The July 31 deadline to apply for Butt Lite X is near. We could just say that. But how about a nice little story to go along with the nudge?

At this year’s Iron Butt Rally there was a lot of talk about old-school. At TeamStrange, we’re cognizant of history and we approve of old-school.

So y’all know that Eddie James was a founder of TeamStrange, of the Minnesota 1000, and Butt Lite. But Eddie also put together the Grand Tours – starting with the I’ve Been Everywhere Tour in 2000 (visit the locations in the song I’ve Been Everywhere), the Presidential Tour in 2001 (towns named after US presidents), and more. Later in the 20-teens (or whatever that decade is called) Eddie’s brother Jon picked up the baton with the 30th Anniversary Grand Tours, the Whispering Giants Grand Tour, and more. This year’s TeamStrange Grand Tour is States of Confusion, which is . . . well, confusing.

Anyway, States of Confusion rider # 40 inquired about whether a particular building would meet the qualifications for an SOC location. Perusal of the area in Google Maps turned up something that greatly amused the SOC rallymaster.

If you knew Eddie, you knew that he had a mischievous sense of humor and an anti-authoritarian streak.

These tendencies came out in the license plates on some of his motorcycles. Back in the day, Eddie was working at a Harley-Davidson dealer in the Twin Cities, and would ride his BMW to the store. One day Eddie’s BMW was parked out front and the irate and somewhat geographically-challenged owner screamed at him, “Park that Fucking Jap Bike out back!”. Thereafter, Eddie usually had a Bavarian-built BMW with the license plate “FJB”.

At some TeamStrange event, Eddie was downright giggling. He was giggling because he’d just got a new license plate for another of his bikes, and this one said “DONEY“. For those not into the blues as depp as Eddie was, a doney is a term for a woman, often disreputable, and most famously in the Robert Johnson song “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom” and as electrified by Elmore James in “Dust My Broom“:

I don’t want no woman want every downtown man she meets
She’s a no-good doney, they shouldn’t allow her on the street

Eddie was positively delighted to have put one over on the Minnesota DMV.

So how does this relate to States of Confusion? At the request of the rallymaster, SOC Rider # 40 sent back a photo of a road sign close to the SOC location. Eddie would think this was pretty funny. Thank you SOC Rider # 40.