The Texas Two-Step is an Iron Butt related Rally that can be better understood by reading their site.I would like to tell you about my good experience during this rally.We met Friday afternoon in Garland, TX to get our odometer check and overall instructions on the rally. Our departure was set for 4 AM on Saturday. They passed out the potential bonus points about 8 PM. We retired to our rooms around 9 to do our planning and catch some sleep before the 3:40 AM rider's meeting.

I thought I had a good gameplan when we left out, but found out different. When I walked out to the bike to leave at 4 am Saturday morning I had my chest bowed out and walking tall. In fact, I stepped on a couple of little six foot men walking out to my bike cause I couldn't see them down below.

I quickly mounted my steed and headed off on 635. There were 6 bikes in front of me when I left, and by the time I had traveled to 75 (about 5 or 6 miles), they had already ran off and left me? Well then, I guess since I can't out run these guys, I'll just out smart them. No problem since my first few stops are in my own back yard. I'll give these punks a lesson in Texas kick-ass. So I zoomed up to Denton for my first checkpoint and it only took me 30 minutes to find the place? No problem, just shake it off and you can make up for it. My third stop was in Decatur and it called for a Petrified Wood gas station at the intersection of 287 and 380. I knew exactly where 287 and 380 were (both the new roads and old roads). I went right to the spot and there sits the gas station, however there are no pumps and the instructions clearly state I need the picture in front of the pumps. Therefore, I must have the wrong station? After riding around for 30 minutes trying to find the mystery pumps, I went ahead and took a picture and continued on. I then headed south through Rhome on the way to Abbott (birthplace of Willie Nelson). After riding around Abbott for about 30 minutes looking for Willie Nelson lane and ended up on a gravel road at my historical marker only to find I'd left my rally flag (required to be in my picture to document the stop) back at the last stop. Things are not going well, but I've got to keep trying because everybody else may be having trouble too. A quick call to the Rallymaster gave me the approval I needed to continue the rally, only now I had to be in each picture instead of my rally flag. It doesn't sound too difficult.

I continued south to Waco, then to Clifton, Cranfill's Gap, Hico, Dublin, Rising Star, and Dudley getting bonus points at each town. The bonus points locations could range from taking pictures of a historical bridge to answering a question from a historical statue. Every location was different, but we had specific instructions on what to obtain for points.

After leaving Dudley, I was on my way to San Angelo realizing I wasn't going to be able to get near as much accomplished as had hoped. Which meant that I had spent too much time getting locations with not enough points and I was going to have to eliminate some locations with a lot more points. This turned out to be my downfall in the rally. However, I must continue on.

I arrived in San Angelo and got gas to document my beginning to my 8 hr rest stop (mandatory). After eating a light dinner, I tried every which way I could to get some sleep. It seems the more you try the less you can get. However, I was fortunate to get a couple of hours before my midnight departure.

On my way to San Antonio through Menard and Junction during the dark of night, I realized I had 600 miles to cover in 12 hours. This meant there would be very little time to obtain bonus point. Now, I'm more concerned about finishing versus placing real high. I skirted the north side of San Antonio just close enough to get a gas receipt that read San Antonio. I went north to grab some good points in Austin across from the University of Texas at 4:30am. (I have to be back in Garland no later than noon.) The neighborhood was trashed, and I had a hard time getting a picture because my subject was too dark. It seems it's always more difficult to get points than you anticipate. I found out later that there had been a UT ball game there the day before. In fact, some of the riders had gotten caught in the traffic.

Once I left Austin, I decided to go directly to College Station (mandatory) and drop some more locations that I wanted to get. After leaving College Station, I went north to Corsicana to take a picture of Lefty Frizzel's sidewalk engraving before returning to home base via the Scottish Rite Hospital (recipient of the fund raiser).

By the time I finished, I had gone from 10 foot tall to 2 feet. I was lucky to be able to reach my food while sitting beside Rick (the winner) at the Rally Banquet. Obviously, I can't dance (with my tail between my legs). I ran 1160 miles and accumlated 1960 points, however no enchilada. The only butt that got kicked was mine. It looks like I ended up with an eighth position

Suzanne (fellow rider) has some more pictures here.