The Co-VOID 20-20

 This weekend, October 9-11, will be a little bittersweet for us.  It officially ends the 20 year run of the Mason Dixon 20-20 Rally that is normally over Memorial Day.  Thanks to the botched COVID19 response, we combined forces with the VOID Rally which is traditionally Columbus/ Indigenous Peoples' Day weekend.  Through a fluke of autocorrect, the Co-VOID 20-20 name was derived. 

sigh

We wish all the riders to have a fun ride; the weather looks nearly perfect.  

ButtliteX: Among the MS5000. An update

 

Update 1.  Where the Buttlite X should have been

To Donate :  https://www.longhaulpaul.com/ms5000/ms5000-donations/
Spotwalla is active [here]:

This week and part of next should have been where the Buttlite X was.  I knew it was an easy pad to get to the 5000 miles as it was 1000 out, 1000 back and 7000 in between.  But COVID, like a lot of other events, left us hanging.    I hate this year.  One of the funniest things I've seen posted recently was "Dear 2020: First off, I'm letting you know I'm typing this with my middle fingers."

So, with the leave approved from work and no rally, I decided to go visit my sister and her husband in Maine.  They bought a winery this past winter; talk about awesome timing.  I grabbed my Buttlite X rally flag and went riding.

Where Live From Daryl's House is taped.  Apparently has some good food too.

There's Daryl

Somewhere along VT-9, I picked up this beauty.  My little compressor did the job; took 20 minutes to fill the tire, but it worked.

I stopped in Lancaster, NH home of the Eastern Snowmobile Museum and Hall of Fame

When in southwest Maine, one must stop in Lynchville

and have a lobster roll at Young's in Belfast with Paul Pelland, MS5000 ride creator.

Lobsters

Belfast Harbor

Quick visit with my Aunt Karen at the Happytown Farm

With the destination of Catherine Hill Winery near Cherryfield.

The property has a small cemetery on it where several veterans are buried.

B, being herself, trying not to bark at me.

The view from under the oak trees.

Their Cabernet Franc plus a view of their show off vines

Dinner, a Maine boil with lobstahs from Chipman's

 The ride home was uneventful, cold start, but uneventful.  Total mileage so far: 

 

MS5000 begins

And we're off.....

To Donate :  https://www.longhaulpaul.com/ms5000/ms5000-donations/
Spotwalla is active [here]:

Starting Odometer 1 September:   67793

Finished third overall with 22,500+ points.  thank you for your support

The Rally Quilt

 

ANNOUNCING: THE RALLY QUILT

$5 chances with all of the proceeds going to Johns Hopkins Childrens' Center.  For those who don't know, we have been quilting together for about a decade or so.  Tried our hands at custom Christmas stockings but the market couldnt support what we needed to charge just to break even.

Several Mason Dixon rallies ago, there was a bonus for the riders to purchase a "fat quarter" from any fabric shop.    This is the result.

Suitable for a Queen sized bed

Close up of a quilt block- all blocks are labeled

The backing and edge binding

$5 per chance- PayPal only.
shipped to US addresses only, sorry. 
All proceeds go to the Johns Hopkins Childrens' Center

Click the quilt to purchase tickets.

MS5000- 2020 Edition

Soon September will be upon us and the annual Multiple Sclerosis 5000 will be under way.  Our dear friend Paul Pelland [www.longhaulpaul.com] was told the cure for MS was a million miles away after his diagnosis.  He thought he would just go get it then since it's only a million miles.

Every fall, he hosts the MS5000 fund raiser.  Participants are expected to ride 5000 miles or more in 50 days; for the endurance riding crowd that's about a week of easy riding.  But that's not the point; the riders are raising money for MS, through Paul's charity.  MS is a cruel disease; it robs people of their bodies as they are in the prime of their lives.  My aunt died from the complications of MS.

To do your part to help support my ride, go to :

https://www.longhaulpaul.com/ms5000/ms5000-donations/

and select me from the "sponsor a rider" drop down; every dollar counts and will be matched dollar for dollar by me up to $1,000 total.

check back to the blog for updates as I am hoping to make brief, weekly progress tracking on my miles.

Brau Haus Lunch Run

As we rapidly the delayed start of the last Buttlite, Buttlite X, I needed to get some miles in practice rally style fuel stops as well as get into the all important rhythm of riding for longish stretches at a time.   I was also trying to get used to wearing a neck gaiter/ face mask that i could pull up as needed for retail encounters.  SPF50 it promised; only the sun will tell that tale.

Sadly, I failed to check my Spot batteries before I left and wound up buying new ones on the road near La Vale, MD at Sheetz prices.  Another stupid tax.  There was some significant rain during the ride out and i got soaked to the skin between checking in to my motel in Parkersburg and a restaurant a mile away.

https://www.facebook.com/The-Brau-Haus-125985827483957/

Good group of folks gathered at the Brau Haus; i had my lunch, bid my farewell worked my way back up to I-70 via some backroads and hammered to our Estate for the night.  Up well before dawn, the ride home was uneventful.

Then the news dropped that the Buttlite, Number X, the last one, was cancelled.     Arguably the hardest rally i have ever ridden in is the Buttlite, also had the most fun too.

This Covid shit sucks.

At least there is the MS5000 starting September 1.  

The end of an Era

 Today was supposed to be the opening banquet for the last Mason Dixon 20-20 Endurance Rally.  It would have been the 21st time we have hosted this and we were planning to go out with a bang.  Awesome banquet was planned with a local smoker supplying everything but the shrimps- we're talking surf and turf plus a couple of set ups of grilled, smoked cauliflower for our vegetarian riders.

dammit, everything was planned out- everything.  stupid virus.

damn

oh lookee, the Void Rally said we can combine forces in the fall.......  things are looking up.