~~ "She has so many aliases, you'd think she was a spy!" ~~

Monday, August 18, 2008

You win some, you lose some, but you always learn something in the process


Ken was on a 7-day motorcycle last week, one that took him all over the continental US (there was a bonus location in Alaska, but I don’t think anyone tried for it). He left on a Thursday from Nebraska, and around midnight that night called to tell me that he’d be at Pink’s the next day at 1:30 p.m., and could I meet him there? Well, duh? Given that I hadn’t seen him since July 2, there was no question. Driving 4.5 hours total (abysmal Friday LA traffic) was worth 1.5 hours to stand in a loooong line and eat a hot dog with my beloved. (I had a Rosie O’Donnell Long Island Dog—mustard, onions, chili, and sauerkraut*—yum!)

Of course, to actually get Pink’s as a bonus point, he had to have a hot dog at another deli…in New York City.

Yeah, it’s that crazy.

Anyway, the longest rally he’s done so far has been 3 days, I think, so this one was a challenge, one he’d been looking forward to. His ultimate goal is the Iron Butt Rally: essentially 11,000 miles in 11 days (yeah…), and this was a step in proving he could do a real mult-day rally.

He was doing great. A few hiccups that he recovered from (misreading the Martha’s Vineyard ferry schedule, oversleeping by 4 hours), but overall, he had a good sense that he was going to make a podium finish.

Three hours from the end, the rear drive on the bike failed.

Now, with the LT (which he used to ride) this was a know problem, although BMW won’t cop to that. Note that two of his LTs had rear drive failures. They swore, however, that the GT (his bike since last year) didn’t have the same problem. Hah.

The folks in charge of the rally tallied his points, and had he made it in, he would’ve been the clear winner by a buttload of points.

So, yeah.

All things told, Ken’s pretty pragmatic about it. He learned a hell of a lot, including the fact that he could survive a multi-day rally, much less nail one. And the way things worked out, a hell of a lot of people know how things sussed out, too.

And at CCR in a few weeks, he’ll be having a wee talk with a BMW rep. :-)

But can I say that I’m beyond way proud of him?

---

*because a girl’s gotta have her veggies, don’tcha know

3 comments:

Jerry White said...

Dayle,

You're downplaying Ken's achievement in the Spank. Ken kicked some serious butt. Had his miserable, pathetic German POS BMW ** not let him down, he would have won that rally by a country mile. Not only was it a monster ride, it was a smart ride. I heard George, the rallymaster, say that he really likes it when someone picks the lock on his rallies. Ken picked it, opened the safe, and ran away with the gold.

I've known your hubby for a few years, and we've rallied together many a time. He's better than me most of the time, and I can't tell you how much that bothers me. It's a shame he didn't get picked for the 09 IBR, but I'll be pulling for him to get a draw in 11. He deserves it.

Cheers,
Jerry

** I can say that because my own BMW motorcycle broke down in the rally also. Out of 25 total entries, 3 BMWs suffered rally-ending mechanical failures.

Dayle A. Dermatis said...

Thanks for the kind words, Jerry. If I sound like I'm downplaying Ken's riding, it's only because I don't want the winner of the rally to feel bad. :-)

Besides, I knew he would kick ass!

Angell said...

LOL - Ken would've kicked that guys ass. Good for him!! I'd like to survive thirty minutes on a bike. LOL.

Excellet achievement, too bad about the bike. :(