311 Speedway Meeting are meeting at the tracks?????? The Dan River You cannot tell my this photo but trucks with boat trailers are liked up a half mile. Nice little Chevy cruising down the interstate. Rolling back home!
Back on the "Open Road" in a big way. Finished my first Iron Butt ride.Friday May 15, 2020
Praise be to God for making this possible and the hedge of protection he put around me for this ride.
I’ve long wanted to do an Iron Butt and finally the day came to give it a try. I had the bike loaded with what I needed. I had my clothes, boots, gloves, helmet and GoPro ready with three fully charged batteries. I had two Cardo Pack Talk bold headsets fully charges and my phone mounted on the Rokform mount on the handlebars. The alarm on my cell phone went off at 2:30am just as I was getting out of the shower. My wife got up and looked at me as if I were crazy. I rolled out of the driveway at 2:50am and was 2 miles from a Sheetz station which is open 24/7. Filled up with 93 octane and the time stamp showed 3:03am. It's official the ride has begun. The clerk in the store witnessed for me still not understanding why?
The temperature is in the low 60’s, there’s a half moon glowing in the sky and for two hours I listened to nothing but the beautiful exhaust notes and the thoughts in my head. Everything had fallen in place, I had the right frame of mind, the bike was perfect, and failure was not an option.
I rolled out of Davie County in North Carolina east bound. In no time I cruised through the twin city’s tobacco built, through Greensboro, Burlington and was leaned left to I-85 north toward Durham home of the Duke Blue Devils! I stopped for my second gas stop to both top off and get a receipt for the route transition. In no time I cross Kerr Lake and as I topped the long tree lined straight highway the sun started to peak through the trees bringing a glimpse of a beautiful day ahead. Finally, I turned on some music through the headset speakers and all the problems of the world had disappeared. It was just me, the bike and the “Open Road”. As I came to Petersburg, VA I leaned right and rolled onto I-95 south bound. I stopped again for fuel and was rolling again in five minutes. At this point I was getting a little hungry and really wanted some coffee. I shot for a truck stop in hopes there would be a restaurant with a sausage biscuit and coffee. Well I got the coffee, but no hot food was to be had. After about 20 minutes and a funny visit with a local deputy sheriff I was on the road again. I blasted through NC and stopped at the SC welcome center for a much-needed break and lunch stop. I spent about 30 minutes and got back on the road. Traffic was rolling good and for I-95 even on a Friday it was light. Waze kept me update on police and never let me down. My destination on this leg was Exit 94 in Savannah where I knew the gas stations and was right at the Savannah HD dealership. At this point I was over the halfway mark and my back between the shoulder blades was killing me. When I stopped for gas, I got a couple of Aleve and in no time, it helped me forget about that pain. I got my gas receipt and did a 180 to back track to I-26. Traffic was much heavier on this stretch of I-95 and I had to put safety first above all. I transitioned onto I-26 west toward Columbia, SC and stopped for a gas receipt at the truck stop. I leaned right and rolled onto I-77 North bringing me closer toward home. I had put my route into an online ride planner, and it came up to 1009 miles which I knew did not give me a window for error. So, I was working out two options in my head to add at least 50 additional miles to the route. I won’t bore you with anymore route details. I arrived back at the original Sheetz I had left from 19 hours earlier and the gas receipt shows 9:52pm. My neighbor and wife were there to witness my return. The total route mileage was 1055 miles and the bike was a BIG BUG!
Stay tuned as I got a good night’s rest, washed the bike early Saturday morning and took my wife on an overnight ride to Myrtle Beach!
A big “THANK YOU” to all that inspired me to do this.
The start of the ride at 3:03am Lunch time at the SC welcome center. Picked these up in Savannah. My shoulders were sore. Worked like a charm.
Got to use gloves at these pumps! Second gas stop on I-85 North of Durham.
This guy had the best and brighest spots on the fron of this bike I have ever seen. The amber could be seen a mile back and the clear were brilliant! Thanks for visiting SC. I'll be back! Exit 94 in Savannah where the HD dealership is. Savannah HD Changed out the Cardo Pack Talk Bold. it lasted 12 hours! Those are the best communications divises
My first and only hot meal of the day. At the Pilot truck stop on I-26 near Orangeburg, SC Final receipt of the trip.
I still need to copy all my fuel receipts and mail everything in to the Iron Butt Association. Hopefully I will get my certificate to make it all official.
I'll calulate my fuel mileage also. I stayed around the 3k RPM range the entire trip. Mileage seemed to be much worse than i expected riding solo.
Stay tuned. I got a good nights rest, washed the bike the following morning and the wife and I took off to Myrtle Beach. The full three day ride was a little over 1500 miles.
Okay lets's go to Myrtle Beach. Happy wife is happy life!
Well I left at 3am Friday morning solo and completed my first ever Iron Butt ride a Saddle Sore 1000. Did it in 19 hours for a total of 1052 miles. NC, VA, SC and GA. The weather was perfect and the bike performed flawlessly. More to come on this ride later. I had promised my wife a trip to Myrtle Beach this weekend. So I get back from the Iron Butt at 10 pm Friday night. Get a good nights rest. Get up early Saturday and clean off 9 million bugs off the bike, we pack and roll. The ride to MB was very enjoyable. What surprised me was how heavy traffic was and tons of cars heading down from Ohio, PA, NY and other states. We check in and learn the hotel is sold out! Every where we look the NO Vacancy signs are lit up. Glad we had a reservation!
We unloaded and headed down to Murrells Inlet for a sit down dinner in a nice restaurant! We chose "Drunkin Jacks" this time and were not disappointed. The parking lots were full, the river walk was busy and when we passed by Suck-Bang-Blow it was standing room only!
We enjoyed a good breakfast at Neal & Pams across from our hotel this morning following a nice early walk on the beach. Packed up and went to MB HD and spent a few bucks. Then we rolled back toward home. The traffic was extremely heavy all the way up 501 through Conway. Ride back was really good at our own pace. We actually caught up with two couples from our Rolling Thunder Chapter. It was nice to see and visit with them a few minutes.
I think everyone was ready to head to an OPEN state, enjoy the beach, restaurants, stores and enjoy life!
05-04-2020 | 07:45 AM
First Iron Butt Ride
