Or have the historical marker be a mystery water tower nobody's ever heard of at the top of a hill, on top of another hill. Like at the All City. Durrrr..

Go up to the Bronx, and get me some breast milk from a Cambodian immigrant.

That's a pretty common alleycat stop.

The common ones are the ones that get me.

How about a winter alleycat stop at the middle of a lake that's frozen over? "The blue ice house on Lake Calhoun."

stupor bowl spoiler?

That was a Stuporbowl stop one year, actually. Only it was too warm, so there was water and slush on top of the ice.

Made me really happy that I was slow enough to _not_ make it to that stop.

Since GPS's are almost required for motorcycling rallies, some bonus stops are listed by their GPS coordinates only. There was one back in 2006 that landed competitors in the middle of the Bonneville Salt Flats during Speed Week. I was there and called in the coordinates of our trailer which was literally 8 miles out in the salt from the end of the road.

As GPS technology become cheaper and lighter (and a standard feature on your cellphone), I would expect to see stops like this become regular occurances. And having one in the middle of Calhoun in January would be great.

You have to be careful when using graveyard as a stop. Sure, it's great if the guy running the rally finds a dead person somewhere with the same name, or wants to send people to the gravesite of someone they have heard of but it needs to be done in a way that doesn't draw too much negative attention to the event. The best way to do it is to have directions that allows the rider to find the marker without having to run all over the place. That really draws the wrong kind of attention. It takes enough time just to get in there and get out without making a big deal about it. People call the cops about that kind of stuff.

How about a stop that requires a mass-transit component. Require a ride on the light rail to a particular stop where a volunteer will sign their ticket?

For graveyards, I've seen finding a grave where it's before or within a certain date range. Especially if it's before say, 1875, you can tell which markers have been there that long pretty easily. Another option would be to find 'john' or something else that's going to be really easy to find.

Light rail has also been done - it is usually a bonus, though. I don't think that you actually had to ride the train, just get the ticket...

At the most recent "Butt Lite" (7 day, 7,000 mile M/C rally) riders were told to exit the freeway then travel 11 blocks on a particular street and take a picture of the "giant bat." Every single one of them rode 9 blocks and saw the giant baseball bat and took a picture of it. What none of them did was ride the full 11 blocks and take the picture of the giant mouse-with-wings bat.

This, imho, is true genius.

Remember, it's not a race, it's a test of reading comprehension. Ok, it's a race, too.

for the northside nightmare one of the stops was a graveyard.
the racers were given a piece of paper and a crayon and had to spell their own name by finding the letters on gravestones.
not knowing how to explain what this is called, i just looked it up:

frottage: french word for the technique of rubbing. it involves placing paper over such objects as coins, bricks, grass, wood, etc. and rubbing with a soft pencil or crayon to record the texture or image.

I always heard it called "Temple Rubbing." Frottage sounds classier!

But that would be a great way to self-stamp a manifest at a historical marker.

That's the first definition given by Merriam-Webster. The second definition would make for a much more interesting alleycat stop. Although I'm not sure it would be legal with a tombstone in public. Also rather painful.

yeah, i read the second definition as well. figured i wouldn't be the one to mention it ; )