2025 ADV Cannonball Rally Special - CREW SHOW!

A full two hours recapping the 2025 motorcycle rally! Audio from the field, original music, 2026 & 2027 announcements, and 2025 ADV motorcycle rally awards!

2025 Rally Page

Chapters

• 22:12 Aaron's rally field notes
• 58:31 Taylor's rally field notes
• 1:29:45 Rally music
• 1:31:39 Awards banquet
• 1:55:58 Rally music

Transcript

SPEAKER_07: 0:00

A special thanks to Snacks Moto and our Patreon supporters.

SPEAKER_11: 0:05

Welcome to the ABV Cannonball Podcast. Where we discuss all things on two wheels: the adventure bike cannonball and other motorcycle-related nonsense.

SPEAKER_16: 0:27

Season four, episode one. Welcome to Adventure Cannonball Podcast. I'm your host, Taylor Lawson, and today I am joined by a very successful seasoned rally organizer, better known to you all as Aaron Puffall. Welcome. Welcome, sir, and I'm gonna beat you to it.

SPEAKER_07: 0:44

You ready? Oh, go, go, go, go. Oh, yeah. Congratulations. Oh, well done. A couple IPAs open. Cheers to you, sir. Swedish IPA. Congratulations. Well done. Great event. In respect to the first inaugural running of the ADV cannonball, I'm smashing a torpedo IPA.

SPEAKER_16: 1:08

I can't say I've got anything that fancy today. I've just got the basic Swedish OPGORDs uh IPA. Nothing fancy here.

SPEAKER_07: 1:17

Listen, the night is young. Who knows what will happen an hour from now?

SPEAKER_16: 1:22

Yeah, fair enough. But it is a 6.2%. So if I get any credit for that, you know, I'll take it. Fair enough. Fair enough. Hey, um, before we jump into the 2025 ADV cannonball recap, let me just let me say, before we jump into the 2025 US Cannonball recap, I want to ask if it's true that we, our little number two podcast, have we actually won yet another award?

SPEAKER_07: 1:47

Yeah, we've won the number two gold award, which is hilarious, from Marcon. And it's for the Linen Posket single episode gold award. Not the platinum award, but the gold award, but I'll take it.

SPEAKER_16: 2:02

Yeah, and the uh the Marcom stands for marketing and communications. So great job. Well done. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_07: 2:09

And I want to mention we are working on uh a bunch of episodes. Uh, number uh season four, episode two will be our recap of India. It'll include the do's and don'ts. It'll include our interview with our photographer who came down with uh AMS, Acute Mountain Sickness. Lots of good information there. And also uh my chat and visit with the Royal Mavericks Club in Delhi, who were super nice to me. And uh I'm looking forward to uh to talk with them. Other episodes coming up that we're working diligently on. We're going to chat with the Rally Master of the Scooter Cannonball. Uh, we're gonna get to him next month and get a recap on their cannonball, which was big and successful as usual. Uh, we also have the author Nick Adams is set to come on when as soon as I get back into the studio. And finally, we're working on the summer Al Can 5000 schedule uh from the car and ADV perspective, which is also on the books.

SPEAKER_16: 3:11

So, Aaron, question for you. Did you finally um get to log your iron butt association rides?

SPEAKER_07: 3:20

Well, I logged it and I kind of forgot about it. Uh, last year when I rode from Seattle all the way across to Dirt Days, there's this chunk in the middle, this this slab day that is just screaming for an iron butt challenge because there is nothing else to do. So I finally got uh that logged and I got the butt burner 1500 and the saddle sore 1000 logged. So uh uh I'm not just uh a masochistic guy running a rally. I actually uh put my money where my mouth is when I have time. Or in this case, your butt. Indeed, yes. It was quite a bit, but uh yeah, you know, everyone complained about, or you know, I wouldn't say complain, but everyone rude the long day, the 750-mile day. I'm like, dude, I did a 1500 mile in 36 hours. I did a thousand miles in 24 hours all in one shot. So uh I'm not just being masochistic. I also uh I'm also being sadistic.

SPEAKER_16: 4:21

So yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Good point. All right. Um, so congratulations on those. So you've got your uh your saddle saw 1000 and your bun burner 1500. So hats off to you for that, buddy.

SPEAKER_07: 4:35

Thank you.

SPEAKER_16: 4:36

Let's move into the 2025 ADV cannonball recap for the USA.

SPEAKER_07: 4:42

Yeah, we'll just uh go back and forth on this. We have a few notes here. So more than 30 riders finished. There were two uh DNFs by their own choice. And uh I just want to thank everyone for actually showing up. And uh hats off to everyone who actually finished the rally.

SPEAKER_16: 4:59

That's that's really cool, though. So out of all the people who showed up, only two. I mean, we had it we had several do not starts because you know the people sign up a year in advance and life happens. Um, but DNF, do not finish, only two. That's pretty good. Pretty good, pretty good numbers there.

SPEAKER_07: 5:14

Yeah, and they just uh they just whimped out essentially. So uh there wasn't any like you know catastrophic failure of any bikes, which is amazing. These bikes, these these ADV bikes, uh, you know, they're amazing. They just run. The guy with the DR650 number six, his bike blew up on the way to the rally. He was late starting, but he literally rebuilt his engine uh on his way to the rally, which was awesome. But once it was up and running, he had no issues. And uh he was a real badass for riding that that little bike and keeping up with the pack. It just goes to show that it's not about you know overall speeds and things like this. And uh it it just show up with whatever bike you have as long as you can do kind of highway speeds.

SPEAKER_16: 5:57

Yeah, and there was a huge array, there was a huge variety of bikes within there. So we had uh we had Harleys, we had uh an Indian, as you say, we had um a lot of a lot of BMWs. I think BMW GES is where the majority of the pack, would you say is fair?

SPEAKER_07: 6:12

Absolutely. Uh GSs, GSA's, there was 1200s, 1250s, 1300s. There was uh uh this guy in a Can M, which was just so cool. He he he climbed up this one uh optional checkpoint that I had no intention of anyone doing. But of course, Hunter and a few other crazy people uh attempted it and nailed it. And this guy just crawled up on his Can Am. It was just a great use case for that bike. One gentleman showed up on a CBX, which uh, because that was number 40, he lost his key for his 1200, grabbed his CBX, came to the start line uh on this old six-cylinder, uh, which was fantastic. And then the gentleman J with his bagger is because his ADV bike no longer worked. We had an RT, we had a bunch of Harleys. It was a it was every bike you can imagine showed up, and it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_16: 7:10

Yeah, that's cool. It's a good mix, really good mix of people uh and bikes, equipment. So, the um, where can the people find the final scoreboard?

SPEAKER_07: 7:19

Yeah, and just one more note about the people who showed up. There were guys there from their 30s all the way up into their 80s, and it wasn't all just a bunch of hotheads. I would say, you know, 90% of the guys that were there were just there for to experience the rally and were not there to, you know, cannonball. But I think people like to be in the mix uh with the cannonball and you know, hear all the silly things people get up to, you know, innocent fun. But uh the lion's share, especially the the older gentlemen, were just there for uh uh to be in the mix, I think is the best way to put it.

SPEAKER_16: 7:55

One of the things that I thought was great, and as you say, sort of being in the mix to define that a bit more, for me, as I would as I would uh put a finer point on being in the mix, it is being developing a camaraderie with the people. So, you know, um if you look at um Robert Baldinger's music, which was bespoke per each day, I think it's the last day, the last, the last um the day's music to the theme of Top Gun is that people start off as competitors and then end up as friends, like brothers, comrades from having having um yeah, having done this event together. So anyway, I thought it was really nice. Just the camaraderie that were there was amazing.

SPEAKER_07: 8:34

Yeah, for sure. And to answer your question, the scoreboard is on the ADV Cannibal website, and I've kind of memorialized the 2025 rally page with photos, the final uh awards awarded, uh, you know, the photographs, and eventually it will have Robert Bollinger's movie on there. Perhaps, Taylor, you could obviously you're better order than I am. Perhaps you could read the finishers' names if that's possible.

SPEAKER_16: 9:05

It is entirely possible. Okay. Starting with the overall winner, Hunter A, number 43. Number 41, Captain Chaos. He won the Rough Rider Award and a set of steak knives. Uh that was great. In your actually, in your in your uh in your field notes, you said people not even winning stake knives. And then in the end, you pwn it up and you got them some stake knives.

SPEAKER_07: 9:31

Amazon Prime, baby.

SPEAKER_16: 9:35

Number uh, number two, uh, rider number two, uh Jake Tomey, crush point checkpoint crusher. Number six, Sean Ross, Rough Rider Award. Number 39, Josh Skidmore. I love that name. Uh Rough Rider Award, Lou Halsey, checkpoint crusher. Number 12, sorry, number four, Lou Halsey, checkpoint crusher. Number 12, Mark Turner, Iron Man Award, Broken Leg and Checkpoint Crusher. I think he got a set of stake knives, too. Um, Dwayne Dover, checkpoint crusher. Number 25, Andy Dowdy, checkpoint crusher. 26, Eric Smith, checkpoint crusher. Number 30, Carrie LaBelle, checkpoint crusher. Number 42, Jay Mahair, checkpoint crusher. Eric Christ, Chris Christ. Either way, I apologize if I got it wrong. I think I think may have gotten it right there in one of those three pronunciations. Uh checkpoint crusher, number 28. Number 18, Chris Sneed, finisher. Number 37, Matt Fletcher, checkpoint crusher. Number 24, Steve Bickford, finisher. Number 16, Don Skelza, checkpoint crusher. Number five, Robert Baldinger. He got the long distance, longest distance travel to attend the rally, and the Rough Rider. Thelmo Trenneman, finisher, number 19. Number 27, Pete Dybolt, finisher. Number seven, Todd Breeding, finisher. Number nine, Christopher North. I think he was on a very big bike, if I'm not mistaken. Spirit of ADV Canniball, smallest CC engine bike, and they rebuilt it, as you said earlier, and finisher. I think he got steak knives. Uh number 15, Deion Enright, finisher. Number 23, John Wood, finisher. Number 10, the Waz, John Wozniak Jr., checkpoint crusher. Number 40, Dan F. Spirit of Adventure Cannonball. Replaced his bike to finish the rally. Gotta love that. Number one, Frank Picelli, finisher. And number 32, Roberto Castro. Number 32, finisher.

SPEAKER_07: 11:52

And maybe I can just explain uh what the awards are. So finishing is no small feat. As we know, we had two two uh two guys that bowed out. So finishing really is an accomplishment. And in order to get the checkpoint crusher, you had to achieve every one of the available, let's say lawfully available uh checkpoints. So if it's behind a locked gate because of the, I don't know, because the government shutdown or a road is closed, those are obviously taken off the board. However, those are still achievable if uh if you so choose to points wise. Uh a rough rider is if uh you can accomplish, if you can achieve all of the optional off-road checkpoints, which is which is no small feat. So those are the different categories of awards.

SPEAKER_16: 12:46

Yeah, good explanation. Yeah, I explained that at the um at the top of the awards banquet. And uh in the uh yeah. So again, all of that information that I just read is in the memorialized 2025 ADB cannonball webpage that Aaron put together. So well done with that.

SPEAKER_07: 13:05

Yeah, and I have a note here that I post a note. I want to say say thanks to listener Dave, who brought some IPAs to Kitty Hawk and uh and for Carrie for some APAs, uh, sorry, IPAs at the banquet in LA. Thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_16: 13:20

Talk to me about this point here. What did you see firsthand there at the actual finishing?

SPEAKER_07: 13:24

Yeah, it was really great. So when some of the riders rolled in, it was obviously the front runners rolled in to the uh finish line in LA at the Portofino Hotel. Some family members flew in and surprised some of the riders and surprised me. So it was really heartwarming to see the family members really get behind uh these competitors and fly in and meet them. It was it was uh it was really great to see that.

SPEAKER_16: 13:51

Yeah, and they flew all the way across the country. I mean, they they came in from New York, so that's uh I thought that was cool. Yeah, it was really cool. Um, Robert Baldinger. So um I did announce this before, but Robert Baldinger, he's he's actually he has a really, really um well-organized channel. He talks about uh adventure adventure bikes, and he's um he has his own channel now where he basically talks about what it is to get into this to this sport, and um he comes at it from a very yeah pedagogic way so that people can understand that you don't have to be you know dripping with cash and you don't have to always have the the the the biggest and best gear. So anyway, he has a very, very successful um YouTube channel and he competed in the event and he um he has already he has already of his four cameras within hours of arriving back in Sweden he already had the uh he's the movie trailer up. So that's his first draft of the movie trailer up, which is really looks fantastic.

SPEAKER_07: 14:56

Yeah, people can see the movie trailer on the 2025 Cannonball page. Uh, but I'm sure maybe by the time you're listening to this, the uh the full film has been uh uh has been released. But it looks really good. He, you know, it it really is a feature film, and I'm just so looking forward to it. I'm just so pleased that he made the effort to come there, and we just we just can't stop thanking him, of course. And then speaking of uh Europe, after the rally, I dropped off uh my beat up GSA, Robert Use My Bike, and uh I'm so happy that it survived, and I'm happy that it has some battle scars. Thanks very much for those those memories. And I dropped off my GSA at the port of LA, and it is being shipped to Europe. And why is it being shipped in Europe? Because we have a massive announcement starting in 2027, we will have our first European adventure cannonball rally. Cheers to that, brother. Nice to done. Cheers. You know what? That calls for it. Cheers. I'm gonna have a swig right here.

SPEAKER_16: 15:57

Yeah, man. Um, I do want to say that Robert did ask us to give him a couple of months to put this out, just so that, although he's pretty fast, but he in in in his in the in in a in a recent chatter in in the awards banquet, he said, I may not be the fastest motorcycle rider, but I am quite possibly the world's fastest editor. So he's crushing that. That's all good.

SPEAKER_07: 16:20

Listen, we want this is a long-term plan, this whole, this whole uh podcast and rally. So uh we're we're all about quality and not and not speed. And speaking of that, we're already thinking of some root ideas, getting some feedback from some of the competitors and some of the public. And for 2027, it will surely be sorry, 2027 USA. Uh, we hope to have two simultaneous rallies every year, one in the United States or North America to be precise, and one in you know the European continent, and also uh in Great Britain and Ireland, Scotland. So, but the ones, the one for 2027, we've been asked to have it in the heart of summer. And even though that has some challenges for people's family schedules, and it will probably go from the Seattle area, uh, my hometown, and it will go across the northern portion of the country, and it will end way up in uh Maine. And I'm kicking around the idea of the awards banquet being its own accomplishment. And maybe you have to take the ferry up to Canada and another ferry into uh France. There's a a little island out there uh in that's owned by France. So I'm thinking I'm kicking around this idea. Maybe guys give me some feedback if you're willing to uh, you know, go the extra mile for a really cool uh awards banquet that would take a couple extra days to get to. I'd like some feedback on that.

SPEAKER_16: 17:56

That's kind of fun. I mean, it doesn't sound like it's a huge amount of riding, but it sounds more like it's a lot of ferry riding.

SPEAKER_07: 18:02

Yeah, but you know, my theory is we were all exhausted anyway. So maybe finish the rally and you know, we'll just all have an IPA on these fairies, and then we'll be well arrested for a proper blowout uh um, you know, awards banquet uh in France and a really special, rarefied place. So, anyways, I'm just kicking around the idea, trying to make everything special. And then future routes, you know, we'll be, you know, we'll go up into Alaska. Maybe they'll go into the Baja of Mexico, maybe they'll start in Key West and then Seattle. So, you know, in the cannonball spirit, they'll always be from coast to coast, but we'll start to play with that a little bit as we become more established and people uh have faith that we're actually gonna show up. So as the years go on, we're gonna be more and more uh uh creative with the cannonball routing.

SPEAKER_16: 18:54

I just wanted to say that after the rally was over, we did some fun uh filming with Robert. We got some good shots for him for his um for the intro, which you'll see in that uh on the trailer. And we also I just want to say um a shout out to Hunter 43 for letting me borrow his F900 GSA. Great bike, super fun to ride.

SPEAKER_07: 19:18

But perhaps we can uh roll my field notes. Uh I just want to caution everyone of a few things here. Give me some latitude, please. I know we're big on audio quality here on the podcast, but you know, these were recorded all hours of the day and night. Uh, lack of sleep, sometimes on the side of the road, sometimes while driving. And uh I did my very best. As a matter of fact, uh the mic gain is too high, and I was clipping a few times. So uh I'll apologize for that. And before you listen to the field notes, please know that in the cannonball spirit, some of the guys identified some uh gaps in the rules, and in the cannonball spirit, they exploited them. And that is exactly what Cannonball Baker would have wanted you to do. But understand moving forward, we'll talk about this after these field notes, that we are going to close those gaps just to reduce the amount of you know, out all night riding. And I think it will, it will make, it will make it interesting, it will make for more strategy and not just grueling, grinding uh uh madness that took place. But for the first cannonball, I'm very pleased that they exploited those uh gaps in the rules. And it made me it made me really uh really happy to to uh to see people you know uh doing that. You're like a proud, you're like a proud father.

SPEAKER_16: 20:44

Look at look at look what they did.

SPEAKER_07: 20:46

Yeah, yeah. And then in that same vein of lack of sleep, I I was clearly confused each day when I'm making these recordings what day it was. Uh, thank goodness the schedule was uh etched in stone, but you guys can make fun of me later uh about being confused of what day it was. And then my field notes end on day six, and Taylor's field notes take over on day seven.

SPEAKER_16: 21:12

But hey, guys, I don't want to have to wait till later to tease you. I think I might take advantage of that right now. So I thought it was so funny listening to the field notes when you're like and you're like and you're talking and you're giving all the details about the strategy, you're like, oh, here comes a motorcycle. Yeah, man, it was great. But there's no motorcycle.

SPEAKER_07: 21:32

Like just like some like most of the riders who weren't really interested in trying to go for the overall trophies, the guys that were concentrated on checkpoint crusher and just you know, riding the route. And some of the guys who didn't even ride the route just rode to the hotel. It was really cool to be in the van and oh man, I can't believe this is happening. This is so cool, and I'm so proud of this guy. And you know, it was really cool just to be an observer.

SPEAKER_16: 21:55

Yeah, you did a great job with the notes, and um, I think it was a good idea to capture those sort of as it was happening because there's no way you can go back later and go, what happened? Like we could never sit here right now and pull up the data that you captured in those. So well done. And with that, let's roll the field notes.

SPEAKER_11: 22:12

It's time for field notes. A collection of voice notes recorded on location while we're on wildly exciting motorcycle adventures hacked together for your amusement and our public shaming.

SPEAKER_07: 22:28

All right, here's the first field note of the rally. It's day two, it's the morning, and we are pulled over on the side of the road in the rally van. Quick recap on yesterday, number 41, Captain Chaos, has been awarded the first to arrive bonus. And an interesting story is that 43 Hunter, the ADV vet, who was helping us with our starts, he was uh only behind by nine seconds. And he spent probably two or three or four minutes packing his bike up after helping us with the start. So he would have won that day uh if he wasn't helping out. So thanks to him for making that sacrifice. And he had a little accident uh and didn't have rear brakes for the last little bit. So this morning, uh, here's some interesting things. Number one and number eight have elected to go direct to the hotel. We're a few hours in, so it's unclear whether or not they will actually get to the hotel, uh, the day two hotel first, thus being awarded, one of them will be awarded the first to arrive bonus, essentially taking it off uh the table, uh kind of like a poison pill. But the day is early. Who knows? Maybe they stop for uh lunch or they stop at a titty bar, who knows what what happens uh with them. Uh some interesting stuff. Number two uh has found a few shortcuts that I didn't even notice, and he's really, really pulling ahead. Uh number 43, uh Hunter missed a checkpoint yesterday, and he left the hotel, I don't know, before dawn and went all the way back and got a checkpoint from yesterday, which is totally in the rules, but he has to remember, and I hope he remembers to go past the start line uh at or in this case after his start time, which was 8 43 a.m. this morning. And it looks like I'm just checking the map, it looks like he hopefully is going that way. We still have a starting official Brian, he's still at the start line, and he will record that uh per the rules. All right. Well, that's a lot for the first day. There are eight or nine different strategies going on right now. I'm watching the the live map, and I'm being a uh a fanboy and a tracker junkie, and we're absolutely loving everything. Oh, one more thing. Number nine got his bike running. His DR650, his parts came in last night, and I I I can only assume that he's reassembled his his motor and he is underway. He is making uh making his way to the main highway. It's unclear whether or not he's gonna crush some checkpoints today or just go to the hotel. That's unsure, but we'll give you an update on that. And uh Rob, am I forgetting anything? No, that's the last thing I remember was number nine. Number nine. All right. Well, we're gonna go off the air and we're gonna uh get the van uh moving and we're gonna try to set up somewhere to take some pictures. All right, field notes out. Okay. It's windy, it's wild, this is what's happened. Just before the finish line in day two, there are three checkpoints that unbeknownst to me are behind locked gates because of the government shutdown. Today's date is October the 8th, 2025. One of the checkpoints is in a parking lot, and there's a barrier down, but apparently there is a walkway uh in a grass area. So all of the other riders have made it through two, uh 30, and of course, Captain Chaos. Another checkpoint is a stack of Civil War cannons inside of a cemetery. Now, apparently, I haven't seen it, but the word on the street is that iron gate is closed, and they had to literally scale the fence and run until the checkpoint was achieved on the checkpoint scoring app. And I've never had so much fun sitting on a tablet watching little dots run around a map uh in my life. It's fantastic. True tracker junkie nirvana. And then the other waypoint, which everyone's been getting, is in a single lane park road. It's a real picturesque road. But again, because of the uh government shutdown, that is additionally uh the gates are all closed, but the dog walking gates are apparently just wide enough to fit a big GS through. So um everyone thus far has achieved all of those checkpoints. What's really, really interesting about points totals today, there was definitely a poison pill. So rider number eight simply uh didn't want to deal with the weather, and he just did direct to the hotel. So he was able to achieve the first to arrive bonus for day two, and he got those 25 points. So that will really be interesting points-wise at the end of the day two. Uh oh, here comes uh here comes Carrie, number uh number 30 is ripping into the hotel. So that's going to cause a very interesting uh points layout. If Captain Chaos got all the checkpoints, including the extreme checkpoint, uh, he will likely retain his position in first place. But if he missed any of them, then other competitors will kind of eat into that lead. So uh it'll be really interesting math at the end of the day. Anyways, I'm gonna get back to my tablet and crack open IPA. All right, it's the morning of day three. I just wanted to make a little field note here. Some of the guys got in really late last night. Yesterday was a really twisty um paved section through uh the back of the dragon on 16 and then really through some, you know, paved nirvana of motorcycle territory in the area. But a lot of the guys are just grinding out getting paved checkpoints. And I really just want to take my hats off, my hat off to these guys. You know, they arrived at the last three checkpoints well after dark, and um you know, I was watching the tracker, it's you know, being a tracker junkie, having an IPA, and uh just watching these little dots move. And there were guys who arrived at the cemetery where there's a stack of cannonballs, uh pun intended, and it was dark, and you could just see them pull up and the gates are locked, uh, because it's after hours, and b because uh the government shut down. But you can see he's by himself, he pulls up to the to the wall in the dot, and he's like, I don't know, am I going that over the wall? So he goes over the wall, it's the middle of the night, he's Running down the middle of the cemetery. There's a groundskeeper there that's been chasing everyone, uh, you know, Allah, you know, Simpsons. And uh he he went over the wall and got that checkpoint. And everyone who came in after dark went around all the barriers, and uh they snagged all those checkpoints, even in the closed areas, even at night. Which, as you know, if you're like in a park in the middle of the night, all you have is your headlights, and it can be uh, you know, it can be something. So my hats off to everyone. Everyone here is getting ready. Start time today is eight o'clock. I wanted to mention that the reason why start time is a little later, eight o'clock, is because it's not easy. If start time was 6 a.m. every day, first of all, we wouldn't be allowed in any hotels. But second of all, it's supposed to be a little bit harder. Uh you should make a decision by this point, knowing what the rally is all about, if you should get every checkpoint. If the checkpoint crusher award was super easy, then it wouldn't be much of an award, would it? So that's the purpose of it. Tomorrow, no one knows yet, but tomorrow we are starting at 7 a.m. Because that is a massive drag race day down the interstate. Um, and I hope uh everyone has programmed their waypoints correctly because in order to get the few available checkpoints, you need to remember to exit the highway. There's some really cool uh historic Route 66 uh gas stations that people go to uh to get checkpoints, but they're just off the highway and you have to get off the exit before. And just like number 43 realized, you can be the most insane, fastest guy in the group. And if you miss a checkpoint, uh you're gonna pay for it, or you're gonna go go back and get it the next day, just like he did. So, anyways, that's my thoughts of last night. Uh, the guys on the one Indian, he uh his bike broke down and he's he's been arriving. He's been pushing that 900-pound Indian and getting all the checkpoints. I'm really proud of him. The guy on the Can Am, uh, he's been doing great. Uh, we've had a discussion about which off-road sections he should try to get, but he'll sacrifice his checkpoint crush award for that if he wants to do it. But I'm really proud of everyone. And uh obviously there's a group of front runners that are being ridiculous, and you know, there's been a few weenies that have been complaining. There's one guy arrived yesterday, these guys are doing wheelies through intersections and stuff. And you know, my response is ride your own ride. No one's encouraging you to be irresponsible, but people are having fun, you know. This is an exercise in self-reliance and you know adulting. So if you want to go have fun with the boys, you can do that. But if you want to do uh safe and uh well, everyone should be safe, but if everyone want to do uh reasonable speeds and maybe not all get all the checkpoints, that's totally achievable. And you will get to the hotel uh before dark. And if you want to stop at Chick-fil-A and have an hour lunch, well, you may you may get to the finish line after dark. Um, so anyways, that's my two cents. I hope that everyone has the cannonball spirit and everyone stays positive. And if people are ripping past you, well, better to give thumbs up than than whining and complaining. But I'm interested to see people's strategy today. I know there's some of the older gentlemen that will snag some of the checkpoints, and some of them uh um I think someone's leaving. Hold on.

SPEAKER_06: 33:39

Whoa. Are we leaving? Ah, okay. Don't give me don't give me a heart attack.

SPEAKER_07: 33:49

Okay, some of the guys are just getting gas. I'm making sure they're not leaving because they'll be disqualified. Um, yeah, there's uh uh important trick is to make sure you get gas before you come back to the hotel. Okay, I will uh I'll talk to you guys later. See you next field note. I'm not sure if I mentioned the scores. It's the beginning of day three, day three, and Captain Chaos is at 285 in points, and there's a whole tranche of guys at 281. Uh, so he's ahead by four points, and that's because he was awarded the first to arrive on day one, and we had the poison pill at day two. Uh, but he's his strategy was to forego the extreme checkpoint, which is 21 points, and try for the uh first to arrive bonus, but obviously that didn't work. But I just wanted to give you an update that is a really, really close between um first and everyone else in second. And in Cannonball, there is only one winner, and there's not even steak knives for number two. All right, it's uh 3:40 p.m. on day three, and it is wildly entertaining. So in the front of the field, we're gonna call him poison pill eight. He is on the highway just slabbing it directly at the hotel. Everyone else, well, mainly everyone else, uh, has gone around and done the whole course. It seems like 42, 43, that's Hunter. He has abruptly come back down to the highway, and it looks like he's gonna try, and I say try with uh with some skepticism, to beat the gate to the hotel to achieve the first to arrive bonus. But uh, you know, I don't know. It says he's doing 80 miles an hour. I think Hunter took the wrong road south, and uh and I'm not gonna say how fast he's going, but he's he's really ripping. And so we're gonna have a drag race. Rob, what's that? Is that I-80? Anyways, it's down some highway. Yeah, sorry, I-40. There's gonna be a drag race down I-40 for the first to arrive. Now, there are a couple X factors here. Number eight could turn off his scoring app to be a good lad. Uh you know, he uh he may also decide to get the two last checkpoints that are next to the hotel, which would consume enough time for Hunter to make it ahead of him. But I don't know, it seems really close, and I just wanted to give you an update because this is wildly entertaining being a tracker junkie. Alright, I'll check in later. Alright, just another quick update. So Poison Pill arrived to the Days 3 Hotel uh about 15 minutes before number 43. So I haven't done the final math, but just back of our napkin math says that uh number 43 is the first to arrive uh winner for that bonus. And then I think he's gonna hop back on his bike and go all the way back and get the extreme checkpoint and uh a couple other checkpoints that he missed uh to achieve this remarkable uh uh win for the day. We have pulled over on the side of the road and it has been entertaining. So we're gonna do something mundane. We're gonna drive the sprinter van with the trailer and go to Walmart and buy some oil, and we're gonna do an oil change in the parking lot, which is uh totally antithetical to cannonball. But all right, we'll check in later. Quick field note from the morning of day four. We are leaving uh the Hilton here shortly. And the last rider came in at 10:30 last night after I explicitly explained to everyone that it is not necessary to get every single checkpoint. Unfortunately, that information fell on very hard heads, which truth be told, I'm a little proud of. But anyways, uh today is slab day and we are doing 740-something miles across the doldrums of America. It cannot be helped. It is simply flat and fast. And uh my theory was to get this out of the way. Let's not split this up between two days. Let's get this out of the way. Uh, riders can ride as fast or slow as they want. Uh, and I'm looking forward to the hijinks that play out and the brotherhood that plays out on the open road today. Everyone will be kind of uh uh like a straight line going across the country rather than the amazing strategy differences that we've been seeing going through the twisties across America. I wanted to mention this morning that I went and used the uh the facilities in the hotel, and when I came out, there was a new motorcycle there. There was a 1250 GSA with some sweet gold rims, and I asked around whose whose bike is this? Because there's no stickers on it. And the stickers are great to identify other rally goers. It turns out number 40 uh showed up last night uh with his brand new motorcycle because there was an issue with lost keys or something. So he just went out and bought a brand new motorcycle. So it was really great to see the motorcycle there. I think he's a little got a few screws loose for doing that many hours. I think he rode 12 hours yesterday. So he definitely wins the unofficial award for most hours and most miles crushed in a day. Not recommended, but my hat's off to you. That is the cannonball spirit. Uh Cannonball Baker would definitely be proud of you. So hats off to number 40. I'm gonna hop in the van, and uh, it's five in the morning. I'm gonna try to get ahead of the group to take some pictures, and uh, we'll see everyone in uh Buffalo Thunder, New Mexico. Ride safe. All right, we're getting close to the end of the day on day four. We're on the road. And by the way, the worst roads, this corridor, just it's unbelievable to me that an interstate in the middle of nowhere or in the city will just be potholes, non-stop, just rough roads. It's like it's like driving in in Bangladesh, it's just terrible, anyways. I'll stop by complaining. So uh hunter uh uh number 43 is first to arrive. Uh he left at 7 uh 23 a.m. and arrived around 4 p.m. That is the average speed of a lot, and some people were complaining about the mileage today, it's about 750 miles, not including getting the extreme checkpoint. And then I'm looking at the tracking map, and 25, 26, and number 30 have decided to go all the way up to Angel Fire to snag looks like one, two, three, or four pave checkpoints and one optional off-road checkpoint, uh, which isn't that easy on a big bike, that particular one. And here comes more potholes. Amazing, freaking love it. And uh, yeah, so that's about it. Everyone should be in safely. Number 42. The uh the guy, the awesome dude who brought his Indian motorcycle, stopped in Albuquerque, I think, at the Indian dealership to make some repairs. Uh, but like everyone thus far in the Cannonball Spear, they have repaired or replaced whatever's necessary and they're on their way. All right, if there's anything interesting, I'll come back at you. But if not, field notes out. All right. It's uh really, really late on the end of day five. We are in Fort Smith, Arizona, which is a town no one should come to unless it is directly in the middle of two points you're trying to get to as we are. So today was a wild day. It was foul weather, it was the first bit of off optional off-roading, and here is the uh injury list thus far. Uh we have two dropouts as of this morning, and we have number 12 with a broken foot in two places. I'm not sure how that happened, but his bike is rolling, and this guy got a boot put on at the emergency room, and he is on his bike at 11 o'clock at night, and he is not only on his motorcycle with a broken right foot, thankfully, uh, he's out collecting checkpoints like a crazy person. So my hat is off to him. He is uh he is exactly uh a cannonballer, even though I think he's being a little unsafe, but uh my hat's off to him. Other accidents or drops, uh uh 43 dropped his bike spectacularly off-road rather than hitting uh oncoming Jeep. He uh he did his best uh on this very slick dirt, you know, clay material. He um he put his bike down, picked it back up, and uh and and crushed everything today, uh, as usual. Uh I think number 30 dropped his bike a couple times. It was so slick he picked up his bike and he dropped it again, it was so slick. Uh number 40 dropped his brand new bike. He was on his own and he had to take cases off just to get it up. I felt really bad for him, but he has found uh more cannonball spirit. Uh this was the gentleman whose bike he lost his key and just bought another one. So, you know, my my hat's off to him. Uh yeah, there were more accidents, not accidents, just drops and spills, but you know, everyone, everyone is here. It's it's really, really impressive. Uh I kind of wish I plugged a few gaps in the regulations so not everyone is is being insane. Captain Chaos. Uh he he is crazy. He got on his motorcycle this morning and beelined it for the next day's hotel, collected the first to arrive because there's that gap in in the rules that they're exploiting. And he went back and got all the checkpoints, and he arrived when I arrived. So it was well after dark. I'm not sure what time it was. It was like 10 o'clock or something. So um he's being uh ordered to bed, and um he won the first to arrive today, and I'm sure I haven't reviewed it, but I'm sure every checkpoint because he's a crazy person. So I'm exhausted. Uh we're here in uh I think it's Fort Smith. It is a terrible place. There are nothing but security and cops everywhere. There's a Home Depot parking lot behind us uh that is crawling with security. The private security here at the Hilton Garden Inn thinks they're you know enforcers in Fallujah for some reason. They're armed with Glock 19. So, anyways, that's the only negative thing is uh of this town is uh is not the best. But, anyways, yeah, everyone's doing great uh as best they can be. My thanks to Brian for sticking with Mark, and I'm off the bat, and we'll see you guys tomorrow. Field notes out. Okay, quick update. It's the morning of day five, I think, and there's some really cool checkpoints in the petrified forest. And the first to arrive at the petrified forest soon realize that it is closed up, it is closed up tight, and there is law enforcement just inside the gate. I'm in the van right now, it's a bit noisy. Sorry about that. But everyone kind of figured out rather quickly that the first checkpoint out of two inside the closed national forest is about I don't know, 200 yards off the major highway. I think it's I-40. So I took some videos that's on social media that, including Mark, by the way, who's lying on the ground with his broken foot. Someone took his phone in, which was genius, and they're running into the closed petrified forest national park to get one of the checkpoints, which is at an old burnt-out car. It's actually a cool, a cool spot. So, anyways, quick update: we're going to try to avoid the severe weather today. There's flood flash flash flood warnings, and there is severe weather warnings all the way on the paved and unpaved sections. We are going towards Prescott and Jerome, uh, which is some really hallowed ground for paved motorcycle roads, and we'll see how it goes. But the weather doesn't look so good, but who knows? Maybe something will go our way. But I'm really proud of everyone for uh for figuring out the the puzzle, and it just seemed like everyone would go do it, and it was never my intention, but uh I think everyone's having a good laugh. Uh okay, field notes out. All right, we are in Blythe, California. It's 9:12 p.m. local time, Pacific Coast Time. We're back on Pacific Coast time. Everyone's in except for, and this is funny, number 43 and uh I think 41, Captain's Chaos, which are constantly fighting for first and second place here in the 2025 Cannonball rally, and they're riding together for safety reasons. I wrote down some notes from today. 43, of course, was the only uh badass slash irresponsible. Almost went to prison today to get the waypoint called newspaper um rock. It is the checkpoint that was in the middle of the closed national park. And I understand that he found some way in through some rail railroad tracks, and I don't know if he was chased or asked to leave or something more, I'm not sure. But uh surely he's the only one to get that checkpoint, and I'm sure there's a story about that. We um for the rest of us normal people, we went to the iconic Winslow checkpoint and uh where the inspiration for the Eagle song was, and I was able to take some photographs of a bunch of cannonballers, uh, and we took a little time to do a little bit of um uh souvenir shopping. And I want to mention that as we were approaching Jerome and Prescott and all the off-roading there, everything was absolutely flooded. You could tell that again there was the red soil that was clearly um uh flash flooding that was over all of the tarmac. And having met number five at the end of the rim road, everything was just puddles everywhere. It was uh amazing that these guys were able to ride what is largely a big adventure bike field, and everyone just was grinning from ear to ear, saying that when they got onto the rim road, it was a unique uh combination of the skies opened up, the sun was out, it was epic, and they were able to take video and they put the drones up in the air, and uh, but at the same time, it was really greasy and there was puddles everywhere. So it was this, you know, lightning in a bottle of these two conditions meeting on these off-road sections. So everyone was uh very much grinning. Uh what else I got here? Yes, number 30 shared more photos of his challenges with his tires, and uh thanks so much for sharing those photos of uh your your spills uh with these adventure bikes, and that was really awesome to uh to share those. And everyone uh is raving about the paved sections from Jerome way past uh Prescott, and there were it was Sunday, so there were a ton of sport bikes out. So it for us it was great to take pictures and uh meet the sport bike riders and have them pass us in the big blue whale of uh Sprinter Van. And then the last part of that is uh unique hours of chest arrow straight roads. It just felt like for hours and hours, and we were able to stop at another uh iconic checkpoint. I think it's cactus. I want to say cactus peats, but I'm not. It's uh it's a dive bar just before you arrive uh here in Blythe, California. So it was really cool to um stop in there. And we saw our first sign for LA. It was 333 miles to LA, and that was really cool. So the end is the end is uh is drawing near. We have a full day tomorrow. The second to last day uh goes through another big park. We're not sure what's open and what's not. We have two optional off-road sections, and I believe that CA2 is open again, so everyone will be able to uh rip down uh Angelo's crest, an iconic motorsports proving ground for everyone that lives in LA. So we're really um excited about that. I'm super tired, uh, I didn't sleep much, but um um I'm gonna head off and inflate the mattress in the van, and uh I will wait for the last two badasses to arrive here in um in California. I want to mention that Mark showed up, number 12, and uh apparently he went off-roading today with his broken foot, and he we pulled him off his machine and uh we put him on a luggage cart with his luggage and we wheeled him to his room. And I I don't know, I would wish he would just DNF, but uh he's refusing, and uh yeah, that's all I gotta say about that. But it was quite the scene to put a grown man on a luggage cart with his broken foot and uh his gear off his uh his GSA 1300. So my hat's off to him, but he should not have gone off-road with his broken foot. Okay, we'll talk to everyone tomorrow.

SPEAKER_16: 53:58

Feel notes out, and we are back.

SPEAKER_07: 54:06

Yeah. Obviously delusional, obviously confused by what day it was, but thank goodness that the scorekeeping is all automated. And just a brief note about that the app worked flawlessly. Uh, there were no issues, and I was so uh pleased about that. That cost a fortune and took a lot of work to get that done. There was an update we pushed for the Android app, and uh that went through well. But other than that, we had no data failure at all. Yeah. So thank goodness the scorekeeping was automated because I obviously had no clue what day it was. Well, that happens.

SPEAKER_16: 54:48

Um, but I do want to say that, you know, you put a lot of effort, as you say, you put a lot of money into that as well. But you also you did a really good job of recognizing that that was a critical success factor in this. And we talked about this on a pre on the podcast before the actual event. And you were like, you know, if the app has a problem, then basically it's shot, right? The whole thing is done. So you recognize the importance of having that uh work well. So good job for knocking out an ironclad app that delivered exactly what it should, and more, because you said the extra, the red dots were like your programmers, like, yeah, well, just just just I'll just throw those in. And that seems to be the thing that you use the most. So I think that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_07: 55:27

Yeah, we're gonna talk about that in the rule changes uh for 2026 and moving forward. But yeah, it's uh it was great, it was fantastic. Uh, and I had some people come up to me about saying, well, we really like the fact that we have this app because there's always the go in front of the monument and take a picture with your flag. I'm like, come on, guys, there's a better way of doing this. So that was the uh impetus of developing that app. And I also want to mention that, you know, throughout my field notes, we're talking about the competition and and and all that, but 41 and 43 were separated only by a few points. But it was really great to see almost every day they were ended up riding to the hotel together. They always cross the finish line together. They uh it really shows how great the group rut was. And it's not just about trying to win. And if you are trying to win, that kind of gets established pretty early, and you can sort of figure out strategy. And it's not just about, you know, a drag race and who's going the fastest because that's not what it's about. Uh, there are several ways of winning. Everyone thought, well, I'll just be the first of the hotel. It's not about that because you missed the checkpoint, you made a navigation error. Uh, I was waiting at the finish line, finish line, and Carrie was trying to get to the finish line first, and he made a wrong turn, and then number two ripped past them and made it to the finish line. And it's not about just going fastest. I really want to hit that that point at home. But my point was it was really great to see the two front runners always seeming to cross the finish line together.

SPEAKER_16: 57:06

Yeah, nice. Again, uh a bond and a good friendship made.

SPEAKER_07: 57:10

Let's move to Taylor's field notes uh from day seven. And they include comments fresh off the bike on day seven. Day seven is a fantastic day going in through the California mountains, and they had a long day. And uh their comments from the Waz, from Hunter, from Don, Thalmo, they all say a few words as they roll into the Hilton Garden Inn. And uh with that, let's roll Taylor's field notes.

SPEAKER_12: 57:36

Adventure, endurance, glory. This isn't just a ride, it's the ultimate test of rider and machine. The ADV Cannonball Rally challenges you to ride from coast to coast, navigating checkpoint to checkpoint by GPS and pushing past your limits. Take on every off-road stage, and you'll learn bragging rides and a coveted Rough Rider trophy. Own the twisty tarmac and you'll claim the checkpoint crusher award. Every mile counts, every choice matters. Rack up the points, and your name could be etched forever on the winner's gun. This year the routes are harder, the mileage is longer, the glory is greater. The ADV Cannonball Rally is open for registration. Fortune favors the bolt.

SPEAKER_15: 58:31

Well, I just want to find out how your day was. I saw you come in here on one wheel, happened to be the back wheel, and it's good to know it still has air in it. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02: 58:37

There's a little bit of tread left on it, a little bit of air in it, so yeah, it's pretty good. Today was amazing. It's an incredible day. Absolutely fun. Yeah. Did a drag race with uh Jake going up the mountains? Yeah, yeah, it was really fun. Jake. Hey Jake. We had some fun going up the mountain, didn't we? The law might say we had a little too much. A little too much. Have the law stopped you?

SPEAKER_11: 58:59

No.

SPEAKER_02: 59:00

Not today. But if they did see us, they would have had words with us, I'm sure. I've been selling BMW F-900s all day. All these 1200s, 1250s, 1300s, they've been watching this little baby scream.

SPEAKER_16: 59:14

So I got a buddy, I got a buddy named Chris who was in India with us a couple weeks ago. And um he just sent me a he said, I think I may have broken my bank account, and he sent me a picture of his new F-900.

SPEAKER_02: 59:26

That's a good way to break a bank account. Well, so far, I believe if we look at the leaderboard, I think she's doing okay.

SPEAKER_15: 59:33

Uh you know, I have noticed a leaderboard, and it does seem to be that the non-1250, the non-3100, is actually at the top of the leaderboard. It is at the top of the leaderboard. See, it's the custom self tapping screws here that we installed in Pays in Arizona.

SPEAKER_02: 59:47

That's what makes it so fast.

SPEAKER_15: 59:49

Hey, I got a question for you. It seems like there's a bit of a um looks like this slid a little bit. So here's here's the key.

SPEAKER_02: 59:55

If anybody wants to know the key to success in a cannonball, I have actually crashed every Every day. Every single day of the cannonball. Which tells me that I am riding at the top of my ability.

SPEAKER_16: 1:00:07

Yes, you know, they say if you don't if you don't drop the machines, you really aren't pushing it, right?

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:10

That's right. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm gonna get this thing back in.

SPEAKER_16: 1:00:15

All right. Well, welcome, welcome to the last day seven hotel. Thanks, Taylor. Good to meet you in person.

SPEAKER_15: 1:00:19

Very, very nice to meet you.

SPEAKER_16: 1:00:24

The Waz.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:26

The Waz, right.

SPEAKER_16: 1:00:27

How was your ride in today?

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:29

It was a nice ride. It got a little chilly at one point. As you see, I had to pull out the pants. Got rained on a bit again, but uh scenery was wonderful. The track that these guys picked was absolutely wonderful every day.

SPEAKER_16: 1:00:42

Aaron gets credit for all that. 100% of that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:44

He deserves it. It was absolutely wonderful. Did you get your uh you got heated grips on that bike? Of course I do. I have electric gloves and all that other kind of stuff, too. I'm not a yeah, I've gotten old. Hands get sore. Yeah.

SPEAKER_16: 1:00:59

Yeah, I got a uh I got something I use to um to help on the you have a cruise control on that bike. Of course. Yeah, everything on that machine. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:08

All right. It's a 17-model motorcycle, so it's not as uh G Wiz gadgety as some of the others, but it's working for me. And I brought it on this trip, so if anything happened to it, I could just fly home and leave it.

SPEAKER_15: 1:01:22

You could just leave it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:24

Yeah. The other ones are in the barn. So that's the way that goes. But yeah, great rally, great trip. I think the guys all did good. A lot of camaraderie, a lot of laughing. Yeah. Unbelievable, all over. Um, and Aaron got picked on by the uh rental police in uh Gallup, New Mexico. It was tremendous. They were looking like they were gonna shake him down. He was out there with his brand new million-dollar van, and he's parked it, and they're yelling at him to move it. He's like, I ain't doing oh, it was yeah. So but other than that, it was pretty uneventful.

SPEAKER_16: 1:01:59

Well, if there's drama to be found, Aaron will find it for sure.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:03

It's a good egg, I have to say. This is all good. My first cannonball at 68 years of age.

SPEAKER_16: 1:02:10

Oh, fantastic. Well, excellent. Well, I'm glad you got it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:12

I'm certainly not a front runner, uh, but you know, I was out there running.

SPEAKER_16: 1:02:16

I gotta say that you were what the third or fourth one in here today, though.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:20

Yeah, but I I kind of had a nav failure, and uh Brian Coffin knows all about that. So in the end, and I've been running on broken nav all week, and it was just like here's the address of the place. Why don't you just deadhead the last 80 miles in? So I missed the last couple checkpoints, so crushed.

SPEAKER_16: 1:02:38

Yeah, but here you are. Happy and healthy.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:41

Right. Well, people have to have expectations, and mine was I'd be able to run all these routes. So before I signed up, I examined the whole package and looked at all the stuff back east. You know, the tough day through the middle of the country, but you know, sometimes those things happen, we just kind of interstated it all day. Yeah, but yeah, and then I said this looks like it would be fun. Um cannonball element is the other side of the coin. It brings out some of the best in some of the fellas, and there are some interesting childlike uh developments periodically as grown men are competing to win, and uh it's it's absolutely great fun because at the end of the day, everybody is laughing. So I it's been a great experience.

SPEAKER_16: 1:03:25

Well, you couldn't really ask more than that. Well, we're so happy that you joined us, and hopefully in the next ones to come.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:29

I'm gonna go next year. I I've already decided today. So I'm looking forward to a rest, and then I've got about 1,800 miles home.

SPEAKER_16: 1:03:38

I think there might be one delivery spot left in case you change your mind.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:41

You know, I'm gonna take it home. It made it this far. You know, that's kind of the way it goes. Yeah, perfect.

SPEAKER_16: 1:03:46

Thanks very much for having a chat on the podcast. This won't be the last time. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:50

Enjoyed it very much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_16: 1:03:53

All right, Thelmo. Number 19. I'll wait for you to get your helmet off. What alright?

SPEAKER_14: 1:04:00

Tell me how your day was. California is beautiful, but some other states are really beautiful too. I was impressed with the Blue Ridge Highway, with the some roads in Arizona. I mean the United States is truly amazing. Amazingly beautiful.

SPEAKER_16: 1:04:29

Fantastic. Well, it's nice that you had a chance. I find that when I'm when I'm riding with Aaron or doing cannibal or anything like this, we ride a lot, and just like you, I have the same sensation. I want to stop and take pictures.

SPEAKER_14: 1:04:40

That's right. Now, and another thing about that is great about this ride is you meet a lot of friends. Like, have you talked to that guy, Dan? He is an amazing guy. He will tell you stories that you will never believe.

SPEAKER_16: 1:04:54

Um I'm not sure we can catch any of those on podcasts, but I did talk to him when we first came in, so he was one of the first guys in the door.

SPEAKER_14: 1:05:00

And I don't know how he managed. Every time I arrive, which I think I arrived pretty good and pretty fat, he's always here to greet me. I don't know how he managed.

SPEAKER_16: 1:05:12

Fantastic. Well, I'm glad you had a safe ride today, and you're here safely, and we'll have another opportunity to chat before this is all over. Thanks. Thanks for taking time.

SPEAKER_09: 1:05:21

Don Stelza.

SPEAKER_16: 1:05:23

So tell me how was your ride in today?

SPEAKER_09: 1:05:24

Uh it was pretty good. We've now experienced every kind of um road there is in California. We've had a great ride through Joshua Tree, Pacific Crest Highway, and then the 101 to top it off at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_16: 1:05:39

So I'm guessing lane splitting, traffic, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_09: 1:05:42

First time I've ever lane split. Um I asked theory on the way whether or not motorcycles could use the HOV lanes in California, and the answer is yes. So we hopped into the HOV lanes. So all those experiences.

SPEAKER_16: 1:05:55

Oh, fantastic. So how'd you did you uh how was your time today? How was your ride in then? You guys got a lot of twisties in today, right? Good VI.

SPEAKER_10: 1:06:01

A lot of twisties, a lot of twisties, um gorgeous parts of it. Very nice.

SPEAKER_16: 1:06:06

Fantastic. Well, welcome to the hotel.

SPEAKER_10: 1:06:07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_07: 1:06:09

And we are back. Yes, sir. Thanks for doing those film notes. I was uh chugging along in the big blue whale, so I'm never there to meet the writers. So thanks for doing that.

SPEAKER_16: 1:06:20

Yeah, no, that was fun. It was um like some of the guys that put to be like, hi, and they're like, Who the hell are you? And I'm like, I'm like some of the guys who was like, I'm I'm the guy on the podcast, and they're like, What podcast? I'm like, okay, clearly not a listener.

SPEAKER_07: 1:06:32

So yeah, but it was cool to to meet listeners, right? Like, you know, Matt showed up with his ugly blazer. He's like, Yeah, I listened to the podcast and I have my ugly blazer for the awards banquet, right? So it was really, really cool. And when Dave showed up with some IPAs, like, you know, it was really cool to to kind of be fast friends with everyone, and people just knew who we were, and we kind of knew who they were as well. Um, I wanted to mention some organizational notes and and goals moving forward for North America and Europe. Uh, I would love to have a volunteer program because it's not, you know, we're not a, you know, like an automotive group. I'm just a guy. And um I would love in the future to have a volunteer program. I'll just quickly rip through some of the goals I have. They're not written stone, but uh, we were just talking about Andy. We were talking about him helping with scorekeeping uh and something like rally communications. These can likely be done remotely, someone running the WhatsApp group uh and announcing first to arrive winners. Uh, I would love to have uh someone again, like like Hunter, helping with a start line that can be a participant. There's always a need for people pre-running routes. Um, so when I establish a route, I need help pre-running. So, you know, a normal kind of rider, someone who can ride spiritedly and make sure that it's not too long or too short, uh, and verifying that those routes are still still uh still open and accessible. Uh, I would love help with photography and image editing. That would be uh helpful. I would love to have someone help with social media, like a content creator. And in the future, the golden uh uh volunteer would be someone to help with sweep. It's a lot to ask if someone has a van or a truck with a trailer and someone who wants to donate that time uh and help with sweep. I would love one day to have a sweep vehicle.

SPEAKER_16: 1:08:34

Yeah, um, you got some great content in there. And I think about the things that when we did the um the other rallies, then these are things that are in there that are, these are elements that are in there, and people have done them before and they're like, Yeah, I want to be part of this. I don't need to compete this time. I've done it and I want to be part of it. And yet they understand how it works. So that's really good. When you talked about the volunteer program there, I just wanted to, I I I know we have we do this a lot, but I just wanted to say that you know, the volunteers in this, you did have some volunteers in this. Brian and his dad, Brian Kaufman and his dad, they did a fantastic job. They did the starts, they set up for the starts. Um, Brian did a lot of the um when I said what I heard the thought about when you said WhatsApp, I was like, he helped. Like I invited everybody to the WhatsApp group, but a lot of people didn't have WhatsApp. So he got everybody dialed in technically. And then I was in the car with him, I think the day before we did the um the last day, which was the uh the start when we were in the rain. And people were coming up like right minutes before the start, and they're like, Brian, I need help with electronics. And so he was a super, super, he's super techie, and he did a great job with support there. So that was fantastic. And of course, you had uh you had uh Robert in the car with you, and um, he was keeping you company, crushing miles with you, and keeping you from falling asleep. And I'll have to say, during your field notes, he was helping you keep track of the days.

SPEAKER_07: 1:09:53

Well, trying to anyways uh yeah, yeah, thanks, thanks to everyone. Uh it would be impossible for me to do that alone. So thanks everyone for showing up. Uh, and I want to talk about rule changes, but before I talk about rule changes, I want to talk about the difference between talking smack on the podcast, talking on WhatsApp and in and in groups, and an actual regulation. So keep in mind that I'm just one guy. And what we talk about on the podcast, if it doesn't make it into a regulation, you know, it's separate, right? Uh maybe I've had some time to digest it, or maybe I just didn't get around to it. But there is a reason why you, when you sign up, you have to click and agree, like terms of terms and conditions that you have read the regulations. So please don't confuse banter with actual regulation changes.

SPEAKER_16: 1:10:48

Yeah, just a quick point. So usually when people say, Can you, you know, like you're doing a legal contract for your new, you know, telephone and it says, but you read that. And you're like, mm-hmm. Because it's 20 pages and it's all illegalese. But in this case, it's just what, 10 rules or something. It's not a ton of information, it's just like bang. So read them, read them. The information's there for for for for your benefit. So read them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07: 1:11:11

Yeah, for sure. It's and it and it stops controversy. And you'll you'll also notice that throughout the rally, when someone finds an exploit, you know, I'm not going to change the rule because I can't change the rule. It's in the rules when you can change the rules, and I can't change them midway through through the rally. So if you found an exploit, check with me. And uh, you know, if I confirm that it's not unsportsmanlike, go ahead and exploit it. That's that's the cannonball spirit. So moving forward, the rally app was great, but we just love the tracking feature of the rally app. And so did all the tracker junkies. So from moving forward, your phone, your your rally phone will require a cell phone connection. And by the way, the iPhones were rock solid. So moving forward, I'll put in the rules. Your rally phone, which can be like an older iPhone, like, don't be cheap. Like, if you're gonna do all this effort to enter enter the rally, get a get uh an iPhone. And by the way, we discovered that you don't have to like call Verizon and deal with customer service. If you have an old iPhone, there are a hundred different apps out there that you can put data on your phone with an eSIM through an app, and it costs like 20 bucks for the month. So there is no excuse. And uh it's just so much better. It reduces confusion. There was a day where someone showed up to the finish line, and because they had to wait till they connected to Hotel Wi-Fi, I didn't know that they were first to arrive. Uh, and it was odd that they were first to arrive because they weren't one of the front runners. So from now on, you gotta have cell phone connection on your rally phone.

SPEAKER_16: 1:12:58

So, what is what did you have to do? What did it what did it mean that you had to do after that individual showed up and then connected?

SPEAKER_07: 1:13:04

Yeah, I had to retract my announcement of first to arrive. And the reason why I try to do it is if people are, you know, trying to make that last fuel tank last, or they're thinking of skipping a checkpoint so they can try to get the first to arrive. I tried to announce that the first to arrive has been taken off the board so people can change their strategies, or people can just, I guess, slow down. And so we found that whoever was connected to cell phone, I had real-time data. So that's the reason why. And it's really not a big deal.

SPEAKER_16: 1:13:37

Not a big deal to get it, but it's a big deal if you don't have connectivity.

SPEAKER_07: 1:13:40

Correct. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh and this is a big rule change. The first to arrive bonus can only be achieved on the day uh that the competitor started. So I'll word that better. So if it's the start of day one, you cannot go achieve day two's first to arrive. Uh, I thought about that and had a nightmare about that. So I'm gonna add that rule just to stop someone from being a real crazy person and like doing 2,000 miles at a day or something like that. So that rule will definitely be added when I can word it correctly. And this is an important one. This will close the loophole that everyone found, which is once a competitor has achieved the final checkpoint for that day, uh, bikes need to go into park firme. So bikes can be used for personal use. That's fine. It's not a real like hardcore park firme behind a locked door, but you can't go out and achieve more checkpoints. So it's going to be really interesting is that as people are going through the course and they are choosing which checkpoints to get, which ones to forego, um, they will have to choose at some point am I gonna skip those last two and maybe try to go for the first to arrive? Or have they seen someone else has got first to arrive and they're gonna concentrate on getting other checkpoints, maybe an extreme checkpoint. But once you achieve the finish line for that particular day, you cannot turn around and go get more checkpoints. So I'm gonna go ahead and close that exploit, which I was so pleased to see everyone figure it out and uh and ran with for this first rally.

SPEAKER_16: 1:15:20

Yeah, very cool. I I think one of the things you also mentioned is that in in terms of achieving the um the following day's checkpoint, for example, is that you're just gonna move them further away so that they aren't realistic that they can be achieved that next day.

SPEAKER_07: 1:15:36

Yeah, there was some talk about saying, well, you shouldn't be allowed to get the next day's checkpoints. Well, uh, I'm not gonna police people. This is not, we're all adults here, right? So if you want to go ahead and try, let's say you did all the checkpoints, you skip the last, the sorry, the last checkpoint of the day, which puts you into park firm and you decide to go get next ones. Well, that's your business because I'm not gonna the whole system's automated, right? But what I am gonna do is I'm going to remove the temptation course design-wise, and I will just put checkpoints like a hundred miles into the day. And by the way, there is no advantage to go get those checkpoints because you're gonna pass them anyways. So if you think, if you're gonna sit there on your and complain that so-and-so went and got checkpoints from the next day on that particular day, listen, they are gonna be sleep deprived, they've put miles on their bike, they have less tire for the next day. And that brings me to my next point. If you're not in the running for the overall winner, don't get bogged down in what's happening in the front runners. Concentrate on getting your checkpoint crush reward, concentrate on having a good time, concentrate on your strategy, uh, figuring out which roads are open, which roads are closed. Don't get bogged down in uh what's happening up at the front of the pack because it can be, I don't know, some righteous indignation because so-and-so figured out an exploit. Just have fun and go after whichever awards you're going after, is my advice.

SPEAKER_16: 1:17:13

Now, to the to the regulations, uh at what point how how soon before the event begins do you give yourself a reserve the right to make changes in the regulations?

SPEAKER_07: 1:17:24

Yeah, so in the regulations, it's uh day negative 30. So 30 days before the start, if we figure out a change that has to be made, I don't intend to do that. That's not my intention. It's just there if there is something that comes up. But as the rules stand, when you sign up, that's how they're gonna be. And uh they don't, you know, there's no intention of chaining that changing them. The that rule is there just in case something uh something comes up. And I also wanted to mention that we're gonna remove because the GPS scoring app was so rock solid, we're gonna remove the whole spot walla requirement. But it is encouraged that if you especially are doing the optional off-road sections, you should carry a personal satellite communication device, uh, but that's on you. It's encouraged, but no longer a requirement.

SPEAKER_16: 1:18:17

And that's also because you have the ability to text from those as well, right?

SPEAKER_07: 1:18:21

Yeah, if you, I don't know, if you drive off of a cliff on your own, you know, if you're adulting a little too hard, and if you do something silly, uh, you know, carry a satellite communication device. But again, that's your decision to make, but it's no longer a requirement. And speaking of off-road, uh I'm going to add an extreme dirt checkpoint, an optional extreme off-road checkpoint, in addition to the extreme pave checkpoint. And that is something that will um happen every rally moving forward because guys crushed it. It was so cool to see people, and we had rain, man. We had adverse weather, we had flood warnings, uh, we had, you know, we had rivers going down the off-road sections, and everyone really nailed it, and it was so cool. So everyone said, We want more. So I hear what you said, and I'm gonna go ahead, hey, it's your own funeral, man. So I'm gonna go ahead and add a dirt extreme checkpoint. Uh, maybe not every day, but uh as part of the rally, there will be an ex a dirt, uh, optional dirt extreme checkpoint, excuse me, added to each of the rallies.

SPEAKER_16: 1:19:34

Okay. And those when those are achieved, those we put in, for example, the Rough Rider Award. So that'll be tally into the Rough Rider.

SPEAKER_07: 1:19:41

No, so extreme checkpoints are not required for any of the awards. They are optional for points for people who are trying to get the first overall. And I want to reiterate if a road is closed or if a park is closed, those checkpoints are not required for any of the awards. Uh, but if you want to go ahead and get them, go ahead and get them. That's up to you. You can you can adult.

SPEAKER_16: 1:20:07

Yes, you can you can adult. Um, at a minimum, at a minimum, what should people know?

SPEAKER_07: 1:20:13

Yeah, so we noticed that a couple of guys showed up and they clearly just kind of signed up, and that's cool. I'll I'll take your money. And it was cool to uh ride with us, but I did notice some people didn't know how to follow a route and they were kind of just going to the hotel. So um I think it's a not a big ask, but you should seek some technical advice. We can help you, or we can point you in the direction of someone or a YouTube video of just how to follow a GPX file because all the feedback was the routes were fantastic. Uh, you know, not to not to brag, but the roots were really great and we want people to follow the routes. And if you're not interested in getting checkpoints and you just want to come for a ride with us, you know, you're more than welcome. But please, you should try to learn how to follow a route. All right. Well stated. Sticker orders.

SPEAKER_16: 1:21:04

Where are we on the sticker orders?

SPEAKER_07: 1:21:06

Yeah. So they're piling up on the webpage. And I want to mention that I've been a little busy. So uh maybe in the next 30 days or so, I will ship out all the uh uh awesome ADV and podcasting stickers that are piling up on the website. My apologies.

SPEAKER_16: 1:21:21

Let's jump into some uh some signups. Should I run through these?

SPEAKER_07: 1:21:25

Yeah, so I'm not sure who we've announced. So just to get ahead of myself, I want to announce uh um the ones I think uh we haven't announced on the podcast. So if you can just run through these, that'd be great. Yeah, you got it.

SPEAKER_16: 1:21:40

And um the the structure of this, as you mentioned before, the structure of this podcast of this, sorry, the structure of this uh cannonball is going to be different than the one that we just did in 2025, in that uh it will not have accommodation set up for you. As a result, it's significantly less expensive, et cetera, et cetera. This setup in the scooter cannonball, they had what 450 people sign up for it with the structure?

SPEAKER_07: 1:22:10

Yeah, they had a ton. The one component we're gonna have that's a little different is we will we will give you uh through our partners at Hilton. You when you sign up, you'll get a group code. So we want you to stay in our hotel. There's a bunch of reasons why you should do that, uh, because we start from there usually. So when you sign up, uh when I get around to it, you will get a list of group codes. It will take you no more than an hour. Just click on them or call them and say group code, uh Bravo Charlie X-ray, and they will give you the discount to the Hilton Hotel, and you can figure out if you want a room on your own or if you want to share it with a bunch of guys and be in a smelly room, that's your business. But that's the major change. Uh, there's cost savings uh in that as well. But uh I think it'll make the barrier to entry a little lower.

SPEAKER_16: 1:23:03

Yeah, good point. All right. Um, so I'll run through these names here. So we've got uh Josh Skidmore, number 39 from the 2025 ADV cannibal, Mark Turner, Iron Man, number 12 from 2025, Rick Claus, Klaus, newcomer, Morgan Webb, newcomer, Alexander Wicker, newcomer, nice. Carol Bell, number 30 from 2025, Hunter Ray, 43, 2025, winner. Eric Kreis, number 26 from 2025, The Waz, number 10 from 2025, Justin Gutierrez, newcomer and number 13, has been requested and assigned. And by the way, if I go back to Hunter Ray, number 43 and winner, he has been assigned number one. And they're talk to me about the advantage of start position.

SPEAKER_07: 1:23:58

Yeah, so obviously, people who have competed in previous cannonballs, depending on their uh points and their ranking uh and awards, they will be assigned a lower number. Obviously, Hunter gets number one, coveted number one. And by the way, if you want your old number, just let me know. And I I will I will do my best to make that happen. So uh, but the lower the number, you are ahead of the pack. And as the rally gets bigger, there's gonna be more and more bikes. There's just a slight advantage, whether that's the truth or not. Let's take the example of Hunter, he was the very last one and he won overall. So all these academic discussions are hilarious because here we are, Hunter was the very last to leave the line and he was the overall winner. But there is uh um a slight advantage if you are ahead of the pack, is the common sentiment.

SPEAKER_16: 1:24:57

Yeah, yeah, good point. I think about that in the rallies we've done. That's that's usually the case, is that the uh people who have the lower numbers and the and if the rally's been going on for many, many years and they're continuing with it, you get the people who have been winning the rallies all sitting at the front of the pack. So they're running in a tight group.

SPEAKER_07: 1:25:13

Yeah, they're running a tight group, and you know, they kind of know what they're doing and they get a they they get out of the starting line early, and then the rest of us can kind of figure it out. And I think it removes the pressure. I think, for instance, our number one rider, he was number one because he was the first guy to sign up. And I think he felt a little uh uncomfortable about that. I love the fact that by like day three, is like, I got this, man. This is how you guys start. So it's really uh it was really heartwarming to see Frank kind of be a little anxious about that. And then he was like, Yeah, guys, I got this. Follow me. I start at 801, and he like took off. It was really great.

SPEAKER_01: 1:25:46

Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention? I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story, and I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball!

SPEAKER_12: 1:26:02

Hey Cannonballers, thanks for subscribing to our podcast. We appreciate it. If you're not a cheap Canadian and want to buy us a coffee, head on over to buymeacoffee.com. Or better yet, buy us a case of sweet ass craft IPA. We'll list it on patreon.com. Links are in the show notes. Now, back to the riveting podcast in progress.

SPEAKER_16: 1:26:28

And we are back.

SPEAKER_07: 1:26:29

So I guess let's just sum everything up. Uh, you know, the rally was fantastic. Thanks everyone for showing up. Especially thanks to everyone who finished. And uh, we are in the planning stages for next year. The route is established, the checkpoints are established, yet secret, and uh everything is a go for 2026. And I want to reiterate that in 2027, we're gonna do what we're calling Adventure Cannibal Europe. And stay tuned for more details. I have some ideas. We're going over in May uh to do some podcasting. We're doing an Isle of Man's uh TT special, and as part of that month-long trip, we are doing root scouting. I have some ideas. I don't want to give it away yet. Uh, I already had some people reach out from the UK, uh, some really accomplished riders, uh, some people who established the TET and different areas. So I already have people reaching out. So 2027 Europe is going to be uh a grassroots effort, and we're really excited about that.

SPEAKER_16: 1:27:33

And for those of you who haven't ridden in Europe, TET stands for Trans-European Trail. It's a bit like the BDR.

SPEAKER_07: 1:27:40

Yeah, exactly. And uh we're gonna go ahead and I know it's long, been a long podcast. Thanks guys for sticking with us. This last bit of audio, we're gonna roll the awards banquet. It's a bit uh the audio is not that great. And then uh we'll go into some uh the last theme song and then the outro. Taylor, you have anything else you want to add?

SPEAKER_16: 1:28:03

Nope, I just want to say um one last comment. Yeah, I guess I do have something else to say, is that look, I didn't ride across country with you guys, but when I rocked up there, you guys welcomed me with open arms, and and that meant a lot. So you you guys took me right on board, just as if I had been there the whole time. And um, I just want to say thank you very much to all of you who um, yeah, to everyone, basically everyone was uh super welcoming to me. And I just want to say thank you.

SPEAKER_07: 1:28:29

Yeah, it was definitely we ended up with exactly the group that we wanted, and uh it was really fantastic. And thanks to the guys who have already signed up for next year. And with that, let's roll the awards banquet and the outro. Adventure, endurance, glory.

SPEAKER_12: 1:28:46

This isn't just a ride, it's the ultimate test of rider and machine. The ADV Cannonball Rally challenges you to ride from ghost to coast, navigating checkpoint to checkpoint by GPS and pushing past your limits. Take on every off-road stage, and you'll earn bragging rights and the coveted Rough Rider trophy. Own the twisty tarmac and you'll claim the checkpoint crusher award. Every mile counts, every choice matters. Rack up the points, and your name could be etched forever on the winner's cup. This year the routes are harder, the mileage is longer, the glory is greater, the ADP Cannonball Rally is open for registration. Fortune favors the bolt. Sign up today.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:05

What are you doing?

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:20

What do you do when you got it all you got here? Now what you guys have you do is so let's take it out of the mouth cross the leg.

SPEAKER_16: 1:31:09

If you got to snow, you can make it dance and so uh if you are sitting in this room tonight, then several of these characteristics may actually describe you.

SPEAKER_13: 1:31:46

Stupid.

SPEAKER_16: 1:31:48

That actually wasn't on my list, but let me just get that down there. Alright, uh adventurous. That's a bit in the name. Self-reliant. Hunter, thank you for this one.

SPEAKER_10: 1:32:01

Bold way on it.

SPEAKER_16: 1:32:08

Rebellionly uh defiant. Meticulous in planning, not everybody. Unafraid, mischievous, and in favor of controlled chaos. There we go.

SPEAKER_02: 1:32:27

Let's hear it from the camera.

SPEAKER_16: 1:32:28

There we go. So there are three categories of trophies tonight. And um first thing I want to clarify is I'd like everyone to just maybe you could answer this in unison. Are there any second, third, or fourth place finishers in Cannonball?

unknown: 1:32:45

No.

SPEAKER_16: 1:32:46

No. Okay. So therefore, I do not let I need to say that there will be no second, third, or fourth place trophies tonight either. Although just like soccer, when you're three years old, you get a participation trophy.

SPEAKER_08: 1:33:02

That's all I ever wanted. That's all I ever got.

SPEAKER_16: 1:33:06

I never even got that, so you're ahead. Um it seems like you fixed that. I did. Yeah, all right. I am the editor. Okay, fantastic. So there is, just to give you the rundown here, I also want to let you know that um Aaron and I have been to a banquet before, and it went on for I think about seven minutes is where the attention span dropped out. So we will try to know that it's about there, and I know I'm a minute and a half into it, so we'll do our best to just knock it out, alright?

SPEAKER_14: 1:33:36

There we go.

SPEAKER_16: 1:33:37

Let's roll with it. Okay. There are.

unknown: 1:33:40

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_16: 1:33:41

There are how many of these?

SPEAKER_07: 1:33:43

There's only one of each, and we'll mail the ones that you win home to you because no one wants to send the back of their motorcycle.

unknown: 1:33:51

Are you sure about that?

SPEAKER_16: 1:33:54

Yeah, there's just one in the broken on the way.

SPEAKER_10: 1:33:56

I'm gonna bolt it to the front fender. Like a figurehead.

SPEAKER_16: 1:34:03

There are multiple Rough Rider Awards. There's something in that name.

SPEAKER_10: 1:34:11

Elaborately.

SPEAKER_16: 1:34:13

It's an ADS. Your name comes up, you'll know. Um, and there's uh several checkpoint crushers as well. So let's run through these. Um these are the there's one, there's the one to be taken home, and then these other ones they would nail it to you. And uh how many of these are there?

SPEAKER_07: 1:34:35

You don't need to think about it. That is that is the perpetual trophy. So you're whoever is the winner will have their name embolden on it and will stay with me.

SPEAKER_16: 1:34:44

Alright, so this is essentially the Stanley Cup of AD Campbell. Alright, so here we go. Now that we know what the uh the breakdown is, participation trophies on these three. And we do have something else which will come up if anyone's seen the movie Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross, you'll know what's coming. Maybe you see. Okay. First of all, I just want to say a really big thank you to our volunteers, Brian and Eugene.

SPEAKER_08: 1:35:26

By the way, very much. He has uh three cannonballs with the antique motorcycle cannonball.

unknown: 1:35:40

Thank you, Dave.

SPEAKER_16: 1:35:40

Robert, your name, Robert Riley, you may have to set that. Where's Robert? There he is, behind that camera, continuing to be a volunteer and helping. Thank you very much. Okay, so these numbers I'm gonna run through, and I'm gonna run through by number. So if you happen to think that you might be at the top of the pack here, and your number might be last.

SPEAKER_12: 1:36:02

99.

SPEAKER_16: 1:36:03

99. 100.

SPEAKER_12: 1:36:06

100.

SPEAKER_16: 1:36:07

Uh so Frankie's not here. He uh he's out he's already been awarded. He's already been presented with his finishers. All right. Um I'm just gonna go with first names here. Number two. Number two, Jake. We have a the number of total number of points is 1061, and there's a crush checkpoint crusher award. Where's Jake?

SPEAKER_03: 1:36:29

Woo!

unknown: 1:36:36

That way.

SPEAKER_16: 1:36:54

Number three, Dwayne with nine nine six points. Checkpoint pressure.

SPEAKER_04: 1:37:01

Let's go!

SPEAKER_13: 1:37:08

Like them dogs.

SPEAKER_10: 1:37:10

Oh, I feel nine and one oils. Oh, I do, I do. Let's go.

SPEAKER_15: 1:37:15

Number four, Lou.

unknown: 1:37:16

Lou.

SPEAKER_16: 1:37:22

1016 points, checkpoint crusher. Thank you so much.

unknown: 1:37:25

All right.

SPEAKER_03: 1:37:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_16: 1:37:26

Thank you. So the checkpoint teacher on the road. Yeah, on road, yeah. So these just this particular ward, the checkpoint crushers are for those.

SPEAKER_08: 1:37:35

Oh, they know, don't worry, they know, yeah.

SPEAKER_16: 1:37:37

Maybe not, you know, not everybody in this room wrote a motorcycle.

SPEAKER_08: 1:37:41

Oh, that's true, that's true.

SPEAKER_16: 1:37:42

It's for those who get the all of the checkpoints that were on road checkpoints.

SPEAKER_07: 1:37:46

And that were not highly illegal or you know, unavailable.

SPEAKER_08: 1:37:54

There's cameras, so no, this is not a race.

SPEAKER_16: 1:37:58

Number five. Robert Bowls.

unknown: 1:38:07

Please present it.

SPEAKER_08: 1:38:08

All right, hold on, hold on, there's more.

SPEAKER_16: 1:38:10

All right, so there's a couple things coming your way, sir. All right there. Stand right there. We got a Rough Rider award for you.

SPEAKER_08: 1:38:15

He he has all the off-road checkpoints. Easy to fill out.

SPEAKER_16: 1:38:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08: 1:38:20

Awesome.

unknown: 1:38:21

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_16: 1:38:22

Um, we've got the longest distance traveled award. And this is an award that is from 1995. So when Aaron and I did a uh the Al Alcan uh 5000 Ice Road Rally.

SPEAKER_07: 1:38:34

Um tags on your That's it, man.

SPEAKER_16: 1:38:38

I got tags on SIC2. Um The gentleman who did that, who was the rally master of that event, he won this in 1985. Wow and it finished here. So it is a um it's called it says the one lap of America. So this is um in conjunction with the the uh putting up of the uh of the monument. Monument that everyone came in touch. So this is it, this is tied to that, and this has been re-gifted to us and then passed on. So is mine?

SPEAKER_08: 1:39:14

You're the furthest travel. Oh, yeah. The furthest travel. But you have to bring it back next year. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_16: 1:39:18

Yes, you have to bring it back. That's hard. Thank you, Robert. And for those of you who um those of you who don't know, um Robert is, you know, one of the reasons that he he at least he says the reason he didn't get all the, you know, every checkpoint, everything, all is because he's doing a lot of drone footage and he's also gonna do a full feature movie on this. So how many months is it gonna take to put together?

SPEAKER_13: 1:39:49

Um I'm not the fastest writer, but I'm the fastest editor. Um I will not release it publicly on YouTube for a while because I haven't had a long preview previous. But as soon as it's ready, I'll share it in the group for uh number six, Sean Ross.

SPEAKER_16: 1:40:32

All right, so reading, eight hundred and fifty-four points, finish a medal.

SPEAKER_08: 1:40:39

Where's pot?

SPEAKER_16: 1:40:51

Number nine, Christopher North.

SPEAKER_08: 1:40:54

Christopher North.

SPEAKER_16: 1:40:57

I know we have to do this. And this is the smallest CC and engine rebuild to join. And just one more time. One more thing. Glenn Gary Glenn Ross, Glenn Ross. There's no there's no second place.

SPEAKER_07: 1:41:12

The fact that he rebuilt his bike to get to the finish, the start line requires a set of steak knives.

SPEAKER_16: 1:41:27

For those of you who didn't see the movie, Alec Bowman comes, he's a sales writer. Yeah, always coffee's for closers. And he says to these sales guys, he says, you have three, there's three, there's either, it's either you get a bonus, you get steak knives, or you're fired. Number ten, John the Waz.

SPEAKER_08: 1:41:59

Yeah. You know how the checkpoint. You better finish up Plato's expense.

SPEAKER_09: 1:42:10

I know.

SPEAKER_08: 1:42:12

Don't worry.

SPEAKER_16: 1:42:13

Number twelve.

SPEAKER_08: 1:42:15

Well, I'm gonna come to him, he's got a broken foot, right?

SPEAKER_07: 1:42:18

Yeah, one thousand four.

unknown: 1:42:23

Very nice. Yes, my club.

SPEAKER_08: 1:42:32

And he's already signed up for next year, so.

SPEAKER_16: 1:42:34

And so one thousand seven, he's got a checkpoint pressure. And if you happen to break your leg while doing this, you too may go home with a sense that you go Damascus Steel.

SPEAKER_08: 1:42:51

Damascus steel. Oh very nice.

SPEAKER_11: 1:42:56

Thank you for putting a great rally again.

unknown: 1:42:58

That was very kind of saying.

SPEAKER_11: 1:42:59

Thank you very much. Let's go.

SPEAKER_16: 1:43:05

Number 15, Dion Enrique. 711 points, finishing metal.

SPEAKER_08: 1:43:16

And on the only three-wheeler who made it up, the optional file.

SPEAKER_04: 1:43:21

Very nice.

SPEAKER_13: 1:43:21

That was bad. That was badass.

SPEAKER_10: 1:43:24

That is going into promotional video.

SPEAKER_16: 1:43:27

Number sixteen, Don. Nine hundred and twenty-five. Checkpoint crash.

SPEAKER_08: 1:43:35

Checkpoint crash. That's right.

SPEAKER_16: 1:43:46

Number eighteen, Chris. Chris Need. Nine hundred and forty-six points. Finish a metal. Number nineteen.

SPEAKER_14: 1:44:18

Nice. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: 1:44:24

Oh well. Two hashes, two hashes.

SPEAKER_16: 1:44:27

Number twenty-two, Dave. Four.

SPEAKER_08: 1:44:38

Okay. Get it, Felicia.

SPEAKER_06: 1:44:43

Oh, five Felicia was butt was brilliant by the way, yeah.

SPEAKER_11: 1:44:46

Number twenty-three.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:53

Thank you for putting on nice bro.

SPEAKER_07: 1:44:56

Hold on, you give me some an honor here anyway.

unknown: 1:45:00

All right.

SPEAKER_16: 1:45:02

Number twenty-four seed.

SPEAKER_04: 1:45:05

926.

SPEAKER_16: 1:45:13

That's more than I got.

SPEAKER_07: 1:45:15

You broke no zero loss, so congratulations.

SPEAKER_08: 1:45:22

Except for the graveyard.

SPEAKER_16: 1:45:23

I didn't get caught breaking any.

SPEAKER_07: 1:45:27

You know, I have to say that when the shutdown happened, and we're watching the tracker, and people came up to like the cemetery, you know, just sitting there, I'm like, come on, you gotta do it. And the first guy came up with his motorcycle quick, and all of a sudden the dot went slowly into the cemetery. I'm like, you guys nailed that.

unknown: 1:45:46

Here we go.

SPEAKER_16: 1:45:48

Number 25. Did we get Steve? Yeah. So we did number 25, Andy.

SPEAKER_06: 1:45:54

Can we do Steve?

SPEAKER_08: 1:46:00

Nice talking to you, right? Very nice. Very nice.

SPEAKER_16: 1:46:03

996 points. Checkpoint crusher.

SPEAKER_08: 1:46:06

Thanks for helping. Thanks for a great event. And thanks for helping. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_16: 1:46:10

Number twenty-six, Eric. Nine hundred and seventy six points. Checkpoint crusher.

SPEAKER_08: 1:46:19

Checkpoint crusher.

unknown: 1:46:20

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_08: 1:46:22

You're rather big and tall, so eight hundred and ninety-four.

SPEAKER_16: 1:46:53

Eric.

SPEAKER_04: 1:46:59

Checkpoint pressure.

unknown: 1:47:00

Checkpoint pressure.

SPEAKER_08: 1:47:03

Positive and all that.

SPEAKER_16: 1:47:10

Number thirty.

SPEAKER_07: 1:47:15

Checkpoint pressure. Checkpoint pressure. Helping? My honor, do you really hear? I stayed at his house the other night, so I won't talk about that.

SPEAKER_16: 1:47:30

Number thirty-two, Roberto.

SPEAKER_08: 1:47:39

He never phoned any GPX tracks, but we're happy to have 90 points, Minister Metal.

SPEAKER_13: 1:47:46

Thank you. Thank you, Sick.

SPEAKER_16: 1:47:52

Number thirty-seven, Matt Ledger, nine hundred and thirty-six. Check point pressure.

unknown: 1:47:58

Matt Ledger. Ah, next one. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_16: 1:48:09

You know, hey, Aaron, we might need to have we we got it, you know. Yeah. So, yeah. Come on, Aaron.

SPEAKER_04: 1:48:22

Goodwill, mate.

SPEAKER_11: 1:48:28

You like books? I like that's a that's a that's a podcast joke.

SPEAKER_08: 1:48:43

Where are we? That was Matt. Matt, that was Matt.

SPEAKER_16: 1:48:45

Alright, here we go. Uh this this the this is the name. I don't know if you whoever did hear the podcast, we're like, there's no way this isn't a made-up name. And that name is number 39, Josh Skidmore. Skidmore with 1,046 points and the Rough Rider Award.

SPEAKER_08: 1:49:10

Okay. With Skidmore. The worst last name.

SPEAKER_16: 1:49:16

All right, number 40, Dan F.

SPEAKER_08: 1:49:19

Dan.

SPEAKER_16: 1:49:20

380 finished metal. And as a spirit of Cannonball, he replaces GS with a new GS after Rosinski.

SPEAKER_06: 1:49:32

I think you can see more from spending the most most money spent on the room. And you get a little piece of metal.

SPEAKER_16: 1:49:43

Number forty-one, Captain Chaos. Captain Chaos.

SPEAKER_08: 1:50:16

But but there's a joke.

SPEAKER_16: 1:50:32

And number forty two. The checkpoint crusher? J nine hundred and fifty-four.

SPEAKER_03: 1:50:41

On the Indian. On the Indian of us.

SPEAKER_08: 1:50:45

The wrong tool for the job. The right tool for the job. The right tool for the job. You rode the hell out of that bike. Oh. And then and then next year we have someone with a scooter, by the way. Not me.

SPEAKER_16: 1:51:08

And last but not least, Hunter Ray number forty-three. Overall. One thousand one.

SPEAKER_08: 1:51:29

And he's not getting that from the thing. He's a Stanley Cap.

SPEAKER_06: 1:51:38

He's gonna be whether he likes it or not, he has to say something. And we like him to say a few words.

SPEAKER_02: 1:51:42

A few words. Less than 10,000.

SPEAKER_04: 1:51:47

Great strategy. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02: 1:51:50

You guys, thank you. Thank you. Incredible event. Every single one.

SPEAKER_04: 1:51:57

What?

SPEAKER_02: 1:51:59

Who what?

SPEAKER_04: 1:52:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02: 1:52:03

Unbelievable event. Absolutely incredible. The group of riders in this room, like each one of us in probably our own right and our own circles, we're like, yeah, we're the fastest guy. Right? You bring all of us together, and that's a shit ton of idiots running down the road. Real fast. That's incredible. Everybody knows how pre-run throughout right in April, and I and I thought I had some concept until day one. Day one, I'm riding as fast as I can ride, and people are blowing past me, and it was a game changer. So the spirit of Cannonball came out with you guys. These guys set it up, you guys made it happen. That's what was amazing. It was it was not my intention to stand up here in front of you as a winner, like at all. It's hey, shut up. So no, listen, listen, I want I wanna I want to tell you guys something something personal, right? So I I pre-ran the route and then I went black, right? You guys all saw me on social media, posting all kinds of stuff, and then it went dark. My wife and I went through a pretty dark time. Like there was a lot of medical concerns, a lot of stress. And I told my wife, I said, I'm not riding. I'm not going. And I told Aaron, I said, I'm not going. And my wife said, if you don't ride this, I'm gonna sell your bike personally. This is something you need to do. And you need to go out there and do it. And I think that day, day one, chase and carry the game, and everybody else in this room were like, what the hell's wrong? It was a lot of anger. I had a lot of uh anger in my heart from being terrified that I was gonna lose my best friend. And I think it came out every mile. And it wasn't until two days ago, Chris, I killer costume, brother. Two days ago, in the middle of the night, you and I are sitting on top of a mountain somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and we decided to ride together, right? For and that was the last two, the last two days of this event has been the most exciting for me because I found friends, I got rid of the anger, and this has just been the most incredible group. I cannot wait to be back next year, right? Because I'm gonna give this thing to somebody else. Thank you. Thanks, everybody.

SPEAKER_04: 1:54:19

Like this one on the big one. Where's the fun in that?

SPEAKER_06: 1:54:50

I guess that's it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:54:53

Thank you.

SPEAKER_16: 1:55:00

All right, and I think that wraps it up, except for um a great deal of thanks, and we all owe a great deal of thanks to this gentleman right here. So, yeah, sorry. Sorry to do it. Yeah, just call your jacket now. Look, uh Aaron, Aaron and I did the uh came out. We spent 10 hours side by side in a car, and I was now the guessing for him, and he was trying to hold that car at whatever speed I told him and make the appropriate turns. And um and then shortly thereafter, he ended up without work, and he said, I'm gonna do this thing. And you guys, this thing is this thing that we're doing right now. And um he put it together and he did it all by himself. Now, granted, he's got friends who help him support him, but all of the entire he built the app, everything. Right, everything, all in. So, congratulations, well done. It's nice to call you my friend. Let's go, Harry.

SPEAKER_11: 1:59:32

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