Cannonball - Day 2

July 6th, 2017

Anderson, SC to Lebanon, TN (Supposed to be 335 Miles, why is my odometer at 370?)

Before getting started, the one thing I have been anxiously awaiting is the standings.  I found out that they have been posed on the Modern Vespa site (not sure why), but someone name Phil is kind enough to get a direct link http://www.scootercannonball.com/results/2016Updates.php and update the website.

So here are the standings for the Helix crew after day one:

     2 Bob (BigKart) - 276 Points

     17 Chris (ctopher) - 190 Points

     18 Frank (febail) - 185 Points

     25 Mike (Mike Smith) - 171 Points

     ?? Marty (sheepdog) - Unknown (how late did he check in again?)

and Steve (on the Reflex but still hanging out with us) at 22 with 171 points.  Technically there is a 12 way tie at 171 points, but the math is too much for me right now.

I'm running mid pack.  Awesome.

On to the update

Day two is starting to gel already.  I got up a bit early to update the blog (4:30) and we packed up at 5:30 to be at the ride hotel at 6:30 for the 7am riders meeting.  We saw whole bunch on guys show up about 6:45, snap the picture of the first check point, skip the meeting, and get a jump on the day.

Everything started off fine.  The excitement of the day really centers around Deal's Gap and the Tail of the Dragon (318 curves in 11 miles).

We rode with no incident to the first checkpoint.  At some point Steve pulled off on his own but we knew beforehand that was a possibility  The big issue with the ride to checkpoint one was the hill climb.  There were parts where I was maxing out at about 35 miles per hour.  Not for a long time, but not really what you want.  We passed the SOD crew on one of these hills.  They are mostly riding 125 Zuma's with half the engine size.  Crazy.

We were about 20 miles from checkpoint 2 when I noticed no one behind me.  I was able to ring up Frank and found out he pulled over with a broken belt.  This is the good thing about in helmet communication.  I've been against it for year, but on these long trips it's worth it. 

Roadside belt repair:

In the quick discussion I had with Frank we decided to meet back up at Checkpoint 2 or Deal's Gap.  So Marty and I continued while Mike helped Frank with the belt.

We actually made the second checkpoint in pretty good position.  Mostly due to my cool navigational rig:

And we arrived at Deal's Gap and took some photos (way more than I will post here):

And the tree of Shame (where they hang all the broken bits from riders who fail.

The problem was that we waited for Frank and the repair to be completed.  There is no cell coverage over this whole area and we waited an hour before taking off.  Rookie Cannonball mistake.  If your crew has help already,  and nobody is bleeding, keep riding.  The only thing that comes from waiting is a poor individual time at the end.  It sounds callus, but it's really not.  As long as everyone is on the same page and no one is left totally alone. Hopefully this doesn't cause us problems with scoring.  Running mid pack as we are, I can't see how that could be.

But it was beautiful riding:

We have a lot of video footage of the riding today, but it needs a little editing.  I'll link when I can.

Marty and I hit checkpoint 3 with no issues.  

On the way to the 4th and final checkpoint, rain.  Not just a little, but one of those NOAA beep your phone head for the hills kind of rain.  When the dually in front of us slowed to 30 and put on hazard lights, it had to be bad,  Rain you couldn't see through with 60 mile an hour winds and we were all over the place.  

Mike in the rain:

Of course, we already lost some time.  So rather than stop, we dropped it down to about 15 (not sure as I was concentrating on the road more than the gauges), and rode out the last 8 miles with a snorkel.

Check in.  Done.  The hour will cost us, but I still can't wait to see the results.

Great thing is that BBQ was brought in by TN_Sooner from the forums.  Good food and socialization after a really great day of riding.  There were still a few riders not checked in and I wish them the best.

So the route we rode today:

G'night folks.  Tomorrow, Cape Girardeau, Missouri