Iron Butt: 48 States in 10 Days
Slip the bike into gear. Check both sides of the street. Ease out the clutch and give it a little throttle. Turn the tunes up a bit and roll out of the neighborhood. The hard part is over. You’ve convinced yourself to try this; the bike is packed; your gear is ready. 9000 miles to go. It only gets easier from here…
Background:
My Name is Brian. I’m a 29-year-old engineer living in Austin, TX.
My bike is a 2012 Street Glide. It is my 2nd Harley and 3rd street bike.
I recently completed my first Iron Butt SS1000 in July riding from Austin to El Paso and back to Fredericksburg TX. After seeing that I could do that, my mind was opened up to the possibilities of all the other places I could ride to if I could get the time to do it. I was hooked.
My job announced in August that our paid time off was going from a “pay-out what you don’t use at the end of the year" to a “use it or loose it” policy. Historically, it’s been hard to take big chunks of time off due to workload and other things keeping me busy.
I saw this as my opportunity to take a ride that would be almost impossible before. With a Girlfriend waiting on a ring and dropping hints about wanting kids in the near future, my ability to take time to myself in the future looked even more difficult.
So, with just under a month to plan and prepare, I decided I was going to ride through all 48 states in 10 days and complete the 48/10 Iron Butt Challenge. According the Iron Butt website, only 200 or so people had ever done this and documented it. (and about 1/2 of those were during the Iron Butt Rally in 2011). In 2012, it was completed by 6 people.
My route would require me to ride an average of ~750 miles per day for 10 days to meet the time limit.
I’m writing this now, the day after I returned to Austin, using my gas/food/sleep log, my receipts, my travel notes and my memory while it is fresh so I don’t loose any details later.
My gear is still mostly packed. The bike is in the shop getting some substantial maintenance done. I’m sunburned, wind burned, tired and still coming down off of the rush of a 10-day motorcycle trip.
I writing this mostly for myself to ensure that I don’t forget the details, but also with the hope that other riders will read it and be inspired to try something like it.
*************************************
Day 0: Ride to the Start of the ride and Okies from Muskogee
Friday (8/30/2013) I ducked out of work an hour early and drove home, said goodbye to the GF, did a final gear check and got on the road around 5pm.
My plan for the day was to ride from Austin, TX to Miami, OK (520 miles) where I would officially go on the clock for the 48 states the following morning. Anybody from the area knows that I-35 from Austin to Dallas is a minefield of construction and traffic back-ups sometimes and as a result I only make it to Muskogee, OK for the night. (I’m no sure why Merle Haggard was hung up about this place… there is nothing there.)
Traffic north of Austin, TX
I roll into Muskogee listening to none other than the man himself and find a cheap hotel to get some sleep.
Day 0 totals:
430 miles – Not a great start. But, I’m not on the clock yet.
*********************************************
Day 1: Get on the clock and out of Oklahoma
I leave the booming metropolis and cultural epicenter of Muskogee, OK and head for Miami, OK at 6am.
I arrive in Miami, OK and see that it is a route 66 stop complete with a motorcycle museum, classic storefronts and some other cool vintage stuff. I make notes to myself that if I ever have to drive through Oklahoma again, to stop in here and spend some time looking around.
I snap a quick picture of my bike by the big route 66 gates that are in the town and start trying to find witnesses for the start of my ride.
I find a couple who are on vacation and touring Route 66. I tell them my story and plans up to this point and they are more than happy to be witnesses for the start of my ride. They add, “That is an amazing plan, but you must be nuts to want to do something like this”
I get Gas at the local station and I’m officially on the clock at 8:30 am Saturday August 31st.
From Miami I ride north to Baxter Springs KS and east to Joplin MS to get those states. On the way, Will Rogers charges me $2 to drive on his turnpike for 10 miles.
He’s making pretty good cash for a dead guy.
I then turn south again and ride through Arkansas on 71 and 59 (mostly secondary roads) to Texarkana to get Texas.
From Texarkana I head east on I-20 through Louisiana to Jackson, Mississippi and take 49 to 98 into Alabama. I missed the Louisiana and Mississippi signs on the way. I stop in Mobile for the night.
Day 1 totals:
905 Miles. (815 on the clock)
OK, KS, MO, AR, TX, LA, MS, AL
8 States
Trip Totals:
1335 Miles
8 States
********************************************
Day 2: Southern Hospitality
I leave Mobile, AL at 6:30am and head to Century, FL on Sunday morning. I watch the sun come up as I’m riding and I feel great. I’m greeted by blue-hairs heading to Cracker Barrel after church (or so I’m guessing) Dangerous driving indeed.
For Music on the trip, I had made a bunch of 100+ song playlists on my ipod and burned a bunch of CD’s as backups. This morning I’m listening to a mix of classic country as I ride through the south. (Willie, Waylon, Merle, Johnny etc.)
I tried to record some video along the way. But, the audio ranges from "eh" to "wow, thats bad"
I'm listening to this as I drive through Alabama:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AIERzUSUmA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AIERzUSUmA[/ame]
From Century, I head north to Atlanta, GA where I get rained on for the first time on my trip. I saw the weather coming and pulled off in time to throw on the rain gear. Traffic was a bit backed up coming through the city, but not too bad.
Rain Gear
From Atlanta, I ride north and cut off of the interstates to Westminster SC where I stop for gas. At this point I’m just east of the Great Smokey Mountains. My plan is to ride them all from east to west (and ride the Tail of the Dragon in the middle)
I stop in Franklin, NC for gas, now in the middle of the Smokies. I ride out of Franklin on RT 28 the whole way to the start of the Tail of the Dragon. (Google Map HWY 28 and check it out between Franklin and RT 129… it is beautiful, and a great ride, but not good for riding lots of miles in a day)
Tail of the Dragon:
Simply put: It is everything that people say it is. Great views, fun corners, spectacular people that I stopped and talked to. They asked where I was staying when they saw my TX license plates and I pointed to all of my gear still attached to to the bike and told them “Virginia”.
I highly recommend anyone that hasn’t ridden this part of the country to get out and do so. Not just the Dragon, but also the other roads in the area are incredible.
I ride the dragon in silence and stop to take a picture of the Tennessee sign at the beginning and at the other end to snap a pic at Dragon Harley Davidson. By this point it is about 7pm on a Sunday so they are closed, it’s getting dark, and I want to be in Virginia before I stop for the night.
From there, I ride through the rest of Tennessee past Bristol and watch the sunset over the top of the Appalachian Mountains. I stop in Abington VA for the night.
Day 2 totals:
741 miles
FL, GA, SC, NC, TN, VA
Trip totals:
2076 miles
14 States
*******************************************
Day 3: The Northeast Corridor
I needed to make up some miles from the previous day, since it was both short on total miles and was an out-of-the-way route.
I woke @ 5:30 ET and headed out from Abington due west to Jenkins, KY. This took me right up and over some of the Appalachians again. I watched the sun rise from behind me as I headed towards KY. I rode into town playing John Prine - Paradise on the stereo. On the other side of the mountain, it was still dawn, and I got to watch the sunrise again as I headed back to Abington (timed it just right).
So, I rode 140 miles and was right back where I started earlier that morning.
Again, the scenery in the mountains is priceless.
From Abington, I then rode north on I-81 to Harrisonburg where I took HWY 259 into Baker, WV. The side roads are a nice break from riding the Interstates on a trip like this. I drove this listening to a pretty loud/heavy mix of Metal and Rock to get me amped up and determined to make up some serious miles.
From Baker, I rode east right through Washington DC on Labor Day. I figured this was a mistake and that traffic would be terrible. But, to my surprise, I breezed right through DC into Maryland where I stopped in Beltsville and rode through the Fort McHenry Tunnel.
ZZ top always works well for me on the road. Heading into DC:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOagD11P6HU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOagD11P6HU[/ame]
From there I rode into New Castle, DE after taking a wrong exit on the turnpike, but I needed a receipt from DE anyways. I left as fast as I could and got back on the road.
After this came the most hesitant part of the trip: Riding the NJ turnpike from bottom to top into New York. I’m originally from Pennsylvania and had ridden on the turnpike before.
The problem is: Everybody in New Jersey drives like they’re from New Jersey. They all at least drive the speed limit or over – which is great. But, every one of them is on a cell phone, changing lanes with no signals, eating something, doing their make-up and generally acting all “Jersey Shore” at once… Just imagine 300 Snookies driving beside you for a few hundred miles. At this point was wishing to be back in Florida with the Blue Hairs again. I decide that The Boss is going to play me through all of New Jersey so I queue that up on the ipod.
I stop for gas on the turnpike and remember that NJ doesn’t trust it’s own people to pump their own gas (again, think Snookie and it makes sense) but, since I’m on a motorcycle, I get to pump my own anyways.
At this point it dawns on me that the NJ turnpike exists simply so anybody from NJ or that accidentally wanders into the state can quickly escape it at either end.
(I’m kidding around here, but only a little bit)
The Sun set on me as I was coming up on NYC.
After Jersey, I continue to head up I-95 beside Manhattan and cross the George Washington Bridge into the Bronx.
Anybody that has been here will tell you that this was probably the worst idea in the history of riding motorcycles. The potholes are huge and patches in the road are the size of Texas speed bumps. I started to count the times my ***** left the seat, but gave up after 20-something. I thought I was going to blow the rear shocks right through the bags a couple of times.
For anybody that is considering riding this stretch of road, let me suggest this instead: Get a can of gas and a match - Light yourself and your bike on fire. This will do less damage to you and the bike both physically and emotionally than riding that section of I-95.
PIC
After NYC, it was up into Connecticut where I stopped for gas at a service station off of I-95 near Darien, CT. I shot the breeze with another biker who was at the station and asked what I was up to when he saw my TX plates. He said he was from the Bronx and had just gotten out of jail and spent 15 minutes telling me 10 other ways to take to avoid taking I-95 through across the GW bridge and that I must be one crazy, stupid motherf@$%@# for riding that road at night.
I left the service station, cranked up the Bobaflex – Bury Me With My Guns On and rode on to West Greenwich, RI just south of Providence where I spent the night.
As I pulled into a hotel at midnight ET, I was asking myself, “What have you gotten yourself into?” and telling myself, “You are almost 2000 miles from home if you feel like bailing out”. I was beat. The miles spent riding on edge through DC, Jersey, and NYC after a day of the dragon and the Smokies had taken it out of me. I went to bed questioning my drive to keep going.
Day 3 totals:
928 miles
KY, WV, DC, MD, DE, NJ, NY, CT, RI
Trip totals:
3004 Miles
22 States
*******************************************
Slip the bike into gear. Check both sides of the street. Ease out the clutch and give it a little throttle. Turn the tunes up a bit and roll out of the neighborhood. The hard part is over. You’ve convinced yourself to try this; the bike is packed; your gear is ready. 9000 miles to go. It only gets easier from here…
Background:
My Name is Brian. I’m a 29-year-old engineer living in Austin, TX.
My bike is a 2012 Street Glide. It is my 2nd Harley and 3rd street bike.
I recently completed my first Iron Butt SS1000 in July riding from Austin to El Paso and back to Fredericksburg TX. After seeing that I could do that, my mind was opened up to the possibilities of all the other places I could ride to if I could get the time to do it. I was hooked.
My job announced in August that our paid time off was going from a “pay-out what you don’t use at the end of the year" to a “use it or loose it” policy. Historically, it’s been hard to take big chunks of time off due to workload and other things keeping me busy.
I saw this as my opportunity to take a ride that would be almost impossible before. With a Girlfriend waiting on a ring and dropping hints about wanting kids in the near future, my ability to take time to myself in the future looked even more difficult.
So, with just under a month to plan and prepare, I decided I was going to ride through all 48 states in 10 days and complete the 48/10 Iron Butt Challenge. According the Iron Butt website, only 200 or so people had ever done this and documented it. (and about 1/2 of those were during the Iron Butt Rally in 2011). In 2012, it was completed by 6 people.
My route would require me to ride an average of ~750 miles per day for 10 days to meet the time limit.
I’m writing this now, the day after I returned to Austin, using my gas/food/sleep log, my receipts, my travel notes and my memory while it is fresh so I don’t loose any details later.
My gear is still mostly packed. The bike is in the shop getting some substantial maintenance done. I’m sunburned, wind burned, tired and still coming down off of the rush of a 10-day motorcycle trip.
I writing this mostly for myself to ensure that I don’t forget the details, but also with the hope that other riders will read it and be inspired to try something like it.
*************************************
Day 0: Ride to the Start of the ride and Okies from Muskogee
Friday (8/30/2013) I ducked out of work an hour early and drove home, said goodbye to the GF, did a final gear check and got on the road around 5pm.
My plan for the day was to ride from Austin, TX to Miami, OK (520 miles) where I would officially go on the clock for the 48 states the following morning. Anybody from the area knows that I-35 from Austin to Dallas is a minefield of construction and traffic back-ups sometimes and as a result I only make it to Muskogee, OK for the night. (I’m no sure why Merle Haggard was hung up about this place… there is nothing there.)
Traffic north of Austin, TX
I roll into Muskogee listening to none other than the man himself and find a cheap hotel to get some sleep.
Day 0 totals:
430 miles – Not a great start. But, I’m not on the clock yet.
*********************************************
Day 1: Get on the clock and out of Oklahoma
I leave the booming metropolis and cultural epicenter of Muskogee, OK and head for Miami, OK at 6am.
I arrive in Miami, OK and see that it is a route 66 stop complete with a motorcycle museum, classic storefronts and some other cool vintage stuff. I make notes to myself that if I ever have to drive through Oklahoma again, to stop in here and spend some time looking around.
I snap a quick picture of my bike by the big route 66 gates that are in the town and start trying to find witnesses for the start of my ride.
I find a couple who are on vacation and touring Route 66. I tell them my story and plans up to this point and they are more than happy to be witnesses for the start of my ride. They add, “That is an amazing plan, but you must be nuts to want to do something like this”
I get Gas at the local station and I’m officially on the clock at 8:30 am Saturday August 31st.
From Miami I ride north to Baxter Springs KS and east to Joplin MS to get those states. On the way, Will Rogers charges me $2 to drive on his turnpike for 10 miles.
He’s making pretty good cash for a dead guy.
I then turn south again and ride through Arkansas on 71 and 59 (mostly secondary roads) to Texarkana to get Texas.
From Texarkana I head east on I-20 through Louisiana to Jackson, Mississippi and take 49 to 98 into Alabama. I missed the Louisiana and Mississippi signs on the way. I stop in Mobile for the night.
Day 1 totals:
905 Miles. (815 on the clock)
OK, KS, MO, AR, TX, LA, MS, AL
8 States
Trip Totals:
1335 Miles
8 States
********************************************
Day 2: Southern Hospitality
I leave Mobile, AL at 6:30am and head to Century, FL on Sunday morning. I watch the sun come up as I’m riding and I feel great. I’m greeted by blue-hairs heading to Cracker Barrel after church (or so I’m guessing) Dangerous driving indeed.
For Music on the trip, I had made a bunch of 100+ song playlists on my ipod and burned a bunch of CD’s as backups. This morning I’m listening to a mix of classic country as I ride through the south. (Willie, Waylon, Merle, Johnny etc.)
I tried to record some video along the way. But, the audio ranges from "eh" to "wow, thats bad"
I'm listening to this as I drive through Alabama:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AIERzUSUmA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AIERzUSUmA[/ame]
From Century, I head north to Atlanta, GA where I get rained on for the first time on my trip. I saw the weather coming and pulled off in time to throw on the rain gear. Traffic was a bit backed up coming through the city, but not too bad.
Rain Gear
From Atlanta, I ride north and cut off of the interstates to Westminster SC where I stop for gas. At this point I’m just east of the Great Smokey Mountains. My plan is to ride them all from east to west (and ride the Tail of the Dragon in the middle)
I stop in Franklin, NC for gas, now in the middle of the Smokies. I ride out of Franklin on RT 28 the whole way to the start of the Tail of the Dragon. (Google Map HWY 28 and check it out between Franklin and RT 129… it is beautiful, and a great ride, but not good for riding lots of miles in a day)
Tail of the Dragon:
Simply put: It is everything that people say it is. Great views, fun corners, spectacular people that I stopped and talked to. They asked where I was staying when they saw my TX license plates and I pointed to all of my gear still attached to to the bike and told them “Virginia”.
I highly recommend anyone that hasn’t ridden this part of the country to get out and do so. Not just the Dragon, but also the other roads in the area are incredible.
I ride the dragon in silence and stop to take a picture of the Tennessee sign at the beginning and at the other end to snap a pic at Dragon Harley Davidson. By this point it is about 7pm on a Sunday so they are closed, it’s getting dark, and I want to be in Virginia before I stop for the night.
From there, I ride through the rest of Tennessee past Bristol and watch the sunset over the top of the Appalachian Mountains. I stop in Abington VA for the night.
Day 2 totals:
741 miles
FL, GA, SC, NC, TN, VA
Trip totals:
2076 miles
14 States
*******************************************
Day 3: The Northeast Corridor
I needed to make up some miles from the previous day, since it was both short on total miles and was an out-of-the-way route.
I woke @ 5:30 ET and headed out from Abington due west to Jenkins, KY. This took me right up and over some of the Appalachians again. I watched the sun rise from behind me as I headed towards KY. I rode into town playing John Prine - Paradise on the stereo. On the other side of the mountain, it was still dawn, and I got to watch the sunrise again as I headed back to Abington (timed it just right).
So, I rode 140 miles and was right back where I started earlier that morning.
Again, the scenery in the mountains is priceless.
From Abington, I then rode north on I-81 to Harrisonburg where I took HWY 259 into Baker, WV. The side roads are a nice break from riding the Interstates on a trip like this. I drove this listening to a pretty loud/heavy mix of Metal and Rock to get me amped up and determined to make up some serious miles.
From Baker, I rode east right through Washington DC on Labor Day. I figured this was a mistake and that traffic would be terrible. But, to my surprise, I breezed right through DC into Maryland where I stopped in Beltsville and rode through the Fort McHenry Tunnel.
ZZ top always works well for me on the road. Heading into DC:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOagD11P6HU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOagD11P6HU[/ame]
From there I rode into New Castle, DE after taking a wrong exit on the turnpike, but I needed a receipt from DE anyways. I left as fast as I could and got back on the road.
After this came the most hesitant part of the trip: Riding the NJ turnpike from bottom to top into New York. I’m originally from Pennsylvania and had ridden on the turnpike before.
The problem is: Everybody in New Jersey drives like they’re from New Jersey. They all at least drive the speed limit or over – which is great. But, every one of them is on a cell phone, changing lanes with no signals, eating something, doing their make-up and generally acting all “Jersey Shore” at once… Just imagine 300 Snookies driving beside you for a few hundred miles. At this point was wishing to be back in Florida with the Blue Hairs again. I decide that The Boss is going to play me through all of New Jersey so I queue that up on the ipod.
I stop for gas on the turnpike and remember that NJ doesn’t trust it’s own people to pump their own gas (again, think Snookie and it makes sense) but, since I’m on a motorcycle, I get to pump my own anyways.
At this point it dawns on me that the NJ turnpike exists simply so anybody from NJ or that accidentally wanders into the state can quickly escape it at either end.
(I’m kidding around here, but only a little bit)
The Sun set on me as I was coming up on NYC.
After Jersey, I continue to head up I-95 beside Manhattan and cross the George Washington Bridge into the Bronx.
Anybody that has been here will tell you that this was probably the worst idea in the history of riding motorcycles. The potholes are huge and patches in the road are the size of Texas speed bumps. I started to count the times my ***** left the seat, but gave up after 20-something. I thought I was going to blow the rear shocks right through the bags a couple of times.
For anybody that is considering riding this stretch of road, let me suggest this instead: Get a can of gas and a match - Light yourself and your bike on fire. This will do less damage to you and the bike both physically and emotionally than riding that section of I-95.
PIC
After NYC, it was up into Connecticut where I stopped for gas at a service station off of I-95 near Darien, CT. I shot the breeze with another biker who was at the station and asked what I was up to when he saw my TX plates. He said he was from the Bronx and had just gotten out of jail and spent 15 minutes telling me 10 other ways to take to avoid taking I-95 through across the GW bridge and that I must be one crazy, stupid motherf@$%@# for riding that road at night.
I left the service station, cranked up the Bobaflex – Bury Me With My Guns On and rode on to West Greenwich, RI just south of Providence where I spent the night.
As I pulled into a hotel at midnight ET, I was asking myself, “What have you gotten yourself into?” and telling myself, “You are almost 2000 miles from home if you feel like bailing out”. I was beat. The miles spent riding on edge through DC, Jersey, and NYC after a day of the dragon and the Smokies had taken it out of me. I went to bed questioning my drive to keep going.
Day 3 totals:
928 miles
KY, WV, DC, MD, DE, NJ, NY, CT, RI
Trip totals:
3004 Miles
22 States
*******************************************