Sometime in the winter of 2000 I decided I wanted to try a Saddle Sore 1000. I'm not exactly sure why, maybe it has something to do with not being able to play any of the sports I liked at a level even resembling what I could 20 years ago, middle age crisis here I come. When I announced I wanted to do this PJ decided she wanted to come too, is a middle age crisis contagious, I'll have to find out. Anyway, I planned a route that would start in Watertown, SD (right on the interstate and close to our home), travel 142 miles north to Fargo, ND 371 miles west to US 85,  178 miles south to Rapid City, SD then finally 348 miles to Sioux Falls, SD for a total of 1039 miles according to Rand McNally's TripMaker.

Like most of our plans, this too has changed. This year Team Strange is making an attempt to bring the Group Saddlesore 1000 world record (currently held by the Cognoscente Group) to Minnesota.  Anyway, to make a long story short, I thought to myself, "self, why don't you run this one and get credit for another TeamStrange event and an Ironbutt Association certificate at the same time." So here we go, June 23-24 PJ and I will be running our first SS1000 and hopefully help bring the Group Saddlesore 1000 record to Minnesota.

There are mandatory checkpoints that everyone needs to complete and some of them are available before the actual rally starts.  These consist of visiting 6 of the events sponsors and purchasing a receipt from them for a few bucks to help defray the cost of putting on the rally.  The trip to the Twin towns was uneventful, but once there the traffic picked up a lot and made navigating these streets & highways a challenge, especially since we were trying to find some cycle shops in some pretty obscure places.   Anyway, we got 5 of them then went to the mileage check and would pickup the last one at the banquet at the end of the mileage check.  Good plan, found the food and forgot to get the receipt.  We'll have to pick it up the following morning.

Start: Before going to Bob's Java Hut for the start we pickup our last mandatory receipt at the banquet location from the night before.  At 10:00 AM Saturday we left Bob's Java Hut in Minneapolis for the first stop at Ma's Cycle Shop in Fargo, ND. On the way to Ma's we stopped for gas and a quick bite to eat in Sauk Centre, MN.  While there we talked with a man riding an old Triumph chopper in the rally (later I found out his name is Keith Efron), fortunately for me he had a good sized tool kit and borrowed me a wrench to tighten a footboard. The ride to Fargo was pretty uneventful, except for the instructions giving the wrong exit number. I figured the instructions would have us in Jamestown, ND or thereabouts before turning so we just looked for the street name and made it to Ma's Cycle Shop in good shape.

1st Checkpoint: After some refreshments at Ma's we headed for our next checkpoint at Aberdeen, SD. On the way to Aberdeen I saw more pheasants than I've ever seen before and almost hit a few. After one near miss I thought that maybe points should be given for bringing back your own roadkill, lots of points for a skunk. The weird things a person can think about can be scary. I should've wrote this account a couple days earlier because the route is a little foggy after a couple days. Anyway, we got to Aberdeen, got our gas receipt, had supper at Hardee's and mapped out the route to the next checkpoint in Miller, SD.

2nd Checkpoint: The gas station attendant at the only station I saw open in Miller had no idea so many bikes would be stopping that day. She was in very good spirits and apparently appreciated the extra sales that approx. 140 motorcyclists added that day.

3rd Checkpoint: The next checkpoint was to find out what Capt. Lewis (of the Lewis & Clark expedition) killed near the rest stop in Chamberlain, SD. I hoped to get there by dark as I'd rather ride the interstate in the dark than some of the secondary roads we had been traveling on. After a "brisk" ride following some long distance hardcores, we got there shortly after 10:00 PM, found out what Lewis killed, rested, drank a bunch of water and headed off again. 

4th Checkpoint: Blue Earth, MN was next and is about 280 miles from Chamberlain. Just east of Chamberlain, near the Pukwana exit we descended into the "Valley of the Bugs", the bike and the 2 of us got plastered with bugs. I never did figure out why that one place was so full of bugs.

I figured we could make it to Mitchell, SD for our next gas fill, but the trip from Miller was a little hard on our mileage, (I was keeping pace with some BMW riders), so we stopped in Plankinton, SD to gas up again, get the fuel log current and eat a snack. I now know why some in the rally carry extra fuel, if you do 80 mph your mileage might suffer. In Blue Earth we got gas and rested with a number of other riders then headed north on hwy 169 for the Twin Cities.

PJ hadn't eaten much in the last 24 hours and was starving by the time we made it to Mankato, so we stopped at the Perkins by hwy 169 and got breakfast and lots of coffee.  

Finish: The first time I felt tired on the whole trip was when we got back to the Twin Cities with only 20 miles to go, at this point I got a case of the uncontrollable yawns. We made it to the finish at Trackstar Motorsports at 6:18 AM, dropped off our paperwork and went to a friends house to sleep. We went back to Trackstar for the catered lunch, but there was no caterer there, being a diabetic I couldn't wait to see what would happen so we walked down the street to Arbys and ate. On the walk back from Arbys the caterer was pulling in, at this point we were exhausted and decided to go back to our friends where we slept the rest of the afternoon.

Finish

Observations:

1. The event is appropriately named.
2. Even the best planned events can have mistakes, ie the wrong exit number in Fargo, so keep thinking.
3. Stopping for a little rest and food can keep you going quite awhile and keep you moving efficiently and safely.
4. Drink lots of water and cover up as the sun and wind can really dehydrate a person.

Below is the actual route of the Minnesota 1000 Group Saddlesore, or at least the best I could remember it 2 weeks later.

Last updated:  09/07/2001