June 17, 2001 SaddleSore Write Up

I have been interested in Long Distance riding ever since Jim Morin related his tale of the "Waltz Across Texas Rally" in April of 2000. Since I couldn't get away for this year's WATR I decided to see if I could do a Saddle Sore 1000. This is a ride recognized by the Iron Butt Association as riding at least 1000 miles in 24 hours or less. You can get more info on this type of ride and rides like it at www.ironbutt.com .

I do plan on doing a 1000 mile rally in October of 2001 in Albuquerque and thought a summertime ride of 1000 miles would be a good test before I sent in my non-refundable entry fee.

Greg Yarborough and I had originally planned on doing this ride on May 27th, Memorial Day weekend. Neville Crews had expressed an interest in going with us, but work interfered and I had to go into the office that Sunday. So we had to reschedule. As June 7th was spoken for with our Hill Country ride, we looked at June 17th, Father's Day.....Perfect.

Our original SaddleSore route had us going up to San Antonio then taking I-10 West to Ft. Stockton, but after the Hill Country ride and the extremely high afternoon temperatures we started looking at an alternative route perhaps to somewhere in Louisiana and back. Using the internet and the Weather Channel it looked like the highest temps would be 91 and that would be in Houston. My youngest daughter was in Houston and was needing a lift home so I planned a route up the Gulf Coast. Jennings, La was a good turn around place as it was a little over 500 miles away, but Neville was leaving from Harlingen so we needed to go a little farther to accommodate his mileage, plus it gave us an excuse to kid him as we rode those extra 30 miles. Crowley, La would be our turnaround spot, Crowley is a small town about 20 miles west of Lafayette. A week before blast off Alex and Daniel Gutierrez expressed a desire to go with us. So now we were 5 bikes.

I really didn't make any modifications to the Wing before I left, I did do an oil change after the Hill Country ride and made sure I took plenty of water and had a way of drinking the water while on the bike. Plus I needed to take my trailer as my daughter was returning with me, I would pick her up in Houston on the return trip and would have all her stuff, suitcase, etc. My trailer has a place for an ice chest, which I packed with GatorAde, extra water and Cool Collars. I had already programmed the route into my Garmin 3 Plus and had installed a new GPS mount that had taken the bumps of the Hill Country ride with nary a problem. I also wore my Joe Rocket Phoenix perforated textile jacket. I totally endorse this jacket for those riders living and riding in the hotter climes. I also wore FirstGear textile pants to insulate me from the heat as much as possible.

June 17, 4 AM Fuel Stop #1 McAllen, TX

I met Greg, Daniel, and Alex at the Exxon Station at Lark and N. 23rd in McAllen, my wife Jo Ann was there to sign out our starting forms as our witness. Actually it was a little before 4 as my witness form shows 3:49 a.m. My fuel receipt which is the official start time showed 3:52 a.m. Receipts are important on an Iron Butt type ride, and need to show date, time, address and such. Right at 4 we took off, made our way over to 281 and north to Falfurrias. This first leg was uneventful as we made our way out of the valley, the temps were just right and we didn't see any Bambi's. We took 285 east to Riviera, which is where we were to meet up with Neville. As you get closer to Riviera there are a couple of sections of road that are twisty and fun. A couple of miles out of Riviera I could hear Alex talking to someone on the CB. He was talking to Neville a good mile before I picked him up. Good radio on that Valkyrie. We turned north on 77 and there was Neville sitting at the Chevron. Seeing as how the Chevron didn't have receipts at the pumps we pushed on, after Daniel put on his leather jacket, at highway speeds it was kind of cool.

Fuel Stop #2 Corpus Christi, TX 6:13 a.m.139 miles

Filled up in 5 Points but the receipt shows its actually Corpus, so by gosh that's what I put on my logbook. Stayed on N 77, I'll have to say this was the prettiest part of the ride. Not the scenery really but the sunrise and the early morning mist really gave this time of day a surreal quality. We were all enjoying this stretch of road with its gentle undulations and occasional sweeper, funny how I didn't notice all this on the way back. Must've been the time of day and the fact it was early in the ride. Your priorities change after hours in the saddle.

Fuel Stop #3 Edna, TX 8:09 a.m. 104 miles

Stopped at a McDonald's to let some of our group grab a quick bite of an Egg McMuffin. I took this opportunity to put on some sunscreen, sunglasses and replenish my water supply, then went next door and filled up and grabbed the all important receipt. Remembered to stretch while off the bike. I had pulled away from the pumps to allow Alex to fill up when a VTC bus pulled in at pretty good pace, thought he was going to wipe out my rig, but he missed me, I don't think it was as close as it looked. What I remember about this part of the ride was the grain and sorghum fields. When you're worried about what you're going to do when you hit Houston traffic and you're looking at mile after mile of thriving agriculture, it just doesn't seem to go together, but just south of Houston there are truly "Amber Waves of Grain". The ride into Houston concerned me because Tropical Storm Allyson had just been through there a few days before and I didn't know if we might be detoured or not. The plan was to take 59 straight into I-10, but there was a small problem, due to road construction we had to take I-45 North for a few miles that led us into 10 East. It wasn't too bad but the ups and downs and turnarounds got pretty exciting, right Daniel? The ride through Houston seem to take forever, but eventually we got through it, thank goodness for CB's we were all able to stay in touch while in the metro area.

Fuel Stop #4 Baytown, TX 10:10 a.m. 126 miles

Ended up stopping at a gas station in some road construction but it couldn't be helped. The small gas station had one co-ed bathroom, and since I had been drinking plenty of fluids and didn't want to wait in line, I walked next door to McDonalds and used their facilities. During this stop we stretched a little and ate a little, I know I had a power bar and some GatorAde. A lot of folks think when you get to Houston you are on the Louisiana border, not so, you still have over 100 miles to go and its always under construction, must be some sort of obscure Texas law. Since I was riding lead I decided to pick up the pace a little, riding about 5 mph above the posted limits. There is a lot of construction in on this stretch of road and all kidding aside I'll have to say I was very impressed with the amount of heavy weekend traffic. Must be a lot of vacationers on the road. Finally around 11:30 a.m. we said good-bye to Texas and hello to Louisiana and hoped our visit to the Bayou State would be brief.

Fuel Stop #5 Sulphur, La 12 Noon 108 miles

Starting to warm up now and these Louisiana roads are rough as a washboard. The right hand lanes just shake your fillings loose, the left hand lanes are a little better, but just barely. We are making tracks to Crowley, La at exit 80. The ride through Lake Charles is a blast, there is a high rise bridge and mucho casinos. The casinos are colorful and seem to be pretty busy as we see full parking lots and shuttle buses making their way through a sea of cars. We won't stop though, no time to gamble, oh yeah, or money either. We see rice paddies and crawdad ponds on both sides of the highway to remind us we are in Louisiana, and there is the ever bumpy road, no way to forget that.

Fuel Stop #6 Crowley, La 1:07 p.m. 61 miles 538 Total 137 p.m. 9 hours and 15 minutes since start.

YAY, our turnaround place, halfway home, no worries now right???????....WRONG

We find a new Exxon to fill up at and lo and behold in the address section of the receipt there is a religious message. Now I have nothing against religious messages, but I knew the Iron Butt Association wouldn't accept that. So into the station march 5 bikers in a foul mood, not to mention we're in a hurry. The attendant was kind enough to put the address on all our receipts and sign it with the phone # of the station, I think she was glad to see us leave, imagine that. Since some of us were hungry we decided to add to our receipts by walking next door to Burger King, ordering food and put that in the old receipt pile. The Burger King receipt was complete with town, time and date. YIPPEE. Now back west on bumpy I-10. My first casualty of the ride occurred on this leg. My camelback water jug fell off my armrest and I'm sure caused great consternation to the 3 semis that flattened it. Oh well another trip to Target when I get home.

Fuel Stop #7 Orange, TX 3:01 p.m. 88 miles

Yeah, I know that isn't much mileage but it was hot and I wanted to fill up before we hit Houston. This also gave me a chance to call my daughter and tell her to meet me at the intersection of Hwy 6 and 59 at the First Colony Mall on the south side of Houston. Neville's wife Janet was also in Houston and was going to ride back with him so he called her and arranged a rendezvous at the same place. This part of the trip was interesting to say the least. The road construction had the highway in terrible shape and we were riding hard. I hit a hump of asphalt with the right tire of my Cycle Mate trailer and Neville who was behind me said he thought it was going to flip over, but it didn't. Our strategy for getting through Houston was to keep in sight of the bike in front of you, but man was that traffic heavy, I know it gets worse during rush hour but we had our hands full for a while. One minor back up and traffic stoppage about a mile from Hwy 6 and then it was back to "Sit there, Twist that" again. Met up with Janet and Stephanie at the North side entrance to the mall, loaded their gear in our trailers and we were off again.

Fuel Stop #8 Rosenberg, TX 5:33 p.m. 136 miles

The ride down to Refugio was the quietest leg of the trip so far, I fiddled with the CB to make sure it was working. I think we were all getting a little road weary by now and the trip to Victoria and Refugio showed it. I couldn't get over all the traffic. It was crazy, like a holiday or something. Duh, It was Father's Day!!

Fuel Stop #9 Refugio, TX 7:41 p.m. 135 miles

The gas station in Refugio was packed. Must've had about 12 pumps and everyone of them had a line. Clear receipt but no time stamp on it. So back into the "impatient and tired biker mode" while waiting in line for an attendant to put the time on it. Stretched good here. This was to be our last stop with Janet and Neville as their route was straight south on 77 to Harlingen. Back on the bikes and back on the road again. Janet and Neville continued straight through Riviera, our meeting point some 12 or 13 hours before, while the rest of us headed to Falfurrias on 285.

Fuel Stop #10 Falfurrias, TX 9:41 p.m.105 miles

A word of warning here folks, when doing extended travel during a short period of time some credit card companies have a security feature kick in that shuts off your card. Its made to protect you in case your card is stolen, but it makes for a PITA when its not. At the Exxon station in Falfurrias my card wouldn't work so I had to pay cash and that handwritten receipt looked like crap. I made the attendant initial and date the crappy receipt and then still steaming I headed south into the darkness of 281 and points beyond. This part of the ride is the one I dislike the most, but it seemed to go pretty fast maybe being steamed helps.

Fuel Stop #11 McAllen, TX 11:05 p.m. 73 miles 1075 Total Miles in 19 hours and 13 minutes

Jo Ann was already at the Exxon station at Lark and N. 23rd in McAllen to sign our ending witness forms. My 2nd and last casualty of the ride occurred as I was pulling into the gas station parking lot. My Lexan headlight armor came loose at the dip into the parking lot and fell off and cracked. Okay lets see a $20.00 Camelback water container and a $35.00 headlight protector. The trip was not cheap, but well worth it. Way to go guys.

Prologue

I thought the trip went smoothly. We had no mechanical difficulties, we were all on Honda made products that performed up to their superior standards. Jim Morin had mentioned to me to take some mints with me and to take them when I felt lethargic or road fatigue kicking in and I'll have to say this one tip was a great help. That and plenty of water. I don't remember the name of the mints, but the name reminded me of Preparation H. There were a few times especially on the return trip when I would take one of these and they would shock my senses back to full alert. I also noticed that I felt worse at 500 miles than I did at 800, it was as if the more I rode the more I got used to it. I'm sure that 500 mile ride the Sunday before helped me get ready for the Saddle Sore trip. Monday morning at work was a little tough but I made it through okay. Got all my paperwork finished and in the mail Tuesday a.m. hoping that I crossed all the I's and dotted the t's, see I'm still not over it. These kind of rides aren't for everyone but I'm very glad I did it. I'll never get to catch a pass in a Super Bowl or hit a home run in the World Series, But I can ride 1000 miles in under 24 hours, by gosh and not everyone can do that.

On August 18, 2001 I went out to my mail box and lo and behold there was a rather large envelope from the Iron Butt Association. Inside was my certificate, license plate holder, SS1K pin and some other stuff. I am now an official member of the IBA, my IBA # is 8816. A couple of days later Greg's official paperwork came in. Still waiting to hear from the other riders that went with us. You know, we could have done the Bun Burner (1500 miles) in the same day. Now where did I put that road atlas...............