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2019 Heart of Texas Rally: Grapes of Wrath Tour May 1-4, 2019

Texas T

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(Riders - Paul is one of the pair of riders that rode two-up in the last Iron Butt Rally and finished FOURTH overall. The reviews of this rally are always good. If you're interested in dipping your toes into the LD riding / rallying world, this is a good one to start with. TT)


Ladies and Gentlemen,

Registration is already in full swing for the 2019 Heart of Texas Rally. This year's theme is The Grapes of Wrath. For those of your dirtmongers who are unfamiliar with the long-distance rally, this is not your ride to, lots of dirt, camping and tank-top type of event. No, sorry. Imagine a road-based, scavenger hunt for points style competition. There are no points for speed or finishing early, only for gathering as many points by visiting unique and interesting locations over the time span of the event. At the end, well there will be music and possibly some adult beverages, but it's the most fun you'll have while on 2 wheels while on asphalt.

The event will start and finish in Bryan, TX. I won't try to fully explain LD rallying here but a little Google searching should help. If not that, also check out Facebook pages for the NIITWIt Rally, Heart of Texas Rally, Long-Distance Motorcycle Endurance Rallying, Iron Butt Motorcycle Riders, and others. You can also check out the web page for the Iron Butt Association, Team Strange, and many many others.

The Heart of Texas Rally is open now for registration. After only 2 months, we are practically half full. Granted, space in the rally is actually incumbent upon space at the hotel, so we’ll allow more than 50 if need be, but generally we’re cutting it off at 50.

Yes, there is a 65 hour, a 30 hour, and a 12 hour option, but come on….do you really want to take the easy road? **** no! So far, all riders have signed up for the 65 hour option. That’s right, they are in for the EPIC challenge and adventure that will be the Grapes of Wrath Tour. It may matter to some, maybe not to others, but if we sell-out the rally with 65 hour riders, we’re going to have some kickass live music at the finish and that is a huge goal for me.

So stop procrastinating. You want to get in on this rally. You don’t have to ride balls-to-the-wall for 65 hours. Finishing won’t be hard, finishing in the top 5 will be Herculean to be sure. Some of the top rally riders around are already signed up. Don’t care about that? That’s cool too because I’m going to design this rally so that competitive riders will have a blast AND the flower-sniffers will have a fun ride around Texas. This rally is designed to appeal to all types and that’s why all you slackers need to suck it up and ride the 65 hour.

I want to close this up so that I can spend all my time planning the best event for you, the rider, instead of spending all my time marketing for riders. Sign up today. Make this a Christmas present to yourself. Sign your wife up, sign your husband up, sign your dog up, I don’t care. Just sign up. Registration can be found here: https://rides.jasonjonas.com/regRequest.php?id=581 and limited information can be found at www.niitwit.com or you can visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HeartofTexasRally/. Of course, as always, be the best source of information is to e-mail me at paultong971@gmail.com.

Sign up. Do it NOW!

-Paul Tong
Rallymaster and Texas Tour Guide
Heart of Texas Rally – a Southern Long Rider Association event
 
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I rode in this rally last year and had a blast! I drug my feet on entering for 2019 and missed the boat. They are full and not taking anymore riders!


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Humm, glad its full. Now I don't have to worry about procrastinating over signing up.
 
TT, are you riding in this one?

No, I'm still a working stiff and have to plan out my limited PTO time. I'm leaving home around 3/28 to ride to TX. I'll attend the Pie Run on the 30th and then on the 1st I'll be competing in the trophy dash for the Tour Of Honor. Assuming all goes well, I'll ride all the TOH sites in NM and AZ on the way home. On the 11th I'll be in Anthem AZ at the Veteran's Memorial there to attend the placement of my grandfather's brick. On the 19th I'll be in Kingman AZ for 3 days for the Kactus Kilo 1K Rally. And then I have more time off planned for June, so squeezing in another week in May just doesn't work for me. :shame:

I look forward to retirement so I can ride more, but then my income will be reduced and I won't be able to afford to ride as much.. lose/lose. :angel:
 
No, I'm still a working stiff and have to plan out my limited PTO time. I'm leaving home around 3/28 to ride to TX. I'll attend the Pie Run on the 30th and then on the 1st I'll be competing in the trophy dash for the Tour Of Honor. Assuming all goes well, I'll ride all the TOH sites in NM and AZ on the way home. On the 11th I'll be in Anthem AZ at the Veteran's Memorial there to attend the placement of my grandfather's brick. On the 19th I'll be in Kingman AZ for 3 days for the Kactus Kilo 1K Rally. And then I have more time off planned for June, so squeezing in another week in May just doesn't work for me. :shame:

I look forward to retirement so I can ride more, but then my income will be reduced and I won't be able to afford to ride as much.. lose/lose. :angel:

That seems like a pretty full April for riding with some good events coming up. I look forward to retirement so I can ride as much as you're riding before retirement. Good look in the TOH and Kactus Kilo.
 
I participated in the rally this year. Good times despite some heavy rain and nasty storms over about the eastern 1/3 of Texas for much of the four days.

Paul Tong threw a big curveball at the riders (at least I wasn’t expecting it). Last minute announcement that electronic devices would not be allowed at meeting morning of first day. It was paper maps, rulers and colored pencils!

HOTR is first class all the way. Post-rally dinner was awesome with a live band afterwards. Great communication from the rallymaster.
 
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When I first ran the IBR it was before the cellphone and GPS it was all paper even the planing
It would be interesting to see them do something like that again. Issue everyone a pre-paid flip phone for emergencies, and confiscate all the smart phones and GPS units for the 1st leg but then let them have everything back for the remainder of the rally.
 
It would be interesting to see them do something like that again. Issue everyone a pre-paid flip phone for emergencies, and confiscate all the smart phones and GPS units for the 1st leg but then let them have everything back for the remainder of the rally.
As long as you make the leg that simple to do. Example: instead of 150 possible locations, it would go to 50. Essentially 2 or 3 route options. The problem would be this type would vastly favor those riders that have done a lot of rallying and would better be able to sort out the options prior to really committing.

Motorcycle riders, not cartographers.
 
You would really found out who to how to read a map I One rider who joined up with me because he discovered he didn't know how to read a map
 
Depends on when riders get the rally books. At Heart of Texas this was just a few hours before the start so experienced rally riders had an edge.
 
I've never done a rally per say but going out looking for the Tour of Honor sites tends to be a search mission some times. I've decided that I will try a rally some day but will embrace the NITTWIT way of thinking..Not In It To Win It. Just enjoy the experience.
 
I totally agree, have done NIITWiT and it’s the way to start in rallying. Heart of Texas (I can only speak for this year) is a bridge between the fun-oriented NIITWiT approach and rigorous Iron Butt Rally rules, though riders were able to get feedback about individual bonuses during the rally which aided in successfully claiming them.

Paul Tong and his team are first class.
 
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