I apologize for the length of this. I separated Days 1-5 and Days 6-10 into two different posts. I hope it doesn't bore...
Go Big or Go Home
January, 2011. My dad and I are discussing potential trips for our ride this year. I throw out a few rally ideas, maybe the GBU rally in Montana, or the 3 day Utah 1088. Nothing doing. He’s thinking bigger. I throw out HyderSeek. He seems interested. I toss in the idea of doing the 48 Plus! to get there. Now I’ve got him and our Father and Son 48 Plus! is born.
For those who don’t know, the 48 Plus! is an Iron Butt Association (IBA) certified ride. The rules are simple, ride your motorcycle to all lower 48 states and Alaska in 10 days. You must stop in each state and get a dated, time-stamped receipt showing the city and state of the stop. You must keep a log of all fuel stops, and rest stops (meals, hotels, etc.). At this point, I’ve never certified a ride with the IBA. I’ve ridden in rallies, done several IBA certificate length rides, but never documented anything. This was going to be the ride that I would earn my IBA#. A quick check with the IBA and Ira Agins says I am good to go attempting this ride for my first cert.
The 7 P’s
The only additions I make to the bike prior to this trip are a complete Ohlins suspension setup from the Cogent Dynamics group buy, and an Icom 2-way radio. The Ohlins decision was made far in advance of conceiving this trip, and was so my bike could be better setup to handle 2-up travel. I don’t seem to see much mention of high end suspension among LD riders, but I think the difference in ride quality really reduced my fatigue during my 15 straight days on the bike.
Beyond that, my only LD related farkles are: Russell Day Long saddle, Heli bar risers, Throttlemesiter, Clearwater Krista lights, factory top box, Autocom, Garmin 765T in an Aquabox and a Spot 2. Since my dad didn’t have AUX fuel on his GL1800, I didn’t either, and our range was 200 miles, if we ran him into reserve.
One thing I will never forget that my father’s father repeatedly told me was that Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Despite the 7 P’s, life happened. For all of 2011 leading up to this ride, I was only able to manage about 300 miles of riding. Enough to make sure everything still worked as it did when I stopped riding last year, but that’s it. I have always been more comfortable on this bike than any other I’ve had before. I can hop on my ’05 FJR and just ride and ride and ride in total comfort. The bike is 100% 7P’s and ready, I’ll be good to go.
I read 48+ ride reports, talk with riders who have completed this ride, look through the IBA site at all the mileages others have ridden to complete their ride, look over routes others had used and so on. I came up with a tentative route, ran it by some folks here in the LDR/Iron Butt section, polished the route up some more and was ready to ride. According to my mapping program, we’d have to ride around 8600 miles on my route.
Press 1 for English
On May 31 at 7:59PM EDT we secured our start receipt and witnesses and made our departure from Bridgeport, OH, which is on I-70 at the WV border. Since nearly all of my family still lives in this area, they came down to see us off.
15 minutes later we captured WV and were finally on our way. The goal for Day 1 was to ride through the night, knock out all the north eastern metropolitan areas, get through Washington D.C. and as far south as we could by 8PM on June 1st. Our mileage would be at least 1300, and the more we could get after that, the better. Knowing full well the challenges of riding 1500 miles in 24 hours in the north east, I left it as my ideal goal, but 1300 is what I had to have to clear the DC area, which was my minimum goal. During the planning phase a few LD vets, guys worth listening to, cautioned me about going for these kind of miles on Day 1. My mind was set, barring catastrophe, 1300 miles was the minimum or 8PM was the cutoff. Having a few hundred extra miles from Day 1 would give us a nice cushion a week from now.
PA was next and uneventful. At 2AM or so in NJ, we stopped at a “24 Hour” gas station. One I had even taken the time to call and confirm would be open. Their version of 24 hour service was closing but leaving the pumps “kind of” functioning for credit card use. After a minute or two, I had pumped $0.06 worth of gas into my bike. Now the police show up. After talking with the officer for a few minutes, he offered to help us locate after hours fuel. Our personal police escort led us a few miles away to a gas station that was actually open in the Little Falls area. I would be wishing for a police escort in an hour or two when our GPS’ would dump us into the Bronx and then, in unison, crash and reboot leaving us to wander our way back to the interstate. F’ing Garmin. We had to come back through NY later today, I’d claim it then in the daylight!
RI, ME, then farther north into ME(F’ing Garmin), U-turn, stop for breakfast in Epping, NH. Then on to VT, MA, CT and NY. The Bronx still sucked in the daylight. At some point this morning, somewhere, my primary credit card was declined. I broke out the backup and would deal with it later. Yes, I called both my CC companies prior to leaving. At some point I called and talked with a lovely woman for whom English was a 2nd language. She assured me the issue was now resolved and my card was now safe to travel (again). It would take 4 more phone calls throughout the day to resolve this issue. Apparently she didn’t take me seriously when my answer to what states I will be traveling in was all of them. My last call finally landed me someone fluent in English. He asked the usual questions, but took a real interest in my ride. We talked about that a bit and he really wanted to finally resolve this so I could get to riding, because he wasn’t even sure if the ride I was attempting was possible. Apparently, none of the previous CSR’s had bothered to note that for two weeks I’d be traveling all over the country, but my wife would continue to use her card at home for the usual stuff.
Now we head back through NJ on the wonderful and scenic NJ Turnpike. This would prove to be THE MOST dull, boring, sleep inducing slab of concrete we would encounter the entire trip. Then through DE and into MD, using 301 to bypass DC. Big thanks to Steve AKA Frushlorton for helping me with this part of the route. We’re getting close to our 8PM cutoff for Day 1. But I’m leading, and thinking we’ll bag VA and then call it. Then I see a Hampton Inn, flanked by a Carrabba’s and Cracker Barrel. So long Day 1, hello hot food and warm bed.
DAY 1 – Ride time: 24:01, 1315 Miles, 13 States
Do You Know Why I Stopped You?
I would like to have gone a little farther on day 1, since our goal for today is Hammond, LA where I-12 & I-55 junction. We wake up before our alarms go off and are rolling at 6:30AM. This would become the norm for us, with neither of us sleeping until the alarms ring the entire trip. We decided for the trip to cruise normally around +10. If we find a good rabbit, we’d bump it up. Somewhere south of Richmond, VA, we had a good rabbit. A black pickup cruising at +15. We follow him for 15 or so miles. The 3 of us blow through a speed trap spaced out about 100yds between each of us. I called dad on the radio to let him know the statey was giving chase. When the trooper rolled past me I thought we were good to go. I don’t think dad cared for me laughing my ass off over the radio as the statey pulled him over. To make up for it, I pulled over behind them so I could get a picture if things went well. I gave them a couple minutes and then walked up when the trooper nodded my way. He was very nice and professional and even let us know we’d be good at +9 but to avoid +15 in his state.
We would uneventfully bag NC and SC. We lost 30-45min in Atlanta to traffic. That would also be the hottest part of the entire trip. After Atlanta, we claimed GA and AL. Our intent was to hit Century, FL next. But brushfires had route 113 closed less than a mile from the FL border. Back-track, reroute and eventually a bag of M&M’s from the Piggly Wiggly in Walnut Hill, FL would give me a receipt. Between time lost in Atlanta and here, we saw Hammond, LA slip away and would stop in Slidell, LA after riding through but (intentionally) not claiming MS.
DAY 2 – Ride time: 18:07, 1052 Miles, 7 States Total Miles: 2367 Total States: 20
Out, Damned Spot!
This morning, Mike AKA Patriot, met us at our hotel and joined us for a quick bite at the continental breakfast. We left Slidell at 7:06AM and Mike accompanied us up to Jackson, MS, where we ate breakfast again at a Mickey D’s. It was good to meet someone new. Mike was good company and integrated seamlessly into our ride.
When we parted ways with Mike, I noticed my Spot 2 now flashed a red light for GPS signal. Initially I thought, no biggie, it will re-acquire the satellite signal sooner or later. Wrong. That would be the last time that Spot unit ever worked again. It is amazing how big a disappointment that was to me at the time. I had friends, family and strangers watching my progress. I tried to convince myself it would be a weight lifted from me as I now would be riding under the radar, with no keyboard jockeys able to see my every move (or mistake). But dammit, I wanted that Spot track log of my adventure! With nothing but time to think, that would wear on me well into the next day.
Next we bagged TN, AR and MO. We headed for Wickliffe, KY next. With all the flooding, preliminary reports from a couple forum members indicated the bridge from Cairo might be out. One section was closed, but we were able to pass into Wickliffe if we came into Cairo from the north. From there we made our way to IL, IN and into New Buffalo, MI where we stopped for the night.
DAY 3 – Ride time: 17:03, 982 Miles, 8 States Total Miles: 3349 Total States: 28
The Point of No Return
Originally I thought the trip would “really start” after we’d knocked out the north eastern US. The small backtrack to pick-up Michigan put me about 300 miles from home. So today, the trip “really starts” since I’m finally heading west. My plan for day 4 had been to ride a few less miles and have kind of an easy day to recoup. Despite being a couple hundred miles short of my ideal plan, we stick with the easy day. After all, we’ve already picked up more than half of the states. Today, we bagged IA, WI, MN and stopped in Valley City, ND. More importantly, to me, I was able to restore satellite tracking. A couple days prior my wife let our Facebook friends who were following along know my Spot 2 had died. Since then, a friend I met at a rally had been corresponding with me trying to help out. He was able to spoon feed me the process to have Spotwalla take tracks from Google Latitude using my iPhone to submit GPS tracks. I finally got tracking back online in a Hardees with free wi-fi in Sauk Centre, MN. What would I spend my time thinking about now?
DAY 4 – Ride time: 15:06, 870 Miles, 4 States Total Miles: 4219 Total States: 32
Stop Buggin Me
Somewhere in WI or MN I began to notice more and more bugs accumulating on everything. I believe they were mayflies. These things got everywhere. Every piece of me or my bike that faced forward was coated with them. My antenna, the edges of the brake rotors, the brackets for my lights, the inside of the windshield, everywhere. At some point I began to wonder why I’m smelling dead fish in the middle of ND. It turns out the odor was coming from all these dead bugs. Most gas stations were out of windshield cleaner, it was a mess.
We bagged MT and SD. Somewhere during this stretch I became drowsy, irritable and was in a foul mood. We stopped for a receipt in Beulah, WY. I figured a short break and some peanut butter crackers would turn things around. I finished and was ready to roll, but dad got caught up BS’ing with this kid Vince. I was in no mood, and went over to try and hurry things up. Vince was in his early 20’s and from Indiana. He decided to load all of his belongings onto his bicycle and ride to Portland, OR. He had little money and no real plan other than get to OR, meet up with his friend, play music (he had a guitar packed) and find some work. On his way to where we were now, Vince broke a couple spokes on his rear wheel and knocked it way out of true. Maybe it was because everything he owned was strapped to the bike somewhere… Vince was grossly unprepared for a cross country trip as far as tools and had a hair less than no mechanical knowledge. I worked as a motorcycle technician for 14 years and was in the middle of a 12k mile ride through the entire country, so of course I had tools. I had to fix his bike up. His solution had been to release the rear brakes so they’d quit rubbing and continue riding on the potato chip rim. Truthfully, I needed this distraction. It was therapeutic for me. Vince learned how to use a spoke wrench, how to put air in his tires using the pump he was carrying and install his rear wheel correctly. And I got rid of my foul mood.
We bagged NE next, went south into eastern CO, spending the rest of our day on US-385. Our intent was to cross just into KS on I-70 and hit Kanorado for a receipt. Kanorado had gone to bed for the night. So we went further east until we found gas and a Holiday Inn Express in Goodland, KS.
DAY 5 – Ride time: 17:35, 1035 Miles, 5 States Total Miles: 5254 Total States: 37
Go Big or Go Home
January, 2011. My dad and I are discussing potential trips for our ride this year. I throw out a few rally ideas, maybe the GBU rally in Montana, or the 3 day Utah 1088. Nothing doing. He’s thinking bigger. I throw out HyderSeek. He seems interested. I toss in the idea of doing the 48 Plus! to get there. Now I’ve got him and our Father and Son 48 Plus! is born.
For those who don’t know, the 48 Plus! is an Iron Butt Association (IBA) certified ride. The rules are simple, ride your motorcycle to all lower 48 states and Alaska in 10 days. You must stop in each state and get a dated, time-stamped receipt showing the city and state of the stop. You must keep a log of all fuel stops, and rest stops (meals, hotels, etc.). At this point, I’ve never certified a ride with the IBA. I’ve ridden in rallies, done several IBA certificate length rides, but never documented anything. This was going to be the ride that I would earn my IBA#. A quick check with the IBA and Ira Agins says I am good to go attempting this ride for my first cert.
The 7 P’s
The only additions I make to the bike prior to this trip are a complete Ohlins suspension setup from the Cogent Dynamics group buy, and an Icom 2-way radio. The Ohlins decision was made far in advance of conceiving this trip, and was so my bike could be better setup to handle 2-up travel. I don’t seem to see much mention of high end suspension among LD riders, but I think the difference in ride quality really reduced my fatigue during my 15 straight days on the bike.
Beyond that, my only LD related farkles are: Russell Day Long saddle, Heli bar risers, Throttlemesiter, Clearwater Krista lights, factory top box, Autocom, Garmin 765T in an Aquabox and a Spot 2. Since my dad didn’t have AUX fuel on his GL1800, I didn’t either, and our range was 200 miles, if we ran him into reserve.
One thing I will never forget that my father’s father repeatedly told me was that Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Despite the 7 P’s, life happened. For all of 2011 leading up to this ride, I was only able to manage about 300 miles of riding. Enough to make sure everything still worked as it did when I stopped riding last year, but that’s it. I have always been more comfortable on this bike than any other I’ve had before. I can hop on my ’05 FJR and just ride and ride and ride in total comfort. The bike is 100% 7P’s and ready, I’ll be good to go.
I read 48+ ride reports, talk with riders who have completed this ride, look through the IBA site at all the mileages others have ridden to complete their ride, look over routes others had used and so on. I came up with a tentative route, ran it by some folks here in the LDR/Iron Butt section, polished the route up some more and was ready to ride. According to my mapping program, we’d have to ride around 8600 miles on my route.
Press 1 for English
On May 31 at 7:59PM EDT we secured our start receipt and witnesses and made our departure from Bridgeport, OH, which is on I-70 at the WV border. Since nearly all of my family still lives in this area, they came down to see us off.
15 minutes later we captured WV and were finally on our way. The goal for Day 1 was to ride through the night, knock out all the north eastern metropolitan areas, get through Washington D.C. and as far south as we could by 8PM on June 1st. Our mileage would be at least 1300, and the more we could get after that, the better. Knowing full well the challenges of riding 1500 miles in 24 hours in the north east, I left it as my ideal goal, but 1300 is what I had to have to clear the DC area, which was my minimum goal. During the planning phase a few LD vets, guys worth listening to, cautioned me about going for these kind of miles on Day 1. My mind was set, barring catastrophe, 1300 miles was the minimum or 8PM was the cutoff. Having a few hundred extra miles from Day 1 would give us a nice cushion a week from now.
PA was next and uneventful. At 2AM or so in NJ, we stopped at a “24 Hour” gas station. One I had even taken the time to call and confirm would be open. Their version of 24 hour service was closing but leaving the pumps “kind of” functioning for credit card use. After a minute or two, I had pumped $0.06 worth of gas into my bike. Now the police show up. After talking with the officer for a few minutes, he offered to help us locate after hours fuel. Our personal police escort led us a few miles away to a gas station that was actually open in the Little Falls area. I would be wishing for a police escort in an hour or two when our GPS’ would dump us into the Bronx and then, in unison, crash and reboot leaving us to wander our way back to the interstate. F’ing Garmin. We had to come back through NY later today, I’d claim it then in the daylight!
RI, ME, then farther north into ME(F’ing Garmin), U-turn, stop for breakfast in Epping, NH. Then on to VT, MA, CT and NY. The Bronx still sucked in the daylight. At some point this morning, somewhere, my primary credit card was declined. I broke out the backup and would deal with it later. Yes, I called both my CC companies prior to leaving. At some point I called and talked with a lovely woman for whom English was a 2nd language. She assured me the issue was now resolved and my card was now safe to travel (again). It would take 4 more phone calls throughout the day to resolve this issue. Apparently she didn’t take me seriously when my answer to what states I will be traveling in was all of them. My last call finally landed me someone fluent in English. He asked the usual questions, but took a real interest in my ride. We talked about that a bit and he really wanted to finally resolve this so I could get to riding, because he wasn’t even sure if the ride I was attempting was possible. Apparently, none of the previous CSR’s had bothered to note that for two weeks I’d be traveling all over the country, but my wife would continue to use her card at home for the usual stuff.
Now we head back through NJ on the wonderful and scenic NJ Turnpike. This would prove to be THE MOST dull, boring, sleep inducing slab of concrete we would encounter the entire trip. Then through DE and into MD, using 301 to bypass DC. Big thanks to Steve AKA Frushlorton for helping me with this part of the route. We’re getting close to our 8PM cutoff for Day 1. But I’m leading, and thinking we’ll bag VA and then call it. Then I see a Hampton Inn, flanked by a Carrabba’s and Cracker Barrel. So long Day 1, hello hot food and warm bed.
DAY 1 – Ride time: 24:01, 1315 Miles, 13 States
Do You Know Why I Stopped You?
I would like to have gone a little farther on day 1, since our goal for today is Hammond, LA where I-12 & I-55 junction. We wake up before our alarms go off and are rolling at 6:30AM. This would become the norm for us, with neither of us sleeping until the alarms ring the entire trip. We decided for the trip to cruise normally around +10. If we find a good rabbit, we’d bump it up. Somewhere south of Richmond, VA, we had a good rabbit. A black pickup cruising at +15. We follow him for 15 or so miles. The 3 of us blow through a speed trap spaced out about 100yds between each of us. I called dad on the radio to let him know the statey was giving chase. When the trooper rolled past me I thought we were good to go. I don’t think dad cared for me laughing my ass off over the radio as the statey pulled him over. To make up for it, I pulled over behind them so I could get a picture if things went well. I gave them a couple minutes and then walked up when the trooper nodded my way. He was very nice and professional and even let us know we’d be good at +9 but to avoid +15 in his state.
We would uneventfully bag NC and SC. We lost 30-45min in Atlanta to traffic. That would also be the hottest part of the entire trip. After Atlanta, we claimed GA and AL. Our intent was to hit Century, FL next. But brushfires had route 113 closed less than a mile from the FL border. Back-track, reroute and eventually a bag of M&M’s from the Piggly Wiggly in Walnut Hill, FL would give me a receipt. Between time lost in Atlanta and here, we saw Hammond, LA slip away and would stop in Slidell, LA after riding through but (intentionally) not claiming MS.
DAY 2 – Ride time: 18:07, 1052 Miles, 7 States Total Miles: 2367 Total States: 20
Out, Damned Spot!
This morning, Mike AKA Patriot, met us at our hotel and joined us for a quick bite at the continental breakfast. We left Slidell at 7:06AM and Mike accompanied us up to Jackson, MS, where we ate breakfast again at a Mickey D’s. It was good to meet someone new. Mike was good company and integrated seamlessly into our ride.
When we parted ways with Mike, I noticed my Spot 2 now flashed a red light for GPS signal. Initially I thought, no biggie, it will re-acquire the satellite signal sooner or later. Wrong. That would be the last time that Spot unit ever worked again. It is amazing how big a disappointment that was to me at the time. I had friends, family and strangers watching my progress. I tried to convince myself it would be a weight lifted from me as I now would be riding under the radar, with no keyboard jockeys able to see my every move (or mistake). But dammit, I wanted that Spot track log of my adventure! With nothing but time to think, that would wear on me well into the next day.
Next we bagged TN, AR and MO. We headed for Wickliffe, KY next. With all the flooding, preliminary reports from a couple forum members indicated the bridge from Cairo might be out. One section was closed, but we were able to pass into Wickliffe if we came into Cairo from the north. From there we made our way to IL, IN and into New Buffalo, MI where we stopped for the night.
DAY 3 – Ride time: 17:03, 982 Miles, 8 States Total Miles: 3349 Total States: 28
The Point of No Return
Originally I thought the trip would “really start” after we’d knocked out the north eastern US. The small backtrack to pick-up Michigan put me about 300 miles from home. So today, the trip “really starts” since I’m finally heading west. My plan for day 4 had been to ride a few less miles and have kind of an easy day to recoup. Despite being a couple hundred miles short of my ideal plan, we stick with the easy day. After all, we’ve already picked up more than half of the states. Today, we bagged IA, WI, MN and stopped in Valley City, ND. More importantly, to me, I was able to restore satellite tracking. A couple days prior my wife let our Facebook friends who were following along know my Spot 2 had died. Since then, a friend I met at a rally had been corresponding with me trying to help out. He was able to spoon feed me the process to have Spotwalla take tracks from Google Latitude using my iPhone to submit GPS tracks. I finally got tracking back online in a Hardees with free wi-fi in Sauk Centre, MN. What would I spend my time thinking about now?
DAY 4 – Ride time: 15:06, 870 Miles, 4 States Total Miles: 4219 Total States: 32
Stop Buggin Me
Somewhere in WI or MN I began to notice more and more bugs accumulating on everything. I believe they were mayflies. These things got everywhere. Every piece of me or my bike that faced forward was coated with them. My antenna, the edges of the brake rotors, the brackets for my lights, the inside of the windshield, everywhere. At some point I began to wonder why I’m smelling dead fish in the middle of ND. It turns out the odor was coming from all these dead bugs. Most gas stations were out of windshield cleaner, it was a mess.
We bagged MT and SD. Somewhere during this stretch I became drowsy, irritable and was in a foul mood. We stopped for a receipt in Beulah, WY. I figured a short break and some peanut butter crackers would turn things around. I finished and was ready to roll, but dad got caught up BS’ing with this kid Vince. I was in no mood, and went over to try and hurry things up. Vince was in his early 20’s and from Indiana. He decided to load all of his belongings onto his bicycle and ride to Portland, OR. He had little money and no real plan other than get to OR, meet up with his friend, play music (he had a guitar packed) and find some work. On his way to where we were now, Vince broke a couple spokes on his rear wheel and knocked it way out of true. Maybe it was because everything he owned was strapped to the bike somewhere… Vince was grossly unprepared for a cross country trip as far as tools and had a hair less than no mechanical knowledge. I worked as a motorcycle technician for 14 years and was in the middle of a 12k mile ride through the entire country, so of course I had tools. I had to fix his bike up. His solution had been to release the rear brakes so they’d quit rubbing and continue riding on the potato chip rim. Truthfully, I needed this distraction. It was therapeutic for me. Vince learned how to use a spoke wrench, how to put air in his tires using the pump he was carrying and install his rear wheel correctly. And I got rid of my foul mood.
We bagged NE next, went south into eastern CO, spending the rest of our day on US-385. Our intent was to cross just into KS on I-70 and hit Kanorado for a receipt. Kanorado had gone to bed for the night. So we went further east until we found gas and a Holiday Inn Express in Goodland, KS.
DAY 5 – Ride time: 17:35, 1035 Miles, 5 States Total Miles: 5254 Total States: 37
