MOA & RA Rallies - 1. When to Leave

1. When to Leave 

We usually discuss details of our trips during breakfast time. We do the research independently and then bring it together to the table during our breakfast coffee. So the kitchen table is, so to speak, our headquarters. So when do we leave for the MOA, the annual meeting of bikers like us? 

The ‘Motorcycle Owners of America’ (MOA) Group is one of the clubs we belong to. It’s an international group of like-minded folks, people who love to ride Motos. Most of the riders we meet ride, almost exclusively, BMW Motorcycles. Each year the location for the MOA rally is in a different town, a different state, even, sometimes a different county. 

It’s always a challenge for many working folks to get to this chosen town. They go to meet the people, have a get together, have a summer meet where ideas are exchanged. A rally always reminds me of a tribal get together.

For 2018 the town for this MOA rally was Des Moines, Iowa. 

Des Moines is a distance of about 840 miles (1340 km) going the fastest way, or… with a little bit of wiggling on side roads; 990 miles (1540 km) from Toronto. 

We have to consider that we have to cross the border, have to pay tolls which is not like paying toll from a car, eat, get gasoline, stretch our legs, so let’s say we ride 300 miles a day (about 6 to 7 hours in the seat) that would make it 3 days of riding, more or less. 

Well, all of above numbers would tell us we are ok with 3 days, but the temperatures are around 96 F (36 C).   It really is not good to just sit in the full sun, with full gear on; we call wearing full gear ‘ATGATT’ (all the gear all the time) and have a heat stroke. The heat is a detriment to riding a Moto.

So, when do we leave? We want to mainly ride in the morning, and then soak up the A/C in a hotel someplace when the heat gets above 95F.  

The actual rally is from July 12 to July 14, with everybody, at the end of the rally, leaving on the 15^th of July. It is a major exodus when so many people leave at once. 

But we need to be there earlier, way earlier. You see, there is work to be done.

Sign Set Up

Before the rally starts everything needs to be set up so that people have an easy time finding things. We, the MOA, usually use Country Fairgrounds (for camping space and air conditioned buildings for seminars and exhibitors) for our get together, for our rallies.  

Exhibitors need their sales booth space, signs need to be posted, we have a registration process that needs setting up, etc. Drinks and food are usually available through vendors. Merchandise for bikers will be offered for sale. We have to, kind of, install a city for about 5000 people. Sure,

These and Many More Signs Must Be Set Up

most of it is a tent city, but still, there is a multitude to consider. We never know how many riders will show up, we have had rallies in the past were nearly 8000 people showed up and as few as only 4000. It is difficult to plan this event. Attendance fluctuates greatly. It mostly depends on a few factors, like when people can get off work, how hot or rainy it will be, how the national economy allows for the luxury of spending money and time, etc.

In 3 Days This Hall Will Be Filled With Exhibitors

 To set up an impromptu town for 5000 people is not easy. The planning is huge, the details, down to the showers and bathrooms need to be seamless. Imagine you cannot get coffee in the morning!  Yes, we plan for that, too. Not only that, we have to find the right people for the ‘job’, all volunteers.

All of the work that needs to be done to make a rally a success is done by volunteers. A lot of people volunteer, without volunteers a rally like this would not be possible. 

Unpacking Boxes For the Country Store (Wearable Stuff With BMW Logo)

The MOA has some experience setting up beer halls, dance areas, hiring music groups to perform at night, giving seminars, and teaching riding techniques and whatever you can imagine riders do with their bikes. We offer bike detailing, bike washing, oil changes and tire services are provided by sellers who will add stuff to a bike, etc. 

All is available; all is there for the buying, for the taking, and for the doing. The 3 days that the rally is in full swing everybody is very busy.

But all of this needs to be organized BEFORE hand, before most people arrive. So volunteers are needed. Carol and I always volunteer. To us a rally is much longer than the 3 days of activities. Longer because we always try to be there the Sunday before the rally starts. So we have 3 days to get there, 4 days to volunteer and then 3 days of rally before Sunday, when everybody leaves. 

Ok, Carol, when do we leave for Des Moines?

We decide to leave Thursday, ride all day, and then ride Friday and Saturday and we get there on Sunday. Sounds like a plan? 

We do not like to be rushed, do not like to be held to a certain distance, do not like the heat, do not like unexpected things that could creep up, we want to play it safe… we are leaving Thu, July 5. We plan ahead, as well as we can.

3 days to get there……. I can hear some riders now, “Are you kidding?” is what they are thinking, it’s only a 1000 miles. 

Oh, I know we have plenty of time and some people call us Wusses for being so slow. But I am trying to put down how ‘we’ do it. Never mind other folks.

Some people we know ride 1000 miles and more just in one day… they leave on Saturday Morning and ride to get there on Sunday. Those are the Iron Butt folks; a whole special group of riders, similar to the special forces in the army. Carol and I used to ride like that… no longer… we got wiser (and older)! The Iron Butt Association is the hard core department of the motorcycle riders. Imagine… riding 11 consecutive days, each day a minimum of 1,100 miles. Yes, you read that right. You could not win this Iron Butt competition if you have less than 12,000 miles total.  Yikes!  I heard how hard it is to win that one. It’s not for me, though. I rode a few days here and there that were way over 1000 miles, but I learn fast, I got smarter. 

Anyhow, that is another story… so when do we leave …    Thursday.

OK, off we go!   Des Moines, here we come.

Linguistic research has shed new light on the meaning of 'Des Moines.' Turns out it might derive from a 330-year-old practical joke. In 1673 Father Jacques Marquette met some representatives of the Peoria Indian tribe near the mouth of the modern-day Des Moines River. He asked them the name of the rival tribe that lived further along the banks of the river. The Peoria told him that tribe was called the Moingoana, which became the root for the word 'Moines'. But researcher Michael McCafferty of Indiana University, while studying the now extinct Miami-Illinois language, discovered that Moingoana, translated literally, meant 's**t faces.' Evidently the Peoria were having a little fun at their rival's expense. The city of Des Moines has not yet acknowledged the true meaning of its name.