 am and end at 3:00pm in Brady, Texas. Brady is very near the geographical center of Texas. We were also given several “Alternate” start locations with big bonus points attached. However, you could see these as easy points or “sucker” spots. I did not choose to start any of the alternate start locations. We also received 5 days prior to the rally date a Bonus Listing of over 50 bonus point locations for you to plan and strategize around. Luckily our rally master did a fantastic job in presenting the locations with perfect Longitude and Latitude locations as well as some other basic explanations of the bonus as well as the requirement for capturing the bonus. Most of the bonus locations were photo type locations, but some were buy something or collect something and get a dated and timed receipt. Speaking of this, in my opinion, two of the most important locations in any rally will be your start and end locations for obvious reasons.
Your start is confirmed by a receipt of some type on the day of the rally. It must include the location, date, and time. For example, my start receipt was from a Shell gas station in Italy, Tx at 7:01 am on May 1, 2010. If it had read 06:59 I would have been DNF’d, or “Did Not Finish”. That’s really just a nice way of saying you’ve been disqualified.

Next you plan a route from your start location, to bonus locations of your choice, and then ending at the Rally End location. You can plan any route you like. It is up to you to decide the route and how many bonus locations to collect and to arrive on time without being late and then collecting deductions in your score. 0:01 to 15:00 minutes late minus 250 points, 15:01 – 30:00 minus another 250 points. 3:30:01 or one second beyond 3:30 pm and you are DNF’d. No if, ands, or buts.

Planning and strategizing my route, I’d have to say was #2 to actually riding the rally. Once the planning, routing and timing was all done, it was just then a matter if “working” the plan if you know what I mean.

My Rally number was, in my opinion, Lucky #13!! Here is a picture of what I put together for my rally flag.

Lucky #13

What do you do with the Rally Flag? This rally flag is used to identify you in your pictures at the bonus locations that you collect. I will show my examples below. Most bonus locations require a photo verification. You use your own camera, and it should be set with a date and time stamp. In this case it must show May 1, 2010. Most rally masters will have a requirement for photo size, type, and resolution.

My plan and route consisted of 3 possible scores. These scores consisted of two circumstantial bonus possibilities that I might or might not be able to obtain.
Circumstantial Bonus #1 was to find and take a picture of a DPS Officer holding your rally flag in front of his/her vehicle. Circumstantial Bonus #2 was to find and take a picture of a McCulloch County Sheriffs Officer holding your rally flag in front of his/her vehicle. I thought for sure I’d be able to get at least one of them. WRONG! The old saying still holds true, “When you need one, you can never find one.” I even mapped out the Sherrifs office in McCulloch County! But NO! No one there but a dispatcher and she couldn’t leave her post, plus there wasn’t a car outside for her to stand by! [BUT.... at 3:30 or so? when the rally was over... guess what drove by the rally end location? Yep, you guessed it... not one but both of them!! Mr. DPS officer in his car and a McCulloch County Sheriff Deputy in his car. It was frustrating to say the least.]
So, anyways my original plan was for both of the circumstantial bonuses to be included. My plan totalled 7,400 points with both, and 6400, if I only got the Sherriff’s Deputy, and finally only 5,900 points without either. Well, at the end of the day that is what I ended up with, 5,900 points. Did I win? You’ll have to read on to find out.

Saturday – May 1, 2010 5:15am
Time to wake up. I showered and I could hear the thunder and lightning outside. I was not deterred, as I was going to ride no matter what. That is the type of rider I am. Crazy? Maybe. Dedicated? Yes. Now you know why I need Therapy but it’s on two wheels! Nothing better at least for me.
Dressed and ready to go. While donning my rain gear I hear the hail begin to fall. It’s ok, I still had 15 min’s before it was time to leave. I didn’t even look outside. I didn’t care. I just wanted it to stop hailing at least.
Time to depart the house to get to my start location in Italy, Texas at the Shell Station right next to my first Bonus location. I was ready to go and I went to the garage and opened if and lo and behold the hail, rain, lightning and thunder had all stopped. It was there and then gone. Still cloudy and the roads where very wet. No problem. It’s going to be a great day!!

Here is a map of my route:

My H.O.T. Rally Route

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My Bonus Location #1

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Starship Pegasus – Italy, Texas – 875 points

My Bonus Location #2

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The Rock Station – Hamilton, Texas – 375 points
This unique gas “Rock” station was built from petrified wood and stone from the area.

My Bonus Location #3

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Engine 1080 – Brownwood, Texas – 250 points
Engine 1080 of the AT&SF is one of nine Prairie Class engines remaining in the country.

My Bonus Location #4

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The Heart of Texas – The Geographic Center of Texas – 200 points

This is an imaginary point whose coordinates divide the state into four equal areas. In straight-line distance it is 437 miles from the state’s most westerly point on the Rio Grande River above El Paso, 412 miles from the most northerly point in the northwest corner of the Panhandle near Texline, 401 miles from the most southerly point on the Rio Grande below Brownsville and 341 miles from the most easterly point on the Sabine River near Burkeville. Maximum border-to-border distance is 801 miles from north to south and 773 miles from east to west.

Note: This bonus is 4 of 7 bonuses in McCulloch County. Collect all McCulloch County bonuses and multiply the sum of these bonuses by 3.

Yes My plan was to collect all 7 of the McCulloch County Bonuses and obtain the multiplier. This, in the end, was going to be the KEY to this whole rally. Luckily it was already in my plan.

To Be Continued…………

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at 12:41 pm and is filed under Ride Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.