Ride Report for an IBA CCC100

Overview:

On 18-22 October 2009, I rode an Iron Butt Association (IBA) CCC100 (coast to coast to coast in 100 hours) from Jacksonville Beach, FL to San Diego with a return back to the starting location at Jacksonville Beach. I was riding on a 2006 Honda Goldwing.

Planning:

In preparing for this ride, I put in a fair amount of hours studying maps, using my Garmin software (Mapsource), and reading previous ride reports. As I was putting the pieces together and evaluating options, I realized that I would need to be flexible and not get myself locked into a rigid plan.

I worked through various scenarios on departure time (Jax) and arrival time (SD). I tried to pick a time that would have me going through west Texas and further west during the evening/night hours. In retrospect, my thoughts were completely opposite of those worrying about deer/critter strikes at night. My goal was to ride through the desert at night to avoid daytime heat. In reality, the daytime heat during this entire ride never got above the very low 90s and then for only a short period of time.

The working plan that I developed had me leaving Virginia Beach, VA on 17 October 2009 and riding to the Naval Station Mayport, FL for an overnight stay at the Navy Lodge. I would depart from Jacksonville Beach, FL at 1400 after collecting my water/sand sample from the ocean, going to the local police station for witness signatures, and filling up at the Kangaroo gas station on 300 Beach Blvd. I actually departed Jax Beach 1.5 hours earlier then planned.

Riding gear and accessories:

- First Gear Katmandu riding suit with hydration pack – My hydration pack is part of the suit and will hold 1.5L of fluid.

- Garmin 2820 with XM Radio and Bluetooth. I will listen to XM radio (80s music, comedy, talk radio) for the entire trip. I don’t like riding without sound in my helmet. Bluetooth in the GPS is paired with my cell phone and does a good job at letting me know that I had an incoming phone call. I don’t have an external microphone hooked up the GPS so I can’t answer while riding. I think for future long-distance rides I will work out a better system that lets me use Bluetooth for the cell phone and my wired J&M headphones/headset for music, CB, etc.

- CB radio – I previously added this to the bike using factory direct equipment.

- SPOT tracker – As with rides before, this device proves invaluable with keeping friends and family informed of your location. I had many people watching me and following my progress.

Departure:

After collecting my ocean water/sand sample, I headed to the Jacksonville Beach Police Department (101 South Penman Road), which is located a couple of blocks west of the ocean. It was a Sunday (18 Oct) but there were duty personnel working. I just had to ring their buzzer and talk to the dispatcher on their monitor. After explaining why I was there, I was told to have a seat and an officer would be out. After a short wait, a female officer came out and I explained to her what I was doing. She seemed incredulous with my plan to reach San Diego in 50 hours. I don’t think she was familiar with IBA rides at all. I asked if there was a second witness to sign my form (probably not needed since they were law enforcement officers) and she made a call. A male officer came out and she explained to him what I was doing. He was completely amazed and mentioned that a trip to San Diego by car should take four days. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I planned on returning in the next 50 hour segment, or they might not have signed my form. The female officer had a sly grin when she said “you’ll be flying low and fast under the radar” and I assured her that this ride was completely do-able within the time allotted without speeding or being unsafe. When I left I wondered if they would put out a BOLO for a black Goldwing traveling at the speed of sound. All joking aside, their interaction with me was completely professional and they wished me well. I heartily recommend using them as a witness.

Jacksonville Beach to San Diego with local time in military (24 hr) format, fuel stop location and total miles ridden.

1. 1239 (18 Oct) – Jacksonville Beach, FL – 0 elapsed miles. First receipt after visiting the ocean and the Police Department for witness signatures. Original plan was to leave at 1400. I got tired of standing around wasting time. Ride officially begins.

2. 1555 – Quincy, FL – 204 miles

3. 1715 – Milton, FL – 364 miles. Short stop here. My knees were aching (mild arthritis) and I wanted to stop and take some Aleve. The pain was mostly located in the top of my knee caps. I finally figured out the problem and rectified it at the fuel stop in Las Cruces, NM.

* No gas stop needed in Alabama. The George C. Wallace Tunnel across Mobile Bay seemed freakishly high inside to me. I live in a area that has many tunnels but ours aren’t that high.
* No gas stop needed in Mississippi.

4. 2049 – Covington, LA – 561 miles – On I-12 just west of Slidell, I was held up in a road construction zone. Lots of tractor-trailers and it felt like I duck-walked the bike for 5 miles (I am sure it was less). I was worried that I would hit the same construction zone on the way back but fortunately it was in the west bound lane only.

5. 0026 (19 Oct) – Vinton, LA – 773 miles

6. 0329 – Alleyton, TX – 964 miles – I remember laughing when I saw a sign coming into Texas stating that I was going to have over 880 miles in the Lone Star State.

7. 0538 – Schertz, TX -1069 miles – I have now completed a SS1000 (and then some) in 18 hours. I was getting very tired and taking much longer then planned at gas stops to stretch, hydrate, clear my head, etc. I was time-wasting and that frustrated me.

I rode until 0700 and then pulled off into a picnic area. It was still dark (still on Daylight Savings Time) but morning was close to breaking. I pulled over near a concrete picnic table which will be my Iron Butt Hotel for the next two hours. I stretched out on top of the table, set my cell phone alarm, and slept. I felt much better after a two-hour nap. During my nap, I kept smelling cow stuff. I saw why in the morning.

8. 1227 – Ozona, TX – 1286 miles. These windmills were about 30 minutes west of Ozona if I remember correctly.

9. 1512 – Van Horn, TX – 1499 miles. During this stop I noticed that my front tire on the left sidewall had a crack all the way around. The crack wasn’t to the cords but it caused enough worry that I started calling local places to see if they had a front tire. I found two motorcycle shops that I could reach before closing but neither had a tire. I then started searching on my GPS for locations in San Diego but could only find car dealerships. I called one, and after acknowledging three times that I understood that they didn’t sell motorcycles, the guy finally gave me the number to Fun Bike Center (FBC) in San Diego. I called them and they had one front tire. I asked them to put my name on it. When I explained to the guy at FBC what I was doing, he told me that I would be priority one the next day. (pics below near Las Cruces, NM)

10. 1857 – Las Cruces, NM – 1695 miles. A short stop this time to check on my front tire. It wasn’t getting any worse so I decided to keep pressing on. The problems with my knees were caused by my thick but baggy jeans under my riding suit. The jeans were riding up and binding me behind my knee cap cutting off my circulation and pulling the jeans down hard over my knee caps. In the parking lot of the gas station, I stripped off the riding pants and jeans (I know, not a pretty picture but I would never see these people again) and then put my riding pants back on. Binding issue resolved and knee pain reduced greatly.

11. 2113 – Benson, AZ – 1910 miles. Between Las Cruces, NM and here, I hit a couple sand storms. The first time had the pucker factor up pretty high because it was at night and it made it really hard to see. (more about sand storms at the bottom of this report)

12. 2315 – Stanfield, AZ – 2043 miles. Short stop. I am quite tired now and really tired of riding in the desert at night. Your peripheral vision is non-existent because it is so dark. It feels like you are riding in a box and the road starts narrowing on you; at least it did for me. This gas stop was an unattended station in the middle of nowhere. I thought I heard dueling banjos. Luckily the pump produced a receipt with all the needed information and I departed smartly.

13. 0233 (20 Oct) – Yuma, AZ – 2193 miles. Another short stop. This will be the last one until I get to San Diego, CA. I walk around for a bit and make a few phone calls to help clear the fuzziness. It has been quite windy, especially coming into and leaving Yuma. It really knocked me around. The mountain range in the Cleveland National Forest was a bit nerve wracking, mainly because I was pretty tired at this point and it took a lot of mental energy to focus on climbing up the mountain and coming down over the other side.

14. 0645 – San Diego, CA – 2372 miles. I made it to Ocean Beach by following I-8 and the signs for “Beaches”. It was pretty easy to find. When I got there it was dark with a few surfers waiting in the vehicles for day break. It was a bit of a walk from the parking lot to the ocean and there was nobody to take a picture of me getting my sand and ocean water sample. After I was done at the beach, I got my last gas receipt. Total time was 45H and 6M.

I checked into the Ramada on Rosecrans Street at 0700 for sleep and a shower. I checked out just before 1000 to head for Fun Bike Center to get my front tire replaced. At 1140 local time, my 2nd 50-hour period would start so I needed to get the tire changed quickly and be ready for the start of the next period.

I arrived at Fun Bike Center, 5755 Kearny Villa Road, San Diego around 1045. After some discussion and inspection of my tire, the decision was made to replace it. After receiving assurances that they would give me a quick turn-around, they took my bike and returned it about 1/2 hour later with a new tire on and ready to roll. I was very impressed. I could see this tire change chewing up much more time then a 1/2 hour. I give them high marks in customer satisfaction. They understood my needs and were very accommodating. Highly recommended!

I left Fun Bike Center and pulled into the closest gas station for my first return receipt. I got gas, filled up my hydration pack, ate a Power Bar and started rolling for the east coast. I was now 20 minutes into the automatic start of the return 50-hour period.

San Diego to Jacksonville Beach with local time in military (24 hr) format, fuel stop location and total miles ridden.

1. 1202 (20 Oct) – San Diego, CA – 0 elapsed miles. Just east of Ocotillo, CA, I pulled over to take some pictures. Just to the south was the border and to the west (behind me) should be the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

The following pictures are of the sand dunes on both sides of I-8. I took these pictures from a rest area in Winterhaven, CA. The rest area was between the east and west lanes of I-8 so getting on and off was pretty easy. To the south is the border (in places you can actually see the fence) and to the north is the All American Canal, which is quite a site to see.

2. 1540 – Yuma, AZ – 202 miles. I made an error here. I went all the way through Yuma just enjoying the scenery and not paying attention to my gas situation. By the time I got to Fortuna Foothills I realized that I had made a mistake but there was no place to make a u-turn because you were going up over a small mountain pass. My GPS, which doesn’t have all gas stations along the way, couldn’t find one ahead of me before I would have run out of gas. My safe option was to get turned around and head back into Fortuna for gas. While there I grabbed a bite to eat at a Burger King and relaxed for a bit. The lack of sleep from the trip out was starting to catch up with me.

3. 1659 – Dateland, AZ – 258 miles. Real short stop on purpose. After leaving Yuma, George, a friend of mine, was calling to see if I would be stopping in Benson, AZ on the way east. It was my intention to see him on the way out since he works at Fort Huachuca, but our schedules conflicted. Once George and I coordinated the stop in Benson AZ, I topped the tank off in Dateland and that put me in the perfect range for Benson.

4. 2024 – Benson, AZ – 472 miles. As I was getting close to Benson, George was getting SPOT updates on his push to talk cell phone from his girlfriend who lives in the same area as me. As I was coming down off the ramp from I-8, George just put his phone back in his pocket after being told “you should see him any minute now”, and there I was. Tracking technology does have it’s advantages! Here is a picture of George and then one of both of us. George is a biker, retired Marine Reserve Master Gunnery Sergeant, and retired Police Captain. He called me a crazy-assed squid Senior Chief for doing this ride. I took that as a compliment!

It was nice talking to George and well worth the “down-time”. However, I was getting tired and George knew that. His main stated purpose for our meeting was to “op check” me and make sure I was okay. I appreciated the concern. I am still pretty up at this point from having a chance to renew an old friendship, albeit briefly, and knowing that I got the first 50CC behind me and things are looking good for the return. After spending close to an hour talking to George, I pushed on. I am tired.

0051 – 0715 (21 Oct) – Deming, NM. I quit. I am both mentally and physically spent. To the Interstate I declare a truce for now. Further progress can not be made safely. At this point, I have ridden a bit over 3,000 miles on about 4.5 hours of sleep. I pulled over at a Super 8 Motel. Not a great place, a bit run down, it has seen better days but then so have I. It had a bed and a shower; anything else was fluff. I laid down. Sleep came fast and deep. I didn’t dream, which is unusual for me. I just had the sensation of black, completely out. Detached from thought – for a while. The alarm, obnoxious as it was, came all too soon but I felt better and the shower was refreshing. I made the decision at this point to ride until I reached Jax. I would start my ride at a Bun Burner Gold (1,500 miles in 24 hours) pace. That goal seemed very obtainable – that would change.

5. 0746 – Deming, NM – 644 miles. 1,734 miles to Jax Beach, 30 hours and 52 minutes to get there, Bun Burner Gold pace, piece of cake. I felt a bit like Elwood Blues, “It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.” Jake Blues: “Hit it”. I did.

6. 1157 – Van Horn, TX – 867 miles. East of El Paso, I was contemplating taking I-20 rather than I-10. My thinking was that this route would bring me more north as I was heading east and I could end the ride at some location much closer to home. This had been a planning consideration to my flexible return route and at that time my overall moving speed (after leaving Deming) was 80 MPH so the Bun Burner Gold was looking promising. My less then logical thinking in my current (I have this ride nailed) euphoric state determined that based on my current average speed, I would be able to eat up the additional miles within the allotted remaining time. Now is a good time for all readers still hanging in there to say “you’re an idiot for even thinking about it”. You’d be right.

At the gas station in Van Horn I noticed that I had a voice message. It was my boss who was watching me on SPOT and wanted me to know that both I-10 and I-20 looked bad on the weather map and to expect heavy rain either way. Ok, that started me second guessing the I-20 route. I contemplated my route choices all the way until literally the split for I-10 and I-20. At that moment I committed to staying on I-10 with second thoughts about this decision until I reached Fort Stockton. The looming black clouds let me know that my choice was a good one. Shortly thereafter I hit rain, heavy rain, miles and miles of heavy rain. In some spots it would stop long enough to dry you out a bit and then the bottom would fall out. There was a tropical storm coming up from the Yucatan Peninsula and it dumped rain on me from east of Fort Stockton until west Florida. After that, blues skies all the way into Jax.

7. 1509 – Ozona, TX – 1,094 miles. Rain continues. I get a bite to eat at the gas station. It was one of those pre-made, hermetically sealed, nuclear holocaust survival sandwiches. It was delightfully bland with the nutritional equivalent of crack cocaine, but it convinced my stomach that I was “eating good”. Stomachs are easily fooled.

8. 1823 – Johnson City, TX – 1,276. I know, how the hell did I get here? The answer comes with a story. After leaving Ozona, I struck up a conversation with a trucker on the CB. My moving speed is down because of the rain so I stay in his range for quite some time. He is also a biker so it was a pleasant discussion. I wasn’t really paying attention to the GPS because I was going back the same way I came out. Then I notice that the GPS has a maneuver coming up in a few miles so I pulled up the details. It wants me to go on Texas State road 290 East. Really? My Garmin didn’t bring me that way coming out. I asked the trucker, since he was a Texan, about this road. He gave me the quick run down with pros and cons. He said it was a good motorcycle road, scenic, generally two lanes each way, with few big trucks. The biggest advantage is it cuts straight across and links back up with I-10 and bypasses the southern dip that I-10 takes to pass through San Antonio. Excellent idea. I passed through San Antonio going west and it was a traffic nightmare. So, I made another last-minute decision and took the State Road mainly on the recommendation of the trucker. He wasn’t wrong, but he was far from right. It was getting dark and further complicated by rain, so scenic was quickly exhausted. The roads were good but you kept running into small town after small town. You would just get going along pretty good and then small town, 35 MPH and local law enforcement is out in force. At the gas station in Johnson City, the rain same down in buckets. I just left the bike at the island and stayed in the convenience store for a while. There was no sense trying to ride. I begrudgingly conceded that the Bun Burner Gold would have to wait for another day.

9. 2222 – Houston, TX – 1,494 miles.

10. 0108 (22 Oct) – Lake Charles, LA – 1,633 miles. Short stop. Tired of rain. Tired of riding. Just tired. A break is needed.

11. 0500 – Hammond, LA – 1,797 miles. Rain is beating me down. Average moving speed is dropping. I am having a hard time maintaining posted speed with the rain and road spray from the trucks. I am finding that I have to drop way back off of them, or speed up to get around them. However, I did talk to several more very pleasant truckers throughout the night. They helped me keep my wits about me in the dark and rain. I was thankful for their hospitality, at least the friendly ones. There were many that were bereft of anything resembling manners. That’s as nice as I can say “assholes”, but of course, I wouldn’t say that.

12. 0648 – Mobile, AL – 1945 miles. Good stop. I am starting to feel better now that morning is close to breaking. The ride across Mobile Bay was very picturesque as the sun was just coming up.

13. 1110 – Chattahooche, FL – 2,163 miles. For some reason, I had a harder time finding a gas station here then in the desert. Since leaving Deming, NM it has taking me 26 hours to go 1,519 miles. I am well off of a Bun Burner Gold pace. I have 5 hours and 28 minutes before the 50 hour mark. 215 miles to go.

14. 1450 – Jacksonville Beach, FL – 2,378 miles. Made it! 29 hours and 4 minutes after departing the Super 8 in Deming, NM. 4,750 miles in 98 hours and 11 minutes total. As I am getting my last gas receipt, at the same gas station I departed from 4 days earlier, my phone is ringing. Someone from work congratulating me on making it. A voice message just minutes before from my Dad also extending congratulations. Before I can get the bike pulled off to the side, two more phone calls come in. Thanks, SPOT!

I rode over to the same area at the beach to collect my third sample of ocean water and sand. The beach goers, more out on this day, looked at me quit incredulously. One couple, the one that I had take a picture, asked me if I was there to collect a water quality sample. Why yes, in a manner of speaking.

I departed the beach and headed back to the Jax Beach Police Station for my witness signature. The female officer that signed my form was very familiar with what I had just completed. She said she signs several IBA forms every month. I was in and out with no problems. Again, I highly recommend them for your witness signatures.

Very tired now and starting to crash. I headed back to the Mayport Naval Base for one more night’s stay at the Navy Lodge. I stopped at a Chinese restaurant and grabbed a bite to eat. I finally laid down around 8pm and slept for 12 hours. The next day I departed Mayport for the return ride up I-95 to Virginia Beach.

Methods used to fight tiredness:
- XM Radio and switching often between program formats helped to break up a lot of the monotony of the ride.
- CB Radio came in very handy and provided an easy way to strike up a conversation.
- Atomic Fire Balls – sucking on these will keep you awake, especially the first few minutes.
- Gum
- Lots of water from my hydration pack. I filled my pack at every stop (1.5 L) and yet I wasn’t giving very much back. I would have been in sad shape if I was only hydrating at gas stops.
- Doing simple math in my head (computing miles, average moving speed to get to final destination, etc)
- Talked to myself a lot about nothing in particular. Solved major world problems but have since forgot the answers.

Deer/critters on I-10/I-12/I-8:
I must have been fortunate on this ride. During the entire time I only saw one deer (actually a group of three) and that was on the return trip east around the Slidell area (maybe a bit east of there). The deer were gathered at the tree line grazing and presented no threat to me. There was one critter (small, fury, fast moving) that ran across the road in front of me in west Texas as I was heading west. It happened so fast there wasn’t any time to react. Like I said, it was fast moving, didn’t stop, and thus would live to do it again to someone else. Most of my night riding was done with my high beams on. I know you aren’t supposed to but the high beams on a Wing can really light the night up. Occasionally oncoming traffic would flash their lights and I would dim mine but for the most part the divide between the east/west lanes seemed to diffuse the intensity of my lights on high. I really should have installed some HIDs in the lower fairing. I am strongly considering doing this for future rides.

Sand storms:
One thing that gets discussed less often then critters on the road is the sand that blows across the Interstate west of Texas, particularly in Arizona and New Mexico. There are several areas where warning signs caution you to beware of sand blasting. I must admit that my experience was mild compared to some stories I have heard from Navy/Marine members who have to make that transit during reassignment, work, etc. The first time I hit this was at night and it freaked me out pretty bad. The sand does hit you pretty hard and the wind was coming north/south, so on the Wing I was just a big sail. It would literally push me into the other lane. There was one section where it was blowing hard enough that for a split second it looked like the road was a sand dune and I was going to run through it. I am not a’feared to admit that I was screaming like a little girl! That will wake you up in a hurry. On the way back I was prepared for these areas but it still didn’t make the experience any less tense.

Traffic:
A lot of people mention how bad the traffic can be on I-10/I-8 but I didn’t really experience that. The truck traffic was moderate and very well behaved. Most appeared to be running on cruise control right around 75 or so, maybe a bit less, although I believe their speed is supposed to be 70, but that might have been their night speed (I can’t recall). There were several trucks running at night around 80, maybe a bit higher then that. I liked to get behind them a safe distance and let them clear the road of any animals that may be out there. They can sustain a deer strike much better then me. Several times I did this for many, many miles and it relieved some of the stress of riding at night. Some may not like this idea, but I stayed far enough back off their bumper so that I didn’t have to worry about a rock being thrown or sudden maneuvers to avoid debris in the road, and yet close enough to allow my low beams to fill in that area between us.

Ill affects after the ride:
For several days after the ride I was fighting off a bit of dysentery. I believe that one of two things happened, perhaps both. I didn’t always drink bottled water which was probably a mistake. In the hotel I was drinking their water straight out of the tap before sleeping. I would like to think that our water treatment programs would guard against anything bad but maybe not in this case. A contributing factor was not eating right. I was eating Power Bars and fresh fruit when I could find it in a truck stop. I ate at a fast food restaurant once on the return from San Diego. Also on a couple of occasions, I was eating the prepared sandwiches that you can get in a convenience store. I am not steadfast in any conviction that it was the water or the food. The most likely scenario would be a combination of being dehydrated, not eating properly or regularly and a disruption to my established circadian rhythm. This causes me a great deal of concern for the spring when I plan on doing the IBA’s 48-10 (48 states in 10 days). I will have to seriously consider nutrition and hydration.

Cost summary:
The total cost of this certification, as calculated from Virginia Beach to San Diego via Jacksonville Beach was $999.30 and includes the $60 to the Iron Butt Association, 4 hotel rooms, one new front tire and gas. Food isn’t included because I didn’t really keep track of that but I didn’t eat too much. I spent more on water and Gatorade. Total gallons of gas used was 167 gallons. Total miles driven was 6,000 and includes the 620 mile each way between Virginia Beach and Mayport, FL. Average MPG was 36.

Until next time…..

Gregg Lenentine
Virginia Beach, VA
gregg.lenentine #at# gmail.com