First off, what a difference a brake light bulb makes. After a quick trip to Wal-Mart and an 1157 bulb my cruise is now working wonderfully. I guess the module that I’m using to drive the extra LED lights pulls enough current to mask the failed bulb from the CanBus but not enough to cause an over current situation.
With the brake light issue sorted, I headed over to the Lodge @ CopperHead around 10:30 local time. Apparently I was the first rider to arrive. Somewhere in the correspondence I failed to read the mention that check-in would not start until 1pm. I chatted with a few of the staff members for a short time and then headed back to the hotel.
correction, my reading comprehension is just fine. Here’s a quote from the schedule of events email participants received.
The Lodge At Copperhead, Blairsville, GA
Wednesday, August 8
9:00am – 5:00pm EDT - Set-up, early registration, odometer checks and tech inspections
……
So Rex came by the room around noon and we walked next door to Zaxby’s for some lunch. Afterwards we headed over to the Lodge to start the check-in process and find out what we were in for.
This time when I got there it was clear I was in the right place as there were other rally bikes there. The paperwork verification was smooth. The tech inspection was surprisingly easy. When we got around to the fuel system I pointed out the GSA tank which he accepted as 8.7 gallons. He didn’t even check the filler neck to see if the rubber part was in there which affects overall capacity of the tank by almost 0.2 gallons. When we got to the aux tank he asked what the capacity was and I said 2.3 gallons. That was good enough for him. He added the numbers up and all was good with the world. I had sailed through tech inspection.
The odometer check turned out to be a scenic 131 mile ride which was optional. While it looks like a nice ride around the area, I opted to skip the ride and hang out around the lodge to talk with other riders. I believe that was time well spent as one of the riders I talked with was the ‘06 Butt Lite winner, Alex Schmitt on his ST 1100 with over 300,000 miles on it.
As the afternoon went on more and more riders showed up. I tried to help a fellow rider with his text file to Street Atlas conversion process. I’m not sure if I helped him or just confused him more. I introduced him to Ezbake but I couldn’t recall the exact steps I used when I tried Street Atlas myself (I did figure it out when I got back to the room and I’ll share my refreshed knowledge with him tomorrow if he’s interested.)
I ate dinner at the lodge and enjoyed a 40 Creek BBQ sauce hamburger. The sauce was pretty good. More visiting and story telling and then it was back to the room for the evening. I found out I could have stayed in my room at the lodge tonight if I had planned ahead and paid the room fee. But with no real Internet there I’m glad I’m staying another night at the Best Western in town.
Tomorrow I may or may not make a final post before the rally kicks off due to the very questionable internet service on site and timing. Once I get the rally packet tomorrow evening, it’s all about figuring out where to go for the most points while making the mid-west check point on time. Then I need to get some sleep which will likely be quite the challenge.
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House keeping note: The “Last Known Location” widget has been disabled in accordance with the rally rules. If you need the link to follow me on Spot contact Reagan for the details.
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