Iron Butt Association 2018 Daytona Party – Saddle Sore 1000

The 2018 IBA Daytona Party,” Grand Tour,” took us to places in Florida and Georgia named for more famous places. The instruction sheet for the ride gave us a brief description of the famous place. My friend, Bob, and I had a good time on this ride and appreciated that there were only eight stops.

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The first step was to register for the ride.

In the morning we got last minute instructions from the director, then off we went.

This grotto in Lourdes is where Saint Bernadette saw her vision of the Virgin Mary.

Founded as a Viking settlement, Dublin is now the largest city in Ireland. Home of Molly Malone, Bono, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Maureen O’Hara, Bram Stoker, Bob Geldof, and Joe Ellliott, lead singer of Def Leppard. And 23 soldiers who were awarded the Victoria Cross.

This is where the Swiss keep all the money. Have to say, it’s well camouflaged.

It’s about time they moved West Point close to Fort Benning, so the graduates can just march across the street to report for duty.

Home of Truman Capote and Harper Lee. Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer prize in 1961. It was
made into a movie starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, an attorney. The courthouse scenes were filmed in the
county courthouse, which is now the Old Courthouse Museum.

Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, and Muammar Khadaffi walk into a bar…stop me if you’ve heard this one…

Who knew Thomas Jefferson had a hanging tree? That’s the big oak on the south side of the courthouse square. Local legend says that hangings were done on Thursday afternoons and the town shut down so citizens could attend. Some businesses in Monticello still close on Thursday afternoon.

For those who will admit to remembering the Sgt Preston of The Yukon TV show from the ’50s, maybe you could look him up and say Hello.

There was an awards banquet the evening of the second day. The following day we rode to Daytona to walk through the vendor area at the Speedway and meet fellow Road Glide friends at the Target.

We rode home after lunch and put our bikes and ourselves to bed.