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2004 Bonzai Ride Report

Team Newbie's^TM Last Ride! 

Saturday - Going to the Rally 

We left for Milbank on Saturday at noon and picked up a couple of GLMC Grand Tour stops on the way. The weather was going to be spotty all weekend but we had already been hardened by the Border to Border ride a month earlier. Kerry Person could not go with us since his bike was still in the shop, but fellow newbie Chris Berg road over with us and newbie Paul Sundet would meet us in Milbank. 

After arriving in Milbank, we checked into the Super8 and talked with the other few riders that were there. We needed to drop off a fuel cell at Bob 498 Johnson's place so I could get access to my trunk. Critter headed over with us and we B.S.'d at Bob's for a while. Chris's mic stopped working in his headset on the way to Milbank. We attempted a repair with Bob's soldering gun but luckily it was not successful so we were insured peace and quiet for the weekend.

We headed back to Milbank for the pre-rally dinner at City Limits Restaurant. Many riders were already present when we arrived. Brett showed off many of the new features on Barney 2.0. His light setup doubles as a tanning both and his fuel cell looks suspiciously like a refrigerator. Other goodies include a new Garmin 2610, XM radio and a blender. The food at City Limits was great. Normally I would eat light before a rally but the Prime Rib was too good to pass up. The weather turned while we were eating. Upon exiting the restaurant we were greeted with a light rain which would be a sign of things to come.

Sunday Morning - Rider's Meeting

The next morning we needed to have our odometers read in a tent they had setup in the rain. Critter's large CB antenna got caught on the tent and broke his mount. If you know Critter, you know how painful it must be for him not to be able to talk on the CB. A rider's meeting was held inside at 7am. Rally sheets were handed out and riders could depart after 8am.

Carrie and I settled in to enter all the bonus spots into the computer. There were 65 bonus spots and it took the full hour to enter them. Chris surprised us at 8am declaring he was going to ride this one on his own. At the very least we'd have different stories to share later. He packed up and headed out to points unknown. Paul however decided to ride with us since this was his first rally.

The big 2600+ point bonus was Big Daddies BBQ in Des Moines, IA. Based on the other point values it looked like just getting this bonus could be a winner. At 400miles from Milbank it was possible if you left immediately, but didn't look like much fun droning on the Interstate. There were many small bonuses around Milbank and a few combos that brought you further out. One of the bigger combos was the 600mile Bonzai Loop. 6 locations. Ortonville and Bigstone City were only a few miles from the start. Aberdeen was straight out west. Zell was south of Aberdeen on the way to Niobrara. Niobrara also had a fairly large stand alone bonus. Irene, SD completed the Bonzai loop. There were many points to pick up without adding many miles to this route. The last 1/4 of the route was Interstate and provided a good bailout opportunity bypassing some smaller bonuses if time ran short.

Our final route as planned is here (Garmin Mapsource 6.1) and added up to 2605points and 620miles including the fuel log bonus. Not enough to beat a Big Daddies run but enough to be competitive. While planning this route Critter asked if my map showed the new bridge in Niobrara. Having never been to Niobrara I wasn't sure which one he was talking about but yes my map did show a bridge. I wish I had inquired more as this would come to haunt us later. By the time we had programmed our route and suited up we were one of the last to leave at 9:00am.

Head East, then West young man:

The rain had let up to a drizzle when we left. We started the bikes and left the starting area behind the Super 8 only to be flagged down in front of the hotel by a staffer. He handed us an extra bonus list. Drats. A blatant attempt to upset our plans by the rally masters. I quickly scanned the list and didn't see anything that would make me want to adjust our plan. Without taking the time to map the locations we would likely drive by a few bonuses but we were already behind schedule and risked loosing our big combo bonus.

Our first stop was Ortonville and Bigstone city as part of the Bonzai loop. We grabbed some packs of gum for our receipts. We had a good conversation with some locals at the Holiday station. I hate being rude, but we had to cut it short since we were on the clock. Bigstone City didn't have a proper receipt at the Grocery Basket but we had them put a stamp on it to verify the location.

We made our way west to Aberdeen on 12. A quick stop at Blue Cloud Abby scored us our first points. The next stop was an odd museum in Webster. You needed to know how much the gate fee was. They only take donations though. After Webster rain started falling. The next stop in Bristol was a South Dakota Store. You needed to buy some chips, except they were closed. We documented our stop with a polaroid instead.  It was around here I noticed I forgot to reset my gps stats. Twice already this year I have goofed that up.

After Bristol we were off to Aberdeen for our third Bonzai loop stop. Rain started falling heavy enough that it forced Paul to pull over and put on some raingear. He radioed us and said he would try to catch us at the stop in Aberdeen. Carrie and I pulled into the first gas station in Aberdeen and left the bikes close to the highway so he could find us. He didn't have the route or any bonus points in his GPS so he would be fairly lost on his own. He caught us quickly and we left Aberdeen without much delay. We were starting to get cold with the temps in the low 50s and I told Carrie we should put on our Gerbings. There was one problem with that. She had left hers at the hotel. DOH! I let her wear mine while I toughed it out in only my long sleeve shirt under the Aerostitch soaking up as much heat from the heated grips as I could.

Our next stop was going to be Mina just west of Aberdeen. Mina was a Grand Tour stop and also worth 50points on the Bonzai. With the heavy rain and 35mph winds we worried about loosing documentation and how a photo would turn out. We decided to skip it 5miles short of Mina and rerouted south to Zell.

The GPS routed us down some horribly paved county roads to Zell. Being turned south the gusty crosswinds kept the bikes sideways for a majority of the time. The rain was leaving standing water in the horribly tracked pavement. The whole time I was cursing myself for waiting too long deciding to bail on the Mina stop. We were paralleling a state highway a few miles to the east which was certainly in better condition than the road we were on.  A quick photo in Zell secure Bonzai stop #3.
 

The Ghost Bridge:

Our next leg was a long stretch south down to Niobrara. About 40miles north of I90 it stopped raining and the sun even came out for a few minutes.  We made a quick fuel stop at the intersection of I90 in Plankinton and continued south. After skipping Mina my GPS had recalculated the route to Niobrara. Seeing the route scroll into view I noticed it looked different than at the planning table on the laptop. It was routing us west to cross the river at the Fort Randall Dam. I was sure it had us going into Niobrara from the north. I asked Paul and Carrie to have their GPS's route to Niobrara and their result was crossing the dam. I reloaded the original route and sure enough it had us crossing a few miles east of Niobrara from the north. I zoomed into where the bridge would've been but there was nothing. Was this the bridge Critter was talking about? Could we afford to take the guess? Going west was going to add 50miles to our original route but the GPS said we could still make it if we dropped some bonuses off the end of our route. If we went east and found no bridge, we would certainly DNF. We didn't want to take the chance.

Instead of stopping in Delmont for a 110point bonus on the way to the ghost bridge we stayed west closer to the river. Fortunately, near the dam was a 50point casino bonus we hadn't planned on. While we crossed the dam I noticed a sign that read "Caution: Strong Crosswinds". Well we had been in crosswinds for the last 2-3hrs, but these were really bad crosswinds. The bikes went into serious leans as Carrie laughed over the CB. Fortunately they only lasted 1 mile over the dam. After the dam it started to rain and the temp dropped to 50 again. We reached our furthest westerly point and turned south into Nebraska. Turning east we felt better knowing we were finally head toward the finish instead of away from it.

We rolled into Niobrara and the rains stopped and the temps climbed back into the 60's. We stopped at the Two Rivers Saloon to secure our bonus. It is a really cool place and the area around Niobrara is very scenic. We can't wait to come back when we attend Team Strange's Return to Niobrara at the end of July. We chatted a little with the proprietors and learned there had been 7 other riders there today. Interesting that we hadn't seen anyone on the road. We headed east out of Niobrara. As we got out of town we noticed this nice new bridge crossing the river into South Dakota. DOH! There was that ghost bridge Critter had told me about and the other riders must have taken. At the intersection for the bridge we noticed a sign on Hwy 12 that said "Water over Road" A few miles down the road you could see vehicles with flashing lights. We turned around before we could see the water and headed over the new bridge. Anyone coming from the east would likely need to detour south and experienced some delay for sure.

Our new route brought us close to a 50 point Grand Tour stop in Tabor, SD. The GPS was showing arrival at the finish at 7:50pm. To close for comfort this far away and there were other small points closer to the finish. We skipped it to go straight to our last Bonzai stop in Irene, SD. After Irene we made our way out to I-29. The wind had been at our back the whole way from Niobrara and it was a very pleasant ride.

With the 75mph speed limit on the interstate we gained some time back and our arrival time went down to 7:30pm. This wasnt enough to get the 4 stop, 300 odd points we planned on picking up on the east side of I29 near Flandreau, but we could still get the 30pointers on the way into Milbank from the South and grab a sixpack bonus. 

Paul needed gas before we could get to the Clearwater gas bonus so we pulled off in Brookings for a quick 5minute main tank fill.
We got off I-29 on Hwy 15 by Toronto for the last road home. Here we saw our first rider since leaving the Milbank area. It was fellow newbie Chris Berg, and he was headed south.?. There was a small bonus in the area from the bonus sheet we didnt see and he was headed there. Unfortunately he couldn't communicate since his mic was dead so he had no way to relay information to us. We grabbed a splash of gas in Clearwater for a bonus and then made a stop in Altimont to visit an Antique store for some smaller points.  Chris had passed us headed north when we were in Altimont but we caught him again by a grave on the "Big Curve". He was finishing writing the bonus down when we arrived but wouldn't tell us what it was. Bastard! Carrie ran and got the name we needed while Tim Frederick pulled up. Tim saw us drive past a Toonerville 20point bonus a mile earlier since my GPS autoroute covered up the waypoint. Oh well.

Tim followed us as we headed into to Milbank. We were all relieved knowing we had 15minutes to spare and enough time to pickup our 150point cold 6pack bonus. You needed to get a cold 6pack within 30minutes of finishing for it to be counted. Our first stop resulted in no 6packs. I contemplated getting 6loose cans but reading comprehension classes taught me that wouldn't pass muster at the scoring table. Our second stop had 6packs of water, perfect. Hootis rolled in and we directed him to the water.

We crossed the finish line with less than 10minutes to spare. This year there were a few people late but not the dramatic Molly  style DNF in the Buffalo Run. The stories started before the helmets even came off. A rider had went down due to hydroplaning just outside of Milbank. The bike was trashed but he was in good shape. He had been going to Des Moines and a sure win. A few more had dropped bikes in the mud due to slippery conditions but there were no injuries. The rain and wind were high points of many conversations. After a few minutes of unwinding we headed in for the scoring.
 

The Results:

We sat down and scored ourselves before heading to the table. Many had already finished scoring and were eating by the time we settled in.  After driving by so many stops due to our bridge incident it was painful adding our score up to 2165 when it could've been a few hundred points higher.

There were many door prizes. Lunatic's parents donated many items and the AMA donated a Battery Tender which Carrie won. If anyone needs a battery tender worse than her I'd be surprised. She has a habit of leaving her key on :)

The efficiency award, which Carrie had won during the Buffalo Run, was dominated by Critter. His incredible routing had resulted in 555points in 2miles! This Critter was a fox.

Some of the newer rally riders did very well. Don Quistorff took the funky class on a GS400 with 1562points. Impressive. Jeff and Deanna Martin won the two up class with 1428points. Despite only a few entries, Two-up is a hard class to ride in. I rode in it during the Buffalo Run with Chris's wife but weather conditions were less favorable this time. Brian Johnson won the standard class on a CBR1000 and 1562points. If Paul had left the saddlebags off his VFR he would've have walked away with that one.

The touring class was the home of the big dogs. Reverend Eddie James lost some points at the table but still had 2240 points,  enough for 2nd place touring. Hootis continued his winning ways with a first place touring win and 2312 points. Watch out for Hootis in the MN1k. Brett Donahue proved his 2003 MN1k touring win was no fluke and got the South Dakota monkey off his back with an impressive 2587 points and overall win. You can read Brett's ride report here.

Sadly we just missed bringing home any wood for the first time in our 3rd and final rally as Team Newbie. Carrie and I finished 4th and 5th overall while Paul snagged 8th after skipping the 6pack bonus. Still we had a wonderful time exploring more far out places in South Dakota and now we know there is a bridge in Niobrara. Big thanks to GLMC, volunteers and other riders for making this a fun event.
 

The Aftermath:

The ride home was extremely pleasant. Only a few sprinkles in the sky as we headed out. In what's begging to be a tradition we stopped for breakfast in Ortonville with fellow riders. Bob498, Critter, Brett Donahue, Tim Fredrick, Paul, Chris, Carrie and I all enjoyed a wonderful meal. After breakfast Tim headed down to pick up the Grand Tour spots we had collected on the way to the rally. Brett followed as far as he could before heading off to St. Cloud. Paul left in us Howard Lake. An unusually silent broken mic'd Chris and broken antenna'd Critter stayed with us until Minneapolis.

Unfortunately this was Team Newbies last ride. Team Newbie started doing road rally's at the 2003 Minnesota 1000. This was the last local rally we hadn't participated in and completed our rookie year. Sadly it also spells the end of our hastily chosen team name since people are insisting we aren't newbies any more and must give up the name for the next generation of riders. Maybe we'll be Team Formerly Known As Newbie or Team Semi-Newbie. Stay tuned, only time will tell.

See Chris Berg's ride report here.

Final Results: GLMC Bonzai 2004

Team Newbie Rally Stats  
*NOTE FIRST 103miles, 3 stops missing due to failure to reset GPS*
Miles: 539 Points:2165 Moving Avg:65.6 mph  Overall Average 57.8mph Moving Time: 8:13 Stop Time: 1:06

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Copyright ©1998-2004, Ron Hanson. All rights reserved
Last edited 06/09/2004