Big Money Rally 2020

by Richard Swim · Published 2020-09-05 · Updated 2021-01-27

January 1, 2020

It’s another new year and another new Big Money Rally. Reno John and his team again spent countless hours to come up with some new themes for this year’s long rally, named “Do You See the Light?”. The primary theme was churches, with a simple idea of finding unique first two letters of the word preceding Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Lutheran, SDA or United Methodist Church. Word of the days and hours would also be another theme to keep one on the moto. Creeks would be another focus with the 2-letters of the word preceding creek. Some location-specific boni would be airports, past winners, Route 66, cathedrals and “small town, big city names”. The weekend-specific 3-day rally boni would get one on the moto for a longer ride.

I started off the first day of the year with the “selfie” bonus and a bunch of churches.

January 4, 2020

I ran in to Jerry and Jamie at the International Motorcycle Show after a quick run over to Addison. Their smiles are always nice to see!

January 8-19, 2020

The second week of the year brought some nice weather to ride and a new grandson. Slade was born on January 8th, and what a blessing! Sadder news in January was the passing of Neil Peart, drummer for Rush. Neil would ride his BMW between gigs while the rest of the band would take the tour bus. Laura and Stephen were in the middle of a new house build on their 10 acres just in time for Slade to start motoring around in.

February 21, 2020

I took a quick ride up to Bowie on a chilly day to grab big points with the photo documentation of the world’s largest Bowie knife.

February 29, 2020

Tom and I left for a fairly chilly ride into Arkansas. My major goal was to frustrate Tom as I stopped for numerous photos of creek signs along the route. Tom burned up a tire that he had to replace during the ride. In the shop was a Hodaka Ace 90 very similar to the one I rode in Abilene, TX when I was 15 years old.

March

The Coronavirus was really starting to make the news with increasing case counts. Our county judge issued a stay at home order and I abided for a while with no rides for around 4 weeks.

April 10, 2020

The COVID-19 situation was still a real issue, but I was ready to get back on the moto. A three-day rally bonus near my house enticed me back to ride. The best I recall is I left my garage and rode the 50 or so miles without entering a store or getting close to anyone else.

April 24, 2020

The governor of Texas relaxed some of the COVID-19 restrictions. I took a longer ride down to the Texas Hill Country with a stay in Lakeway, west of Austin. While I was grabbing a bonus at Resley’s Creek on Hwy 36, I took a break to snack and discovered a historical marker commentating the Texas 36th Division. My father was in the 36th, and I was amazed that I stumbled across this marker by chance.

May 26, 2020

In May, RJ introduced new themes of biblical words, naughty words (what a contrast…) and location-specific scenic byways. This was good timing in the rally as the supply of unique church words was dwindling. The biblical names theme was educational, as I had no idea of how many towns in Texas were named after names in the Bible.

June 5-7, 2020

It was time for a longer ride, and New Mexico is always a treat. I took a several-day route just touching the border of Colorado with a stay in Raton, with another stop in Tucumcari. The weather was spectacular and scenery great!

June 2020

The Big Money Rally typically ends around Memorial Day, but this year, RJ decided to extend it to Labor Day due to the complications caused by COVID. I did not do much riding in June and July, but it was nice to get an occasional bonus from time-to-time.

August 13-17, 2020

August brought another rally to the calendar with the cancelation of the How the West was Won. The Been There, Done That rally run by Peter Green was to be done without any social gatherings at the start or finish, and used bonus locations used in previous HW3 rallies run by Justin Philipson. I started from Santa Fe, and headed south and west with a quick rest in Moab. The second day of the 32-hour rally, I finished in Steamboat Springs. Of course, I picked up a few BMR boni along the way. I spent a lazy day after the rally finish riding 4 passes on my way back home.

August 23, 2020

One of my last boni in the BMR was a three-day rally location at the bizarre eyeball in downtown Dallas.

September 5, 2020

Paul Tong brought the long-distance community together with a rescheduled RTE in Celina, TX. On the way back, I saw a fitting “END” photo for the BMR. The new V-Strom I purchased in November now had 15,000 miles. Once again, RJ and team have delivered again to help us burn up gas and tires. THANKS!!!