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[Posted without prior approval and in no way a detraction to Marty's glorious victory!]

This route could have yielded in the neighborhood of 22,000 points, something even your silly rallymaster didn't see possible, but for the premature opening of a top case. Derek has a new one ready for Butt Lite.

Welcome to the "if only" club; we have many members already. Congratulations to ALL the Minnesota 1000 finishers. I only got to talk to a limited number of riders, but the tales told by folks like the Behm's and the Boettcher's (just to name two) make clear that all of you are definitely some of the world's toughest riders.

Be proud.

That pretty much is the same route as I ran... but backwards.

I did that for a couple of reasons.
I didn't want to be in the mass heading to Marshall
I saw more cut off chances on the west side of Iowa if time ran short (as it did, hence my last bonus pick up in Macy NE)
I also mistakenly thought I could run at a better pace on the west side of Iowa than in central Iowa in the middle of the night.

Derek had a heck of a run! It is to bad he had Lady Lucky cold cock him on the way back in. She'll make up for it in the BL and IBR.

Pretty much our intended route also. A few of us arrived at Marshall together, but it wasn't a crush. Of course, we bagged it and hit the freeway at Plattsburgh instead, the sleep bonus looking more appealing than the MO two lanes at o-dark-thirty. No guts no glory! Honestly felt bad for Derek and his top box.

Wasn't that an issue last year up in Cranada also?

" "

You just had to bring that up didn't ya Lun! Guess I'm a slow learner. I believe it was the road through Whiteshell Provincial Park that managed to jar it open last year. This year I'm pretty sure it was Iowa's J-22.

So now you all know. No one should feel too bad for me. I shoulda replaced that top case last year. Then I coulda tried claiming more points. That woulda resulted in a higher score. But the bottom line is I didn't. Lesson learned. Time to move, nothing more to see here.

I still had a great time and learned some things to hopefully make it better next time.

Derek - you got an award (Bentdahl! Nothing to sneeze at!) See you next year.

True! I'm very proud to have earned the Bentdahl. Plus it keeps me in the hunt for the Leir (or Iron Stool) award in 8 more years.

Try Buttlite 5000.

Indeed, the people who pulled this off like Marty and Derek, did a hell of a ride. A little luck ... good and bad ... makes such a difference.

Watching that tractor turn left right in front of Stephan as we came over the hill on the 116 going to Plattsburg unnerved me enough to second guess the rest of the ride through the middle of Missouri in the middle of the night.

Well done Marty, and watch out for Derek.

Here I thought this year I'd designed a kinder, gentler rally. No moose, no international border crossings, far fewer wildlife...

Now tractors are the new enemy. Again, who knew? I thought the Amish would be the biggest hazard; had a scary vision of someone parking their bike in the back of a buggy on MO 5 north of Milan. Really.

I only seen 1 Amish buggy all day and that was by the Thorpe Grave, I don't think that road would be much fun in the rain. The deer where very thick between Decatur and Sioux City on the Reservation and I did notice the turkeys where allot smaller in IA then the ones I seen in WI on the Bonzai, damn those things where big.

How can you not!!!!! He's got his high beams on and is running through.

I honestly think the level of competition here from top to bottom is amazing. There are so many great riders that turn up for this event. I could start listing them but I know the list would never end.

When you start your List Put yourself 1 2 3
bubba