When the highlight of the past 2 days was taking pictures of the worlds largest Pistachio nut and the worlds largest Chilli (and they weren’t even bonuses), you know that it’s been boring ….

And that’s been the story of day eight and nine, Robert just heading east towards the finish. He has plenty of time in hand even though he knows that he will lose a few hours doing one last loop before arriving at the finish control (exactly where he started from). He also knows that barring a disaster, he has enough points to be a finisher already

He’s managed to dodge the bad thunderstorms that have been been moving across the central belt of the USA from west to east but didn’t manage to dodge the truck fire that temporarily halted progress along I-40.

But these last two days have been indicative of what happens, I guess, when you are an extremely competent rider, using an extremely competent motorcycle and you ride well within your limits on an IBR – it just turns into a long ride.

Roberts 2013 IBR and 2017 IBR when he used extremely unsuitable motorcycles, were full of adventures, full of many highs but also many lows and also full of many comedic moments for a “commentator” like myself to seize upon. This time, a large chilli and an equally large nut are about all this is to laugh at !!

As enjoyable as the 9 day ride will have been, it has been devoid of excitement – rather like my reporting – and indeed the lack of comment from the readers of Roberts (my) blog this time seem to reflect the mundaneness of the ride.

Now, I’m really hoping that I haven’t now jinxed Robert for day ten and day eleven, but I suspect when he’s got this IBR done and dusted, in many years time, when he’s an old man (mmmm … should that be “older” man), smoking a pipe, sitting in his rocking chair in his Bavarian cottage, he’ll look back at his 3 IBR rides and of the 3 rallies, he’ll barely remember the 2023 ride – apart from the big chilli that is ……