Day 11 - Pennsylvania

I woke up late the next morning. I’d spent a decent portion of the night talking with my friend.

After showering and cleaning up the room I’d stayed in, I loaded up my bike and headed to a bikeshop. I wanted to get an oil change before continuing the trip, as I had about 5,000 miles on thatoil and I’d been riding pretty hard for the past couple days.

The shop I went to was really cool, there were dozens of bikes, many of which were custom builds. I saw a few CBs, lots of cafe racers, one GS1200 sitting in the corner, some odd sport bikes,and a couple cruisers. A few bikes were for show, and were completely custom, with gas tank shifters, suicide clutches, foot controlled gas levers, etc. It was pretty cool. 

The price for an oil change was a ripoff though ($80). Considering the fluid was only $35, $45 is too much for 20 minutes of labor.

The techs were cool, and I spent the time talking with them about bikes and builds.

I left the shop at about 11:00 and headed to my friends college campus. We planned on having lunch together before I left.

We had lunch in a very nice dinning hall, and then he bought me some food/snacks for the road (I’m always happy to get free food). I gave him a small souvenir I’d gotten for him in Arizona, thenleft for KY.

The ride through Connecticut was pretty, thoughI didn’t enjoy the traffic (for some reason it was bad Monday).

I made it to somewhere in Pennsylvania before I decided to stop and rest for the night.

Day 10 - Boston

I woke up to my closest friend rousing me from my makeshift bed on the floor (which had been quite comfortable). It was about 07:15 and we were planning on taking a ferry to Martha’s Vinyard. One of his friends lived there, and it would be relatively cheap for us to see the island.

The friend drove us to the dock (a little over an hour driving), and it took about 45 minutes on the ferry. 

We spent the day driving from one location to another, seeing interesting sights, eating food, playing in an arcade, etc. It was a nice break from riding and I enjoyed lending time with my friend.

We got back into to my friends dorm at 21:00 or so. I took an Uber into Boston and spent the night with another of my close friends who I wantedto see before I left.

Day 9 - New York

Niagara Falls to Boston was about an 8 hour ride, but I didn’t want to be to fall too far behind schedule and woke up at 07:30. After gettting coffee and spending a couple minutes looking at thefog covered falls, I left for Boston.

The most annoying part of the day (besides the 8 hour ride on 2 hours of sleep following a 22 hour day), was that when I woke up, I really neededto use the restroom, but I couldn’t find a place for 30 minutes. I had to try three different gas stations, with the first two advertising themselves as open, but  the front doors were locked.

After eating a little and drinking some coffee, I started out. The ride was tedious and traffic was heavy, especially in closer to Boston. I was glad to be at a proper place to rest by 16:30.

I was staying at a friends house and, after taking a shower, I fell asleep until we went out to dinner.

I hadn’t seen them in years, so it was nice to catch up and see how they were enjoying Boston/the surrounding area.

I ended the night sleeping in my friends dorm, with plans to get up early the next morning.

Day 8 - Iowa

This was my most difficult day. I was two days behind schedule, so I needed to ride for at least an extra 600 miles to make up for that (and if still be getting to Boston a day late). In total, I did 947 miles that day, going from somewhere in Iowa to Niagara Falls.

Somewhere near Cleveland, there was a heavy fog that I ended up driving through for a few hours. It was so thick, I couldn’t see anything besides cars taillights, and if I stopped to get gas, I waited until another car was going east so I wouldn’t be riding completely blind.

I started at 06:00 in the morning, and didn’t get into Niagara Falls until 04:00. Having been on theroad for 21 hours (time zone change subtracts an hour), I was dead tired, and fell asleep on my bike listening to the falls.

Day 7 - Kansas

Not much happened this day. I saw massive VanGogh painting in Kansas. There wasn’t much else to see in Kansas, it’s just flat farm land.

There was one instance where I was almost hit by a semi. I was in a dip in the road (probably the only one for 100s of miles), and a semi in the opposite land wanted to pass another semi. When I came over the ridge, I was facing two semi trucks driving towards me at about 65 mph, only about 300 feet away. I pulled to the side and started braking heavily, both trucks did the same and we passed safely - the passing driver waving at me apologetically.

I made it to somewhere in Iowa before I rested for the night.

Day 6 - Colorado

After resting at a gas station for a couple hours, Iset off early in the morning. I wanted to make progress before it started snowing heavily.

For the first couple miles, I had the a great view of the snow falling on the surrounding farms androads. Not much was sticking, but the roads were still wet.

After about an hour, I’d made it to the base of the final mountains pass. After getting about half way up, the formerly wet roads became snow coated, and before long, I was riding in the tracks of a car that had gone just before me.

That didn’t last very long, I low sided in a few minutes. Having slid about 30 feet, my bike was in the opposing lane and my cold weather gloves were torn, my clutch lever was bent, and my left frame slider had been ground down. Luckily, there wasn’t any lasting damage to me or the bike, but I was stuck on the side of a mountain with a 700 lb bike at about 06:30 in the morning. 

I can barely lift the bike when it’s fully loaded, and I could only slide it around on the snow. With barely any traction in my riding boots, I fell a few times trying to lift the bike.

Having given up any attempts to lift the bike (and having no cell service), I gathered up some of my belongings and waited by the railing. If no car came in the next half hour, I’d walk down to thebase and ask for help.

Luckily for me, I’m about 5 minutes an off duty fire fighter was driving his Jeep down the mountain and saw the flashing red light I had placed on my bike. I had hoped it would make my bike visible to any semi trucks coming around the corner, but it worked to signal for help too.

 It took about 20 minutes for us to get the bike on its way down the mountain. Neither of us had much traction, and the bike was extremely heavy. We dropped her three times before we managed to get off the snow and back onto the wet road, and one of those times the tires had spun out and the bike tipped over again.

The guy who had helped me drove off once I was at the base. I pulled over and got out my tool kit. I inspected the bike, removed snow that had been pressed into the fairings, front wheel, brakes calipers, etc. There was a small crack in the left fairing near the turn signals, but beyond that and the bent clutch lever, there wasn’t any damage. Thankfully the frame slider had protected most of my fairings, hard cases, and my shift lever/foot peg.

After taking off the clutch lever and using the bike frame to bend it back into usable condition, I got back on tried to go through the pass another two times, the second time following a snow plow. The second attempt had me stopping once I got to snow (not much had changed in the past 30 minutes). The third didn’t last very long, as the snow plow only went up about half way beforeturning around, at which point I turned around as well.

I rode down to the nearest gas station, which was only a few miles away. There wasn’t an actual station there, only pumps. There was a small bed and breakfast type diner. The owners were a husband and wife that were very welcoming. Aftera hot meal and a shower I started charging my devices and planning a route. They had guessed the storm would have let up around noon, but by 11:00 it only looked like it would get worse.

I decided to take a 150 mile detour south. No matter what, I’d need to go through the mountains, but hopefully the roads would be clear enough to continue on my trip.

I didn’t have cell service, so I marked out the route on the map. My main goal was to go as far south as possible, nearly New Mexico, then go north until I hit I-75.

It wasn’t an easy road, they had sanded them due to the snow chains, and they were very wet, but after a couple hours I was out of the mountains. By 21:00 I had made it to the Kansas border. It was dark by then and I spent a few hours resting.

Days 1 & 2

I set out at 07:00 in the morning, reaching Jacksonville at 08:30. After an hour to rest, I started the Iron Butt Ride - Coast to Coast in less than 50 hours (The second half was more interesting than the first, feel free to read from wherever).

The first 12 hours weren’t too bad. I didn’t stop in New Orleans to visit Mo and Erika (didn’t have enough time with NOLA traffic), but I rested for an hour nearby, which was enough for me.

Along the way, I stopped at a gas station that a bike group happened to be filling up at. I asked to join them and rode near the rear of the group for a couple hours (between Jacksonville and somewhere near Pensacola).

The first night I mostly rode, stopping to sleep a few hours before sunrise at a rest stop near San Antonio, Texas.

I kept riding from there to El Paso, Texas. I was alittle drowsy with only a total of 3.5 hours of sleep (I had taken 15 - 20 minute naps at a few gas stations on top of the rest stop nap), but once the scenery changed, I woke up and found myself with enough energy to ride another 7 hours with no desire to sleep.

The ride was relatively uneventful, El Paso seemed a bit dull. I ended up calling a few friends andpurchasing some more supplies, but it was little more than a quick stop. This was close to sunset.

It was a few miles into New Mexico that it started to get dark. I also started to get tired. I woke up when I started to see multiple warnings for dust storms. The first sign I saw woke me up, and I was rather alert for large dark clouds rolling across the ground. But eventually it became so dark I settled for hoping that I wouldn’t get caught in one and kept riding. The alarming affect had worn off though, and I soon found myself extremely tired again. I stopped just after the border of Arizona for a little over an hour, only sleeping for 20 - 25 minutes, but they helped fight the fatigue I was feeling.

This is where I was probably at the most risk for crashing. There were long stretches from 02:00 -04:00 where I was alone of the highway (besidesthe occasional semi going the opposite direction). When I checked the time, I realized I had hoursmore to go - this discouraged me. I was extremely tired, and the 20 minute naps I was taking at some gas stations could only help so much. At certain points, my eyes would pull shut. At others, Iwould think I was seeing strange things. My mind was making strange connections to the audio books I was reading, and a few times I would think I saw something like a character or scene from a book. Signs would become props and trees looked like characters. Other portions looked like horribly disfigured sets. What worried me was that I was so tired, I didn’t realize how ridiculous they were until 10 seconds later. At one point, I drifted from my lane (right) to another, without even realizing it. This bothered me far more than anything else, and it helped me realize I needed to pull over and try to rest. 

Keep in mind, gas stations are sometimes sparse, especially in those uninhabited areas. I wanted to stop, but I didn’t feel comfortable stopping along the side of the road (especially since I had just passed a very large dead animal - if it was real - it looked like a black bear).

I stopped at a station and allotted myself 35 minutes. I still had about 6 hours of riding left, and they weren’t going to be fun. After 25 minutes of much needed sleep, I chugged two black coffees (a small sign said these had 30% more caffeine, so I was hoping that would help me stay awake).

The coffee definitely helped. I don’t usually drink it, but I found doing so made it easier to convince myself I could finish the ride without more sleep. Crossing the border into Arizona also woke me up again. I really found myself with more energy when I hit Devils Canyon (or something like that). It was the first curvy portion of road I’d seen for 1000s of miles, and it forced me to focus on proper riding techniques.

 I enjoyed the winding road, but it it also went up in elevation over 3,000 feet. The cold prompted me to use my heated gear on high settings for the first time (low settings were great for the night and occasional mild rain).

Once I was an hour away from San Diego, my fatigue seemed to wear off. I’d been riding for nearly 2 hours (not to mention the previous +30 from the past two days), and the prospect of stopping the clock sounded nice. 

I reached San Deigo about 47 hours and 38 minutes after starting in Jacksonville. The roads are horrible there though. There are far too many one way streets, no road is straight for more than 500 feet, and everything (and I really do mean absolutely everything) is on a slant. San Diego is essentially a horribly sloped city with confusing roads and poor road maintenance. Those probably don’t sound like a big deal, but after riding for sibling, I didn’t want to deal with bad infrastructure and planning. By the time I found a gas station (my GPS has started having a hard time here), it was 48 hours and 4 minutes from when I had started.

It was quite the experience, and after spending an hour at the gas station, I rode to the beach and walked into the water to say I had stood in both the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean within a 50 hourtime period.

P.S. - I’m typing this before bed on the 3rd day,  I’ll be able to post it  (and pictures) when I have cell service. Videos should happen when I get toLexington or Boston (though they may have to wait until I’m back in Gainesville).