Shaking Out the Cobwebs

HoooooWee Y’all!  I think that the effects of spending 14 months in a COVID quarantine loop have taken a toll in more ways than one.  There are cobwebs in many places – including my blog materials.  I had to find my notebook, the files, how to connect to digital images, the log-in information…. After the 2017 IBR I went into a bit of a post-rally, blog silence.  We did the MD 2020 and the Minnesota 1000 in 2018 – which were awesome!  2018 rolled into 2019 and then last year…. Well THAT was a crazy year.  You all know what happened – first the Mason Dixon 2020 in its 20^th year, had to postpone its much anticipated final Memorial Day weekend rally, then the final Butt Lite took the next hit from COVID travel restrictions.  By the fall, Rallymasters Scott La Shier and Rick Miller decided to team up and offer the Co-Void – a fantastic solution to combine the MD 2020 and the Void into an anywhere-start rally that went all virtual.  The “Finisher’s Banquet” found all of us sitting in our own living rooms celebrating the riders via ZOOM.  It was a strange new world. 

 

And now it’s – can this be right ?!– 2021.  We have been debating all year whether or not we could do the Iron Butt Rally – what will travel look like?  How will the vaccine situation shape up?  What about the continuing weird world of work, remote work, and other commitments as things start to come back online?  Well, we are both vaccinated and marinated.  And we are looking forward to finally seeing some friends and family, and as they say, getting back on the horse.  This year, Kirsten is riding a dark grey 2015 R1200RT, with the aux tank and some farkles from the warhorse 2009 R1200RT that gave everything she had during the 2017 IBR.  Despite having gotten the BMW GSA in November 2020 and sending all the information to the remote DMV, after 4 months they mailed it back without completing the title transfer.  For goodness sake.  So –turns out the GSA was not to be the rally bike as planned for 2021.  But maybe that’s for the best, as one social media friend said upon hearing the news of the GSA, “but Kirsten rides an RT!”  In this time of uncertainty, we need to keep our touchstones solid.

This year Kirsten is running with a Nav5 and a backup Nav5 (#oneisnone) and an old trusty Montana with a delaminated screen (for your not so easy viewing pleasure).  Like most pre-rally prep, she got a new cell phone a couple weeks ago… actually two.  The first one worked fine and then happily froze half the screen every so often, so it went back and the new new Samsung Galaxy 9 phone arrived for action.  In another stroke of awesome COVID shipping timing, new the QuadLock phone mount, with charging puck, is going to arrive on Wednesday….3 days after she leaves home and the day that she should be arriving to Rally HQ-Provo.  But - Good news!  She just found her rally cameras (I mean literally, JUST now, as I’m typing this at 7:30 pm the night before she leaves).  “Shockingly, it’s dead,” she said.  “Let’s just plug this in.”  Seems like only a week ago another IBR veteran (and I’m not naming names here Eric Bray) texted to say he pulled out his cameras and none of them were holding a charge.  Meanwhile two-time IBR winner Jim Owens has been on the road for a couple of days and has racked up a pre-rally win at the Minnesota 1000.  Calm and cool as usual.  Greg Blewett helpfully advised everyone on social media this week that it was time to stuff it all in a sock.  Tic tock.  And brush off those cobwebs.  It’s time to go.