Voni and Paul Glaves
Summer - 2009
                        (page 6)

Westward Ho, Spokane or Bust

The rain that plagued the Iron Butt Rally riders as they left St. Charles plagued us too.  We were going to Melanie's in Ankeny, Iowa to visit a bit and play with Grandson's Noah and Brody before riding on to Spokane.  It rained lightly all the way to the Iowa state line, and then it started pouring down rain.  We don't often abort a trip to see grandchildren but after spending an hour or so in a rest area waiting for it to let up we perused the bargain coupon books for motels and picked one out about 25 miles away.  We stopped in West Branch, the home of the Herbert Hoover Boyhood Home and Presidential Library, not that we cared at that point, and telephoned Melanie, and called it a day.

We got up early the next morning and rode the 150 or so miles to Ankeny - better late than never.  Not far from West Branch we were slowed as we passed a site where wreckers were working to extract an overturned semi that had gone off, or been blown off the road the night before.  We were glad we quit when we did.

We spent some time with Melanie, Noah and Brody and then it was time to get busy.



Noah helped Grandpa change oil in the bikes.
 Then went for a ride with "Gandamere"

We didn't waste a lot of time through Iowa and Nebraska.  We camped at Howard, SD and then at Belle Fourche, SD before entering Montana.


We had to stop while these "cowboys" herded
cattle across the road using four-wheelers.
 Their horses apparently had the
day off and had gone to town.


We stopped for the night at the City Park in Laurel, Montana.  There was a brief shower, and then this magnificent rainbow.  The park's metal shop building didn't help the photograph, but the rainbow sure did.
We camped the following night at Lolo Creek Campground in the Lolo National Forest.  We found enough wood to have a nice fire.  Shortly after going to bed we heard a real ruckus.  Some guy drove in and aimed his headlights into his camp site so he could set up his tent, accompanied by the clanging of his idling mini van.  Next we heard his chainsaw as he proceeded to cut up fire wood.  This, at about midnight.  The campground host and Park Ranger were seen conversing with him the next morning as we left.

By now, Voni's bike needed a rear tire.  We stopped at Mac's, the BMW dealership in Clarkston, Washington.  They didn't have any tires to fit her bike.  We camped across the river at Hells Gate State Park near Lewiston, Idaho and then rode north to Beaudry Motor Sports in Post Falls.  They had a tire.  Paul removed the wheel so the shop could mount the tire.
From Post Falls it is only a short ride over to Spokane, and the Red Lion Inn for the finish of the Iron Butt Rally.  We got settled in.  The scorer's meeting was held in the wee hours of the morning.  Voni went out side to greet the incoming riders as they arrived.  Voni took this picture - that is not her in the black jacket (she doesn't have a black jacket) greeting this rider.

Meanwhile, Paul reported for duty in the Scoring Room.  It takes from 20 to 30 minutes to score each of the riders correctly, unless it takes longer.  Here Bill Shaw and Dave McQueeney check rider's information before sending them off to be scored.


Voni catches Jeff Earls and Jim Owen unpacking
their stuff before heading to the scoring room
 Paul was on a break from scoring and congratulated
Jim Owen on his successful ride.  When scoring was
complete, Jim was the winner, Jeff came in 2nd place.

At the end of the grand banquet, the top ten finishers of the rally posed for a group picture.


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