Matt Placed 17th in the 2007 Iron Butt Rally

Paul and I did essentially the same thing for a day or two. His blog is in audio form and you gett the emotion and tone of his voice during the rally. One’s mood really does ebb and flow throughout the 11 days. Plus his method allows him to post to the Internet while’s riding with a cell phone.

Significant parts of his rally (the Death Valley/Bristlecone/Scotty’s Castle) were the same day I ran. In fact, Paul and I rode with each other parts of that day.

Good job Paul. Huge props for sharing the experience to others.

Banquet’s over and some have already seen the official results. I placed 17th…which exceeds my wildest expectations. Huge props to my first leg riding partner, Doug Chapman, for leading this rookie through the first leg and getting started on the second.

I had hoped to just finish this thing….as there was a 25% wash-out rate and even long-time veteran riders agreed ‘07 was the hardest rally ever. So, I’m revelling in a to 20 finish, getting a bit drunk….and will get up to drive back with Dad and the bike in back of the truck. We’ll probably take 2 or 3 days to get back.

I’ll also try and use some of that time to detail the ride more extensively than I could while on the ride. Somehow, I think my literary skills….like remembering certain words….will be much better after having gotten a full night’s sleep.

Signing out from St. Louis

Matt Watkins - 2007 Iron Butt Rally Finisher

I made it back safely and just finished scoring. Don’t know final standings, but think I moved up from #43.

Will write after I drink a beer and take a shower.

The rally rocked!!!!

———————–

3 Hours Later

….well I haven’t showered yet…..I’m sitting here in my own BO yapping with George Zelenz.

However, I feel like I need to say something profound…or at least pithy. Not sure this counts, but here’s a try:

On Day 8 after I had gone to Lick Observatory I was spending the afternoon in San Francisco. I had never driven or ridding in SF before, and as I went over the Bay Bridge I caught my first view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pretty enough with a bit of low big in the warm, sunny day……..but out of nowhere I started bawling like a baby.

I had just gotten the rally. I had just learned what the Rallymaster intended as a theme. Yes, there was the omni-present Americana kitch, but this other meaning was much deeper and more profound. Mind you, having an epiphany on a major freeway and nominal speeds with tearing up eyes isn’t the best place to do this. So, I moved over to the right several lanes, slowed down a bit, and tried to take it in.

The start of the rally involved 90 or so folks rushing to the St. Louis Arch as a first bonus. Symbolic, absolutely for the beginning, but singular.

Then within several days the majority of riders went to Perce Rock in Canada on the Atlantic. It’s actually an arch rock, but I didn’t get it at that point.

The Golden Gate is full of architectural arches and is the gateway to the West from the Pacific. In the course of 8 days it all struck me in those few seconds. We North Americans have it incredibly well. We have a land mass of incredible geologic and climatologic variety. The heat of Death Valley to near freezing mountains of August in Colorado. The azure quality of the Atlantic and deep green of the Pacific.

We also have people with mixed a wide range of languages and culture. We have French-Canadians deep in New Brunswick that identify more with France than English. We have the Navajo in the Southeast U.S. that really should have a dotted line as a truly sovereign nation within a nation. We have hippies in California ,Volvo yuppies in the mountains of New Hampshire, and Bible thumping midwesterners in Kansas.

We truly are diverse.

And, at the same time one can point a motorcycle in any one of the cardinal compass directions and go that way nearly unfettered. Showing a drivers license still gets you to Canada and back with no cavity search and a friendly smile from both sides of the border.

And after the few days of picking a direction you can pick anothe direction and do it yet again and not see all this continent has to offer.

I’m proud to be a North American.