JustHoward
Well-known member
I spend a month or so each winter in South Florida. This year, after driving down from Memphis, TN, with my wife and puppy, I flew home and rode back on my FJR—1,080 miles in 17 hours. I wanted the bike with me so we’d have an extra set of wheels, and also to try the Iron Butt Association Lap of Florida ride. Here is a link to a map of the ride, which brings you to the four corners of Florida. The IBA challenge is stated as
Lap of Florida Insanity (around Florida in 32 hours):
Around the perimeter of Florida, corners of the state;
Amelia Island (northeast point), Perdido Key (northwest point),
Marco Island (southwest point) and Key West (southernnmost point)
collecting sand from the Atlantic Ocean, North Gulf of Mexico,
South Golf of Mexico and the Florida Straights and return to start.
I started planning for the Lap of Florida ride several months ago. There are several routes that you can take leaving from Miami. You can go south to Key West and then North on the east coast to Amelia Island, or go south to Key West and then west to Marco Island, or go north to Amelia Island, or go west to Marco Island as the first legs. I wanted to avoid heavy traffic days and heavy traffic times of the day. I also didn’t want to travel to or from Key West in the dark—running over a gator or a croc would ruin my day. And most importantly, I didn’t want to do the ride in bad weather.
I also figured that the ride experience would actually consume four days—one and a half days for the ride itself, plus another day and a half to recuperate to the point of feeling half human, and another day to get back to near 100%.
It seemed clear to me that the tricky part of the ride would be the leg to Key West and back to Miami. This is mostly a two-lane road, with miles of no-passing zones. If you get caught behind a rubbernecking tourist, or if there is a big accident, you could be held up for quite a while. If this were to happen early in the ride, I planned to abort the try and try again another time. If it happened late in the ride, after going all around the rest of the State, I don’t know if I’d have the spirit to try the entire ride again.
So, with all those constraints in mind, and the fact that my wife had already planned several social commitments throughout the month, and there were some not-to-be missed events (like the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon), I started to look for available time slots.
There were only three available four-day time slots, and one of them was just two days away! The weather forecast showed a 30% chance of rain for the back end of the ride, with a low temperature at night in northern Florida of 46 degrees. I would have to start the ride on a Sunday—not the best day because of tourist traffic on the road to and from Key West, but the weather looked too good to pass up. So I went to sleep early on Saturday night, woke up at 3 AM Sunday morning, got dressed, had breakfast, kissed my wife, petted the dog, and set out for the ride at 5AM.
I didn’t start the ‘official ride’ at our apartment on Miami Beach. Instead I started the ride with the first gas receipt at a gas station near the Florida turnpike on 41st street in Miami. The receipt showed my start time as 6:11 AM. One mile later, I was on the Florida turnpike heading south, with my daughter’s SunPass transponder in my tank bag.
The 29 miles of the turnpike has a speed limit of 60 mph, and I saw several Highway Patrol cars along the side of the road, so I kept my speed moderate, just with the flow of traffic, which was moving at about 70 mph. I continued on the main road to Key Largo rather than taking the Card Sound Road, which is 8 miles longer but often faster, depending on traffic. So far, traffic was minimal.
Ninety miles from the start, it started to rain, and the temperature dropped from 77 degrees to 68 degrees—this was not in the forecast or my plans. I stopped to put on my FroggToggs—this took about four minutes. The rain did not slow down traffic.
I got to Key West and entered a small traffic jam. There were signs saying—“Watch out for runners—5K in progress” and one lane of traffic was blocked off. No matter, just a small delay, a short distance to the fuel stop, got sand from across the street, and back on the road to drive north. Time out of Key West—9:07 AM.
I had taken off my FroggToggs in Key West, and the cool air felt good. But the traffic north was horrible. I got caught behind a caravan of motor homes going 30 mph in no passing zones for miles and miles. Fortunately, there were some three lane passing sections where I was able to scoot ahead, but it was frustrating watching the clock tick away the minutes. I determined that my fail-safe time back to Miami had to be within six and a half hours from the start, or I would abort the trip. I got back to Miami at 12:20 PM, 6 hours 9 minutes from the start, got more gas, and headed west on I -75 to Marco Island.
I-75 moved swiftly, and having the SunPass let me zip through the several toll booths without stopping. However, the temperature continued to drop, and when it hit 60 degrees, I’d had enough, so I pulled into a rest stop, took off my riding jacket, put on my WarmNSafe heated jacket and gloves, put back on my riding jacket, and headed back out. This cost about 6 minutes.
Marco Island is about 15 miles off the Interstate, with mostly four and six lane roads, but several stop lights, all of which happened to be red when I got to them. But finally, after crossing a small bridge, I entered Marco Island, stopped to get sand, found the first gas station and filled up. But the gas receipt didn’t say Marco Island, so to be safe, I drove a mile down the street, found another gas station, put in fifteen cents more gas, and got a ‘good’ receipt. This wasted five minutes. Time is 14:51, or 8 hours and 40 minutes from the start.
As I headed back to I-75 for the ride north, those same traffic lights greeted me again with the reds. Damn—wasted minutes!
Back on I-75, the flow of traffic was fast. I planned to stop for gas near Ocala, but as I neared Tampa, the temperature was dropping towards 48 degrees, and I began to shiver, so I stopped early just north of Tampa, got gas, put on my riding pants liner under my riding pants, and put my quilted jacket liner over my heated jacket and under my riding jacket. I got back on the bike with my helmet strapped on, and I realized I couldn’t find all the connectors coming out of my heated jacket to plug into the bike, so I had to get off the bike, take off the helmet, pull the jacket plugs out from my pants liner where they had gotten stuck and redress myself. This lack of coordination cost about ten minutes. Time- 17:55.
Because I stopped sooner than I had planned, I knew that there would have to be two more gas stops before Perdido Key. I continued north on I-75 to I-10, and then headed west. Got gas at Live Oak, then back on I-10 for gas again at Cottondale. I was shocked to see herds of deer along the side of the Interstate feeding in the grass just a few feet from the roadway. These deer must have been deaf, because I have $8 Western Auto deer horns mounted on the FJR, and the deer didn’t even look up! I thought that all the Interstates were fenced off from the surrounding woods, but maybe not in northern Florida.
I got to the Pensacola exit, took I-110 into Pensacola where I knew I had to pick up US 98, and—oh no!!! There were no sign pointing to Perdido Key! The sign said “Gulf Beaches,” so I went that way, but the road was going east and I knew I had to go west. Oh No—what now?
Here it is at midnight in downtown Pensacola, which is like many other downtowns—kind of seedy, with me dressed up in a riding suit with a full face helmet looking like the Michelin man. I went into a Quick Stop and asked the lady how to get to Perdido—she said she never heard of it, but a customer pointed me to US 98 going west. I took that to another gas station about 5 miles away, and a trucker pointed me to the right road to Perdido, which he said was about 15 miles further away. I took that road for about ten miles, never seeing a sign that said “Perdido Key this way”, so I stopped at another gas station and was told to just keep going. Finally, after what seemed to be hours but was only about ten more minutes, I came across the bridge that said Perdido Key. Whew! I made it.
I continued down the only road for about ten miles and couldn’t find a gas station! So I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce Building, now at 1:15 AM and took a couple of pictures of the chamber building to prove that I was on the island, crossed back over the bridge to the first building which housed a gas station, and got gas there. The receipt said “Perdido Key.” Time out of the gas station—1:36 AM 19 hour 20 minutes from the start.
Back to Pensacola, I-110 to I-10, and then east to Amelia Island. The temperature was now at 32 degrees, I was getting very cold, so I stopped and put my FroggToggs on over all the other clothing and finally, I was comfortable. I-10 is a good roadway, there are police every now and then, but there are many more deer than I ever imagined. Even though there was always somebody in front of me on this trip, the deer didn’t seem to be spooked by the traffic.
I stopped for gas and coffee at the Mariana exit, and gas and coffee again at Live Oak. It is now 6:11 AM, exactly 24 hours from the start, and my odometer shows 1,465 miles traveled. I had previously completed a Bun Burner Gold, but I had hoped to have done another on this leg, but getting lost at Perdido put a stop to that. But no time to cry—gotta move on.
I knew now that I would arrive in Jacksonville during the morning rush hour, but fortunately, the traffic moved well, without too many delays. The traffic through JAX and then north to A1A and the Amelia exit moved fast, and the ten miles from I-95 to Amelia Island is a fast four lane road. I gassed up at Amelia never getting off the bike, because I knew that my timing was close, and that I had NO time to waste. Time 8:00 am, 25 hours 49 minutes from the start.
My original planning called for the trip from Amelia Island to Miami to take 6 hours 30 minutes, but this included a 30 minute gas break along the way. I had to shave at least half an hour off this time to make the trip in the 32 hour time frame. This was a challenge!
Fortunately, I got back to I-95 quickly, and the traffic was moving south freely, with no delays. I stayed in the left hand lane with the flow of traffic—I was never the leader, but the traffic did move briskly. There were a few construction zones that slowed us up here and there, but I was pleased with our pace.
I stopped for my last fuel in Cocoa off of I-95—not getting off the bike, still wearing my Frogg Toggs and cold weather gear—the temperature was now 70 degrees. Then back onto I-95 for the final push into Miami.
Then the monsoons came!
I had been listening to my FM radio that has a weather alert feature, and the National Weather Service announcements started coming through about “torrential rains,” “flooding,” “standing water on highways,” and “gale force winds.” I had never ridden my bike in rain this hard—but—the traffic in the left lane kept moving at highway speeds. I just followed the car in front of me at a greater distance between us, but we kept going south. My waterproof gloves filled up with water.
I got off I-95 at Fort Pierce and switched over to the Florida Turnpike. At that point, I had 120 miles to go and 1:58 time left, in the rain. I thought I had a good chance!
The turnpike is four lanes, and every once in a while, a semi would try to pass another semi and tie up traffic for a couple of miles. This was slowing me down, but I was able to make up most of those delays. At the 31 hour mark, I had 50 miles to go—all interstate, so I was feeling good, but the rain was still a problem. Then I saw the lighted information sign---
ACCIDENT ON TURNPIKE SOUTHBOUND—EXPECT MAJOR DELAYS
This couldn’t be happening to me. After riding for 31 hours, through cold and rain, getting lost and tired, I was about to lose my challenge because of a random accident just near the finish line. No fair! Oh well, now that I got that out of my system, the only thing to do is to travel on, so I did.
The accident had traffic backed up about half a mile, but there was movement. I have never done lane splitting on my bike, and I didn’t want to start now, but I decided to give this traffic jam five minutes, and then I might just start moving between lanes. With luck, right at the five minute point, we passed the accident, traffic sped up, I didn’t have to lane split, and I was nearing the finish line.
I got off the expressway, ran the mile to the gas station, pulled up to the pump, stuck in my credit card and started pumping gas, and---
Nothing came out! I put the nozzle back on the holder, and a receipt popped out showing that I had purchased 5 cents of gas, but the time stamp was there---2:01 PM, 31 hours 50 minutes from the time I started! Hoorah! 1,916 miles.
For those of you who might like to try this challenging ride, here’s what I learned—
1. Definitely do the Key West section early in your ride, or if you can’t, plan on the Miami to Key West to Miami ride to take seven hours. My ride took six hours, but I can easily see how traffic delays can cost an hour, and you have no control over that. In the alternative, plan on riding this route late at night, watching the roadway for animals.
2. Have really good maps, or at least program your GPS. I did not program my GPS, because I thought I knew the way and because I thought there would be plenty of signage. I found that not to be the case at Perdido Key.
3. Dress warmer than you think necessary. When the temperature drops, and after you’ve been riding for 24 hours or so, you need additional temperature protection to keep from getting hypothermic.
4. THIS IS NOT A RIDE FOR THE FAINT OF HEART! THIS IS A VERY CHALLENGING RIDE! Although the pace of this ride is the same as for a BBG, 250 miles is on essentially two lane roads in the Keys, and another hundred miles or so is on city roads around Marco, Perdido, and Amelia. So the pace on the Interstates is faster than a BBG.
5. The key is not riding faster—the key is stopping less. My total “stopped time” on my GPS, which includes times at stoplights, was 3:20. I wasted thirty minutes or so with clothing changes. I could have also saved about 3 minutes at each of the 11 gas stops for a total of 33 minutes saved, by just moving faster and not “taking it easy.”
6. Hope that the weather forecast you get is better than the weather forecast I got.
I’m glad I did the ride. If any of you want to do the ride and have questions, I’d be glad to help.
Now for the paperwork!
Lap of Florida Insanity (around Florida in 32 hours):
Around the perimeter of Florida, corners of the state;
Amelia Island (northeast point), Perdido Key (northwest point),
Marco Island (southwest point) and Key West (southernnmost point)
collecting sand from the Atlantic Ocean, North Gulf of Mexico,
South Golf of Mexico and the Florida Straights and return to start.
I started planning for the Lap of Florida ride several months ago. There are several routes that you can take leaving from Miami. You can go south to Key West and then North on the east coast to Amelia Island, or go south to Key West and then west to Marco Island, or go north to Amelia Island, or go west to Marco Island as the first legs. I wanted to avoid heavy traffic days and heavy traffic times of the day. I also didn’t want to travel to or from Key West in the dark—running over a gator or a croc would ruin my day. And most importantly, I didn’t want to do the ride in bad weather.
I also figured that the ride experience would actually consume four days—one and a half days for the ride itself, plus another day and a half to recuperate to the point of feeling half human, and another day to get back to near 100%.
It seemed clear to me that the tricky part of the ride would be the leg to Key West and back to Miami. This is mostly a two-lane road, with miles of no-passing zones. If you get caught behind a rubbernecking tourist, or if there is a big accident, you could be held up for quite a while. If this were to happen early in the ride, I planned to abort the try and try again another time. If it happened late in the ride, after going all around the rest of the State, I don’t know if I’d have the spirit to try the entire ride again.
So, with all those constraints in mind, and the fact that my wife had already planned several social commitments throughout the month, and there were some not-to-be missed events (like the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon), I started to look for available time slots.
There were only three available four-day time slots, and one of them was just two days away! The weather forecast showed a 30% chance of rain for the back end of the ride, with a low temperature at night in northern Florida of 46 degrees. I would have to start the ride on a Sunday—not the best day because of tourist traffic on the road to and from Key West, but the weather looked too good to pass up. So I went to sleep early on Saturday night, woke up at 3 AM Sunday morning, got dressed, had breakfast, kissed my wife, petted the dog, and set out for the ride at 5AM.
I didn’t start the ‘official ride’ at our apartment on Miami Beach. Instead I started the ride with the first gas receipt at a gas station near the Florida turnpike on 41st street in Miami. The receipt showed my start time as 6:11 AM. One mile later, I was on the Florida turnpike heading south, with my daughter’s SunPass transponder in my tank bag.
The 29 miles of the turnpike has a speed limit of 60 mph, and I saw several Highway Patrol cars along the side of the road, so I kept my speed moderate, just with the flow of traffic, which was moving at about 70 mph. I continued on the main road to Key Largo rather than taking the Card Sound Road, which is 8 miles longer but often faster, depending on traffic. So far, traffic was minimal.
Ninety miles from the start, it started to rain, and the temperature dropped from 77 degrees to 68 degrees—this was not in the forecast or my plans. I stopped to put on my FroggToggs—this took about four minutes. The rain did not slow down traffic.
I got to Key West and entered a small traffic jam. There were signs saying—“Watch out for runners—5K in progress” and one lane of traffic was blocked off. No matter, just a small delay, a short distance to the fuel stop, got sand from across the street, and back on the road to drive north. Time out of Key West—9:07 AM.
I had taken off my FroggToggs in Key West, and the cool air felt good. But the traffic north was horrible. I got caught behind a caravan of motor homes going 30 mph in no passing zones for miles and miles. Fortunately, there were some three lane passing sections where I was able to scoot ahead, but it was frustrating watching the clock tick away the minutes. I determined that my fail-safe time back to Miami had to be within six and a half hours from the start, or I would abort the trip. I got back to Miami at 12:20 PM, 6 hours 9 minutes from the start, got more gas, and headed west on I -75 to Marco Island.
I-75 moved swiftly, and having the SunPass let me zip through the several toll booths without stopping. However, the temperature continued to drop, and when it hit 60 degrees, I’d had enough, so I pulled into a rest stop, took off my riding jacket, put on my WarmNSafe heated jacket and gloves, put back on my riding jacket, and headed back out. This cost about 6 minutes.
Marco Island is about 15 miles off the Interstate, with mostly four and six lane roads, but several stop lights, all of which happened to be red when I got to them. But finally, after crossing a small bridge, I entered Marco Island, stopped to get sand, found the first gas station and filled up. But the gas receipt didn’t say Marco Island, so to be safe, I drove a mile down the street, found another gas station, put in fifteen cents more gas, and got a ‘good’ receipt. This wasted five minutes. Time is 14:51, or 8 hours and 40 minutes from the start.
As I headed back to I-75 for the ride north, those same traffic lights greeted me again with the reds. Damn—wasted minutes!
Back on I-75, the flow of traffic was fast. I planned to stop for gas near Ocala, but as I neared Tampa, the temperature was dropping towards 48 degrees, and I began to shiver, so I stopped early just north of Tampa, got gas, put on my riding pants liner under my riding pants, and put my quilted jacket liner over my heated jacket and under my riding jacket. I got back on the bike with my helmet strapped on, and I realized I couldn’t find all the connectors coming out of my heated jacket to plug into the bike, so I had to get off the bike, take off the helmet, pull the jacket plugs out from my pants liner where they had gotten stuck and redress myself. This lack of coordination cost about ten minutes. Time- 17:55.
Because I stopped sooner than I had planned, I knew that there would have to be two more gas stops before Perdido Key. I continued north on I-75 to I-10, and then headed west. Got gas at Live Oak, then back on I-10 for gas again at Cottondale. I was shocked to see herds of deer along the side of the Interstate feeding in the grass just a few feet from the roadway. These deer must have been deaf, because I have $8 Western Auto deer horns mounted on the FJR, and the deer didn’t even look up! I thought that all the Interstates were fenced off from the surrounding woods, but maybe not in northern Florida.
I got to the Pensacola exit, took I-110 into Pensacola where I knew I had to pick up US 98, and—oh no!!! There were no sign pointing to Perdido Key! The sign said “Gulf Beaches,” so I went that way, but the road was going east and I knew I had to go west. Oh No—what now?
Here it is at midnight in downtown Pensacola, which is like many other downtowns—kind of seedy, with me dressed up in a riding suit with a full face helmet looking like the Michelin man. I went into a Quick Stop and asked the lady how to get to Perdido—she said she never heard of it, but a customer pointed me to US 98 going west. I took that to another gas station about 5 miles away, and a trucker pointed me to the right road to Perdido, which he said was about 15 miles further away. I took that road for about ten miles, never seeing a sign that said “Perdido Key this way”, so I stopped at another gas station and was told to just keep going. Finally, after what seemed to be hours but was only about ten more minutes, I came across the bridge that said Perdido Key. Whew! I made it.
I continued down the only road for about ten miles and couldn’t find a gas station! So I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce Building, now at 1:15 AM and took a couple of pictures of the chamber building to prove that I was on the island, crossed back over the bridge to the first building which housed a gas station, and got gas there. The receipt said “Perdido Key.” Time out of the gas station—1:36 AM 19 hour 20 minutes from the start.
Back to Pensacola, I-110 to I-10, and then east to Amelia Island. The temperature was now at 32 degrees, I was getting very cold, so I stopped and put my FroggToggs on over all the other clothing and finally, I was comfortable. I-10 is a good roadway, there are police every now and then, but there are many more deer than I ever imagined. Even though there was always somebody in front of me on this trip, the deer didn’t seem to be spooked by the traffic.
I stopped for gas and coffee at the Mariana exit, and gas and coffee again at Live Oak. It is now 6:11 AM, exactly 24 hours from the start, and my odometer shows 1,465 miles traveled. I had previously completed a Bun Burner Gold, but I had hoped to have done another on this leg, but getting lost at Perdido put a stop to that. But no time to cry—gotta move on.
I knew now that I would arrive in Jacksonville during the morning rush hour, but fortunately, the traffic moved well, without too many delays. The traffic through JAX and then north to A1A and the Amelia exit moved fast, and the ten miles from I-95 to Amelia Island is a fast four lane road. I gassed up at Amelia never getting off the bike, because I knew that my timing was close, and that I had NO time to waste. Time 8:00 am, 25 hours 49 minutes from the start.
My original planning called for the trip from Amelia Island to Miami to take 6 hours 30 minutes, but this included a 30 minute gas break along the way. I had to shave at least half an hour off this time to make the trip in the 32 hour time frame. This was a challenge!
Fortunately, I got back to I-95 quickly, and the traffic was moving south freely, with no delays. I stayed in the left hand lane with the flow of traffic—I was never the leader, but the traffic did move briskly. There were a few construction zones that slowed us up here and there, but I was pleased with our pace.
I stopped for my last fuel in Cocoa off of I-95—not getting off the bike, still wearing my Frogg Toggs and cold weather gear—the temperature was now 70 degrees. Then back onto I-95 for the final push into Miami.
Then the monsoons came!
I had been listening to my FM radio that has a weather alert feature, and the National Weather Service announcements started coming through about “torrential rains,” “flooding,” “standing water on highways,” and “gale force winds.” I had never ridden my bike in rain this hard—but—the traffic in the left lane kept moving at highway speeds. I just followed the car in front of me at a greater distance between us, but we kept going south. My waterproof gloves filled up with water.
I got off I-95 at Fort Pierce and switched over to the Florida Turnpike. At that point, I had 120 miles to go and 1:58 time left, in the rain. I thought I had a good chance!
The turnpike is four lanes, and every once in a while, a semi would try to pass another semi and tie up traffic for a couple of miles. This was slowing me down, but I was able to make up most of those delays. At the 31 hour mark, I had 50 miles to go—all interstate, so I was feeling good, but the rain was still a problem. Then I saw the lighted information sign---
ACCIDENT ON TURNPIKE SOUTHBOUND—EXPECT MAJOR DELAYS
This couldn’t be happening to me. After riding for 31 hours, through cold and rain, getting lost and tired, I was about to lose my challenge because of a random accident just near the finish line. No fair! Oh well, now that I got that out of my system, the only thing to do is to travel on, so I did.
The accident had traffic backed up about half a mile, but there was movement. I have never done lane splitting on my bike, and I didn’t want to start now, but I decided to give this traffic jam five minutes, and then I might just start moving between lanes. With luck, right at the five minute point, we passed the accident, traffic sped up, I didn’t have to lane split, and I was nearing the finish line.
I got off the expressway, ran the mile to the gas station, pulled up to the pump, stuck in my credit card and started pumping gas, and---
Nothing came out! I put the nozzle back on the holder, and a receipt popped out showing that I had purchased 5 cents of gas, but the time stamp was there---2:01 PM, 31 hours 50 minutes from the time I started! Hoorah! 1,916 miles.
For those of you who might like to try this challenging ride, here’s what I learned—
1. Definitely do the Key West section early in your ride, or if you can’t, plan on the Miami to Key West to Miami ride to take seven hours. My ride took six hours, but I can easily see how traffic delays can cost an hour, and you have no control over that. In the alternative, plan on riding this route late at night, watching the roadway for animals.
2. Have really good maps, or at least program your GPS. I did not program my GPS, because I thought I knew the way and because I thought there would be plenty of signage. I found that not to be the case at Perdido Key.
3. Dress warmer than you think necessary. When the temperature drops, and after you’ve been riding for 24 hours or so, you need additional temperature protection to keep from getting hypothermic.
4. THIS IS NOT A RIDE FOR THE FAINT OF HEART! THIS IS A VERY CHALLENGING RIDE! Although the pace of this ride is the same as for a BBG, 250 miles is on essentially two lane roads in the Keys, and another hundred miles or so is on city roads around Marco, Perdido, and Amelia. So the pace on the Interstates is faster than a BBG.
5. The key is not riding faster—the key is stopping less. My total “stopped time” on my GPS, which includes times at stoplights, was 3:20. I wasted thirty minutes or so with clothing changes. I could have also saved about 3 minutes at each of the 11 gas stops for a total of 33 minutes saved, by just moving faster and not “taking it easy.”
6. Hope that the weather forecast you get is better than the weather forecast I got.
I’m glad I did the ride. If any of you want to do the ride and have questions, I’d be glad to help.
Now for the paperwork!
