Preparing for a trip is always one of the most enjoyable parts of any ride. After all, adventures suck when you're in the middle of them! It's the planing, the pouring over maps, researching the roads and the towns that you'll pass through that I enjoy so much. I needed to plan a route that would take me from Pasadena and loop back in just over 1,000 miles. The ride needs to be fully documented, witnessed, and be completed in less than 24 hours in order to qualify as a member of the Iron Butt Association.
Living in Pasadena, going west is out of the question, and going south takes you through Mexico. Riding alone and needing to make good time, I decided not to go south. Riding east would be fine, but I've recently done several trips out to Arizona and Utah, so I decided to head north! Sacramento is about 400 miles north, so I decided that I'd need to go a ways beyond Sacramento before turning back. I also did not want to just turn around and go back the way I came, (I do have to stay awake and focused for almost 24 hours of riding after all).
Wanting to make sure that I wouldn't be disqualified if my mileage fell short, (there is a strict review process before one gets qualified), so I decided to make a good size loop around Sacramento by heading towards San Francisco, then passing through Sacramento , head to Reno, Nevada before turning back home along the back side of Yosemite and through the Mojave Desert. This came out to just over 1,100 miles on my mapping software. I use Microsoft Streets and Trips for this and it works great. I also use the mapping software that comes with my GPS unit and then look at the route using Google Earth. See, I really do enjoy the planning.
I figured that if I left at about 3:30am, I should be able to knock off the 1,100 miles and be home before midnight, hours before the 24 hour deadline to qualify. I was hoping to to finish up my work for the day by around 4:00pm, leaving me plenty of time to finish my prep, grab some dinner and get to bed by 9:00 for a few hours sleep before getting up at 2:30am. Ha!!! Real estate has a way of taking over your life, so I finished working around 7:00pm, putting me behind schedule. Running late, I made the first of several mistakes I would make over the next 24 hours. I didn't take the time to complete a check list, so the first thing I forgot was to download the route that I had so painstakingly planed to my GPS! I actually almost rode off without the GPS unit as well!
Second mistake: Because I was running late, I didn't take the time to check all of my equipment. So it wouldn't be for about two hours into the ride, (in total darkness), that I would realize that I still had the tinted face-shield on my helmet. Think of this like driving at night, with only one headlight, with your darkest pair of sunglasses on! I would regret this much later in the ride, while returning home along the back side of Yosemite, at 7,000 feet elevation, in the bitter cold, with my face-shield fully open!!! Big Dummy!
I did leave at 3:30am as planned, and filled the gas tank at the Mobil Station around the corner in order to establish my starting time. In order to qualify for the "Saddle Sore 1,000" I would need to document every stop with a dated and timed gas receipt. I also needed to keep a log of the mileage, time and gallons used for the entire trip. Missing just one receipt would disqualify my entire ride, so gassing up became a bit of a ritual to make sure that I had every receipt; labeled, marked and timed.
My first stop was in Buttonwillow, CA, just north-west of Bakersfield. I pulled into a Chevron station at about 5:15. I was thrilled to have gone 124 miles before 5:30! I took off my helmet, gloves, unplugged my iPod and went to turn off the bike. NO KEY! I was looking at the handlebars, right where my keys were supposed to be, but there was just a hole where the ignition should be! I found the key, still in the ignition, hanging down by the front tire. Just dangling there. Shit! I was able to turn the bike off by reaching under the fairing, holding the ignition with one hand, and then turning the key with the other. I realized that a bolt had come loose and fallen out somewhere over the last 124 miles. Not having the tools, or bolt, to fix this on the road, I got a zip-tie from the Quick Mart guy and secured the ignition to the fairing. Very make-shift, but it would have to do for the next 1,000 miles.
As I was cruising up the I-5, at just slightly above the recommended traveling speed, I realized that I might be able to do 175 miles before sunrise! This would be a first for me, and suddenly turned into a game. If I goosed it a bit, I might make 190 miles before sunrise. Then when I hit 190 miles, I stepped it up a bit to see if I could reach 200 miles from home before the sun popped up on the east. Once I hit 200 MFH, (miles from home, not miles per hour), it was all I could do to not run full tilt to see how far I could get. Well, at 215 miles from home, the sun finally rose! It was quite a rush and I pulled over to watch the sunrise for a moment and take it all in.
By 9:45am, I was riding through Dublin, CA and remembered that Dublin is the home of Arlan Ness Motorcycles and Museum. Arlan Ness is the KING of custom motorcycles and has been since the 60's. Arlan's cool, way cool, so I had to stop. Was I crazy? I'm on an 1,100 mile ride that I have to finish in less than 24 hours. But I couldn't help myself, I had to stop, take some pictures, see if Arlan was there, (he wasn't), buy a shirt and tour the museum of over 100 of Arlan's coolest bikes ever! I figured that I was making such good time, I could spend a little time and relax for a bit. This would be another mistake, as I wasn't thinking that the miles wouldn't roll by quite so easily as the day wore on.
My next sop was a gas stop in Fairfield, CA,on my way to Sacramento. 428 miles down, 11:00am and feel pretty good. So far, I had made four gas stops including my first fill up in Pasadena. My tank holds about 5 gallons and gets about 40 mpg, depending on how hard I ride it. Going fast takes a toll on fuel consumption, but at 40 mpg, it's hard to complain. I was making great time and at this rate, I figured I'd be home for a late dinner! Ha!!!
Getting through Sacramento was much like traveling through L.A.. Lots of traffic, then lots more traffic, and then, more traffic. I decided not to split lanes unless the cars were at a complete standstill. I did a lot of lane splitting! Once I got passed Sacramento, the highway opened up, and the pace started to pick up. I was in for a great stretch of highway. Two lanes, nice road, twisting through the mountains over Donner Pass and winding along the north side of Lake Tahoe. The miles were just clicking away, the sun was shining, the trees smelled great, the air was crisp and fresh...this is what motorcycling is all about.I got to Reno, NV at 3:30 in the afternoon and decided that I had earned a little lunch. I stopped at a Wendy's, grabbed a burger and called home. I was so excited when I realized that I had already traveled 737 miles! I texted a few friends to let them know that I had made it to Reno and was doing fine. When I stopped at the gas station to fill up and log my time and miles, something didn't add up. My last gas stop was at 428 miles, and I now was at 738 miles. Not possible. I must have missed a gas stop. Forgotten a receipt? Things didn't make sense until I did the math using the bike's odometer. I was actually only 617 miles underway! Somehow, the GPS lost a signal for a bit and added an extra 120 miles!!! Shit - now I was 120 miles further back than I thought. This was the first time on the trip that I felt down. I sort of hit a wall for a bit until I told myself that I was where I was and that I simply had 120 more miles to go than I thought. But I now realized that I had 500+ miles left and it was now 4:00pm! Time to boogie!
The rest of the afternoon was amazing! Riding through the mountains of Nevada, just east of Lake Tahoe, passing through Carson City and the on to Mono Lake. This was the highlight of the trip, (other than finishing), as I stopped on the side of the road, overlooking Mono Lake at sunset with a full moon rising over the lake! It just doesn't get any better than this:
Next gas stop was Bishop, CA where I stopped for gas and dinner around 8:30. I've never seen such a small town, in the middle of nowhere, with so many people out and about. There were people walking around everywhere! Maybe I wasn't in the middle of nowhere after all. But check the map, you'll see that I was.
No more photos, as the rest of my ride was dark, cold and windy. I hate the wind. I'd rather ride in the rain than in the wind. It just comes up out of nowhere and shoves you around like a third grade bully. And the faster you're going, the more severe the push. Time to slow down a bit until I get out of the wind. I found myself in the middle of the Mojave Desert, in total darkness, with few cars passing by, with less than a quarter tank of gas, at 10:45pm! I didn't think I'd make it the 90 miles I still had to go to get to Victorville, so I slowed down a bit to conserve fuel.
Cresting a hill, I saw a faint red light off in the distance, but no other lights around it. As I got closer, I realized it WAS a gas station. In Johannesburg. In the middle of nowhere. Really in the middle of nowhere. Closed! But the pumps were self serve. There was a post office, general store and two gas pumps. Not a soul around. I pulled up to the pump, off with the helmet, gloves, earphones, tank bag, turned off the bike, unlocked the gas cap, took out my mileage log, got my credit card out, and... the pump didn't work! Nothing, nada. The screen was blank no matter how many times I swiped the card! I went to the other side of the pump... same thing! Shit. But there was another pump! I walked over and checked the screen. It said, "Please swipe card". Yeah! After swiping my card.. it said "Please see attendant!". &%E$%#%$#$W!!! There is no attendant!
So I went to the other side, pulled out a different credit card..it worked! But now, my bike is parked 20 feet away at the other pump, so I ran over, carefully rolled it back to the other pump before it shut off! All of this after now riding for 19 straight hours! I was getting damn tired. But I had gas! But of course, the gas pump was out of paper and wouldn't print a receipt. I'll be sending in a copy of my credit card statement as proof since I never got a receipt.
From there, it was off to Victorville, CA. I stopped for a cup of coffee at a Burger King at the trucking crossroads of the world... the intersection of the 58 and the 395. More trucks than I've ever seen in one place. It was pretty eerie. Once I hit Victorville, I still had to ride down the Cajon Pass. Welcome back to L.A. traffic. Steep, fast, windy, dark, and full of Friday night lunatics speeding down the freeway. From there, it's the 210 Fwy back to Pasadena.
I reached my original gas station exactly 22 hours after I had left. 1:37am, Saturday, October 3, 2009! 1,129 miles round trip. I got home, Candace running downstairs to greet me. I was cold, tired...and smiling ear to ear!
Why do we do this? Because sometimes you've got to stretch beyond your comfort zone just to remind yourself that you can!
Roland Wilhelm
