I had a a good rest tonight and rose refreshed. The choice of breakfast was again pretty depressing but I tried to counter with some fruit salad at the end. In the beginning I was pretty alone at my table, but gradually it filled with quite illustrious people of the Iron Butt Association such as Ed Otto, Jason Jonas, Bob Lilley and finally his excellency himself, IBA President Mike Kneebone. This made me stay a lot longer as this was a unique opportunity to chat quietly with these people, soon the storm would break loose. I had a long and good conversation with Mike about a series of topics. I told him that I was super relaxed, what a difference to previous IBRs where I was very nervous before the start. This will of course change during the ceremony tonight: after the dinner, when we will be handed out the rally book, the imaginary clock for planning starts.
I rode to the nearest petrol station (or as they call it here, ‘gas station’) and used my electric pump for the first time to correct my tyre pressure. I filled up and I purchased a series of items in the shop (water, energy bars, beef jerky, cookies…). In the parking lot, a had a talk with Bob Lilley asking for tips in terms of riding style, precious information.
In my room, I prepared my luggage, the one that I will carry and the one I leave here. I connected my Sat Nav to the notebook and noticed a problem: the North America maps that are stored on the devices are not visible in Basecamp, the planning software. They are on the devices, I used they to come here, but they are not visible for planning. Luckily, I had installed some Open Source Maps on the Computer to use it also without the GPS, handy to have a quick look on the roadside. This should work as well. A good example for appropriate redundancy.
I will go to the rider meeting now, curious what the rally master will reveal to us. Later the banquet will take place where we will be given the rally books. Then, the storm WILL break loose.
Hutzlmandl On Tour 
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