Ken Meese

Just found the Leg 2 Checkpoint photos and some of Ken!

Photo 1

Photo 2

What I love about all the photos is how everyone’s smiling. This is a crazy, gruelling event, and riders are tired, but they’re all having a hell of a good time.  🙂

Some riders shifted up a few places, some riders shifted down, but Ken stayed solidly in 6th place. Wooh!

The last couple of updates at the official site have been interesting. Two riders did both the Pony Express route and Pike’s Peak, which was a hell of a feat. My heart goes out to Eric Jewell, who was in first place as of the end of Leg 2 but then injured his ankle. It was his 8th Iron Butt Rally and if I weren’t rooting for Ken…. Actually, there are a lot of great riders and really neat people who are competing, and I’m rooting for all of them to do well, be safe, have fun, and come in second.  😉

We’re in the final stretch! End point is back in Pittsburgh on Friday morning. We’ll know the results Friday night during the banquet…. And I’ve got at least one good Leg 3 story to share once it’s over.

Once again, not a lot of news just yet, but I’m thrilled that Ken made it to the Leg 2 checkpoint just fine this evening. He texted me when he was prepping to be scored; I haven’t heard anything since, which I interpret to mean he got scored, got something to eat, and went to sleep so that he’ll be alert for the Leg 3 bonus pack.

Leg 2 apparently had three possible routes (discussed in the official IBR reports, so I think I can paraphrase here):

• getting a bunch of bonuses along the Pony Express Trail (each one had points, and then if you got all of them, you got even more points)
• going up Pike’s Peak and getting a picture of the train
• going pretty much straight to Sacramento, which would give enough points to finish, but not to win

Ken chose the Pike’s Peak option, although he picked up some of the Pony Express bonuses along the way. I have to admit I don’t really have any stories from this leg, because it mostly consisted of riding across the country in a very focused line. I can say he didn’t visit any family members, though.  😉

I just wish I knew when they’re going to post the Leg 2 scores! I will of course update here when they do.

Now that Leg 1 is over, I can finally talk about it a little bit!

I spoke to Ken several times today, and got to hear his perpective on the first leg of the rally. He was really happy with the route planning he did, and acknowledges that he made a few mistakes that cost him points. He’s not the type to kick himself for mistakes, though, and hey, it’s only the first leg. (In 2009, he was much farther down the list at this point, and still ended up coming in 9th!)

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned, but the theme of this year’s rally is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and, apparently, steamboats and funiculars). I’m not quite clear on why he ended up in a cemetery, but it was a big one, and a helpful staff member in the office gave him a map and showed him where the grave he was looking for was located. Ken said another rider was arriving at the same time so he flagged that rider to follow him. This is one of the things I really appreciate and respect about the rallies: It’s a competition and the top riders are focused, but they all still help each other out.

Ken also told me to thank our trainer, because at one point he had to run from one end of a museum to the other.  🙂

The first day of the rally, his auxiliary fuel tank stopped working. He figured out the problem and it wasn’t a difficult fix, but he was looking at pulling into a motel and fixing it in the parking lot before catching some sleep. The middle-of-the-night parking lot.

He was in central Michigan at this point, and he pulled onto a highway…that started to look familiar. “Hold on,” he said, and did a quick check.

Yup. His uncle lived on that very highway!

So he called his uncle and aunt, and was able to fix the fuel cell in their (better lit than a parking lot) garage, eat a sandwich provided by his aunt, and catch a nap before heading back out.

He also rode reasonably close to my mom’s house, but on the wrong side of Lake Champlain. So he couldn’t use her condo as a motel.  😉

The next checkpoint is in Sacramento, and I think I’m allowed to say that he’s already headed west…as is every other rider. He’s still in great spirits, focused but also having fun.

Here are some pictures from the Pittsburgh checkpoint: picture one, picture two. I’ve told him that he’s not allowed to cut his hair again for two years.  ;-P

Ken just texted me that he’s in 6th place, and that the top 10 were all very close.   *\o/*

Here are the official results.

I’m sure it’s as frustrating to those of you reading this as it is to me that I can’t say much about Ken’s ride. I can’t talk about where he is, where he’s been, or where he’s going…at least, not until the first leg is done, at which point I can talk about where he went, at least! So today Ken made a point of telling me a little funny story so I have something to share with ya’ll.

Initially, he turned off all Avoidances on his GPS. In other words, he told it not to factor in things like left turns, etc., which can sometimes cause a more circuitous and lengthy route. But in doing so, one of the Avoidances he turned off was “no dirt roads.” He’s had problems with dirt roads (and mountain tracks only goat should be on) in the past… In this case, the GPS twice sent him down a shortcut that turned out to be a dirt country road.

Thankfully, neither ended up being so mule-track-like that they caused any problems. But just in case, he turned on “avoid dirt roads.”

Just in time to arrive in a city, where there wouldn’t be dirt roads anyway.

Except…he promptly hit road construction. Construction so major they’d removed all pavement…in essence, to a dirt road. For five miles.

Since it wasn’t a shortcut, he had to take it anyway, and it didn’t affect his overall plans. But he laughed at the irony of it.

The first checkpoint is back in Pittsburgh tomorrow, so I’m sure I’ll have something interesting to say then!

Also, the Day 3 official report has been posted to the IBR site. Enjoy.

Ken’s briefly mentioned in the Day 2 update.  🙂

His spirits were even better today, thanks to the fact that it wasn’t pouring rain. I have to admit, I’m looking forward to him getting to the first checkpoint (which is back in Pittsburgh on Thursday) so I can talk about what he’s done! (Each leg has different bonus locations, so at the end of each one I can talk about his route so far.) Some fun stories already.

The 2013 Iron Butt Rally started today!

I texted Ken last night to say hi, not sure if he’d already gone to bed or not. He texted back, “Planning is hard.” My response: “Oh, you love it, you weirdo.”  😉  Because he really does.

I’ve talked to him twice today and he’s in great spirits, despite the rain. A number of the bonuses involve going to museums and finding things, which he says is fun.

If you want to see the riders taking off, watch this video. Ken leaves at 3:15, from the right—you don’t see him parked, but he comes into view and then turns away from the camera. He’s got a black helmet, and you can see his blue water bottle behind his back rest.

I’ve also found a bunch of pictures here, but haven’t had time to go through all of them to find ones of Ken. If you do, please send me direct links!  🙂

Ken left today for Pittsburgh. Here are some amusing pictures to commemorate his start:

These would be the obligatory several-days-earlier bike-in-pieces photos.

Aaaand he’s off!