MTF  50/100CC Iron Butt Association Ride Will Allender 100CCC Ride Report March 2003

Well, the big day has come and gone. For those that don't want to read the entire trip report, I'll just say up front that my part of the ride was a success (insert big heavy sigh of relief). It started off pretty rocky, and I wasn't even sure if I was gonna get to the starting line, but in the end, I completed my 100CC Insanity, Jacksonville, FL, to San Diego, CA, to Jacksonville, FL, with each leg completed in less than 50 hours. First leg east to west was 2,367 GPS miles completed in 38 hours and 59 minutes. Return trip was the same mileage (2,367 miles) completed in 37 hours and 29 minutes. Total mileage on the bike, including getting to and from the starting line, was 7,146 in 7 days.

As I said, the trip started off pretty rocky. About three weeks before the trip, I got the flu and was sucking down all the water and vitamins my body would handle, trying to get healthy. For some reason, every time I get sick, it tends to linger on for weeks if not months. Two nights before I was scheduled to leave home for Jacksonville, I woke up at 1am with a constant cough that had me reporting to my wife that I was going to cancel the trip. Mad about that decision, I stomped downstairs to a different bedroom so that she could get some sleep while I coughed into the night. I slept a little bit that night and woke up the next morning feeling slightly better and convinced myself and her that I would go ahead and try the ride, but would take it one day at a time and bail at the first sign of serious misery.

In addition to being sick, there was this at our house and the road leading away from our place...

and so I decided to trailer my bike out of Colorado. Hopefully the warmer ride in the truck would also give me another day to get better. A friend near Dallas was good enough to let me store my truck at his place for the week, so off I headed down the road, not feeling good at all about TRAILERING a bike with a license plate frame that reads "World's Toughest Riders". Briefly considered getting out the duct tape and changing the frame to read "Fair Weather Riders". LOL Got to Dallas on Friday night, staged the bike in Rick's garage and tried to get some sleep for a 5am start. Made it to Atlanta by nightfall Saturday and had a nice dinner with my brother in law and his wife. I left Atlanta on Sunday morning under ominous skies and the threat of severe thunderstorms. After I-75 merged with I-10 in Florida, I and everyone else on the road were rerouted through downtown Lake City, as I-10 east of there was closed and under water! Great! That's the road were to be traveling tomorrow for the 100CC!

Got in to Jacksonville around 4ish on Sunday and the parking lot was starting to fill up with all of the other riders. This was a good chance for me to catch a glimpse of all the other farkles that folks had mounted on their bikes.

Here's one with a fuel cell for the bike and a water cell for the rider
 

While I don't particularly care for the looks of this tank, it serves it's purpose. 11 gallons of fuel!

Here was one of the highlights of the rider roster. A couple doing the 100CC, two-up on a Hayabusa! :eek:

The group got together for a picture and I realized that, for once, I'm one of the youngest in the group!

Next morning came too quick. I was wide awake at 3:30 am but was wishing a had another 10 hours to sleep. I packed up and made my way over to the start point, a nearby Shell station. As the bikes rolled in, the intensity was definitely building.

 I waited to hear my name called and then proceeded to the pumps to gas up and get my receipt with my official starting time. 6:02 am. The thought passed through my mind "what have I gotten into?" LOL There's always an initial panic right after getting that first receipt. I flashed the checklist through my head wondering if I had forgotten anything. Then, it's like, oh well, too late now. I'll find out what I forgot when I go looking for it. LOL I proceeded down to the beach to get my Atlantic Ocean sand and water. While this step was not REQUIRED, ethics, tradition, and a certain sense of "the spirit of the ride" can be accomplished by actually touching and collecting water on both sides of the U.S. within the 50 hour timeframe. Since I was there to have fun and not to race, I made my way down to the beach while I heard the roar of some of the other bikes turning towards the superslab.

After that, there was lots of this ( try staring at that picture for 39 hours! LOL )

and this

and a couple of these colorful sunsets

Then, less than fifty hours later, I bent down and collected some Pacific Ocean sand and water.

Needless to say, I didn't get much sun time on the beaches! LOL

I decided to have a sit down meal and then it was off to bed. The fun was going to start all over again at 4 am, San Diego to Jacksonville! Fortunately by this time, I had managed to completely shake any nasty germs that were in my body two days earlier and I was feeling really good about getting back on the bike and riding. The next morning at 4, we were given the nod that we could go ahead and take off whenever we were ready. Eager to roll, and not quite awake, I did so. It wasn't until around Yuma, Arizona that I remembered that I told the OldRoadToad that I would be there until about 5am if he wanted to stop by to say Hi. Toad, if you made it, sorry I missed ya! :( San Diego is becoming a frequent destination for me so I hope to do better next time.

After I left the hotel, I rolled down to the beach to gas up, get my midpoint clock receipt and another stop at the water's edge. As I headed up the mountains away from San Diego, the fierce winds I had felt just 12 hours earlier were starting to whip up. It was going to be a wicked ride down the other side into the desert. Near the crest of the hill, I was passed by a Silver GoldWing. Going down through the Interstate twisties, I barely kept his taillights in sight. Clearly, that guy was on a mission.

Not being able to keep up with him (nor wanting to roll that fast), I coasted across the desert and made my first gas stop in Yuma, AZ. Here, I met up with another GoldWing rider, Mike B.,

and after a few miles together on the road, we both figured out that we like to ride at the same pace. And we complimented each other well. I carried lot's of spare gas and he had the radar detector, which made it more comfortable to cruise along at 5-10 over. ;) We stayed together for the rest of the trip to JAX and only hit a little bit of fog near Houston and a brief shower in Louisiana. Also, saw lots of deer on the side of the road through Texas in the middle of the night.

We did get pulled over once in Louisiana. Fortunately, Mike B. was an ex-cop and proceeded to educate the officer on the legality of his modulating headlight without making the cop look like a total ass. ;)

37.5 hours after we started, we hit the beach in JAX and I collected my final sand and water the next morning.

By riding straight through, and only stopping for a 2 hour nap in Junction, TX, we managed to miss the really bad weather that a lot of the other riders took in, causing 4 or 5 of the West-East-West riders to turn and head for home. :(

Of the 27 100CC East-West-East riders that started, we had 26 that finished, which is a new record. I think we also had 6 overall finishers on GS's!

But this couple gets the most kudos!! Micheal from New York and Victoria from Lithuania, two-up on that busa! And look at that, they're still smiling and talking to each other. They got in 1 hour before the deadline, so basically they spent 99 hours on that bike!