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travel_man
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| Posted: 18 March 2007 at 4:13pm | IP Logged
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Here is the complete ride report for our BBG 3000. This ride included Chuck, Richard and myself. Many said that this type of ride should be attempted alone but for some reason this ride was successful because of us riding together.
We all met up Tuesday afternoon at the Ramada in JAX. We sat down and discussed our approach to the ride. We had never ridden together in the past so we needed to lay some ground rules. We talked about how we would handle separating if the need arose. We all agreed that if one dropped out for any reason the others would continue. We would stop to offer assistance if needed and then continue on. Fortunately the need to separate did not arise.
We also agreed the first stop might be early than the 300 miles because we may need to relive ourselves by around 200 miles. I know most of my LD rides I need to stop early on the first stop.
We had dinner together and then off to bed at around 8:00 pm. Richard and I shared a room and Chuck had his own. Richard was in bed by 8:30 pm and I was in bed around 9:00 pm.
We had filled up the bikes during the day so we would only have to get a splash of gas and a receipt in the morning.
We had the alarm set for 2:00 am. We got up. I was surprise I had slept as usually it is very hard for me to sleep the night before a big ride. We put the rest of the things on the bike and headed for the office.
We agreed to met at 2:30 am in front of the hotel to get our witness signatures. We had spoken to the hotel manger on Tuesday about who would be available 2:30 am the next morning to sign us out. The hotel manager said that Gayle and the maintenance person would sign our witness forms. At 2:30 am we tried to enter the lobby of the hotel and the door was locked. The night manger would not let Richard in ( would you ). I went to the door and rang the buzzer and said I need to check out so after a few minutes she let us in. We asked her to sign the witness form as the manager had said she would and the night manager refused to sign. Saying she would not sign anything. We kept asking and she kept saying no. I went outside to call the local police department and see if we could get a witness. While doing that I went back in and found that the maintenance person was there and that Chuck had convinced them to sign. Wow what a relief.
Off to the gas station we went which was across the street, a lucky Exxon ( Richard hates Exxon as they always refused his card ). We filled up and got our receipts. I needed to plug in my electrics as it was a little cool out ( 45 ).
Richard and Chuck were ready and looking at me so I did not take the time to plug in and off we went. The start of the BBG 3000. We got on I-295 and headed for I-10. We were moving at a good pace and no real traffic at 2:50 am. We reached I-10 and headed west. We were all riding within 1/4 mile of each other. We kept pretty close for the whole ride. The ride west on I-10 was going well. It was getting pretty cold as the temperature dropped to 36 degrees and I was getting cold since I did not get to plug in. After 240 miles of being cold I took the lead to find the next exit with gas and we stopped at a Pilot. I told them I was sorry I had to stop early as our plan was every 300 miles. We gassed up relived ourselves and plugged in and off we went. Traffic was good as we entered Mobile and we made good time all the way to Mississippi.
The ride through Mississippi and Louisiana was pretty smooth with no major traffic. Baton Rouge had some traffic on the bridge but nothing I have seen in the past.
I had put some times on my windshield of locations along the route that I thought we should try and make. Things were going so good that we were ahead of the times by an hour or more.
We reached Houston around 2:00 pm. Traffic was not bad and we took the HOV lane. It was still light out when we reached San Antonio. We took the 1604 loop around downtown. At around Kerrville the speed limit changed to 80 mph so we was able to make good time until dark. We did not see to much deer on the way out but on the way back it was like every deer in Texas was on the shoulder or in the median. There was many deer dead on the highway.
We reached Van Horn around 11:25 pm. We had made very good time so we stopped and had a burger before going to the hotel. We stayed at the Days Inn in Van Horn. Do yourselves a favor and do not stay there if you stop in Van Horn. It was pretty bad. We checked in and prepped the bikes for the return. We agreed to meet at 2:30 am in front of the hotel again. This gave us 3 hours to check the bikes, shower and get some rest.
All of our gas stops on the way were pretty quick. We were surprised since there was 3 of us. We thought it would take longer. We had agreed to stop at large truck stops for gas as they usually have many pumps and many stalls in the bathrooms so we could all do our thing with out waiting. I think most stops were around 6 minutes with one being around 15 minutes.
The return of our BBG 3000.
Well we arrived in Van Horn about an hour and a half earlier than we had planned for. We had a good ride on the first 1500 miles. We stayed at the Days Inn in Van Horn. Not a very good hotel. There are better and I think cheaper hotels than the Days Inn in Van Horn. We checked in to the hotel we agreed to meet at 2:30 am at the hotel office. This was in about 3 hours. I went over the bike and moved a couple things around. I got out the cloths I was going to wear for the return ride. Richard went in and took a shower while I cleaned off some bugs from my bike. When he was done I showered and we hit the beds. We had about 2 hours before we had to get up at 2:00 am.
The alarm went off and wow it was 2:00 am already. I was surprised though that I did sleep some. I think I got about an hour and a half of sleep. We got up made a quick pot of coffee and geared up for the return. I was feeling a little tired. We met Chuck at the front of the hotel at 2:30 am and he said he did not get any sleep.
We rode over to a Loves truck stop about a half mile from the hotel. Got our receipts and hit the road at 2:45 am. Chuck took the lead as he has 3 HID lights and man do they work. Right away the deer was heavy on both sides of the road and in the median. There was also a lot of dead deer in the roadway. After our first gas stop we had just gotten back on the road and a dead deer covered both lanes. Must have been hit by a truck flying.
We arrived in San Antonio around 7:30 am just in time for rush hour. We took the 1604 loop which was stop and go for many miles. We gassed up just before the end of the 104 loop. I needed to change my shield from a clear to a tinted to help block out the bright Texas sun.
We made good time to Houston. We did not take the HOV on the return as it was only opened in a few places. We did make pretty good time through Houston though.
As soon as we crossed the Louisiana state line the troopers were every few miles. All the way to Baton Rouge they were thick. We probably saw at least 25 troopers in that stretch. That was really the hardest part of the ride. The bridge in Baton Rouge was not backed up and we slipped through pretty easy. Louisiana did have a lot of traffic all the way across.
Mississippi was next and it had pretty heavy traffic for the first 40 miles. It turns to 3 lanes then and the traffic opened up. The traffic was stopped at the I-65 and I-10 junction. It took a couple miles to clear. After the tunnel the traffic thinned out.
It was around 8:00 pm passing through Pensacola. The new bridge is open and traffic was pretty good. We were feeling pretty good about now as we new we were going to make it barring any unforeseen calamities. We took more time on our last couple gas stops even taking time to have a hamburger at the last stop.
We arrived in Jacksonville around 12:20 am. This gave us 2 and a half hours to spare. We had a good safe return. The weather was great both ways. No accidents either way which really helped.
This is a very hard ride but I have to say that I was surprised about how easy it seemed after the ride. Instead of being dead tired I was thinking of the next ride. I think this was due to all of us being well prepared, the bikes well prepared and great weather and good traffic. This ride may spoiled me for future LD IBA rides.
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Greg Rice
Travel_Man
IBA #382
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MidnightRider
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Joined: 23 March 2005
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| Posted: 18 March 2007 at 6:18pm | IP Logged
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Congrats to you, Richard, and Chuck. That's a tough ride...I was impressed with how fresh you guys looked at the finish. WELL DONE!!
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Tony Hudson
#17085
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Davo
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Joined: 10 May 2005
Location: Australia
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| Posted: 18 March 2007 at 7:42pm | IP Logged
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Wow, well done Greg and congrats to you all. Getting over that initial signature problem is great, it's all you need before a ride like this isn't it 
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David "Davo" Jones - 22575
Kawasaki 1400GTR - IBR '09 rookie
FarRiders Aust. - My ride reports
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Iron Butt.org General Discussion : Iron Butt Association Q&A
Topic: BBG 3000 Ride Report
