The IBR is Over

Hi folks,

It's been 3 weeks now and the 2007 Iron Butt Rally is in the history books.
The final scores are in,
my 26th place finish surprised me,
and my ride report has been completed. 
Now the bills need to be paid, and they are not small.

Last but not least the dreams have almost come to an end. 
Just in time to sign up for the 24 hour '07 Rally the Void. 
I'll try to post an update afterwards on whether or not my 
IBR experience helped my performance there.

Thank you all for following along and keeping me in your thoughts,
Mike Langford (aka IBPete, or "pappy pete" to the grandkids")
New IBA number 341

GOLD FINISHER!

The scores have been tallied, and he moved up from slot 61 at the end of Leg 1 to position 26 at the end of Leg 2. He was a gold finisher. He said he was listening to them call off the bronze and then the silver and when his name still hadn't been called he thought 'wow, I thought I had more points than that...guess not' and was feeling a little dejected that he hadn't placed in either the bronze or silver group and then they started reading the gold group. Even though he really wasn't listening, he managed to hear his name called! Number 26. Impressive, indeed for a newbie....especially after his Butt Lite last year ended with him breaking his foot and having to drop out. CONGRATULATIONS! :-)

Leg 2 total 167K

Well, he is all scored and total points for Leg 2 is 167,099....sounds pretty impressive to me. His mom said she didn't even hear him when he left (we are guessing about 2 am) and Claud said that he had been starving, having not eaten all day. So, they fed him, helped him organize his stuff and made him rest for a few hours. Thank you!!
So, he said someone asked if he wanted to do this again and he said he had not decided yet whether he wanted to do that or sell his bike! :-)

St. Louis Safe arrival

Got a call at 5:30 a.m. from the St. Louis Hotel. SAFE ARRIVAL! The 12 day trek is over and he has proved he really does have an Iron Butt! More to come later after the scoring.

Day 11: Getting closer!

As of 7:00 p.m. central time, he had collected his last bonus in King City, Missouri and was on his way to his mom's house in Kansas City. There he will get something to eat, organize 6 days worth of paperwork and grab a couple hour nap before heading out to St. Louis. She was pretty excited when he called and told her he would be there about 9 tonight. Now, he just needs to get all of his documentation in order, sleep for a bit, and drive safely the last 3 1/2 hours from her house to St. Louis. Then, he can finally relax and get some much needed sleep.

Day 10: Getting tougher!

Day 10 was really long, having started out 350 miles west of 'the plan.' By the time he got to the area with the 3 bonus locations in Wyoming, he was feeling the miles! This was especially apparent when he called and said he just realized that he had driven 65 miles past the first bonus location and 20 miles past the second one....ouch! The 3 were all daylight locations, so he backtracked and picked up the 2 he missed and then went on to number 3 and got some pictures that were less than optimal. He probably will not get the points for the 3rd location, but he wanted to try. Perseverance he has in abundance! Adding the unexpected 130 miles at that point, along with the extra 350 miles at the front end were taking a toll, and he decided he needed to rest although still 180 miles from his planned stop in Nebraska. Of course, there was nothing out there. As he said this morning, Wyoming is called God's country because nobody lives there! So, he pulled off the road and took a 1 hour catnap and then continued until he found a motel where he slept for 3 hours. At this point, 8:00 a.m. Mountain time, he has had something to eat and picked up the first 2 of his bonus locations for the day. After the next bonus location he can either head straight for St. Louis (another 850 miles) or pick up one additional bonus in King City, Missouri--which would add about 30 miles, but takes you off of the interstate for a few hours. I knew he was really hurting when he proclaimed "Thank goodness this isn't a 12 day rally!"
Well, it IS day 11 and he is still in it and has collected an impressive amount of points so far. He just needs to safely get back to St. Louis by 8:00 a.m. central time. Will update this later.

Day 9 and 50k points!

Day 9 started out tremendously....off to Lick Observatory to pick up the 24k, quickly north to Livermore and another 3k, then West to San Fran and a loop around the city collecting a total of 16k points, and off to Sacramento for another 1k...for a total of 44k points by 2:45 local time. Wowsa!! But all silver linings tend to have their clouds..... That tremendous push for the day took its toll and by 7:00p.m local he had only made it another 61 miles by my routing (map points not entered at quite the right location) but actually about 110 miles to get the Grass Valley locations. The goal had been to make it to Salt Lake City by 2:00a.m. and then get some rest. However, he only made it as far as Winnemucca, Nevada. So, as of 5:00 a.m. (pacific time) he is still 350 miles shy of Salt Lake City and he loses an hour there as the time changes. I hope he got some good sleep. This is Day 10 and the original plan had been to get as far as Alliance, Nebraska today....via 3 bonus locations in Wyoming and then Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore is now out....and I will keep my fingers crossed that he can get to the Wyoming locations while still daylight (a requirement). It is doubtful at this point, but still possible. Did a quick calculation this morning and he has accumulated almost 119k in bonus points so far in this second leg, so he has done really well. Only 48 more hours to go.....hang in there!!