White Stag Rally 2012

White Stag is usually held the last weekend of January.  However, due to some medical issues, the rally was delayed until February 25th.  Rally HQ was in Beatty, NV at the Stagecoach Motel.  This would be my 3rd White Stag.  At the 2010 White Stag, I was a rally virgin but came home de-flowered (in a very good way).  This year was to be a "Stagger" rather than a scavenger hunt type rally.  All good fun.  We were warned to arrive with a fresh condom.

Eric and I headed out on Friday, Feb. 24 and took a round-a-bout way to get to Beatty.  We were also participating in the Big Money Rally and wanted to grab a few bonus locations on our way to White Stag.  We rode through Las Vegas and then headed west on the Blue Diamond Hiway where we got our first BMR bonus - a summit sign, Mtn. Springs.

From there we headed toward Tecopa, CA for another BMR bonus.  Whoohoo, score!  Tecopa is pretty much nowhere with nothing but a glorious road to get there.

Oh my, just a little bit of my pink LD Comfort zip top is showing!  The best LD underwear ever!

After Tecopa, we aimed the bikes toward Shoshone, CA for yet another great road with no traffic, great scenery and nice curves to another BMR bonus.

Although we rode over several passes, none had good signage for BMR purposes, so we pushed on toward Death Valley.  We took a left on CA 178 and rode to Death Valley via the Badwater Road.  It was fantastic.  Little to no traffic, clear blue skies and around 68 degrees.  I love Death Valley!  Past Furnace Creek we took a right on the cut-off to CA 190 which put us into Beatty by late afternoon.

It was awesome to see many riders had already arrived and were ready to begin the White Stagger!

Boys will be boys no matter their age.  These guys are already into kicking tires, telling lies, and doing whatever else LD riders do at a gathering.

Quick, look, there's the new, svelte, awesome, Ms. Heidi S. with her entourage!

One of the BMR bonus requirements was to get a picture of the White Stag Rally Master holding your placard and the Rally Master holding up fingers to indicate how many points you got for that bonus.  Since Tom Almassy hadn't yet arrived, Steve Lotsofsky was the substitute Rally Master.  Here's my bonus picture.

Yup, Steve kindly gave me the full 5 points!  This rally was off to a great start.  As with pretty much any rally or LD gathering, riders hung out in the parking lot, kicking tires, telling lies, partaking in adult beverages and just generally having a great time.  It's so fun to see old friends and make new friends.  I was tickled that I knew a majority of the riders.  I was also tickled to see what fine company I was with.  Some of these folks are simply legend.

Ernie A. arrives from Oregon with a big smile and looking very stylish in his LD Comfort head liner.  I think he had a good ride getting to Beatty and was looking forward to the Stagger.

A Stagger just wouldn't be complete without RenoJohn.  Camera in one hand and drink in the other.  No wonder I love RenoJohn so much.

One of my heroes, Bob M. shows up wearing a grin (typical of all the riders)!

Oh yes, that's Chuck H. and his dog Amos.  Although Chuck and Amos drove in a cage, they were just as pumped as the riders to get this Swagger going.

 The parking lot is starting to fill up.  You know something good is going to happen when a motel parking lot is full of strange looking motorcycles.

Lloyd G. from Everett, WA and Chris P. from Henderson, NV shooting the bull.

 Pat F. from Tehachapi, CA, RenoJohn, Mike C. from Oregon and the dude with the outstanding Honda TransAlp (sorry, forgot his name, but totally remember the bike!).

Yup, more lie telling and tire kicking while imbibing.  That's pretty standard rally gathering stuff.

Steve Lotsofsky, substitute Rally Master and Mr. Transalp enjoying a beer on a beautiful afternoon in lovely downtown Beatty, NV.  Doesn't get much better than this.  Well, maybe if they were actually RIDING it might be better :-)

Don S. (another Legend) hangs with Lloyd G. and Chris P.

Dennis Y. with his BMR placard arrives from Vancouver, WA on his new, nicely decorated, Yamaha Super Tenere.

That Chris P. just kept getting new audiences.  Here with Andy M. and Doug B., both 2011 IBR finishers.

Hahahaha.  Mac M. got roped into carrying swag and didn't want to let go of that drink!  Oh, this guy runs marathons as well as awesome LD riding.

RenoJohn and I have a camera face-off.  Good silly fun, always.

So, that's pretty much the first evening.  Some of the folks walked down the road to a new BBQ place for dinner and some of us just went to Subway for a sandwich.  We all got our rally packs and found out what Saturday would have in store for us.

The 2012 White Stag would be a "self-guided tour" of Death Valley or wherever you wanted to go.  There were two checkpoints and each rider was assigned either Checkpoint 1 or 2.  Eric and I got Checkpoint 2 which was a condom shoot at Titus Canyon in the afternoon.  Hooray, this worked out really well for us because we intended to go BMR bonus hunting in the morning.  Checkpoint 1 was a more northern location where the riders stopped at a summit and had to coast until they stopped with the winner having the longest coasting distance.  But....someone who did that Checkpoint will have to tell that story.  I heard lots of hilarious things went on there.......but not actually being there, I can't say.  My lips are sealed.

Saturday morning we loaded up the bikes and took off on our self-guided tour.  We headed to Death Valley and Stovepipe Wells.  As we descended into the valley, the temperature went from 47 to 67, nice!  The sky was blue and the roads were clear.  Absolutely, flippin, fantastic riding.  Did I mention I love Death Valley?

From Stovepipe Wells, we rode toward Panamint and turned south toward Trona, CA, our first BMR bonus location.  For those who've never been, Trona should definitely be on your list of places to visit.  Yes, it is run down and depressed.  But...it is also a wonder.  I'd like to explore more of Trona sometime.  Yes, we copped the bonus!

From Trona, we headed to Randsburg, CA, where the wind picked up and tried to push us around some.  We persevered and finally arrived at Randsburg.  This is a tiny, off-the-beaten-path, mining town that now caters to the OHV crowd.  Really cute place with lots of antique stores, general store and I'm sure a place or two to eat if you looked hard enough.  We searched high and low and round and round for the Post Office.  This was the best we could do.

You can barely make out the words "Post Office."  I think the RM gave us the points but apparently other riders found an "official" US Post Office sign somewhere else in town.  We did ask a local and he said there is no longer an operating post office in Randsburg and that they use the Johannesburg post office.  We went there too, but it didn't say Randsburg which was the requirement.  Personally, I like the Randsburg Post Office shot we got.  Lots of character!

At this point, we pointed our bikes to Ridgecrest and some much needed lunch.  We ate at a cute little family restaurant that had great food.  After a pleasant meal and a bit of a rest, we mounted up and headed back to Death Valley.  We returned pretty much the way we went.  Just glorious.  Riding Death Valley is a treat and everyone should experience it at least once.

Backtracking, we stopped for a quick picture of the Death Valley National Park sign for yet another BMR bonus.

Not too far from this site, we turned off on the gravel Titus Canyon road.  About a mile down the road we found our Checkpoint.  I guess we were a bit early because nothing was set up yet although there were a number of riders milling around, shooting the bull.  Typical huh?  Eventually, Tom Almassy the official RM, declared the Checkpoint open and Eric and I were first to set up our targets.

My very thoughtful sweetie blew up my EXTRA LARGE condom and tied it to the post for me to shoot.  Unfortunately, no matter how big the target, I couldn't  hit it.  Three shots and no love.  Oh well, I just reminded myself that I shot my condom last year at White Stag and I killed Barbie last year at Gerlach.  So, I wasn't too concerned.

Cute, little Ms. Rosie Sperry shot after me and I think on her first or second shot, popped that condom dead.  She's quite the gun pro, that Rosie!

Sorry, no pictures from Titus Canyon, but I think others have posted some interesting ones.  Maybe a little incident about Bob M. shooting a flare gun at the condom and setting the desert on fire?  Nah, that couldn't have happened.  Good thing I had a pretty much full hydration bottle on the bike......

After our shoot, we turned the bikes around and headed out of Titus Canyon and back to Beatty.  We arrived at the motel, cleaned up and did the parking lot tire kicking, lie telling and adult beverage drinking for a bit.  Because the motel had changed restaurants to a Denny's we didn't have a banquet.  Instead, we all got tickets good for $30 of food at Denny's!  Who could possibly eat $30 worth of food at a Denny's?  Geez, the guys all got steak and shrimp and more shrimp.  I just couldn't do it and had a very nice chicken salad.  So, because we had so much $$$ to spend, we ordered dessert and breakfast to go.  Hahahahahahaha.

Following dinner, it was time for the final results and swag meeting.  Oh boy, good fun.  We all eventually filed into the meeting room and tossed our swag tickets into various buckets for all the goodies we wanted to win.  This is a very, very fun thing :-)

 The room is starting to fill up and everyone has their swag tickies in front of them hoping to be the winner of whatever they want to win.  There was lots of good swag to choose from.

 Tom A. kicks off the swag meeting, giving a bit a detail about the White Stag rally and its duration.  It was fantastic to see Tom and we hope he continues to hold White Stag ad nauseum.  The first rally of the year, sometimes a riding rally, sometimes a stagger, no matter, it's always good fun.

 Riders checking their tickets, hoping they are the big winner!

 Oh no, RenoJohn again, obviously cracked up this group.

 Steve Lotsofsky was incredibly humorous in his descriptions of the various swag items being raffled.  No really, I wish I had recorded him.  He is a natural comedian.  Kudos, Steve.  Good Job!

 No, no, no, I really don't want this....but if I must take it, okay :-)

Dennis Y. scores on a mesh riding jacket.  Ernie looks a bit jealous.

I don't have a photo, but Fisch scored on the Bilt Multi Helmet, the prize most of us wanted to get.  What's really nice is his old helmet was 11 years old.  Yes, that's right, 11 years.  And, best of all, the new helmet fit.  We saw him as he headed out the next morning and he was all grins and giggles and wearing the new helmet.  Congratulations.  Couldn't have gone to a more deserving rider.

Well, folks, I cleaned clock on the swag.  Seems like every other number was me!  Whoopee.  Call a number, put my hand up and I won something awesome.  What good fun.  I gave a few of my winnings to other deserving riders.  Hey, they've done the same thing to me.  Just an awesome, good, fun time.  (PS - last year I didn't win a single thing.....).

Just yet another good score, the motel had three cases of Valentine candy that they handed out to everyone.  How in the heck did I end up with six boxes?  Yummy....canny.....ummmmm......

After the swag meeting, we all headed out to the bar.  Oh surprise?  Not really.  Riders hanging out after a good day of Death Valley roads...everyone had a story and some should probably stay at Beatty.  Suffice it to say, all had a great time.  We enjoyed our rides and enjoyed visiting with each other.  Yes, we got silly, but that's all in good fun.  Never have I met a better group of genuine, good fun people who actually like to get out and ride a mile or two.

George S. provided a great swag for everyone, Klim hats!  Sweet!  This last picture pretty much sums up the rest of the evening.  Look at RenoJohn's blog for all the photos.  Seems like White Stag turned into White Tongue.......

The next morning, Eric and I were slow to get up.  No wonder, huh?  We packed up the bikes around 10 and headed home.  Heck, it was only a 250 mile ride on Nevada Hiway 95 and then I-15.  Easy, peasy.  We had some strong winds on 95 but they settled down and the rest of the ride was sweet.

White Stag 2012 was a huge success.  Yes, it was postponed, but that was okay.  The turnout was fantastic,  we all had awesome rides and the gathering both at the front and the end was incredible.  I love my LD family and thank you for enveloping me in your fold and making me feel a part of the group.  You are the best folks ever.

See you on the next ride :-)

Cletha