Rider #31/719

Rider #31/719
Location: World's Largest Teapot, Chester, West Virginia
Skywatcher's Memorial, Cairo, Indiana
Odometer: ?

From the saddle of rider 31/719 depending on which TS event is running:

When I got my "bonus" bonus package I suspected what it might be, but I decided not to tackle it until after the Minnesota 2010.

I first met Eddie at Jerry Clemmon's IBA BBQ, summer of 2000; well, that's what I thought at the time. I hardly knew anyone there but I kept hearing people say "Eddie James is here. Maybe this is a bonus for the Minn2000 after all." Vainly, I searched out Eddie. See, the original Minnesota 20x0 was in 2000, concurrent to Jerry's BBQ and I was being mistaken for Eddie James. I finally met Eddie that October and I could see why people thought so in June. The Minnesota 2010 was named so that "in 10 years it'd be called the Minnesota 2020 and that's going to piss off Rick Miller. Isn't it great?"

Having only one sibling, a younger sister, Eddie was like the brother I never had. Even though I am older by a few years, he acted like the elder brother, with the teasing and taunting I had seen from my friends' older brothers. It was never in malice or mean spirited - he truly had a passion for life and I was happy to be part of that experience. I am proud to call him a friend and my brother.

After finishing the Minn2010, I opened my bonus bonus package, read the instructions and decided to make sure Eddie visited as many places as I could get him to. Riding east on I-90/80 the LD muse Urania struck me- the huge teapot in Chester. I then recalled the huge coffee pot in Bedford, also right along old US-30, but decided on just the Teapot. Urania also said "Go to Cairo." Cairo has to wait, it's tea time. The world's largest teapot sits along the Ohio River adjacent to Old US-30 in Chester, WV. Eddie loved big things, small things, odd things, good BBQ, and great roads. We share that passion.

Go to Cairo- it was the most fitting place after reading that Arlene had placed Eddie in the downtown Niobrara roadbed. The Cairo bonus is truly one of the most brilliant bonus locations I have ever been to or heard about. Here, in the middle of the corn and the wheat fields of the early 1950's, local families monitored the northern horizon in a desperate search for incoming Soviet Bombers. There is an official state historic marker, a fairly impressive monument and the remains of their observation platform. What strikes my sense of humor is the geography of the platform- Cairo is a few hours south-southeast of Chicago, or about 10 minutes by supersonic flight. This means, even if the Skywatchers saw something, Chicago was already gone and by the time their phone call was answered in Washington, the bombers would be over Indianapolis. Does that make me a sick person? Sure, but I live for irony like this. For those who remember "duck and cover" drills, you know how useless they were and how it was all to make us "feel better" about getting our asses blown away.

I first learned of Cairo during Buttlite II rally reports; some riders tried to find it in the dark with limited success. It was later used in other Team Strange events; I even used it during the MD2020 and the first BitE. I owed it to Eddie to make sure the Skywatchers aren't forgotten. On August 11, 2011, shortly after sun-up, I hoisted a Dr Pepper, bit into a gas station burrito, said this one's for you Rev and I scattered Eddie's ashes at the Skywatcher's Memorial in Cairo, IN. Wiping a few tears from my eyes, I packed up my burrito, drink and headed west to Denver. Intentionally, I failed to record my odometer reading on the bonus bonus sheet.

About an hour later, I hit an frost heave/expansion joint so hard that it caused both my speaker covers to fly off. I now realize that was Eddie slapping me on the back of my head, "You should have waited until the Minn2020, God Dammit." Thereby allowing Eddie to be an active part of an 11 year old joke.