First Day – Iron Butt

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Iron Butt Association (I’m not kidding, it’s really called that), they document and certify motorcycle rides of extreme length. The basic one is to complete a ride in 24 hours of at least 1,000 miles. If you’re not sure how far that is, it’s about the same distance as the Moon from the Earth. Look it up, I’m sure it’s on Wiki or something. It also happens to be the length of my first day’s ride…

So on the fateful morning, I check the weather and am surprised to find this:

 

Which just happens to exactly parallel my planned route:
See Map
(sorry, I tried to insert just the photo but it’s not working…)

It took way longer than my assumption of 17 hours, but after 21 hours I finally got to my 1,000 mile mark.

Initial Odometer reading – 7,543 miles

Elapsed miles – 0

6:45am – Got my starting form filled out and signed by the witness, gas up and hit the road.

9am – cross border into Louisiana

1:30pm – Lunch in Opelousas, LA at Mama’s Fried Chicken. Had my first Crab Burger. Also felt like I was on set for the filming of “Waterboy II,” I could hardly understand a few people.

2:00-4:00 – wait in traffic in the rain in Baton Rouge. I lost at least an hour because of that, probably more. Damn Baton Rouge.

5:26pm – cross border into Mississippi

6:38pm – cross border into Alabama

8pm – cross border into Florida. Sorry, no pic, it was dangerously close to raining at the time.

I think that the Iron Butt challenges are a lot like a night of heavy drinking – Before you start you think it’s going to be a lot of fun, but then somewhere along the way you start to get tired. Before you know it, it’s 3am, you’re not sure where you are or how you got there. All you know is that you need to drink a lot of water and down some painkillers. You’ll still wake up sore in the morning though.

There were some times that were tough, but with a diet of 5 Hour Energy and System of a Down I was able to stay alert.

4am – Get to Lake City, FL – the final destination for the Saddle Sore 1000. I find a 24hour Walgreens and have the clerk sign off my form.

5am – Finally get the tent set up and CRASH.

Elapsed miles – 1,014

Lessons Learned:

• DQ’s in Florida are the same as Texas: S-L-O-W
• 1GB of mp3’s lasts for 800 miles
• Cruise control on the bike is not as easy as on a car, but it is a MUST for long distance.
• Don’t do any more Iron Butt challenges

Ok, now that the longest day is over with, I’ll be sleeping in for a “normal” day down to Key West tomorrow…