My troubles actually began the day before when I failed to get a receipt after filling my car with gas at the station I would use as my starting point. I wanted to be sure that the receipt had the correct location, date, and time as required by the Iron Butt Association to document the ride. Without thinking, I pushed "No" when it asked whether I would like a receipt. "Oh well," I told myself, "I'm sure it will be Ok." Well, it wasn't. It had the correct date and location, but not the time. I ended up going to my bank, just down the street, and using the ATM in order to get a valid receipt. No big deal, but it put me about 30 minutes behind schedule.
My route would take me from my hometown of Clinton, North Carolina about thirty minutes west to Fayetteville where I would pick up I-95. I would stay on I-95 all the way to Daytona Beach, Florida, then back-track home.
On the way to Fayetteville, I decided it was time to listen to a little music to help me get into the groove. I reached into my tank bag to power on my XM Radio, but no sound reached my ears. A quick inspection confirmed that I had blown another fuse in the line that powers my tank bag. This was not good. I wasn't looking forward to one thousand miles of highway riding with no radio, and I had no spare fuse. I decided to press on, and look for a place to buy a spare fuse after daybreak.
It couldn't have been more than 5 miles further down the road when the rain hit. It was truly unreal; almost like I had run through a wall of water. My vision was blurred and soon my right leg became soaked. "How odd," I thought, "why just my right leg?" It was then that I looked down to discover that I had somehow lost the bite valve on my Camelback water bladder and that this "rain" was simply the Camelback dumping its three liters of water into my lap. "Nice." I was thoroughly soaked by the time I could pull off the road and remove the Camelback.
Thankfully, these troubles that seemed so problematic in the early morning would be nothing more than a distant memory eighteen hours later when I was safely back at home after completing my ride. I encountered more problems during the day, naturally. After replacing my blown fuse, it blew again leaving me without a radio for most of the ride. Every gas station I stopped at refused to print me a valid receipt for one reason or another, and I always had to walk in to ask for a reprint. But these were minor problems, and did not keep my from reaching my goal.
All and all, I had a fantastic ride. The thing that surprised me the most was that I never once wished it was over. As I neared home at the end of the day I was glad to have completed my goal, but I was also saddened that the ride was almost over. I didn't feel nearly as tired as I expected, and proved to myself that I can ride long distances and have a good time while doing so.
Unfortunately, I didn't stop to take many pictures. Click the thumbnails on the left to see the few that I did take.
- Richard Bryan
August 31, 2004