For leg two I planned an aggressive route as I took a conservative approach in leg one. My planned route was in trouble before I even left the checkpoint. I took too long getting ready after I finished my route planning. I rolled out of the checkpoint an hour later than I planned. I headed west to pick up some high point bonuses in Iowa and then I would turn south and start working my way to Shane Smith’s house for another high point bonus. With my late start I could only get 1 of the high point bonuses as the second one was a timed bonus and I was too late to even take a shot at it.

Bonus Requirement: Obtain a stew card.

I rode north west to the Hobo museum in Iowa and picked up my first bonus of leg 2. The museum was closed and a few of us called Lisa to ask how best to score the bonus since we could not go inside and obtain a stew card. Lisa said to take photos of the building and the sign that said it was closed.

Bonus Requirement: Take a photo of the exterior of the visitor's center.

I headed south and my route had me following the Mississippi river for quite a ways. It was raining like hell with a lot of flooding along my route. I meet up with a few other riders along the way including Richard Buber and we rode together for a ways through 6” + water on the roads. I rode in the heavy rain for about 7 hours and this put me even farther behind. We rode together to the next bonus which was the Nauvoo Visitor's Center. If you look at the bonus photo below you can see the rain drops.

Bonus Requirement: Take a photo of the "Lorraine Motel" sign.

From Grass Roots BMW I headed for the next bonus which was the Lorraine Hotel. I arrived and found the bonus quickly as it was still early and there was not much traffic in the area. I was able to park right next to the bonus and took my photo to score the bonus. I quickly got back on the road and headed for University of Mississippi for the sculpture of James Meredith. The sculpture was inside the campus and it was the first week of classes. Traffic around the university was crazy and once on campus the foot traffic was even heavier. I finally found the sculpture and took the required photo with my motorcycle in the photo. 

Bonus Requirement: Take a photo of the front of the house from the street.

I finally got out of the traffic around the university and made my way to Elvis Presley’s house in Tupelo, MS. It was a short easy ride and traffic was lite. I was able to get a good photo quickly and get back on the road headed for a Holiday Inn Express in West Point, MS.

Bonus Requirement: Take a photo of the exterior of Medgar Evers' home (now a museum).

From there it was on to Medgar Evers Museum which was a daylight only bonus in Jackson, MS. There was a little traffic headed into town as this is the state capital for Mississippi. I found the bonus and took the required photo. This was my last bonus before heading to Shane Smith’s house which was a high point bonus.

Bonus Requirement: Take a photo of the sign identifying the building as Nyla's Burger Basket.

I arrived at Shane’s house 5:50 PM and spent about 1 and a half hours there. You had to stay at least one hour to score the bonus. Shane had a great setup with a supporting crew and lots of food and goodies for the IBR riders. I did a little maintenance on the wing and gave it a good once over to be sure everything was okay. Thank you Shane! I had had a good day and scored a lot of bonuses.

I left Shane’s house headed for the next bonus ( Nyla's Burger Basket  ) which was only a few miles away. It was also was a nice high point bonus with 3647 points. I was surprised and happy to have two high point bonuses so close to each other that were both easy to score.

Bonus Requirement: Take a photo of the statue of Huey Long in the garden in front of the capitol building.

The next bonus was the Statue of Huey Long in Baton Rouge, LA. It was an 84 mile ride to the bonus and it was short ride. The bonus was at the state capital building down along the Mississippi river. The streets leading to the bonus were pretty dark and it was hard to see. When I arrived at the bonus I saw two other riders there ( Jim Owen and Andy Kirby ) who were looking for the statue. We finally found the right one and got our required photos to score the bonus.

I followed Jim out of the area until he stopped for gas and I headed for south Texas to a Citgo gas station and a 4511 point timed bonus near Penitas, TX with 5 planned bonus stops along the way. This was a go big or go home bonus and if you know me that what’s I do. J The bonus window was 6:00 AM to 11:00PM which is a large window. It was a 485 mile ride to the Citgo gas station and I was already damn tired.

Well, when I got to the Texas state line it was already 11:15 PM and I was tired as I had only had 6 hours of sleep over the past three and a half days and it was starting to catch up with me. I decided to get a hotel along I-10 and get a few hours of sleep and get back at it in the morning. About 10 minutes after midnight I found a hotel near Winnie, TX and checked in. I took a good shower and hit the bed and went to sleep. I purposely did not set an alarm as I normally wake up pretty easily even when I am tired and if I did not wake up in a few hours that meant I really needed the sleep. Well six and a half hours later I jumped out of bed and knew I was screwed right away. I had slept passed the buffer hours I had in my planned route and no way was I going to make it to south Texas and get back to the checkpoint on time. I could still make the bonus during the window but I would have to drop most of my bonuses after that. I got out the laptop and looked over my options and found I really did not have that many as I had committed to the southern route and I was behind in my schedule.

My options were to head for central Texas and pick up 4 low point bonuses or stay on my planned route and drop the 4511 point bonus along with 2 low point bonuses in south Texas. It took me a while to process the information but I decided to stay the course and head for the bonus after Citgo which was the Judge Roy Bean Museum and then the drinking donkey in Terlingua, TX. I finally got back on the road at 8:45 AM and was stopped for almost 9 hours. That is way too long if you are looking to do well in the IBR.

Because of everything that had happened from the end of leg one ( late getting scored, late start from the checkpoint, heavy rain, over sleeping ) I had to drop 4 bonuses totaling 7,748 points from my originally planned route which meant I was going to have a bad leg 2 and would have to try and make up for it in leg 3.

I headed west on I-10 and picked up US 90 west of San Antonio. It was a 470 mile long slow hot boring ride to Langtry, TX where the Judge Roy Bean Museum is. The only highlight was a conversation I had with a Texas State Trooper in one of the small towns on US 90. On US 90 the speed limit is 65 MPH except when you enter the small towns where it drops to 40 MPH. In almost every town there was a Texas State Trooper near the city limits sign where the speed limit drops to 40 MPH. I had been slowing down for all of the towns just to be safe. Entering one of the small towns I guess I was not slowing down fast enough and there was a Texas State Trooper. As I was passing him he turned on his lights and I looked down and I was going 48 MPH. I pulled off the road in front of him as he did not even have to take it out of park. He came up to me and said I was going a little fast. He asked a lot of questions about the bike and where I was headed. I finally said to him you are not going to give me a ticket are you, as I was not going that fast. He looked at me for a few seconds trying to decide if he was going to put me in jail for my comment or let me go. He finally said ok, I am going to give you a warning.

My Planned Route

My Actual Route

Bonus Requirement: Take a photo of the sign in front of the building that identifies it as the Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center.

Back on the road things started looking up and I finally made it to the Judge Roy Bean Museum. This bonus is in the middle of nowhere and took a long time to get to. I bagged the bonus and headed for Terlingua, TX.

Bonus Requirement: Take a photo of the stuffed remains of Clay Henry
who resides inside the Trading Company.

Terlingua was one of those bonuses I do not usually go to as it was an out and back route to the bonus. It was 75 mile ride off the highway and back on the same road. It was already as 7:30 PM as I headed south on Texas 118 off of US 90 and it was a 150 mile round trip back to US 90. On the way to the bonus I passed Jim headed back up to US 90.

I bagged the drinking donkey and quickly started my ride back to US 90. It was getting dark and I knew there were a lot of animals in this area so I had to keep my speed in a sane range but not to sane.

Bonus Requirement: Take a photo of the official scenic historical marker
in the park that is entitled Pancho Villa‘s Raid.

I made it back to US 90 and headed west to the Pancho Villa State Park bonus. US 90 merged with I-10 in Van Horn, TX and I rode that until I passed El Paso. Just before crossing into New Mexico I took highway 178 and crossed into New Mexico. This road turned into a small road running along the border with Mexico and it was a wild ride that night riding along the border. It was after 1:00 AM and damn dark along this road. I saw a lot of Border Patrols hidden along the road with towers mounted in the back of their trucks looking for illegals crossing the border. I eventually rain into Roger Sinclair and we rode pretty hard to the next two bonuses which were Pancho Villa State Park and the Geronimo Memorial. We were both running low on fuel and we had to take a detour up to I-10 to get some gas and we were tired. We headed for a truck stop in Lordsburg, NM where we decided to try and get some rest there in the McDonalds. After about an hour and a half we got back on the road headed for the Geronimo memorial.

Bonus Requirement: Take a photo of the "Welcome to Bombay Beach" sign at the junction of CA-111 and A St.

To get to the Bombay Beach bonus I had to take a road off of I-10 that eventually ran alongside the Salton Sea. The road to Bombay Beach was in bad shape and had dips that would make a car disappear in front of you before it came back up out of the dip. It was a little scary. There was not much traffic and I was able to make pretty good time until I got to where the dips were. I took a fast photo and mounted up and headed for the checkpoint. It was an interesting place that someday I may check out when I have more time.

After scoring the Bombay Beach bonus I headed for the checkpoint. It was damn hot and windy crossing the desert. I had to make an extra gas stop as my MPG's dropped considerably fighting the wind. There was a fire north of LA that also had a lot of smoke in the air.

I made it to the check point 2 hours before the window closed and parked in the garage grabbed my stuff and went in to the check in table to stop the clock.