Winter had barely set in and I wasn't really thinking much about next years riding season. Sure, I had my list of things I wanted to do before spring but there's no hurry. Besides, if I didn't finish them I'd take care of them during the riding year. That seems to be the way I plan my bike updates the past few year. Last year I think I got the driving lights that I SWORE I was going to mount during winter finally mounted in June.

Then, in the midst of me trying to figure out when the heck I'm going to start my Christmas shopping between a busy work and school schedule it happened. The gang over at Team Strange announces that they are going to be holding another ButtLite. This installment, the ButtLite IV, would be held so that the ending of it would be just a few days before the IBA's National Meet in Denver. I think I let out a yell of excitement that startled the neighbors.

Now, even though I had some IBA certified rides under my belt I'd never even considered riding in the prior ButtLite. I'd heard plenty about them but my rides in 2000, 2001, and 2002 had pretty much been group rides where all the planning and routing was done by either Team Strange or the MNLDR gang. Sure I did the miles but planning a route, ummm not-so-much. Because of that I've just lived vicariously through others stories of this crazy event.
 Have my routing & rallying skills improved enough to take part in this years shenanigans? Well, the jury is still out on that considering the fact that I lost out on two key boni on my route during this years Minnesota 1000 because of reading comprehension.

Am I going to let that stop me? Hell no!! These folks are great rally planners and the people that participate in them are just as much fun. This time I plan on being part of some of the stories that get told for years to come. HOPEFULLY I won't be the one they are talking about that DNF'd because of this or went to Gallina Ill when he should have gone to Gallina NM but hey, anything’s possible..

They were capping the participants at 75 and I think 5 had already committed between the time I saw it and had a chance to get my check in the mail that Friday. If I went to their website once that weekend I went 1,000 to see how fast it was filling up and kicking myself for not taking the PayPal option. Lucky for me it didn't fill as fast as I had feared and I let out a sigh of relief when I saw my name on the Rider List. Oh wait, I suppose I should check and see if work will give me off . Lucky for me they did..

Of course this means that cabin fever set in right away and it was only December. There will be no putting off getting the bike ready for the riding season this year. It's time get get planning and see what I can do to improve my rally skills while there is snow on the ground.

I'll be updating my progress here for anyone interested. It may be good for a laugh every now and then so check back and see how things are progressing.

Chow,
Tony